James 3:13-18

13 Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom.

14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth.

15 This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic.

16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing.

17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.

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Key Verse:

James 3:13

"Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom."

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DEMONSTRATE YOUR WISDOM

INTRODUCTION

A. Historic background

Jewish believers had been raised in a religious system that had many teachers. Rabbis, scribes, doctors of the law were abundant. Schools of interpretation flourished. Much of this teaching was purely speculative and external. Jesus characterized the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees in such passages as Matthew 23, charging that they "say things, and do not do them" (vs. 3). Also, in the Greek-influenced Gentile world much philosophical speculation passed for "wisdom." There was a real danger that Christian teachers might degenerate into mere temporizers with truth. James emphasizes that truth is to be obeyed. Real wisdom is moral, not merely intellectual. It is a humble submission to the truth as God gives us perception in the truth.

B. Current background

We still have two kinds of "wisdom" in the world. We have much of the ego-centered so-called wisdom, both secular and religious. It places self-interest as the highest good. It is usually auto-soterical. It is "foolishness with God" (1 Corinthians 3:19). In the knowledge of God in Christ we have the true wisdom, the "hidden wisdom, which God predestined before the ages to our glory" (1 Corinthians 2:7). To know this wisdom, we must lay aside the pretensions of worldly wisdom. Since pride is contrary to true wisdom, humility of heart is essential to the acquisition of true wisdom. True wisdom involves knowing how to live. Its atmosphere is peace. Its product is righteousness. We find it all in Jesus (1 Corinthians 1:30).

I. Is wisdom of the head or of the heart? (3:13)

A. The call for volunteers: "Who among you is wise and understanding?" To ask a question like that is to establish a test, because the person who would respond, "I am," would in so doing reveal his lack of wisdom and understanding. The asking of the question forces the truly wise man to demonstrate his wisdom by silent reflection.

B. Paul told the Corinthians, "...we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies" (1 Corinthians 8:1). Here is the issue. Knowledge without love is not wisdom. Wisdom is not a quantity of information. It is recognition of and submission to the truth in love. Sin is most unreasonable. "Insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives" (Ecclesiastes 9:3). It is the pursuit of self-gratification in opposition to what the mind knows to be the demands of the higher values.

C. This is selfishness, and selfishness in possession of knowledge is not wisdom. In fact, it is even more dangerous and destructive by the amount of knowledge it possesses. Hitler's scientists had knowledge, but their selfishness perverted their knowledge to the most unreasonable and insane ends. Certainly they were not wise.

D. True wisdom consists in the best use of the most appropriate means to attain the most valuable and therefore most reasonable ends. Such a course will demonstrate itself in the most gentle of concerns and good behavior.

II. Wisdom or shrewdness? (3:14-16)

A. As love is reasonable, so selfishness is unreasonable. Selfishness disregards the true interests of God and of others, that which the intelligence affirms to be truly valuable, and it acts as though the ambitions of self were more important. This is most unreasonable, and is sin because it is perpetrated in opposition to reason, that is, to light. It manifests itself in all kinds of strife and competitive behavior. In Galatians 5:19-21 Paul calls these the deeds of the flesh, and expands on James's description.

B. Love is the sum obligation of all true morality and religion. Jealousy and selfish ambition are contrary to love, hence to the truth, hence to wisdom. The remedy is genuine repentance in humility. This means confessing our sins. But arrogance is the refusal to confess, to acknowledge our sins. This arrogance is a denial of the truth in two ways: it denies the truth about ourselves, and it denies in practice what we say is true in word. It is like the minister who preached about peace and order in the home in view of the fact that Christ is the Head of the home. When he went home his daughter said to him, "Father, why don't you practice what you preach?" The father replied by knocking his daughter across the room. "They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him..." (Titus 1:16). Remember, James is still talking about faith, true saving faith, faith that behaves, that lives what it truly believes.

C. Selfishness perverts knowledge by misdirecting it to its own ends. This is not wisdom, but shrewdness in the worst sense of the word.

D. God is not the Author of this "wisdom." It is:

l. earthly--having nothing in common with the sweet, holy reasonableness of Heaven. So the five "I wills" of Lucifer (see Isaiah 14:12-14) were totally incompatible with Heaven and intolerable there.

2. natural--"soulish," "unspiritual," "sensual." It seeks to gratify the propensities of man. It rationalizes selfishness. We hear its blatant voice in some of the "self-first" paperbacks that are so popular.

3. demonic--"demon-like." It is the big lie of Satan. He first convinced himself of it, then many of the angels, then Eve. Hear it in Satan's words to our first mother: "For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil" (Genesis 3:5). By its ego-centeredness, it proclaims that by being independent from God, every person can become free, his or her own supreme being and central interest. Away with such "wisdom"!

E. Selfishness inevitably collides with others. The result is conflict. Its fruit is strife and every evil work. Its final end is death (Romans 8:6).

III. What are the attributes of true wisdom? (3:17,18)

A. True wisdom is pure. Purity is its outstanding characteristic. True wisdom recognizes that holiness is essential to happiness, to securing the highest good. Love will pursue its great end only by means consistent with its own pure nature. Jesus said, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" (Matthew 5:8). Proverbs 9:10 tells us that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." This implies the recognition that God is holy. Impurity dishonors Him; consequently, love for Him necessitates love for purity.

B. True wisdom is peaceable. Selfishness brings strife. Love excludes selfishness. The absence of selfishness is the absence of strife. The result is peace. Proverbs 13:10 tells us, "Through presumption comes nothing but strife..."

C. True wisdom is reasonable. True wisdom pursues the right end with the most appropriate means. This and this alone is reasonable. It is fair equitable, gentle, approachable, compliant.

D. True wisdom is full of mercy and good fruits. It recognizes the worth of the person and seeks to do him good, to pardon, to extend practical aid and assistance. Faith is not a barren tree. Galatians 5:22,23 expands on this list.

E. True wisdom is unwavering. Stability must be an attribute of wisdom. It is not fickle, following selfish impulses here and there. Instead, it fixes on great and eternal values. It is exhibited in the endurance that results in a perfect work. Another definition of the word means "without partiality," certainly a possible meaning here in view of Chapter Two.

F. True wisdom is without hypocrisy. Luke 12:1 records the warning of Jesus against "the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy." True wisdom is not deluded by an exaggerated sense of self-importance. It does not pretend to be what it is not.

G. Righteousness grows in the soil of peace, sown by peaceable people. Righteousness cannot grow unless there is peace. See 1:20. This necessitates discipline, as Hebrews 12:11 informs us: "All discipline for the moment seemes not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness."

CONCLUSION

Wisdom is practical. Colossians 4:5 says, "Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making most of the opportunity." Wisdom is love acting sensibly. Only they who live the truth are qualified to teach it, for they alone demonstrate that they believe it. This is true faith. We find it all personified in Jesus Christ. As we learn of Him, so let us walk (Matthew 11:29; Colossians 2:6,7; Ephesians 4:20-24).

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POINTS TO PONDER:

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1. What difference is there between wisdom and understanding? (see 3:13).

2. What does it mean for wisdom to "come down from above"?

3. Why is there such a direct relationship between wisdom and peace?

4. If peace is evidence of wisdom, what does strife evidence? Why?

5. Why do jealousy and selfish ambition open the door to "every evil thing"'?

6. How does this section relate to the general theme of the epistle?