Alma wanted the humble Zoramites to “learn wisdom.” But how does one obtain this wisdom? It is one thing to gain “knowledge”; it is another to gain “wisdom.”
While a common definition says that wisdom is about what you do with what you know, Alma says that this is not just a matter of practical efficiencies. He said that it was necessary for these people to learn wisdom, and that doing so was necessary for their salvation. What might this mean? Well, if we are going to be judged according to what we have learned by how we act, think, talk, and what we do, we must strive to learn wisdom and to be counted wise in the eyes of our eternal judge, and not in the eyes of the world. That kind of wisdom may be gained only by the blessings of the Holy Ghost. Alma’s words to the receptive Zoramites told them that it was necessary to have the Spirit of the Holy Ghost and to learn to obtain wisdom through that means.
Book of Mormon Central, “Why Did Nephi Work So Hard to Preserve the Wisdom He Had Received? (1 Nephi 6:5–6),” KnoWhy 262 (January 16, 2017).