Can a person be too smart?

Most of us think that intelligence is a good thing. Those who lack it struggle with life. Those who have an above average IQ may not, but they are at a disadvantage. For instance, can be too easy to assume that knowing God is not important.

I grew up with praise for good marks in school and a strong emphasis on being smart. Medals and awards did not lessen my quest to always be learning. However, the negatives outweigh the positives. For one thing, my class mates expected achievement and if I didn’t make it, they ridiculed me. This soon became my value system; I had to be excellent in school and was driven to serious study so that I would feel accepted.

After being a Christian for decades, I realize a large part of God’s training has been to show me that I am not as smart as I thought and that being without knowledge is an advantage. In the wisdom of God, He wants His people to realize that He is the source of wisdom and knowledge, not we ourselves, our IQ or our education:

“The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple.” (Psalm 119:130)

This verse and others like it reveal that God reveals wisdom and understanding to those who are not stuck on their own brain power.

“For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:26–29)

How foolish to boast about intellect before Almighty God. When He spoke to Job, His first question was: “Have you an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like his?” (Job 40:9) Of course no one is like God who knows all things, including the number of hairs on my head! (Matthew 10:30)

The wisdom to live with grace and power comes from God. He not only created us but gave us an “owner’s manual” that gives us true spiritual life and instruction on how to live it.

“The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.” (Psalm 19:7)

By reading the Word of God He has shown me that, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven.” (John 3:27)

As Tozer says, “Divine truth is of the nature of the Holy Spirit, and for that reason it can be received only by spiritual revelation.” None of the wisdom of God is available to the simple or to the genius unless the Holy Spirit reveals it. This is one reason why John wrote, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30) Unless I decrease in thinking of myself above what I ought to think, Jesus and His great wisdom will not increase in my life.

“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?’ For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. (Romans 11:33–36)

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Oh Jesus, I’ve been so slow to learn that it is not only okay to be of a simple-mind but this also gives me a distinct advantage — You reveal things to me that I could never figure out by my own reasoning. Thank You. May the wisdom You grant always be credited to the One who gave it. May I glorify You forever!