Wisdom from Above

James was written in a time when the church was scattered and persecuted. That’s why we are looking at it, because He is so practical about how to live.

Who is wise?

James 3:13 NIV84

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

He is talking about the value of wisdom in the middle of chaos. It’s not intellect, or knowledge.

Hebrew word for wisdom Skill in living

He’s not really talking about something you learn, you have it because it comes from God. IOW, you know some things and how to navigate chaos that you didn’t know you knew.

Wisdom helps you in the middle of “I don’t know what to do” to know what to do.

Wisdom helps you when you are going through something that someone else is going through as well to handle it differently than they are.

It gives us the mind of God for the chaotic situations.

James 3:13 NLT

13 If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom.

Wisdom can be seen in our actions. We are to prove that we have wisdom by dong good works with humility.

Christianity isn’t you becoming an improved you. Christianity is a transformed life. He will do things in you where you won’t recognize you. If you are in Christ, you are a new creation. He will turn you into someone you don’t even recognize.

I am way far from perfect, But I am better off than I used to be.

Listen to me,

God doesn’t make me better than everyone else. He makes me better than myself.

We are going to get some wisdom and it’s not in our minds that we need it. We need it in our hearts. If we don’t get 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.

If you don’t do it God’s way, you will realize that it doesn’t work and you will come back to God. When you do, you find yourself in disorder and evil practices.

We all go through mostly the same kinds of things.

What do we do when we are going through chaotic situations?

James 1:5 NIV

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.

He will give us wisdom and he won’t even say I told you so about how we got off track.

So let’s look at wisdom from heaven.

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.

We are going through these 6 things that this passage lists.

Wisdom from Above

1. The wise have a pure heart.

James 3:17 NLT

17 But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere.

Everything stems from a pur heart. It’s not perfection. It’s an attitude that says God, I don’t want to be this way. Would you work in me?

David said create in me a clean heart.

Romans says hate what is evil and cling to what’s good.

It doesn’t mean we never struggle, but it means we love purity.

Titus 1:15 NLT

15 Everything is pure to those whose hearts are pure. But nothing is pure to those who are corrupt and unbelieving, because their minds and consciences are corrupted.

This is describing the process of salvation. When God touches your life, he purifies your heart. He turns you into a person who has a love for good.

John says that he transforms our hearts so that the rules are no longer rules, but the desires of our hearts. He changes out want to’s.

Matthew 5:8 NLT

8 God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God.

What does an impure heart look like? Pure means it’s pure. Pure gold is gold without any impurities.

For us, we are asking are there any contaminants in me?

James 4:4 NLT

4 You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God.

adulterer - someone who is married but has something going on on the side.

How many of us love God and we are going to heaven, but we have a little something going on the side? James answers this.

If you don’t address the contaminants you will become an enemy of God. We cannot allow impurities into our lives. Just ask God and he will let you know.

We often become desensitized to stuff like video games and movies or even music. It may not be bothering us, but it should be.

We say things like it’s mostly good. There is only a little violence or skin.

Lady whose son wanted to invite his friends over to watch an R rated movie. He begged and she let him. She said I’ll even make your favorite brownies. She went outside and pick up a small piece of their little dogs business. Put it in the brownies. She told them what she did but it’s not much so you probably won’t even taste it. It’s hardly any of it in here.

How many of you know a little poop goes a long way?

A little poop goes along way in your life too.

James 4:8 NLT

8 Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world.

Wash our hands, Purify our hearts because we have had divided loyalty. You have to decide what that is. The question is,

How much of the world am I going to allow in my life?

2. The wise love peace

It seems like this culture argues for sport. The news sets it up so that you have all this chaos with people talking over each other. We have become argumentative. You can’t do that.

James 3:17–18 NIV84

James 1:20 NLT

20 Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires.

Proverbs 14:29 NLT

29 People with understanding control their anger; a hot temper shows great foolishness.

Proverbs 20:3 MSG

3 It’s a mark of good character to avert quarrels, but fools love to pick fights.

Think about all of the different arguments you have had with different people and ask yourself, what is the common denominator? It’s me! Right?

We need to love peace, not conflict. I am not against conflict resolution but we can’t become part of the argument.

Conflict Revolution is better because what is says is that if they won’t change, change me.

Conflict cannot continue without my participation

3. The wise consider it.

James 3:17–18 NIV84

Considerate - means they consider it. They don’t think that they always know. They try to understand.

Go back to this verse,

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.

You can’t separate wisdom and understanding. These are people who go, “you know, I never thought about it like that.” we need more of this in our families, our jobs, our politics, our media, our social media, our marriages.

Paul was settling a fight between tow groups

Romans 15:1–3 NLT

1 We who are strong must be considerate of those who are sensitive about things like this. We must not just please ourselves. 2 We should help others do what is right and build them up in the Lord. 3 For even Christ didn’t live to please himself. As the Scriptures say, “The insults of those who insult you, O God, have fallen on me.”

We need to take time to listen to people’s stories.

Give your thoughts a break. You already think them. John Maxwell

4. The wise are willing to yield.

James 3:17–18 NIV

submissive - you are willing to yield. IE: You are right.

Proverbs 12:15 NLT

15 Fools think their own way is right, but the wise listen to others.

How many debates have we watched and all they do is spout their own ideas. You have never heard one say, You know, that’s a good idea, let’s do that. Not going to happen but it would be nice.

Let the church be willing to listen and understand and say, You know, that makes sense.

Ask yourself the question.

Am I reasonable?

5. The wise minimize the mistakes of others.

James 3:17–18 NIV

full of mercy. That was horrible what you did, but I am going to give you another chance. Let it go.

Here is why we do not need to hold grudges or judging others.

James 2:12–13 NIV84

12 Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, 13 because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment!

This is powerful. Mercy triumphs over judgement. Maybe you get it wrong, but,

I’d rather stand before God having loved too much than having judged too harshly.

Grandkids asking Grandma how her and grand pa had a happy marriage for 50 years. She told them that when they got married she decided to make a list of his top 10 things he did that aggravated her and over look them. The grand daughter asked, I would love to know what those were. Grandma - I never got around to writing them down. I just figured that when he did something, that was one of them and I overlooked it.

Your life would be so much better if we learn how to minimize the mistake others make.

What do I need to stop bringing up?

6. The wise are authentic.

James 3:17–18 NIV84

He ends with impartial and sincere. Both of these words come from the word hypocrite in the Greek. A Hypocrite was also an actor in the Greek theater. There would be a dozen roles but only 2 or three actors. They would wear mask to be each character.

The Bible says for us not to do that. We cannot be wise and hide behind masks at the same time.

You need to have someone whom you can be open with who will not condemn or judge, but will help you.

What am I hiding?

You can’t hide and be wise.

Why does God want us wise?

It’s in this last verse.

James 3:18 NLT

18 And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness.

Peacemaker - a bringer of national tranquility.

God wants us wise so that we can walk out of here and infect our families, our workplaces and our world with peace.

We look to the wrong people to solve our problems. We look to the political arena, and yes it’s an election year and it’s going to get worse and worse.

We have to realize that peace and tranquility begins with the church. It’s on us if we will let God make us wise.

Prayer

Wisdom is first of all pure. If you are here and realize that your heart is contaminated, confess that to God right now. He can cleanse you in a moment.

You can’t get that without Jesus. How can you get that? You make Jesus Lord or give him the priority in your life. We call it being born again.