“God is love.”  “Without faith it is impossible to please God.”  Within Christianity, we tend to focus on these statements.  We seem to think that if we can display greater love, or if we exhibit greater faith, we will have hit upon the deepest secret, the key to a right and happy life.

Yet ironically, it is love for which mankind is condemned.  John 3:19 (all references are KJV) says, “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”  The word used here for love is the same used for God’s love of mankind in John 3:16.  This is a giving love, even a self-sacrificing love.  Mankind has this love, this willingness to even sacrifice himself – but he loves and sacrifices for darkness and evil.  The condemnation is not that mankind lacks love.  We love, but we so often love the wrong things.

Faith will lead many to hopelessness and worse.  Proverbs 28:26 warns, “He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool.”  (There’s a difference from what pop culture claims!)  “Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man.”  (Jeremiah 17:5)  And 2 Corinthians 1:9 says, “But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves.”  Everyone has faith.  Everyone believes someone, even if it’s just themselves.  But it is easy to trust the wrong person and believe in the wrong things – see how many people are taken in by scams.  Faith cannot be the answer on its own, for we frequently misplace it.

So what is the most important trait a person can possess?  What is the number one quality I ought to embody in my life?  Proverbs 4:7 gives the answer.  “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.”  The word “principal” carries the idea of “number one,” or “chief”; hence the principal is supposed to be the number one person, the chief person, in a school.

Wisdom is the number one quality, the chief possession, we should strive for.  There is nothing in all the earth, no other quality of character or possession in life so important.  “Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding....She is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her....She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her.”  (Proverbs 3:13-18)

It is by wisdom that we know who to trust and what to love.  Only by wisdom can we make the right choices in life, the choices that will lead to happiness.  There are some things I regret having loved, and I wish I hadn’t had so much faith in some others.  But I will never regret acting out of wisdom.