James 3:13-18 | Wisdom

Intro

Hey y’all, how is life?

Anyone watch the debate last night?

That’s probably good, it was terrible, on both sides.

I watched like 30 mins of it and turned it off. It was bad.

But what struck me as I couldn’t go to sleep last night was this passage we are talking about tonight.

And what was on display last night during the debate was the wisdom of the world.

And this is where we are going to live tonight in James 3.

SO if you have a bible, go ahead flip open to James 3, verse 13, and just hold on to it.

If you need a bible there are some on the row right there, just pass them on down.

So, think about it, what is wisdom? If wisdom just knowing something? What is wisdom.

The great preacher Charles Spurgeon wrote,

Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise … There is no fool so great as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom.

Charles Spurgeon

So wisdom has to do with the application of knowledge.

Like have you ever meet someone who was truly wise? Where after you talk to them, you are just like, man please keep saying words to me.

On the flip side have you ever met someone who was truly unwise? Like brother that was the dumbest thing someone could do.

we prob have met that guy way more often than we met the first guy.

Fo me, i met this guy all the time when I worked at Advance Auto car parts.

In that world, lot of knowledge, not a lot of wisdom.

This was back in New Orleans, but the peak level guy was the dude who put wiper fluid in his radiator.

he didn’t want to pay the steep Price for special fluid that had to go in his BMW.

Buddy said, i don’t want that, give me that,

our 2.99 manager special on store. brand rain-X,

buddy put that in his radiator, drove a couple blocks, bubble just a going til the engine clogged.

It’s 90% water, it 100% doesn’t go in a coolant tank.

But that is kind of the world we live, lots of knowledge, not a lot of wisdom.

In our pockets is pretty much unlimited access to all human knowledge.

You want to know something, google has got you. Wikipedia is putting people through grad school.

But for the truly wise people, they are few and fair between.

So wisdom is not about access to knowledge but application of knowledge.

So tonight James is dealing with the idea of wisdom.

Remember, this book in the very first part we said was a wisdom epistle,

It read like proverbs might if it was a letter.

It’s similar to Old Testament wisdom literature.

Last week, we looked at taming the tongue, that it’s impossible a part from submission to Christ.

A part from whole submission to following Christ, we can do nothing for the kingdom, and we actually do harm when we work under our own power.

So here, James continues this thought of faith and works, and how works is the out pouring on what is inside.

SO let’s read this short passage, and talk about it.

But first, let’s pray for our time in the word.

Pray

Okay cool, lets read this, James 3:13-18

James 3:13–18 ESV

Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

Context

So what do we make of this?

James is speaking about Wisdom

but if we back up James is speaking about ultimate reality. How we view reality.

James is talking about our motivations.

What is it that drives us in our world view.

P1 - Our world presents competing views of wisdom

So, I want us to start here.

That there are two opposing world views and they are wrapped up in wisdom.

Wisdom has a lot to speak about world view.

You have the wisdom of God, and the wisdom of the world.

One of these wisdoms leads to human flourishing, and one leads to chaos.

So look at the first verse,

James says, who is wise and understanding among you?

And to us, this sounds like a question. And it is,

but its rhetorical.

James is setting up argument.

We might hear him asking for wise people but that’s not it

He is saying, if you are a wise person you are going to do these things. A wise person acts like this.

This is a theme with James, a wise person acts like this,

a faithful person acts this way, a controlled person acts this way, so on and so forth.

But James is lumping all this stuff up in this idea of wisdom.

If you are all of these things, you a wise person.

You have the knowledge, you know what the action is, now do the things.

And in this, is a warning.

James 3:13 “13 By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.”

and adds in verse 14,

James 3:14 “14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth.”

So two things.

A wisdom that is true, is a humble wisdom. A meek wisdom.

A wisdom that thinks about itself less.

A selfless wisdom.

So think about it, the wisest person you know. That person is odds on also a nice person and is open to dropping wisdom on you when asked, and sometimes when not even asked.

I have a couple friends from seminary who are just super wise.

I know that if I ever need advice or need to think through something, they’re gonna give me sound advice.

and they’re going to freely give it to me.

They’re not gonna be like, I’ll answer your question but you need to do something for me in return.

What kind of a friend would that be if they wanted something in return for their wisdom?

They’re wisdom costs you something.

If they do that, they’re not giving you wisdom, but selling you on worldview.

This is how verse 13 and 14 fit together.

Wisdom that is true is humble, it is selfless, wisdom that is selfishly ambitions, full of jealousy is not wisdom its cunning disguised as wisdom.

That is what James is describing here, cunning, ambition.

the word that we get ambition from literally means “campaigning for promotion” it is a political term, has it roots in Latin,

It’s a roman term.

It is the wisdom of the world, glory at all cost, be the greatest, for your sake.

God turns the world’s wisdom on it’s head.

God says, don’t be like the world, cutting down other, to get ahead.

hoarding knowledge, saving wisdom for yourself.

You want to change the world give your wisdom away,

understand where wisdom comes from.

James says to basically kill that part of you off, put to death your ambition. put to death your jealousy. kill it.

submit those things to the Lordship of Christ.

Here is the outflow of this in verse 15,

James 3:15 “15 This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.”

Think about this, it’s demonic.

a selfish ambition is demonic. It is good enough only for hell.

Our world is full of this sort of thinking, this sort of selfish ambition.

Look at the current state of our politics, both those jokers last night were saying what ever it was to get elected.

That is what a politician does, they don’t care about the common good, they’re not in it for the good of the nation, they’re in it for themselves, to make a name for themselves.

I think there was a time when politicians did want a common good, but not now.

They want a common good that is good for them, not us.

sometimes our interests may align, but trust me they will drop you at the drop of a hat.

P2 - We have access but are apathetic. Knowledge without application. Spiritual form

Discernement and human floursihing.

So let’s keep going,

Our world has two competing wisdoms, look at the outcomes.

verse 16, Jm 3:16

James 3:16 ESV

16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.

So, let pause for a second.

I realize this has some heavy themes in what we are talking about.

But let me just encourage you, that the reason we do what we do here in this room, outside this room, the reason we come together in worship is not to just say, yup I went to church this week.

I know that there are a ton more things you can think to be doing.

All of our minds can run wild, at the drop of a hat.

We can get caught up in the mundane portions of life.

But the reason we gather to worship, is this is how we do two things, remind each other that what we face out there is chaos.

We face a world that wants your soul, we face a world that wants to mold you in its image, and it does not play nicely. It is jealous and selfishly ambitious.

It does not play nicely or fair, we come together to equip ourselves to proclaim the gospel out there.

and second we come to remind each other that Christ is better. That christ is worth fighting for. Christ and only christ is worth following.

Once you realize that we are not another club, but that we are community of travelers, following jesus together, knowing this is not our home.

Once you realize that, once you internalize that, your mind set changes. Your world view looks through the lens of God.

This verse, 3:16, reminds us that this is what we fight against.

This is why the gospel needs to be preached, because the Gospel slowly redeems the worst of humanity in to what God intended it to be from the beginning.

We wage war against the powers of the enemy when we submit and die to ourselves.

When we daily pick up our cross and follow Christ.

This verse is true for the world around us, but this verse is starting with us,

If your wisdom us not founded in who Christ is and what he has done, you will slowly become like the world.

not instantly, but you will descended to chaos.

Where the wisdom of the lord is absent, there will disorder and every vile practice.

This is a warning for us. to remember that we need christ, because we are subsecptiable to this just as much as the world is,

this where we need heavenly wisdom and discernment.

SO this begs the question, how do we gain wisdom?

Wisdom begins with fear of the lord.

Proverbs 9:10 ESV

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.

There it is, knowledge and wisdom, knowledge brings about wisdom that is based in action.

You are not a wise person if you do not rightly see God for who he is.

You are not wise if you only know God intellectually,

You need to know God relationally.

And he gives that wisdom freely through following after Jesus.

As we follower Jesus we are made more like Him. We come in to his likeness.

That is what this passage is calling for a full submission of self to the Lordship of Christ, basically saying, Christ is calling the shots, not me.

This is all of us, even our ambitions.

This passage speaks of selfish ambition.

Which means there is an unselfish ambition.

A rightly ordered ambition. An ambition that is rightly centered on Christ.

Cause here is the truth, you have ambitions and you have passion in your life.

Christ is calling us to submit those things to him, and watch him radically change them.

Christ is giving us access to the father wisdom, if all we do is follow him.

And here is the danger,

I think for some of us, the danger can be ambition.

Absolutely, James wouldn’t mention ambition if it weren’t a problem, but for us, i think the problem isn’t ambition but apathy.

I think far greater, we today are apathetic towards Christ.

we see the results of ambition gone wrong in the world like crazy but I think in the church we are seeing the results of apathy taking root.

I heard a pastor recently say,

“I’d take an over ambitious person over and apathetic person everyday.”

Ambition can be channeled, ambition can be submitted, ambition can be transformed to be a force for the kingdom.

You can’t do anything with apathy.

And i think this is where a good bit of us are,

we have been given all the knowledge of Christ but none of the application of following him.

I think a lot of us have grown up thinking, if i just really believe hard, God’s got me, and that’s true, if you belief is making you more lime Jesus,

but if you belief only makes you like what ever you want to be, how ever you want to act, and do what ever you want to do, that is selfish ambition, that is an apathetic faith,

a faith that does not grab you and shake you to the core is apathetic.

Key word in apathetic is pathetic.

We want the opposite for you.

We want to give you all the access you can have to the gospel and to who Christ is and we want you to run with him.

We want you to follow him, pick up your feet and walk.

True wisdom leads to human flourishing,

and even more so, true wisdom leads a flourishing soul.

Timeless Truths: Wisdom grows in us as we become like the one who is wise. This is what wisdom produces.

So here is the truth,

Wisdom grows in us as we become like the one who is wise.

Wisdom produces Christ likeness, because we can only be truly wise by following after Him.

So I want you to think, what selfish ambitions are contributing towards your apathy towards Christ?

Some of you may be thinking, I’m not apathetic towards Christ and that’s great, this passage is calling you to keep growing in wisdom.

Guard your heart from apathy, ask the lord for wisdom.

Truth for our context: We cannot let apathy dominate our relationship with Christ.

We cannot let apathy dominate our relationship with Christ. We cannot let indifference lead us away.

Psalm 63 says

Psalm 63:3 (ESV)

Because your steadfast love is better than life,

Knowing Christ is better than all else.

Following Christ is the only thing that will bring satisfaction and joy in this life.

Following Christ is all that will matter in eternity.

P2Christ - How do we gain wisdom? Come and See. Psalm 66.

So how do we do this? How do we gain wisdom?

Psalm 66 says

Psalm 66:5 (ESV)

Come and see what God has done:

Jesus echos this in the gospels in his invitation to come and see

So this is the invitation, Come and See, come and see that the Lord is good.

Come and See who He is.

I want to invite you to follow Jesus, to submit your life to him, because on the cross he submitted his life for yours, He took your sin on the cross in your place.

Come and See.

If you don’t know Jesus, come talk to me, if you know Jesus but apathy has creeped in, come talk to me.

Come see Christ as Lord, come see Christ as King.

Y’all pray with me.