[ 1 minutes to read ]

For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck.
– Proverbs 1:9

[I]f we hear and understand as instructed in verse 8, we acquire and grow in wisdom. The getting of wisdom is its own reward. Ornaments and chains are adornments that complement and beautify. Wisdom, like an adornment, makes beautiful.

The emphasis here is not on the outward. Solomon doesn’t intend that wisdom brings us health and wealth. In Ecclesiastes 9:11 he observed that bread and riches do not always come to the wise and understanding. Wisdom isn’t a means of achieving worldly success. This is where many Christian books and messages fail when they come to the book of Proverbs. Proverbs is not written to make us more successful in the world, but to grow us in wisdom, God’s wisdom. Wisdom may in fact cause us to be despised by the world (Ecclesiastes 9:15).

Wisdom is still the way of life though. Wisdom is better.

Listen to the Proverbs sermon series