Higher Order Faith

Proverbs 19:25 – “Strike someone who scoffs, and a naive person will become clever; correct someone with understanding, and they will gain knowledge.” (CEB)

We are told that we need to have a simple faith, but I have learned that faith also needs to be tested if it is going to help us face the troubles of life.

I was reading Proverbs this week, and a proverb from chapter 19 jumped out at me. “Strike someone who scoffs, and a naive person will become clever; correct someone with understanding, and they will gain knowledge.” What is the difference between being clever and gaining knowledge?

Being clever is better than being foolish or “scoffing” at what is wise or faithful. People do stupid things all the time. Do you want enough money to retire? Don’t gamble or spend extravagantly. Do you want to be healthy? Don’t eat fast food all the time. These seem pretty obvious, but people struggle with them because they need short-term happiness. Their errors show that to be wise requires putting aside immediate pleasures for something more important.

When such people are proven foolish, it teaches us what not to do. But what teaches us what to do? How do we gain knowledge? The proverb says that it is from correcting someone with understanding. When we are young, our teachers give us basic facts and tell us the way to do things, like how to write or add or why the sky is blue. But as we age, we need to develop critical thinking skills. We need to ask why something is the way it is. It is the difference between being told about an historical event and learning why history is written the way it is.

Critical thinking allows us to question and even correct the people who know things. It allows us to grow as thinkers and doers in the world. But what about in our faith lives? How do we develop a higher order faith? Our faith becomes clever when we are shown how people who do not have faith suffer in life. But faithful people suffer, too. I sure have. A simple faith might say, “God loves and rewards good people,” but a mature faith asks, “How does God love me when I am not rewarded by life?” And this requires us to question some of the things we were taught about how to be faithful, just as it is in other parts of life.

This is not to show doubt or to “deconstruct” religion such that one leaves the faith. It is to grow wise rather than to remain clever. Think about something you have gone through. A troubling disease. An addiction. Losing a job. Losing a loved one. Think of how your faith was before that thing happened versus how it is now. Is it lesser or richer? Would you feel able to talk to a faithful person and test each other about faith, growing in it as a result? I am pretty sure that you could. Because suffering allows us to form that higher order faith.

Be clever in your faith. Do not scoff at those who believe in God. But also, be knowledgeable. Question things. For the truly wise know while God has all the answers, we become faithful by learning how to find them.

Prayer: Lord, as I go through my life with a heart full of worry, teach me faith and help me to discover wisdom. Amen.