Wisdom from Above (James 3:13-18)

Introduction

If you have your Bible, please turn it to James 3:13-18.

During last week’s message, we looked at this idea that James presents concerning the use of our language—that how we speak and what we say reveals what’s in our heart. As Christians, that means that we ought to speak differently and say things that differ from that of unbelievers around us. And when we find ourselves saying things that we ought not—whether that’s cursing, swearing, cussing, or even speaking in such a way that curses an individual, we ought to check our heart—do we actually believe in Jesus and if we do believe, why are we treating those who are made in God’s image in a way that goes against God’s Word?

This morning, James continues in the text by focusing on the issue of wisdom. This is not the first time that he speaks of wisdom. Remember, he does make the statement in James 1 that if you’re suffering in life and you need help understanding that suffering to ask God for wisdom. Unlike the first statement concerning wisdom and suffering, James goes a little more in-depth about the difference between true wisdom and what is essentially false wisdom (or what appears to be wisdom)

And this difference between true wisdom and what appears to be wisdom is vital in our current culture and society because we live at the tail end of the information age, which is transitioning into the digital age; and because of the internet, smartphones, laptops, and our other various technological advances, we’re drowning in content from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok; and other more traditional sources like CNN, Fox News, various newspapers, and media in general.

All of which are 24/7, available to anyone and can propagate either good, true information or completely false information depending on the mindset of the owner of the company or the person posting. We live in an age when there is so much information available everywhere that the question isn’t whether or not we can find information, but rather, whether or not we can figure out if that information is good or bad; true or false; reliable or unreliable.

Really, there are two questions at play: is what we’re taking in from all these different sources true wisdom or is it what only appears to be wise, but actually isn’t? And are the things that we portray and propagate as wisdom actually wisdom from God or is it only what appears to be wise, but actually isn’t?

This passage helps to answer these questions.

As we study this passage this morning, we’ll take it in two parts: (1) Heavenly vs. Hellish Wisdom (13-15) and (2) The Disorder of Hellish Wisdom vs. the Fruit of Heavenly Wisdom (16-18). What James does in these six verses is he contrasts true wisdom with what the world thinks is wise. In doing so, he provides us with descriptions of what true wisdom looks like in contrast with what appears to be wise. This morning’s sermon will cause us to reflect on where we get wisdom and truth before causing us to consider what we propagate as wisdom and truth.

Prayer for Illumination

Heavenly vs. Hellish Wisdom (13-15)

James 3:13–15 ESV

13 Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. 15 This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.

James starts by posing a simple question in v. 13, “Who is wise and understanding among you?”

And it’s this question that provides the foundation for the text. Who among us, who in our society, who in our culture has wisdom and understanding or what we might refer to as knowledge?

The difference being that knowledge or understanding refers to the knowing of facts and wisdom is the idea of knowing how to utilize those facts well—for instance, knowledge is knowing that when it rains, the road gets wet; wisdom is knowing that when the road is wet, you might need to slow down.

In the first century, people would typically go to politicians, traveling teachers, and philosophers for knowledge and wisdom. This was such a popular way to gain information and wisdom, so much so, that the people would pay these traveling teachers and philosophers to hear what they had to say.

In our modern world, we don’t necessarily have to go anywhere to hear these people—we just turn on our TVs, look at our phones, or log into Facebook, but we’re still essentially going to the same people to gain information and wisdom, we just get our information and wisdom through a third party—a news anchor, a social media influencer, or some sort of producer.

Again, we have an overload of information—we certainly don’t have a lack of it.

James poses the question of “who is wise and understanding?”

And note that as he works through this idea that he switches between talking about their wisdom and your wisdom—meaning, he has in mind both confronting those who claim to be wise and understand, and confronting you.

Or in other words, he’s confronting where you get your information and he’s confronting the information that you share.

He gives us two ways to gauge whether the person claiming to be wise is actually wise and understanding—whether that’s you claiming to be wise and understanding or someone else claiming to be wise and understanding.

He mentions their conduct (13b) — at the end of v. 13, he states that someone who is wise and understanding ought to “show his works in the meekness of wisdom” by his good conduct.

This is not the first time that he speaks of the need of good conduct or what he previously called good work; and this is not the first time that he speaks of wisdom. It is however, the first time that he speaks of the meekness of wisdom.

Meekness is typically tied to the idea of gentleness—we’ve all heard meekness described as power under control, but clearly, when speaking of wisdom, it doesn’t make sense to still describe it as power under control.

Meekness also carries along the idea of humility—meaning, someone who is truly wise and understanding, he doesn’t feel the need to necessarily make it known that he’s wise and understanding, he simply shows it through what he does.

Or in other words, if he’s truly wise and understanding, he won’t necessarily feel the need to mention during every conversation that he went to Harvard or even that he has more experience than everyone else.

He won’t need to make these statements because his wisdom and knowledge will be seen in what he does.

Secondly, he mentions their motives (14) — He states that if there is “bitter jealousy and selfish ambition” that you ought “not boast and be false to the truth.”

This is where heavenly wisdom from God, which is seen by good conduct and works in the meekness of wisdom is then contrasted with hellish wisdom—wisdom that is “earthly, unspiritual, [and] demonic.”

His statement is that if you claim to have wisdom or knowledge, but you’re utilizing your wisdom and knowledge not in meekness but rather with bitter jealousy and selfish ambition, then what you have isn’t actually from God, it’s demonic in nature.

Bitter jealousy and selfish ambition describe the exact opposite, or the antithesis, of humble wisdom that’s evidenced by good conduct.

And what James is saying is that if you have this bitter jealousy and selfish ambition, then don’t even pretend that you have wisdom—true wisdom from God is humble and results in good conduct.

Douglas Moo, “To boast about wisdom when one is displaying jealousy and selfish ambition is, in effect, to give lie to the truth that wisdom must be associated with humility.” (Douglas Moo, James: An Introduction and Commentary, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985), 137)

The idea at hand is that the origin of wisdom and knowledge can be determined by the conduct of the person purporting to be wise and knowledgable and the motives through which they act.

Regardless of how wise someone seems or how knowledgable they are, if their good conduct isn’t done with meekness and humility or if they’re acting in bitter jealousy and selfish ambition, then their wisdom isn’t sourced from above it’s source is earthly, unspiritual, and demonic.

This sort of wisdom is self-seeking, self-serving, and it doesn’t result in the good conduct that true wisdom from God does.

Ultimately, what James is pointing out is that true, genuine wisdom and true, genuine knowledge has their source in the only one who is all-wise and all-knowing.

Anything that finds its source in something else isn’t genuine, true wisdom and its not genuine, true knowledge.

What James is saying is that the origin of our wisdom and knowledge dictates its end. Where we get our wisdom and knowledge results in different fruits—Wisdom and knowledge from God will lead to a certain idea and wisdom that isn’t from God, will lead to another idea. And the last three verses of James 3 hits on this by both describing the different types of wisdom and. Let’s look at the last three verses:

The Disorder of Hellish Wisdom and the Fruit of Heavenly Wisdom (16-18)

James 3:16–18 ESV

16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. 17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. 18 And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

James mentions again the origin of these different types of wisdom before explaining to us what their ends are:

Concerning wisdom that he calls earthly, unspiritual, and demonic, he reminds us that this wisdom is motivated by jealousy and selfish ambition before telling us that whenever that type of wisdom and knowledge exists, there is disorder and every vile practice.

Or in other words, whenever the wisdom’s source isn’t from God, the result is disorder and what he calls every vile practice.

Now, James doesn’t explain what he means by “every vile practice” and while some have attempted to determine what exactly the vile practice is—I don’t think James meant for us to narrow down the vile practice that he has in mind.

Rather, he’s explaining that when sin is the source for what appears to be wisdom, more sin will follow.

For instance, if in your own selfish ambition or your own jealousy, you decide that it is “wise” to hurt another person; what results isn’t true wisdom, but rather more sin.

Or, if in your own self-pleasure or your own desire, you decide that it is “wise” to take what isn’t yours; what results isn’t true wisdom, but rather more sin.

If the source of wisdom and knowledge isn’t of God—then you cannot expect the result of following that wisdom and knowledge to be of God.

Now, concerning wisdom from God, he reminds us that this wisdom is described by a number of different attributes. I’ll list them and then explain them. James says that wisdom from God is pure, peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial, and sincere.

Wisdom from God is pure—this is, of course, coming from a position of morality. Meaning, true, genuine wisdom from God is morally pure. With this in mind, we can look at all that we take in and realize that whatever we take in that isn’t morally pure isn’t wise; likewise, we can look at all that we think of as wisdom and recognize that anything that isn’t morally pure isn’t truly wise.

If what is being passed on as wisdom isn’t actually morally pure, then it isn’t actually wisdom.

For instance, the world today is presenting the acceptance of transgenderism as wisdom, but biblically, the ideology of transgenderism is immoral—thus, it isn’t actually wise.

Wisdom from God is peaceable—meaning that if the wisdom that we’re acting on leads us to unrighteous anger or unrighteous violence, then it isn’t actually wisdom.

The next idea ties into this when James says that wisdom from God is gentle—We can see the opposite of this when we watch the world around us convulse with rioting, destruction, and violence when people don’t get their way.

Wisdom from God is open to reason, which ought not surprise us because if true wisdom is defined as peaceable and gentle, then we could almost assume that a person who exhibits this sort of wisdom would be open to hearing the other person out.

What this means is that even if someone is factually right in what they’re saying, if they’re unwilling to hear what another person has to say—what another person thinks—they aren’t actually open to reason and thus, they aren’t actually wise.

And I think we can all think of someone who is like this—one who thinks that they’re wise, but when confronted about what they think or what they’ve done; or when someone tries to offer advice or suggestions, they absolutely refuse to hear them out.

James says that true wisdom is open to reason, which is the opposite of what someone who is filled with selfish ambition and jealousy would exhibit.

Wisdom from God is full of mercy and good fruits—again, this is the idea that true wisdom from God is evident in what you do. And if you’re truly exhibiting wisdom from God, you will be full of mercy and you will be full of good fruit.

Wisdom from God is impartial—meaning regardless of who you are, if it’s wise it’s wise.

Wisdom from God does not depend on who you are, what you do for work, or what country you live in. True wisdom is wise regardless of your socio-economic status.

For example—the Bible says in Matthew 7:24-27 that a wise man builds his house on the foundation of Jesus Christ. Regardless of your skin color, your wealth, your career, or where you live, it is wise to build your life on the foundation of Jesus Christ.

The Bible says that it is wise to not just be cautious when it comes to temptation but to run from it. Regardless of your skin color, your wealth, your career, or where you live, it is wise to run from temptation.

Conversely, the idea of wisdom from God being impartial means that things that claim to be wise, but aren’t impartial, actually aren’t wise.

For instance, recently there has been a big push to treat those of other ethnicities differently based purely on their ethnicity.

That has revealed itself in a number of different ways, including Critical Race Theory, reparations based on the sins of previous generations, and other issues like this.

And let me be abundantly clear—I’m not in favor of racism—don’t hear from today that I am because I’m not. Racism is part of the sin of partiality, but I’m also not in favor of treating one people group as better than another because one’s group of ancestors were sinned against by previous generations.

According to James, the sort of wisdom that Critical Race Theory and other theories and ideologies like it aren’t wise because they’re partial towards one group of people.

James says that true wisdom from God is impartial—it’s wise for everyone regardless of who they are.

And lastly, James says that wisdom from God is sincere—it’s authentic. It isn’t flaky, it isn’t two-faced. It’s real.

Then James wraps it all up by making a simple statement, “a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”

He reiterates that idea of wisdom from God being peaceable.

Or in other words, the one who is truly wise will live peaceably and will reap a harvest of righteousness by making peace.

It is interesting to me how connected the attributes of wisdom from God are connected to the fruits of the Spirit. Gal 5:22-23 “22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

Could it be that the reason for this is rather simple?—true wisdom and knowledge that is from God resembles the person that it comes from. True wisdom and knowledge have attributes of the fruits of the Spirit because the source of true wisdom and the source of true knowledge is God Himself.

This is what leads to our application for this morning and the application is two-fold. I want us to apply this both to what we’re taking in and what we’re putting out.

Application

Starting with what you’re taking in—again, we live in a time in which there is an overload of information coming at us—there is a flood of knowledge and supposed wisdom coming in from Fox News, CNN, Facebook, TikTok, newspapers, Twitter, and there are many new places, whether that’s mass media, social media, or elsewhere purporting to give knowledge and wisdom being invented every single day.

From the moment that you wake in the morning to the moment that you fall asleep at night, you are bombarded with dozens and maybe even hundreds of different voices all claiming to be knowledgable and wise.

What James is saying in James 3 is that not everything that claims to be knowledgable and wise is actually knowledgable and wise.

He actually gives us a way to determine whether something is knowledgable and wise by means of contrast and comparison.

Do you want to know if what you heard on TV last night is knowledgable and wise? Just work through this text:

Starting with the individual giving the information:

Is the person giving the information someone whose conduct is matches what wisdom is?

Is the person giving the information someone who has motives that are questionable? Are they motivated by sinful motives?

Just asking these questions alone starts eliminating a lot of sources of supposed wisdom, right? It eliminates those who are motivated with wrong motives; it eliminates sources who don’t have the conduct to back up their supposed wisdom.

Then we move to the fruits of the supposed wisdom:

If the fruit of this supposed wisdom is destruction or it leads to other sins—then it isn’t actually wise.

If the wisdom can be described by purity, peace, gentleness, reasonableness, mercy, good fruits, impartiality, and sincerity—that sort of wisdom is from God (it’s true wisdom).

As you’re working through where you get your information—your news sources, your social media, your friends and family and you start putting their information through this passage (let me ask three questions):

What should you do with information from sources whose conduct are sinful or whose motives are sinful? You should treat it with a grain of salt.

What should you do with knowledge or wisdom that turns out to not actually be wise? You should reject it.

What should you do with knowledge or wisdom that turns out to be from God? You should accept it and apply it.

Check what you’re taking in—is it wisdom and knowledge from God or does it comes from hellish, demonic sources?

Consider the information, the supposed wisdom and knowledge that you’re putting out there—think about what you’re posting on social media, what you’re telling your friends and family, what you’re proclaiming to others.

Is what you tell other people true? Is it knowledge and wisdom from God?

Is what you’re putting out there described by purity, peace, gentleness, reasonableness, mercy, good fruits, impartiality, and sincere?

Or is what you’re putting out there destructive or leads to other sins?

Are you actually sharing knowledge and wisdom from God or are you sharing knowledge and wisdom that is earthly, unspiritual, and demonic?

Check what you’re putting out there—is it wisdom and knowledge from God or does it come from a hellish, demonic sources?

Now consider all this in light of the Gospel.

Consider all this in light of the fact that Jesus bore your sins on the cross and died for you. That He redeemed you and He reconciled you with God. Consider all this in conjunction with the idea that there are people all around you that still needs to hear the Gospel and respond to the Gospel.

As a Christian—do you think that you should be willingly taking in things that are sourced from earthly, unspiritual, or demonic places? Or do you think that you should willingly take in things that are sourced from wisdom and knowledge from God, Himself?

As a Christian who has been redeemed, is it right to forget about the Gospel and take in supposed wisdom or knowledge that is contrary to God?

As a Christian—do you think that you should post on social media or tell others things that are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic? Or do you think that you should be posting and sharing things that are sourced from wisdom and knowledge from God, Himself?

As a Christian surrounded by unbelievers, is it right to share supposed wisdom or knowledge that is contrary to God?

Put simply, what James 3:13-18 shows us is that God is the true source of knowledge and wisdom. As a believer, you need to be sure that what you take in and what you put out is true knowledge and wisdom from God. Check what you’re taking in and check what you’re putting out—be sure that it is all of God and from God.

Pastoral Prayer