How to Listen to Wisdom

To become wise, you must learn to listen. Such listening has two parts.

¹My son, if you receive my words
And treasure up my commandments with you,
²Making your ear attentive to wisdom
And inclining your heart to understanding
³Yes, if you call out for insight
And raise your voice for understanding,
⁴If you seek it like silver
And search for it as for hidden treasures. (Prov 2:1-4)

Solomon begins the chapter with a big “IF.” Receiving, treasuring, attending, inclining, calling out, raising your voice, seeking, and searching all boil down to one weighty concept: listening. He already commanded us to “hear” in Prov 1:8. He regretted our refusal to “listen” in Prov 1:24. He’ll come back to the topic of listening again in Prov 3:1, 21; 4:1, 10, 20; 5:1; 7:24; 8:6, and Prov 8:32. Listening is no small theme in Proverbs 1-9.

What does it mean to listen to wisdom? He breaks it down into two pieces: passive receiving and active seeking.

Passive Reception

First, he commands us to listen passively (Prov 2:1-2): receive, treasure, attend, and incline. There are many times when we don’t ask for advice, but it comes anyway. It might come in a form we like: a powerful sermon, a gentle rebuke, or a kind reminder. It might come in a form we don’t like: an angry critic, a disconsolate child, or a disgruntled coworker. Whatever shape wisdom takes, the question remains the same: Will you receive it? We’re like desperately hungry babies, and the food is placed right in our mouths. Will we munch on it or spit it out?

In other words, we ought to pay attention to the Bible and delight in it. We must be receptive to what wise people say — or even to wise things foolish people say — and avoid shifting blame or making excuses. In reading God’s word or in having it explained to us, we should be broken and changed by it. 

Are you approachable? How do you handle criticism? Are you willing to address weakness or failure? Do you have the courageous humility to focus more on how you need to grow than on how others need to grow? A mark of the wise Christian is the persistent and vigilant examination for logs in or around the eye (Matt 7:1-5).

Active Pursuit

Second, Solomon commands us to listen actively (Prov 2:3-4): call, raise, seek, and search. Passive reception is not enough; Prov 2:3-4 instructs us to move on to active seeking. We must call out and raise our voices for understanding. We must seek wisdom as we would silver or a hidden treasure. If a woman lost her wedding ring, she would tear the house apart until she found it. She wouldn’t just wait passively for it to reappear on its own.

We can relate to this image, because we’re all treasure seekers. We arrange our lives to accommodate what’s most important to us. That’s why we bother to get married. That’s why we drag ourselves out of bed for 8:00 AM classes. That’s why we make peace with the long commute to the office. That’s why we stay up late for cinematic premieres. That’s why spend so long in front of the mirror before leaving the house each day. That’s why we go into debt. That’s why we’ll upheave our lives and relocate closer to our grandchildren.

If I fail to grow in wisdom, it’s not because I didn’t receive enough help. If I am not being fed spiritually, I am responsible to find food. If you are a teacher or a leader, you should not wait for people to give you suggestions for improvement; you should take initiative to ask for them. If you’re married, don’t wait for your spouse to bring up concerns; instead, regularly ask, “How do you think our marriage is going?” Consider asking someone to mentor you. If you want to understand the Bible better, plan time right in your schedule. If you don’t have a schedule, now would be a great time to make one.

To summarize: If you want to become wise, you must listen to wisdom. Listening involves both receiving it eagerly and seeking it passionately.

This post was first published in 2012 and is part of a series walking through Proverbs 1-9.