Two Kinds of Wisdom

Good morning everyone! Today we are picking back up in James after we have had a few weeks off from it. The last time we were in James we awkwardly stuck our tongues out at the end, but we did it because James was talking about the power of the tongue. How our words have meaning and can either be used to build others up, show them love, encourage them, or how they can do just the opposite and tear each other apart. This morning, we are going to continue in chapter 3 of James, if you have your Bibles you can open it. The section we are looking at today is a smaller passage, so we are going to read it all the way through, pray together for wisdom, and then work through the passage almost verse by verse.

James 3:13–18 NIV

13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. 14 But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. 15 Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16 For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. 17 But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. 18 Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.

Prayer

Engage / Tension

As we start this morning, I want us to first consider a question. What is it that makes a person wise? You might be talking about someone and say, “That person is wise, they are full of wisdom.” What is it that makes them appear wise to you? Sometimes we get wisdom confused with knowledge. Wisdom is not based on if you have a degree or have read many books, although we might think it is. Wisdom actually deals with correctly applying knowledge to our lives. You can have all kinds of knowledge, go to the best schools, but not know how to practically use that knowledge in your life. Wisdom is knowing how to live your life in a way that is honoring to God.

Wisdom is something that we all should be seeking, it is good to be wise. And James has already told us good news about seeking wisdom. James 1:5 “5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” James already tells us, “Hey, if you lack wisdom, if you don’t understand how to practically live these things out, ask God for it, and he will give it to you.” If we ask for wisdom, God will give it to us.

Wisdom that God gives us though isn’t some magical way to know what is up ahead for you in life. I love how one pastor, J.I. Packer describes wisdom by talking about a railway station.

Train Illustration on Wisdom

He says that if you stand at the end of a platform you will readily observe the constant movement of trains in and out, but you will only be able to form a general idea of the overall plan of what is going on, catching only glimmers of the subtle minute-by-minute alterations that are part and parcel of a smooth-running station.However, if you are privileged to be taken into the signal box room, you will see on a long wall a detailed diagram of all the tracks for five miles around the station, with little “glowworm lights” indicating the positions of every engine on the track—some moving slowly or swiftly, some stationary. In a glance you will be able to survey the entire situation through the eyes of those in control. You will see why one engine is signaled to a halt, and why another has been diverted, and why another sits unmoving on a siding. The reasoning for all the movements will become perfectly plain once you see the great diagram and its glowing dots. Says Dr. Packer:Now the mistake that is commonly made is to suppose that this is an illustration of what God does when He bestows wisdom: to suppose, in other words, that the gift of wisdom consists in a deepened insight into the meaning and purpose of events going on around us, an ability to see why God has done what He has done in a particular case, and what He is going to do next.People who think this is what wisdom is imagine that if they walk close enough to God, they will be in God’s signal box and will understand everything that happens.

On the contrary, explains Dr. Packer, the experience of God’s wisdom is like learning to drive a car. When driving it is important to make appropriate responses to the constantly changing scene, to exercise soundness of judgment regarding speed, distance and braking. If you are going to drive well, you must not fret over the highway engineer’s reasoning for an S curve, the philosophy which produced red, green, and yellow traffic lights, or why the lady in front of you is accelerating while her foot is on the brake. Rather, “You simply try to see and do the right thing in the actual situation that presents itself. The effect of divine wisdom is to enable you and me to do just that in the actual situations of life.”

So wisdom is not being able to see what God is doing and why he is doing everything, wisdom is making the right choices in the midst of life just like you make the right choices when you are driving your car.

With this is mind then, let’s begin to see what else James has to say about wisdom, how it is demonstrated and the correct kind of wisdom.

James 3:13 NIV

13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.

James begins by saying that wisdom can actually be seen in people. It can be seen in how a person lives their life. Often we think of wisdom as abstract knowledge, but Biblical wisdom is shown by deeds done in humility, that comes from wisdom. Humility here though covers more than just humility. The word used in Greek is a bit hard to translate, some Bibles use humility, others use meekness, others use gentle. And so wisdom is shown by deeds done out of all of that, out of humility, meekness, and gentleness. One author describes the word used for humility in verse 13 in this way.

He says it is, “The quality of not being overly impressed by a sense of one’s self importance.”

This is something that all of us probably need to be reminded of. We are not meant to just look out for ourselves, we are not meant to think that we are so important. These deeds come out of a way of thinking that recognizes that you yourself are not the most important thing. And as you think about people in your life who have wisdom, chances are that fits their description. They probably don’t consider themselves super wise, they just help and demonstrate love to you in a humble way.

James once again is challenging us, our relationship with God is revealed to others in the way that we live. Are you doing good deeds to get noticed? To get others to think highly of you? Or are you doing these deeds out of humility? Out of a desire to simply love others? James elaborates a bit more on the earthly kind of wisdom that is self centered in the next 3 verses.

Earthly Wisdom

James 3:14–16 NIV

14 But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. 15 Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16 For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.

The wisdom that James describes here is what he calls “earthly” wisdom. Earthly wisdom would tell you to take care of yourself. That everything you do, the actions you take in life, the words you use, all of it should be used for your own gain. Earthly wisdom tells you to get ahead by any means necessary so that you can improve your life. This kind of wisdom also includes having envy in your life. If you are a jealous person who is mainly looking out for yourself, James would say that the wisdom you are following is earthly, demonic even. Notice how this wisdom is completely opposite of how James describes the deeds done in wisdom in verse 13. Earthly wisdom does not tell people to act out of humility, to not think of yourself as the most important person in the world. People who are full of earthly wisdom would likely laugh in the face of someone who says wisdom comes out of humility and gentleness. Earthly wisdom says, “I can take care of myself, I deserve this, I should be respected because of my role, I should have the attention.”

And if we think about our culture, that is the wisdom that is so prevalent. So many people, ourselves included, are more concerned about ourselves, about getting ahead in life, than helping and loving others.

Mr Beast Button Illustration

If that is how we live our lives, we are not following Godly wisdom, we are limiting ourselves to the things of this world and placing a focus on things that we believe will help us here and now. We are actively ignoring the promise of eternity with God when we live like this. If we live with eternity in mind, we should hopefully see that this earthly wisdom is pointless.

And if we still might think that there is a benefit to this earthly kind of wisdom, James dismisses it in verse 16. If your wisdom comes of jealousy and selfish ambition, you will find disorder and evil. If we live self-centered lives, our lives will suffer as a result. There will be more brokenness in our relationships, in our families, in our workplaces, everywhere we go. If we chose to reject the wisdom that comes from heaven, we are essentially choosing to make a mess of our lives.

Heavenly Wisdom

James 3:17–18 NIV

17 But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. 18 Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.

James contrasts the self-centered earthly wisdom by explaining what wisdom from heaven looks like. According to James, wisdom from heaven is pure, peace loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial, and sincere.

All of those descriptions seem to be exactly opposite of how our world would describe being wise.

Acting in heavenly wisdom means that those attributes can be described of us. The first three describe a person’s character who is full of heavenly wisdom. If you are full of heavenly wisdom then the mindset you will have is pure, peace loving, and considerate. That is how you will think about others, that is the filter that you look through at your life.

The rest of these descriptors are actions, things that we do in our life that demonstrate our wisdom is from above. Our actions are submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. We should all once again be asking ourselves, “Do these descriptions match how I act in my life?” Am I full of mercy? Do I have good fruit in my life? Am I sincere with people?

To live our lives out of Godly wisdom is to actively seek ways that we can demonstrate these attributes in our life. Instead of waking up in the morning and thinking about everything that I need to get done in that day, I should wake up and think about how I might be able to show mercy to someone. How can I be considerate of my spouse today? How can I be peace loving to my family? How can I bear good fruit at work? These are the questions that we should be considering each day. Not self centered “me” questions.

Action

As we end this morning then, our response, our action from this should be to evaluate ourselves. What kind of wisdom are you allowing to lead your life? Are you following earthly wisdom that is focused on yourself? Or are you listening to heavenly wisdom that causes you to think about others and to live our the love and mercy of Jesus?

James tells us plainly that if we live out of earthly wisdom there will be evil and disorder in our lives. But on the opposite end, in verse 18 James says that if we sow in peace, if we sow in heavenly wisdom, we will reap a harvest of righteousness. That is the kind of wisdom that we should see to live by in our lives.