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Jesus is the Wisdom of God made flesh: not only the wisest man who ever lived, but also the very source of all wisdom! In our final session, we compare the wisdom of Solomon to the wisdom of Jesus and ask how we ought to relate to Jesus as the Wisdom of God.

Decisions are an essential part of everyday life. Some decisions can have significant and long-term impacts on us and others. But what ought to guide our decision making? In this session, we look at what Proverbs says about wisdom and decisions.

“He who commits adultery lacks sense.” Proverbs thus summarizes sexual intimacy outside of marriage. Forbidden pleasure may seem enjoyable for a moment, but it inevitably results in hurt, regret, and heartache. At the same time, Proverbs celebrates the blessings of marriage and the intimacy of a husband and wife.

The Bible talks about money more than almost anything else in human life. Though we often look for advice to obtain money or advice to keep it, Proverbs asks about the proper use of the money we have. In this session we explore the wise use of money and how to avoid spiritual mistakes.

Work is a good part of creation, and good work is neither drudgery nor degrading. Proverbs, therefore, encourages us to work diligently. In this session, we examine the wisdom of work, answering not only the question of how we should work but also why.

Americans have fewer and fewer friends. We’re busy and distracted, yes, but perhaps the decline in friendship has more to do with how little we understand its value and purpose. In this session we explore why friendship matters, how can we protect it, and what it means to be a good friend.

Words have power. They can wound and they can heal. They can strengthen and they can weaken. They can inspire a person to action and they can destroy a person’s spirit. Words have power. So how and when and in what ways should we use them? How should we speak and how should we listen? What does it mean to do this with wisdom? Those are the questions that we’ll discussion in this session.

Frequently, Scripture commands us to listen. Moses does so to the people of Israel before they go into the Promised Land. Likewise Jesus instructs his followers as he proclaims the kingdom of God. But why is listening so important, and how do we listen well?

How do we acquire wisdom? In this first session of our study in Proverbs, we examine what the Bible means when it talks about wisdom and how God’s people are to become wise.

What do we really know? Does certainty change the way that we ought to live? Again and again throughout John’s letter, we assess what we know with certainty, especially in the final chapter when John reminds us that we know that we have eternal life, we know that God hears us, and we know the true God.

“Little children, love one another.” It is thought that the elderly apostle John repeated this message to early Christians every time he joined in their gatherings. This simple and profound message gets right to the heart of this letter. In this session, we reflect on why John places such a heavy emphasis on love and what effect love has on the world around us.

Are you a child of God or a child of the devil? To ask such a question may seem shocking, even offensive, but these are the categories John appeals to in his epistle. If you are a child of God, then that should be evident in the way you live and in the way you love.

1 John 2 tells us truths about what Jesus has done for us, the love which now defines our lives, and who we are as children of God. These truths do more than satisfy our curiosity, but show us how to live in the greater reality of God’s love.

We all want to truly know and to be truly known, but where can such community be found? In his first epistle, the apostle John offers us some initial answers to that question. True community means living in the light, and he both points us to the Light-giver and denounces the lies that keep us in the dark.

Thomas, though often remembered as a skeptic, is also the disciple who first referred to Jesus as God, undoubtedly the most profound of Jesus’s titles. It is also the claim that draws the most criticism from modern skeptics. In this session, we address the arguments of those who deny the truth of Thomas’s words and explore the remarkable implications of Jesus as our Lord and God.