“The way of life winds upward for the wise, that he may turn away from hell below” (Proverbs 15:24).
The apostle Paul succinctly states the power and purpose of the Holy Scriptures as being “able to make you wise unto salvation” (2 Tim. 3:15). God’s word is so saturated with everything pertaining to life and godliness (2 Pet. 1:3) that everyone desiring to live wisely by living the abundant life now, and then experience the realization of eternal life in the hereafter can. The wise can live a life which elevates them spiritually and culminates in an eternal inheritance—pure and undefiled—with all those who are sanctified.
By walking on this divinely provided way of life, the wise person also avoids the horrors of sin’s guilt, degradation, and eternal punishment. Even in its Old Testament descriptions, the place of death for the wicked is ghastly and foreboding. It is a place of now return (Job 7:9), darkness (Ps. 143:3), and torment (Is. 14:11). Everything revealed in the New Testament about the eternal punishment of the wicked confirms the frightful features and explains them in even greater, more horrific detail.
Does wisdom really matter?
YES, because living the best life here and now matters. YES, because living eternally in heaven matters. YES, because turning away from hell matters.
