For your hope (based in faith) to be realized, it will help to be familiar with the relationship between five common terms:1. Knowledge, 2. Understanding, 3. Wisdom, 4. Ignorance, and 5. Stupidity. We all start born in ignorance. Ignorance is really nothing. Ignorance simple means we have not acquired or been exposed to knowledge so as to gain understanding. So... The first thing we must attain is knowledge. Our first spiritual knowledge is sometimes the knowledge of God we gain from just seeing creation. (Rom 1:20) That should be enough to set us on a path seeking the God (2 Chron 16:9) who is our good Creator. (Heb 11:6) We then find knowledge of the hope of eternal life explained in the Bible. (Psa 33:4-6; John 17:3) After you gain some true knowledge (from Bible study, and possibly from talking about what you have learned with others), you can start to build some understanding based on that acquired knowledge. Once in possession of both knowledge and the understanding it can give, you have opportunity to become wise. You become wise when you use your understanding based on accurate knowledge to benefit yourself or others: Wisdom is thus the manifestation of understanding, based on knowledge, in action.
There is an old illustration that seems apt: A man who has never seen a train (a man ignorant of trains) is standing on a railroad track. In the distance he sees (and thereby gains knowledge) a train is coming toward him. He gains understanding when he realizes the train will cause him harm if he remains on the track. With that realization, the man has reached a point where he has both knowledge and understanding. The man displays wisdom when he steps off the track. If he remains on the track, after gaining both knowledge and understanding, he is no longer ignorant. By choosing to remain on the track, he changes from ignorance to stupidity; forfeiting his life for failing to become wise. The opposite of wisdom, then, is stupidity! Before knowledge or understanding, a person can't help but be ignorant. After both knowledge and understanding are acquired, ignorance disappears. What is left is either wisdom or stupidity. (Deu 30:19‑20) A chance to step off the tracks is the gift Almighty God has freely given each and every one of us. We accept his gift of life by our expression of wisdom in the form of faith in his son Christ Jesus. (John 17:3; John 12:48; Pro 30:4; John 7:16-17) Wisdom thus manifests itself in (or as) our wise use or application of knowledge. In the case each one of us, if we have wisdom, it presents as love for our God and for others. (Luke 10:25‑28; 1 John 4:20) Love can only come from obedience to Christ! (John 8;:31‑32; John 15:11‑17; 1 John 4:19) If people choose to become stupid, it means they are without love. The Bible says people choosing to be stupid are deserving of death. (Psa 92:5‑7; Proverbs 13:19-20)
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