GOD’S WISDOM AND OURS
PURPOSE:
To understand God’s gift of wisdom.
DISCUSSION:
1. What is the difference between a incommunicable and a communicable attribute? Name some attributes of God which fall in each category.
2. State in your own words what it means to say that man is made in God’s image.
3. What does this statement mean: “God is at work in Christian believers to repair his ruined image by communicating these qualities [communicable attributes] to them afresh?
4. What is the main thrust of the quotations about wisdom (pp. 100-101)?
5. What two steps must a person take to lay hold of the gift of wisdom?
How can we do this day to day?
6. According to Packer’s analogy in the “What Wisdom Is Not” section, what does having the gift of wisdom not mean?
7. According to Packer’s analogy in the “Realism Needed” section, what does it mean for God to give us wisdom?
8. For what purpose did the author of Ecclesiastes write his sermon?
9. Read Packer’s summary of the message of Ecclesiastes on pages 105-106. Then, in just a few sentences, put this message in your own words.
10. How can the admonition of Ecclesiastes help Christians today?
11. Why has God “hidden from us almost everything that we should like to know about the providential purposes which he is working out in the churches and in our own lives?
12. According to Ecclesiastes, what is wisdom?
13. What is the effect of God’s gift of wisdom?
14. What specific steps can we take to heed Packer’s admonition in the chapter’s final paragraph?
SUMMARY:
What is the wisdom God gives us?
