Christians vs Christians (yec)

[Belacqua]

...But still "sound application of knowledge"?   

I think I would distinguish the wise application of knowledge from the intelligent application of knowledge. (And I know that in conversation these aren't hard and fast rules, but just to make a distinction maybe it's useful.)

Intelligence involves the memory, application, and manipulation of facts. An intelligent person remembers what she learned before and applies it skillfully to a different situation, probably toward a specific end. 

Wisdom involves knowing which specific end is a good one. 

An intelligent person may discover a new medicine, but get divorced twelve times. For tax advice, go to an intelligent person. If you want to decide whether to pack in your well-paid office job in order to become a park ranger because you've always dreamed of doing so, ask a wise person. A committee of wise people should plan the course of the nation. A committee of intelligent people should implement that course. 

The Bible ironically points out the difference between the goals of the people the world considers wise, and the wisdom of the people whom God considers wise. 

The wise people of the world, in the way the Bible uses the term, aim toward the goals that the world values. As you know, the world values fame, money, and power, calls this success, and imagines that it makes you happy. 

The wisdom of God subverts this, according to the New Testament. The wisdom of God demands that we give up fame, money, and power, and devote our lives to serving others. It says that no one should have a moment's comfort until everyone is lifted up. It says that for you and me, it is better to give up every worldly pleasure in order to aim toward a better world. Whether this Kingdom of God is an earthly utopia or a heavenly one depends on your interpretation. 

Neither of these outcomes is at all likely. People who are wise in the worldly sense are almost certainly correct when they say that the goal will never be reached (earthly utopia is impossible and heaven is a pipe dream). The wisdom of Jesus says that we should ignore those people's wisdom and work toward those goals anyway. Faith is the assurance that these goals, while declared impossible by all intelligent people, are nonetheless worth working toward. 

In my personal judgment, most Christians do not live up to the challenge that the NT lays down. It's really difficult, after all, and it's easier for preachers to preach a self-righteous defense of worldly (false) wisdom. But all the extremists -- St. Francis, William Blake, Simone Weil, preach what I'm saying here. 

I'm not a Christian, but this is what I take the words to mean.