In his book "Abide in Christ", Andrew Murray writes:
. . . [T]here are a thousand questions that at times come up, and the attempt to answer them becomes a weariness and a burden. It is because you have forgotten you are in Christ, whom God has made to be your wisdom. Let it be your first care to abide in Him in undivided fervent devotion of heart; when the heart and the life are right, rooted in Christ, knowledge will come in such measure as Christ's own wisdom sees meet. And without such abiding in Christ the knowledge does not really profit, but is most often hurtful.
The soul satisfies itself with thoughts which are but the forms and image of truth, without receiving the truth itself in its power. God's way is ever first to give us . . . the thing itself, the life and the power and then the knowledge. Man seeks knowledge first, and often, alas, never gets beyond it! God gives us Christ, and in hid the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
O let us be content to possess Christ, to dwell in Him, to make Him our life and only in a deeper searching into Him, to search and find the knowledge we desire. Such knowledge is life indeed.
1 Corinthins 1:30 "But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption."
May God grant philosophia to become philoChristophia. It is not wisdom or knowledge I would like to get to know better.
M.I. Findlay describes what Greeks thought about science and thought:
"Knowledge was good, wisdom the highest good, but its aim was to know, not to do; to understandman and naturein a contemplative way, rather thanto conquer or change nature, to increase efficiency or improve production."
So where does, "know thyself!" and "the unexamined life is not worth living" lead? NOWHERE! It isnot enough for one to examine life in a "contemplative way"--one cannot put his hand to the plow and look back! Jesus said the one who does this is not fit for the kingdom!
Plato had a notion of absolutes in forms, but what good does it do a man to nod at them and do nothing to impliment them and be changed by them? While Plato would say it was impossible to apply a form (because we live in the realm of shadow/non-reality) he certainly went out of his way to record "The Republic!"
The Republic is said to be a measuring rod, but it not a very good one: man is to live in a society that will change him (judge the effectiveness of society by whether and how a man is changed)--how can this be if one does not allow change? How does an idea change a man? Where is a living force in intangible reality? Plato could not find it because Socrates reasoned his way into a corner where he found a perfectionistic cod that judges and punished men because society is not perfect, nor can man make it so.
And we wonder where the Greek Empire is today . . .
I just started doing something that in itself may recieve criticism--I am spending the next couple of weeks meditating on the scripture and The Stations of the Cross. The reason for my doing this is that I may contemplate, be changed by He who is Life Itself and under His authority continue in my ministry in helping others draw close to Him . . . and I may come after you . . .
