To God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ for ever. Amen. (Romans 16:27)

The above is the last verse of the last chapter of the book of Romans.

My curiosity was caught by the phrase “only wise”… I don’t know why, but for as long as I can remember, I always thought that this was a phrase that meant “alone”. But it doesn’t… like many things in the Bible, it means what is says: that God has true wisdom.

Over the years, I’ve heard multiple preachers define “wisdom”; it is usually tied to knowledge, such as “the practical use of knowledge” or “the proper use of knowledge” (I like the latter one).

However, in looking up the phrase “only wise”, I saw that the root idea behind the word for wisdom is “clear” or “clarity”… and that just really impressed me. It felt like when one crests a hill or rounds a corner, and sees far more stretching out in front of one.

I love this idea: that God can see clearly all the way out to eternity. We, on the other hand, are like extremely near-sighted people, or people dwelling in a thick fog: we can barely see beyond ourselves, and what we can see isn’t completely clear.

Such is the wisdom that God possesses; little wonder that glory is due Him!