Who among you is wise and understanding?
This is the question posed to Christians. Go ahead and answer it in your head and heart. Are you wise and understanding? If you are an arrogant person, a know-it-all, a person who has been around for a while and seen many things, you might be tempted to say, “Yes, I am wise and understanding.” But if you are truly a wise and understanding person, your response is probably something like, “Well, I’m sure I could be wiser because I know I don’t know everything.”
James asks us this question in our passage that we’ll read today to see if we will be honest with ourselves about our nature, to see if we will be honest with ourselves about our walk with the Lord. Are you really wise? Do you really understand?
Let’s look at James 3:13-18. “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. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. 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. Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.” (NIV)
To those who think they know it all, who have seen it all, and are too proud, this question, “Who is wise and understanding among you?” is meant to make them face conviction from the Spirit. When James goes on to describe true wisdom, it’s supposed to make these people pause and reconsider their over-confidence.
But for those who admit they don’t know all, and have a heart willing to learn and submit, this question invites them to come and learn what true wisdom really is. I hope we are all among this group this morning, that we admit we don’t know everything, and we are here to learn from God’s Word and submit ourselves to what we hear. If that is the case, then the Lord is inviting us this morning to come and learn what wisdom really is.
To do this, James gives his description of wisdom in three ways: he describes the nature of wisdom, he describes the source of wisdom, and he describes the expression of wisdom, or how wisdom is shown.
Really, James has been describing wisdom all along in his letter! He’s been describing that wisdom is believing God, wisdom is relying on God’s goodness, that wisdom is doing what God’s word says, and that wisdom is living the righteous life that God desires. Now, James gives another way of describing the nature of wisdom. He adds that the root of being wise is HUMILITY. Humility is what must be present in the heart if one is going to be truly wise. Humility is actually the character trait that is underneath all the Christian behavior that James describes in his entire letter. True faith requires humility. Showing true love to others that we think are different requires humility. Speaking kind and true words requires humility. Enduring through trials requires humility. All of the things that James still has to talk about require humility. That is and must be the nature of wisdom, it must be through a heart of humility.
In Matthew 5:5 when Jesus says “blessed are the meek”, He is using the same word we see in James as “humility”. Blessed are the humble. Jesus was calling people to enter His kingdom, the Father’s Kingdom with a humble heart.
In Matthew 11:29 Jesus invites people to come and learn from Him because He Himself is humble, reminding us that to be like Him is to be humble.
In Matthew 21:5 Jesus is identified as the humble king that was promised in Zechariah 9:9.
Paul says that humility is fruit of the spirit in Galatians 5:23, and identifies humility as a characteristic of Christ worth imitating in 2 Corinthians 10:1. In Ephesians 4:2, and Colossians 3:12, and Titus 3:2 Paul says we ought to show humility towards other people.
Humility means we are teachable. James says in 1:21 of his letter that we humbly accept the word of God as truth. Since it is unlikely that each of us knows everything about the word of God, we must remain humbly teachable.
Humility means we act on what the Word says. James’ words here in 3:13 show that humility is shown through good deeds. True wisdom, just like true faith requires action. So, we must have an obedient willingness to do what the Word says.
Humility also means we act and speak in gentleness to live at peace with each other. We can be 100% correct in our doctrine, in what we believe; we can be consistent in our practice of our beliefs in a way that no one else is much like the pharisees; we can gain a reputation for having a firm grasp of theology and be seen as protectors of the faith; and still stir up suspicion, slander, distrust, and contention within the Christian community if humility is not at the heart of our wisdom.
So when we speak, the thing we should ask ourselves is this, “Am I speaking from humility or from selfish ambition or bitterness?” Because wisdom is humble.
James talks about the source of wisdom and says that the wisdom we should desire comes from above. It’s an interesting thought because James also talks about earthly wisdom that is in all ways in contrast to the wisdom that comes from above. Look at verses 15 and 17 again, “Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 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.”
James identifies two types of wisdom: one that is earthly wisdom, unspiritual, demonic, leading to evil; and one that is from heaven which leads to righteousness. We know that earthly wisdom, since its end result is selfishness, evil, and chaos, must come from the father of lies: Satan. It is his desire to steal, kill, and destroy, and so-called “wisdom” that accomplishes these things comes from him!
However, the true wisdom we desire comes from above. James is recalling to the minds of all readers his words in 1:17, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights,” When James uses the word “above” in both verses, he is referring to heaven and the heavenly realms, which we of course know is the realm of God the Father. He is the one seated above, and so anything that comes from above, comes from Him.
It may be strange to us that there are two types of wisdom, and James does in fact label both as wisdom, but there is definitely a difference between the wisdom that the world has and boasts about, and the wisdom that is supposed to guide all who follow Christ.
That wisdom from above is what we want, and James 1:5 reminds us that if we lack this kind of wisdom, all we need to do is ask and God will give it to us wholly! What this asking requires though is that we purposefully and actively depend on God for all things. We have to depend on Him, because in depending on Him, we receive His wisdom and His wisdom is what guides us.
So, what we see James saying so far is that true wisdom comes from the Lord when we depend on Him and true wisdom is humble in heart.
James goes on to describe how true wisdom acts. What does it look like, what are the deeds done in the humility of wisdom? What should genuine wisdom look like in a person’s life? This is what James says, “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. Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.” (17-18)
Wisdom that comes from heaven, true heaven which starts in humility, is pure, peaceable, considerate or gentle, submissive or reasonable, full of MERCY, impartial, sincere or free of hypocrisy. Since this kind of wisdom from heaven is seen to be all these things, we can be sure that when we fully depend on God and operate in this kind of wisdom, we too will see that our good deeds and good fruit are pure, peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy, impartial, and free of hypocrisy.
There’s three things that these aspects of true wisdom emphasize. James says that true wisdom is first of all pure. Purity speaks about holiness. All along in his letter, James has been concerned about leading people to do what is morally right. James had a passion for urging Christians on to purity, which is increasingly relevant in our current culture. It is vitally important to the witness of the name of Christ that we bear that we are different than the world around us in the way we act. Wisdom from above must lead us to be holy, which is in contrast to the evil practices that come from earthly wisdom.
James then emphasizes attributes of wisdom that show the humility that is at the heart of wisdom. These attributes of wisdom will show that we have a willingness as Christians to submit to the Lord and to others in humility, to learn from others and to care for others and treat others with deep regard. These things, gentleness, reasonability, mercy, impartiality, sincerity are all in contrast from the selfish ambition and bitterness that comes from earthly wisdom.
And James also emphasizes that true wisdom will cause righteousness to flourish in the lives of others! James says that when we sow in peace, the harvest is in righteousness. When humility brings wisdom and we act on that wisdom in peace with others, what comes out of that is righteous actions in the lives of others as well as ourselves. This is the exact opposite of the chaos and disorder that comes from following earthly wisdom.
Heavenly wisdom should be seen in our good deeds and good fruit by leading us to greater depths of holiness, humble hearts willing to be submissive and teachable, and causing righteousness to flourish through peace. This is what heavenly wisdom does.
So, in addition to asking ourselves when we speak, “Am I speaking from humility or from selfish ambition or bitterness?” We should also ask ourselves this question about our actions, “Do my deeds show that I am acting in the wisdom that comes from above? Do my deeds show a holy heart, a willingness to submit in humility, and cause righteousness to flourish?”
Questions to form your quiet time this week:
1. Are you wise, in the way James describes wisdom?
2. The greek word for humility is prautēs, from which we get our word “pray”. What do you think this says about the heart posture of praying to the Lord?
3. Does it surprise you that there can be wisdom that comes from the devil? What does James say in James 3:14-16 about how to identify wisdom that is evil?