Christians: Explain Ecclesiastes 1:18 for me?

Question

Ecclesiastes 1:18
For the greater my wisdom, the greater my grief. To increase knowledge only increases sorrow.

Answer 1

My take on it is,
as you grow in your spiritual knowledge and wisdom. you start to see and realize the differences of the way God thinks and the way man is. and it will bring sorrow to your heart.

Answer 2

Well, here's what King James Version says: "For in much wisdom is much grief; and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow."

That's different, my dear. Nothing about "only" in there.

It is true that the more you understand, the more you know of the sorrow of the world. Many great minds have noticed that. It's like the person who has spent so many years coming to realize how little he really knows, who then contemplates an IQ score that suggests 99% of the public understand even less than he does. Where do you go with such knowledge? To a world that cannot understand it.

Many people think being very smart is the equal of being very wise. Nonsense. There are smart people who decide they can "outsmart" enough other people to make money that way, and they do in fact make a lot of money. Most get rich schemes are of that nature; the guy who started it may well be the only one who gets rich.

But wisdom, almost by definition, goes beyond mere intelligence into the good sense which informs a person that spending your life ripping other people off is not good for your soul. But then, large segments of the population do not postulate the existence of a human soul. I do. I assume there is such a thing which is a term to describe what I feel I am when I say "soul" about myself. That is, I feel I am my own existence proof for the existence of a human soul. That sort of contemplation is what separates mere knowledge from wisdom.

And with the knowledge of the existence of the human soul comes compassion, and from compassion, too often, comes grief. But sometimes it also uses that grief to solve what can be solved; to correct what one can, and maybe also inspire others to live in their souls, not merely in their minds.

Answer 3

Ecclesiastes 1:18
For the greater my wisdom, the greater my grief. To increase knowledge only increases sorrow.

"This scripture tries to explain that the more your wisdom increases then you see the way GOD sees the world how people have turned away from seeking HIM(GOD) and instead become selfseekers and greed is the order of life.People sell their souls to the devil to achieve bliss in materials and physical satisfaction "

That is enough to grieve the wisdom which is GOD given

Answer 4

Ecclesiastes Explains Himself When He Says In 7:4
the heart of the wise is in the house of mourning but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth

For Knowledge Is Corruption To Know Is God

Nobody Knows Except Through God And Nobody Can Know All
Except God

Answer 5

This applies to a person who has gained heavenly wisdom and who is very much concerned about the world around him. It applies to a person who has gained heavenly knowledge and learns that this world is very much misaligned. The grief and the sorrow of that person increases because they listen but not hear, and they look but not see.

Answer 6

1Corinthians 8:1 Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

When a person gets puffed up, because they know allot, they get haughty, which leads to a crash. Pride is before a crash; Proverbs 16:18

1Timothy 3:1-6 If any man is reaching out for an office of overseer/elder..not a newly converted man, for fear that he might get puffed up with pride and fall into the judgment passed upon the Devil.

Answer 7

Solomon is not talking about godly wisdom here. Here he is speaking of human knowledge, which apart from God, brings grief and sorrow. Knowledge apart from God can provide no solutions to our problems, that's why this world is in such turmoil.

Answer 8

The more educated you are, the more you think, the smarter you are, the more you realize the problems of life. You see a problem and the solution. You constantly think "I could fix that IF." and the "if" is usually having the resources. (money, manpower, time)

Concerning faith, the more you know about God, the more you realize there is to know, and you become aware that you could never learn it all in 20 lifetimes, much less your single lifetime.

AND the more I know about what God wants me to do, the more I realize my failings and the worse I feel.

Answer 9

I'll second what Lightning said and I'll add that knowledge without context is useless because we can know everything and understand everything that can be known or understood, but if we see our lives as merely the compilation of knowledge for its own sake without the knowledge of and relationship with God, then anything we know in and of itself is useless. Without the knowledge of God, nothing else matters because nothing else will last.

Answer 10

hi,, what the preacher is trying to say is that the more you know , the more things are brought out that can make you turn from the right path and lean toward the wrong things in life......

Remember also, this is Soloman speaking,,,, the wisest man in the world at that time...

good luck