The Bible mentions two types of wisdom: worldly wisdom (1 Corinthians 3:19) and godly wisdom (James 1:5). These distinct wisdoms oppose each other in several aspects including their relationship to hypocrisy. Man claims to live wisely and yet encourages something that counteracts true wisdom—hypocrisy. This is because God’s wisdom operates only when hypocrisy is absent. At first, this might seem quite difficult to achieve, yet righteousness is never accomplished through sinful means. The only way to demonstrate true wisdom is to do so with purity and mercy void of partiality and hypocrisy.
What does the Bible mean when it says to “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness”? Does this mean that believers should never speak to those who do not know Christ as Saviour? The key involves understanding Bible terminology. The word fellowship is a two part compound word. A simple Bible study of the root word fellow indicates that it involves two people working as one (John 11:16; 3 John 8); therefore fellowship involves two people being closely associated. The command for believers to avoid close association with unbelievers is further confirmed when the Bible says believers and unbelievers should not be “unequally yoked together” (2 Corinthians 6:14). When two people are yoked together, they are united in work; but the saved should never unite with the lost in such matters. More importantly, believers must never yoke up with unbelievers in God’s work (Ezra 4:3).
