[JESUS & HONESTY] 11. Prudence (POJ 2.9)

Seeing Jesus with Paul Miller

Paul, Jon and Liz wrap up this series with an episode on prudence.

“What’s fascinating is the difference between Jewish prudence and Greek prudence. The words have almost an entirely different sense. Both have this sense of standing down, but their motive is entirely different. For the Greek mind, particularly the stoic mind which dominated Greek thought, the danger was emotions…”

“For the Greeks, prudence was how do you live wisely in a world of idiots…. one of the things that’s completely lacking in that is love.”

“In contrast to that, you can see the Jewish idea of prudence flowing all through the book of Proverbs. My basic strategy is love. But how do I do it? I need to be careful, prayerful, thoughtful, asking questions. I need to be like a sheep among wolves, as shrewd as a snake and as innocent as a dove.”