Crowned with Knowledge
Proverbs 14:18-19
18The simple inherit folly, but the prudent are crowned with knowledge. 19Evildoers will bow down in the presence of the good, and the wicked at the gates of the righteous.
Crown
Do you know the value of Miss Universe Crown in Canadian dollar? About $5.75 millions! Well, if they eagerly desire to win that amount of money, it’s worth competing for. Competitors may aspire for the monetary value of the crown, but certainly, all of them desire for the prestige of wearing the valuable crown.
It has been assumed that a crown symbolizes power, authority, and divine right of legitimate rulers. In the Scripture, crowns represent rewards, authority, victory, honor and glory. Most often, winners of the Miss Universe crown shed tears of joy. Being crowned as Miss Universe is glorious moment for the winner.
Can you imagine how glorious our feeling could be when Jesus Christ, the Lord of lords, the King of kings welcomes us before multitude of heavenly hosts? How wonderful it could be when we hear the Lord declares, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!”
It declared in Revelation 20:6, 6Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.
When we reign with the King of kings and Lord of lords Jesus Christ during the millennium, will he confer or bestow on us crowns as symbol of authority on earth and heaven? What are the crowns that believers may receive from Christ?
The English word “crown” is stephanos in Greek language. Interestingly, the name of Stephen the martyr is also Stephanos in Greek. When we devote our life to Christ, we sacrifice our worldly dreams and follow his prescriptions.
Accordingly, there are five heavenly crowns mentioned in the Scripture that will be awarded to believers namely: The imperishable crown, the crown of rejoicing, the crown of righteousness, the crown of glory, and the crown of life.
- The Imperishable Crown – represents imperishable treasures in heaven.
- The Crown of Rejoicing – represents rejoicing disciple making disciples.
- The Crown of Righteousness – represents justified righteous life in God.
- The Crown of Glory – represents glorious waiting for Christ to return.
- The Crown of Life – represents perseverance despite persecution.
The term “life” in the Scripture pertains to relationship with God. Air, food, water, clothing and shelter are vital for physical lives. Likewise, faith in Christ is to have right relationship with God. He declared in John 14:10-11, 10The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves.
Therefore, experiential knowledge of Christ is vital to our relationship with God. How can we know more about Christ? We start with intellectual knowledge of Scripture but we can have experiential knowledge of Christ when we follow his prescriptions. Why? Personal relationship is explored by personal experience.
By obeying the Lord, we experientially prove his love for us. Experiential knowledge is empirical proof of our trust in Christ, not blindly but prudently smart.
1. Prudent
18The simple inherit folly, but the prudent are crowned with knowledge.
The phrase “crowned with knowledge” implies authority of knowledge that prudent people carry with them. Prudent is careful, cautious, sensible about practical application; it’s not only head knowledge or accumulation of information. Prudent is discreet and smart decision making. When head knowledge is applied practically, it becomes experiential knowledge. When prudent people diligently practice personally their experiential knowledge, they build their wisdom and skill.
King Solomon required in 2 Chronicles 2:7, 7Send me, therefore, a man skilled to work in gold and silver, bronze and iron, and in purple, crimson and blue yarn, and experienced in the art of engraving, to work in Judah and Jerusalem with my skilled workers, whom my father David provided.
Certainly, wise, wealthy and powerful rulers prefer the best skilled worker who could build their house. They won’t just tell their manager, “Hire the simple worker, build a very simple shelter, and I will be ok with that!” That is not prudent and smart. The rich and powerful people are extra cautious of their decision.
Pharaoh
When Joseph interpreted the dreams of Pharaoh, he also provided him a plan of how they prepare for 7 years of famine. It stated in Genesis 41:38-40,
38So Pharaoh asked them, “Can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the spirit of God?” 39Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has made all this known to you, there is no one so discerning and wise as you. 40You shall be in charge of my palace, and all my people are to submit to your orders. Only with respect to the throne will I be greater than you.”
Joseph was 30 years old when Pharaoh appointed him as Prime Minister of Egypt. Pharaoh personally discerned the wisdom of Joseph. Joseph faithfully observed righteousness in the eyes of God, and God gave him wisdom. As we live righteously and gain wisdom, it proves the presence of the Holy Spirit in us.
2. Presence
19Evildoers will bow down in the presence of the good, and the wicked at the gates of the righteous.
Good behavior is far superior in contrast to wickedness. Wickedness is an option of inferiority. In their hope to overshadow decency, integrity and honesty, bad elements of the society try hard to promote their wickedness. Conversely, God is good, and he is always protective to good believers who trust him.
The confidence of King David in the Lord was recorded in Psalm 25:19-21.
19See how numerous are my enemies and how fiercely they hate me! 20Guard my life and rescue me; do not let me be put to shame, for I take refuge in you. 21May integrity and uprightness protect me, because my hope, Lord, is in you.
Shame is very distressful and painful feeling of humiliation; it disturbs us when we are consciously aware of our foolish behavior. There’re moments when foolishness overtakes us, we explore undesirable exploits. But why would God allows us to be foolish sometimes? Foolishness practically proves the inclination of human desire. Human inclination can lead to embarrassment; it is not glorious.
Together, let us seriously reflect on what it revealed in 3 John 1:9-12,
9I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will not welcome us. 10So when I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, spreading malicious nonsense about us. Not satisfied with that, he even refuses to welcome other believers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church. 11Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God. 12Demetrius is well spoken of by everyone—and even by the truth itself. We also speak well of him, and you know that our testimony is true.
Diotrephes, may have been popular among the first century Christians; his name means “cherished by Zeus or foster-child of Zeus.” Zeus is the ruling king of Greek gods. When the 3rd letter of Apostle John was circulated among the churches, the name of Diotrephes became even more popular in a negative way.
In comparison, Demetrius became famous because he was well spoken of by everyone. When the 3rd letter of Apostle John was circulated among the first century Christian churches, Demetrius was even more famous in positive ways.
In Ephesus, there was a Demetrius who sold silver shrines of goddess Artemis and started a riot against Apostle Paul and his mission team. If he’s the same Demetrius, his testimony was great encouragement to the first century Christians. We like our church members to have similar transformed life. Amen!
The privilege of attending several churches in the past gave me opportunities to observe Christians who served the Lord faithfully. Whether they were elected as church officers or not, they diligently and silently do the best they can. I think they are really serious about storing up their eternal treasures in heaven. We have devoted Christians in The Maples Evangelical Church also.
And we keep praying that may God continue to raise such diligent, devoted Christians in this church now until the Lord Jesus Christ returns! Amen!
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