Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. - James 3:13-18
Although, most people desire to be wise, most are unaware that there are two primary sources of wisdom:
(1) Yahweh Jesus Christ, i.e., the Bible (John 1:1-5,14; Revelation 19:11-13), and
(2) Lucifer, i.e., the Devil, Satan, the old serpent or the great dragon (Isaiah 14:12-15; Revelation 12:9, 20:2).
To fail to recognize this important distinction is to set oneself up for deception, folly and regret. Below are some verses from the Bible to help understand the difference. This is especially important today, as we live in the information age and are bombarded every day with new knowledge, much of which is either trivial, misleading from important truth or downright deceptive.
Ezekiel 28:11-19 - Lucifer's corrupted wisdom was due to pride, and it was followed by his iniquity and God making him burn into ashes (the first phoenix). Moral: accept the fact that Jesus is the one who makes the rules; to try to make our own rules and be like God is rebellion and will result in loss.
Genesis 2:16,17 - Since free will is essential in good relationships, God provided opportunity for Adam and Eve to freely choose a relationship with Him - He gave the simple absolute command to abstain from eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Obedience meant ongoing blessing, life and peace, while disobedience meant death, which at that time was a concept that Adam and Eve didn't understand except that it was not a good thing.
Genesis 3:1-5 - Lucifer (nachash, hissing serpent) tries to get back at God by making Eve question the words of God and question the goodness of God, accusing God of being evil in holding back knowledge or not being fully open source, as if God owes it to His creation to disclose everything to them indiscriminately.
Genesis 3:6-24 - Adam and Eve decided to follow Lucifer instead of God and become the first members of the illuminati, i.e., people who have or profess to have special intellectual or spiritual enlightenment (Webster's New World Dictionary). In doing so, they lost paradise - the perfect world order or perfectly level playing field - and had to suffer in their work and child bearing. They also instantly died spiritually (Romans 5:12-21; 1 Corinthians 15:22) and had to die physically within a 1000 year period, since with God 1000 years is as one day (2 Peter 3:8). This effectively began a war between humans and Lucifer, as God allowed Lucifer to usurp their dominion of planet earth.
Genesis 6:1-9 - the seed war; fallen angels mate with human women to produce evil hybrids, who corrupt the world and try to eradicate all worship of Yahweh; only Noah and his family were perfect in their genes
Enoch 8:1-2 - Fallen angels taught humans technology and warfare. (Enoch is a Biblically endorsed extra-biblical text.)
Psalm 2 - God laughs at men's attempts to live independently of God and His rules.
Ecclesiastes 1:9, 3:15 - There is nothing is new under the sun.
Isaiah 43:7 - God created us for His glory, not so that we can ignore Him and live to glorify ourselves through our clever inventions and innovation.
Isaiah 47:8-11 - God will destroy people whose wisdom and knowledge have perverted them so that they think they are like gods through their sorceries (supernatural power over people and affairs) and enchantments (through mind control and mind altering drugs.)
Isaiah 60:2 - Spiritual darkness whall cover the earth (via the world wide web), but Yahweh shall arise upon His people (overcomers).
Ezekiel 28:1-10 - God will destroy the rulers who think they are gods due to their knowledge of many secrets (acquired through various means of knowledge discovery).
Daniel 12:4 - Knowledge shall be increased, i.e., the information age was foretold 2600 years ago.
Obadiah 1:4 - God will shoot down UFOs and the superpowers' space programs.
Amos 8:11,12 - A famine of hearing the words of God is coming.
Amos 9:2 - If the Lucifereans hide in deep underground military bases (DUMBs), God will get them, or if they try to hide in outer space, God will bring them down.
Habakkuk 2:13,14 - The people's work is only fuel for the fire; it's vanity unless done for the glory of Yahweh, for the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Yahweh one day.
Matthew 13:10-17 - Jesus spoke in parables for those with eyes to see (who sought the wisdom of God.)
Luke 4:6
Luke 21:12-15 - God will give wisdom in time of need.
John 3:3 - People can only see or understand the Kingdom of God if they are born from above.
John 6:27 - Work not for food that spoils but for food which endures unto eternal life.
John 6:29 - The work of God is to believe in Jesus!
John 7:17,18 - How to know how true a teacher is: try to discern if he is speaking to glorify Jesus or himself.
John 10:27 - Jesus' sheep hear his voice, are known by Him and follow Him.
John 12:35,36 - Walking in light or darkness depends on whom we follow. (We can follow Jesus, the light, or Lucifer, the prince of darkness.)
John 14:17
John 14:21
John 16:13
Acts 17:21
Romans 1:18-32
1 Corinthians 1:18-31
1 Corinthians 8:1
1 Corinthians 10:12
1 Corinthians 13:2
Colossians 2:8
2 Thessalonians 2:1-12
2 Timothy 3:7
James 3:13-18
1 John 5:5
1 John 5:19
Revelation 13:16-18
Revelation 14:9-11
Revelation 15:2
Revelation 16:2
Revelation 16:10
Revelation 19:20
Revelation 20:4