THE MIND EQUIPPED

The Greeks had three great words describing three great qualities of the mind; and if a man possessed these three qualities he had a mind equipped. The Hew Testament writers took over these three great words, for they were sure that the qualities which they described were to be found in Jesus and in Jesus alone.

The first of these words is sophia:Sophia is generally translated wisdom of ultimate things. The Greek writings have many a great definition of sophia. The most common definition is that sophia is 'the knowledge of things both human and divine and of their causes.' (Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis 1:3011.)

The second of the three great words is pgronesis, which is usually translated prudence. The basic difference between sophia and phronesis is that sophia is theoretical, and phronesis is practical. Sophia has to do with a man's mind and thought; phronesis has to do with his life and conduct and action.

The third of the great Greek words of the mind is sunesis. Sunesis literally means a uniting, a union, a bringing together; and it would be true to say that sunesis is that faculty of putting two and two together.

In it's essence sunesis is critical. It is the power of distinguishing between different courses of action, different values of things, different relationships between people. Sunesis is the ability to test and to distinguish and to criticize and to evaluate and to form judgments.

    So then we see that the mind equipped has three kinds of wisdom.

    1. It has the wisdom which can see and understand the ultimate and the infinite things.

    2. It has the wisdom which can deal with the practical problems of daily life and living.

    3. It has the wisdom which can judge and test things and choose the right aim and the right course of action in any actual situation.

It is interesting and important to note that over and over again the Bible joins together the theoretical wisdom which is sophia and the practical wisdom which is phronesis and sunesis. On the Bible view of life a man needs both.

The great vision of Biblical thought is the vision of a complete man who is wise in things of eternity and efficient in the things of time.

We must now consider these words in the New Testament itself, and with them we will consider their corresponding adjectives. The adj. of sophia, wisdom is sophos, wise. The adj. of phronesis, prudence, is phronimos, prudent. The adj. of sunesis, understanding, is sunstos, understanding.

    I. Wisdom is the property of God Rev. 7:12. Jesus speaks of the wisdom of God
    Lk.11:33; Paul also speaks of the wisdom of God Rom. 11:33, and the manifold wisdom of God Eph.. 3:10. To know God is the only true wisdom.

    II. Wisdom is the characteristic of Jesus Rev.7:12. Jesus grew in wisdom when He was a lad in Nazareth Lk. 2: 40,52. When He preached in Nazareth, the people asked where He acquired the wisdom which was so evident in His words.
    Matt. 13:54; cp. Mk. 6:2. In Him are all the treasures of wisdom Col. 2:3. Jesus is wisdom because he came to bring the knowledge of God, which is the only wisdom which matters.

    III. Wisdom is the distinguishing feature of men who were great. Solomon had Solomon had wisdom Matt. 12:42; cp. Lk. 11:31. Joseph had wisdom which kept him in the right way and raised him to greatness in Egypt Acts 7:10. Moses was trained in wisdom Acts 7:22. The qualification of the first office-bearers in the Church, the Seven, were that they must be men full of the Holy Ghost and of wisdom Acts 6:3. Stephen had a wisdom with which he confounded the Jews in his debates with them Acts 6:10. The prophets and the wise men are classed together Matt 23:34. It is when a man knows God that he is really wise.

    IV. Wisdom is the mark of the Christian. It was the promise of Jesus that He would give His followers wisdom with which they could confront their enemies and their persecutors Lk. 21:15. It is Paul's prayer that God would give them the Spirit of wisdom Eph.1:17. Wisdom is the object of Paul's prayers and of his teaching Col. 4:5. The man's Merciful (Good) conversation shows produced works of meekness in the Spirit of wisdom. James 3:13. The Christian has that wisdom which gives him an answer of good (Mercy), rather than that which is evil (void) of God's love. Rom. 16:19.

    V. Wisdom is connected in prayer, in the Holy Spirit of God. The Seven were to filled with the Holy Spirit and with wisdom. Acts 6:3. God gives it to the man who lacks wisdom James 1:5. The real wisdom is heavenly James 3:15. And we have already seen that Paul prays that wisdom should be given to God's people.
    Eph. 1:17; Col. 12:8. The only wisdom which matters is not man's discovery; but to recognize it's the gift of God.

    VI. And yet, though that be so, wisdom can be taught, for it is Paul's endeavor to teach it. Col.1:28. There is a development in wisdom, for Paul speaks wisdom among the mature Christians.I Cor. 2: 6,7. There is clearly growth in wisdom. Although wisdom is not the discovery of the mind, it cannot be obtained without the strenuous activity of the mind. Real wisdom comes when the Spirit of God reaches down to meet the searching mind of man, but the mind of man must search, before God will come to meet it. Wisdom is not for the mentally lazy even though it is the gift of God.

    VII. Wisdom reads the true meaning of things. Rev.13:18; 17: 9. God's messages are there for the man who has eyes to see and mind to understand. In this is blessedly true that the man who seeks will find. But great as wisdom is, it can degenerate. Especially in I Cor. Paul has a great deal to say about the wrong kind of wisdom.

    1. The degenerate wisdom is worldly wisdom, wisdom of this world. I Cor. 1:2 3:18, 2:6; 1:26. It is the kind of wisdom which knows well how to get on in this world and how to amass the treasures of this world, which has no knowledge of the things that matter.

    2. It is a wisdom of words. It is a wisdom which in the end do nothing but obscure the Cross I Cor. 1:17. Paul refused to preach with the enticing words of man's wisdom ICor. 2:1,4,5,13. When Paul so strongly condemned the worldly wisdom of words, he was speaking out of the situation of the world of his day. The Greeks had always loved words; and one of the well- known figures of the Greek world was the Sophist. The Sophist was the orator who was as famous as a film star. The Sophist had two faults. He was more concerned with how he said a thing than what it was he was saying. It was cleverness of speech with which he was primarily concerned; and his first aim was to provoke applause. His one desire was to display himself. Paul knew the preachers and the teachers who were more concerned with epigrams (ex: Mark Twain) (a bright witty thought tersely and ingeniously expressed) than truth, whose one desire was to display their own cleverness and to awaken the applause of the crowd. He knew the preacher and the teacher who was thinking more of what men were thinking of him than what God was thinking of him.

He knew the preacher and the teacher who was more concerned that men should look at him, rather then that men should look at Christ. That is what Paul meant by the wisdom of this world. It is not completely dead.

    3. Such wisdom did not really know God. I Cor. 1:21. It was seductive far more than it was instructive. I Cor. 2:4,5. It was man's wisdom, not God's wisdom I Cor. 2:13. It was the wisdom of the clever debater who was more concerned with the display of mental acrobatics than with the search for truth I Cor. 1:20. It was vain in the sense that it helped nobody and achieved nothing. I Cor. 3:20. In the end it was doomed to destruction and to condemnation of God and to the demonstration of the folly which it in reality was. I Cor. 1:19,27; 3:19.

The only true wisdom is the outcome, not of pride, but of humility. The only wise teaching points not at itself, but beyond self. Wisdom ceases when a man's sole desire is to be clever. Preaching degenerates whenever it seek for applause. Whenever the personality and methods of the preacher and the teacher obscure Christ then there is no wisdom in it, and it degenerates into the foolishness which in the end will receive the conviction and the condemnation it deserves.

    Companion words: phronesis, phronimos, sunesis, and sunetos. Phronesis, the noun, occurs in the N.T., in Lk.1:17. Phronimos, its corresponding adjective, occurs more frequently. Phroninesis, is the practical wisdom which sees what must be done, and what must not be done in any given situation. The builder who built his house on a rock was phronimos Matt 25:2,4,8,9. When Paul is addressing the Corinthians, he says in appeal to their common sense: "I speak as to wise men" phronimoi I Cor. 10:15.

This practical wisdom can on occasion degenerate into conceit Rom. 11:25; 12:16; I Cor. 4:10; II Cor. 11:19. a man can become too impressed with his own cleverness.

There are two passages which specifically show the meaning of . The serpent who seduced Adam and the woman in the garden is called phronimos Gen.3:1; and the unjust Stewart who first swindled his master and then took steps to safeguard his own ease and comfort is called phronimos Lk.16:8. Phronesis is above all the ability to deal with a given situation; it is the ability to see what needs to be done and to do it; it is the practical wisdom of the man who is never at a loss.

Sunesis and sunetos are not very frequently in the N.T. The essence of sunesis is the critical faculty which, as Lightfoot puts it 'sees the bearing of things.' Its essence is discrimination and wise judgment. It can see the implications of a thing and the ultimate end of a course of action. It sees a thing, not only as it is at the moment, but as it will be.

The Christian equipment of the mind is a many-sided thing. There is the wisdom, sophia, which sees the ultimate truths of God: there is the practical wisdom, phronesis, which sees what ought to be done in any given situation; there is the discriminating, critical wisdom, sunesis, which can assess and evaluate every course of action which presents itself. The Christian is not only the dreamer whose thoughts are long, long thoughts and who is detached from this world; the Christian is not only a shrewd evaluator of any policy or any situation. The Christian is all three. He has not only the vision to know God; he had the practical knowledge to turn that vision into action, and the sound judgment to see what course of action will best achieve his aim. The Christian is the only man who is a dreamer and of action at one and the same time.
    Additions:

The Jewish Rabbis were amazed at Jesus' sunesis when He was with them in the Temple Court Lk.2:47 In Eph 3:4 sunesis describes Paul's under- standing of God's secret. In Col 1:9 Paul prays that his people may have sophia and sunesis. In Col 2:2 sunesis can bring assurance. It is Paul's prayer for Timothy that God will give him understanding, sunesis in all things IITim. 2:7. It too can be a worldly and conceited thing and when it does become so, it will destroy I Cor.1:19. Jesus says that the great things are hidden from the wise and the prudent [sophia and sunetos] and revealed unto babes. Matt.11:25; Lk 10:21.