There are truly only a few things that can garner true influence in society: money- and with it, belongings, the right personal connections, and wisdom. Wisdom, perhaps, comes the closest to any sort of egalitarian standard for granting power. It comes with a respect that money cannot buy and connections cannot produce.
It is worth noting that there are limitations to wisdom as a threshold for influence in the world. This is because perceived wisdom and actual wisdom are two different things. Paul explains this in 1 Corinthians a few times, but in chapter 1 verses 18-31, he describes Christ and worldly wisdom to be diametrically opposed when he says in 1 Corinthians 1:18-19, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.’” (New International Version)
In order to be wise in actuality, one is required to understand what is not only true but what is most important as truth. That which is at the top of the hierarchy of truth must be understood first before anything else can be understood if one seeks to be considered wise. It is not necessarily knowledge, but the discernment of what actually matters, that determines wisdom. This is precisely why, as Paul says in verse 27, “…God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise.” (NIV) The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but worldly wisdom grows pride, thus insuring that wisdom cannot develop. The root of actual wisdom is the acceptance that one can do nothing to be righteous, but that Christ died so that you can be righteous before him. Worldly wisdom is dedicated to seeking out solutions for becoming righteous by one’s own efforts. Because of the intrinsic pride of worldly wisdom in this way, it happens that actual wisdom will automatically register as being illogical to those with a pride block preventing them from seeing reality. But those who have not had much to boast in at all, and those who have seen the underbelly of the human experience, are far less likely to have a pride block than those who have been exalted among humans for wisdom. This makes it much easier for them to choose the actual wisdom of the gospel. When Christ said, “[…] it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle that for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God,” as recorded in Matthew 19:24, we understand that whatever will make one prideful will be a serious stumbling block that can prevent people from receiving Christ. (NIV) Wisdom and wealth are both things that lead people to be exalted in their own eyes and those of others. It is much more difficult to sacrifice pride when one has been exalted than to give up pride when one has nothing else to lose. So this is how the truly wise have accepted Christ and how those who are wise among the worldly have not.