James 3:13-18 (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)
13 Who is wise and knowledgeable among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be arrogant and lie about the truth. 15 This is not wisdom that comes down from above but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. 16 For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. 17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. 18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
My topic today is wisdom.
Everyone gives a cheer, or even two cheers, for wisdom.
But there is a lot that passes for wisdom out there that is not worth cheering for at all.
There is a wisdom espoused by people who seem to be smart, but their wisdom creates a lot of trouble.
Here is James, a Christian teacher from the early days.
James calls out a kind of wisdom that is highly destructive.
He does not hold back.
It is, he says, earthly, unspiritual, devilish.
These are fighting words!
What has gotten James so exercised?
He says, just take a look.
See the disorder.
See the wickedness.
See the arrogance.
He highlights two qualities of this so-called wisdom: bitter envy and selfish ambition.
When this kind of wisdom is on the move, look out!
Trouble is on the way.
James calls it disorder and wickedness of every kind.
As contemporary readers, we find that James says nothing that shocks us.
We’ve seen it all.
We’ve seen this earthly wisdom take over families.
We go to work, and there it is again!
Then there is the world of politics!
Earthly wisdom is everywhere these days.
This wisdom grows like a weed.
Many observers have been comparing our political discourse today to what we had twenty or thirty years ago, which is a distant memory.
There is widespread agreement that things have deteriorated.
James, however, would go deeper, and say that we’ve been living by a wisdom that is earthly, unspiritual, devilish.
This wisdom produces a certain kind of fruit, rotten fruit!
However, there are, James teaches, actually two different wisdoms.
If there were only one, the one that is earthly, unspiritual, devilish, then we’re in a corner.
We then have to make the best of a bad situation.
But James is hopeful because something else is freely available.
James calls it wisdom from above.
From above?
He must be talking about something that comes from God.
We know a little bit about God.
We know that God is all-wise.
But this wisdom is not only above.
It is from above.
This means that it has been made available to human beings.
It is headed our way.
James tells us that it comes from above, and that when it arrives, it produces a quality of life that stands out.
It’s a good life, a life marked by gentleness born of wisdom.
Above all, this wisdom from above produces a life of peace and peacemaking.
James teaches us that there are two wisdoms, one of them earthly, and the other from above.
Given the existence of two wisdoms, we have a choice before us.
But which wisdom will we seek?
Which of these two two will we practice?
James lays them out side by side.
Take your pick!
Life can get very messy and complicated, but James makes it simple.
When all is said and done, there are only two options.
James is not impartial. He prefers one and despises the other.
He wants us to seek out the wisdom from above.
He believes that this wisdom from above is heavenly in the best sense.
It’s not remote from the practicalities of daily life.
In fact, he lists seven qualities, one after the other, that strike me as the most practical, relevant, and powerful that you can imagine.
Imagine these seven qualities playing out in our current debates.
What would it look like?
Here they are:
Pure.
Peaceable.
Gentle.
Willing to yield. Have you ever heard of such a thing in current campaigns?
Full of mercy and good fruits.
Without partiality. Really? Fair to opposing viewpoints? Wouldn’t that be something?
Without hypocrisy.
Can you see it? Could you actually live this out?
Or is it just a a dream?
How can this dream become reality?
Here is great news.
The very thing that this world needs so much is freely available.
We need a wisdom that is different from what we usually see around us.
We need a wisdom that is from above, but so accessible to everyone that we can welcome it and put it into practice in every realm of life.
The wisdom from above that James envisions, the wisdom that produces peace, is not limited to a few really bright individuals.
All of us can say to the Lord, the all-wise God, grant to me some of that wisdom from above!
That is a prayer that God loves to hear.
Let’s seek that wisdom from above that will change our lives and change our world!
