Faith or wisdom, which do we as Christians live by? Both! One doesn’t negate or exist in tension with the other. The books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes are filled with wisdom. The first is wisdom for how to live practically in this world—“Do this, and the result will be that.” Wisdom is taught by direct statements of how to live wisely, and indirectly through contrasts with unwise behaviors (illustrated in the actions and attitudes of the naïve, the fools, and those who mock wisdom). We could call the teachings of Proverbs “spiritual street smarts.”

On the other hand, Ecclesiastes speaks of a wisdom that is “under the sun,” which does not consider the unseen, spiritual world. This side of spiritual street smarts presents the wisdom of recognizing that doing the good and right thing doesn’t always end up more beneficial for a person. It is all vanity, a word used repeatedly throughout the book. “Do this and although there will be some benefit and satisfaction with the result, in the end it will be vanity without God.”

The contrast between the two books is this: live wisely and things will go better for you, but living wisely can still lead to a meaningless life. That is the reality we believers must embrace. Whether wise living brings tangible results or not, we are encouraged to pursue wisdom, the caveat being that we need to seek wisdom as an act of faith.

Faith does not negate wisdom but gives it a higher purpose and motivation. It provides a spiritual context for wisdom. Faith enables us to act on what we learn. Faith does not excuse stupidity. When faced with a big decision involving a huge step of faith, that does not mean we suspend thinking wisely about the decision and somehow hope God will honor our “faith” and ignore our lack of wisdom. Rather, faith enables us to count the cost of making a wise decision, empowers us to take a significant risk to our well-being, and leads us to make a major sacrifice. That is faith, and that is wisdom—working together.