James 3:13-18

Introduction:  “Who is wise and understanding among you?” If this question was asked on the streets maybe 150 years ago, It’s likely that you’d hear the name of someone the person knows, a leader in the community, and likely the name of their pastor, but if you were to go into the streets today and ask this same question, I’d imagine you would hear something different. You would probably hear the names of well known people in our culture and possibly the name of an online influencer that’s an expert in a certain field. We have what seems like an endless pipeline of online gurus popping up everyday with a podcast for every life challenge. There are financial gurus, beauty gurus, relationship gurus, science gurus, religious gurus, exercise gurus… the list goes on and on. People are hungry for wisdom and this hunger has created a market for teachers that are offering to teach you everything you need to be successful in life. But is the path to wisdom really as easy as subscribing to a few podcasts, basking in knowledge, and making some life applications? 

If you’ve been with us throughout our sermon series in James, you will know that at multiple points in the letter, we are warned about the emptiness of words and the importance of works in demonstrating what real faith looks like. In James 1:22, we are exhorted to be doers of the word and not hearers only. In James 2:22, James warns us that faith without works is dead, and in James 3:1, we are told that not many people should be teachers, namely people that handle the Word because, he says, we stumble in many ways. Throughout this book, we are taught to see that a unity exists between words and works, and that if there is a disconnect between the two, there is a solemn warning that we may not not even be Christians, that we may be deceiving ourselves. 

In the passage we are examining this evening, James challenges us to look beyond the mere words of those who claim to be wise and to look instead at their life and the works they produce. He presents two varieties of wisdom for us to consider - one that is rooted in jealousy and selfish ambition and another that is pure, humble and filled with good works. As we examine this passage, I want us to consider, First, the standard of wisdom, second, what worldly wisdom looks like, and third, what heavenly wisdom looks like and how we can cultivate it. 

The Standard of Wisdom

As I quoted earlier, James asks the rhetorical question, “who is wise and understanding among you?” It’s a question that isn’t expecting an answer because James is aiming to put a spotlight on the people who call themselves teachers, but whose words and works don’t measure up to what God expects of teachers. In chapter 2, James warns these would-be teachers about the power of the tongue and its ability to bring devastation, yet it is with the tongue that these teachers praise God and instruct others. This inconsistency should not exist. It is why James finishes this earlier section with an illustration about how absurd it would be for a fig tree to bear olives or a spring of water to have both freshwater and saltwater. The life of a Christian, and even more so, the life of a teacher of God’s Word should be marked by integrity. There shouldn’t be inconsistency between what a teacher says in one setting and what he says in another. And likewise, James carries this thought forward, highlighting that those who think they can teach others should be consistent with what they teach through how they live their lives

There is a temptation to mix up wisdom with knowledge and to mistakenly believe that if someone speaks beautifully and truthfully, that they must be wise or closer to God because of their insights. But this can’t be true when you consider the number of prominent Christian preachers and teachers who have fallen into serious sin. There isn’t any good in singling out any one person in particular to make this point, but it almost goes without saying that you can be a capable teacher of God’s Word and still have a rotten life that does not testify to the grace we have received.

At the beginning of the book of Proverbs in chapter 1, we see that “To know wisdom and instruction is to understand words of insight, to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity and that The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” While having a correct grasp of the world is an important part of wisdom, the idea of wisdom is far more expansive than just knowledge. Wisdom is insight, it is the ability to navigate ambiguous situations, it is knowing how to apply God’s law righteously in diverse situations, and fundamentally, it is maintaining a posture of fear or reverence towards the Lord because wisdom recognizes that the world belongs to God and he does with it what he wishes.

Going back to the question James poses, who is wise and understanding among you? James gives us the standard to make that judgement. He tells us it is the one who’s good conduct shows the meekness of wisdom. I want us to hone in on what James means here by “the meekness of wisdom.” Meekness is not a quality of wisdom we often think about. We typically think of wisdom in terms of insightfulness or prowess - generally, speaking, wisdom’s ability to understand a situation and get things done. But James here sets the standard as conduct that showcases the meekness of wisdom. 

In the world’s eyes, meekness can be seen as the opposite to wisdom. If wisdom is mastery in the way the world works, then today’s gurus would tell you that if you want that job, you need to brag about yourself. If you want a relationship, you have to make yourself better than the rest. If you want financial success, you can’t let anything get in the way of making money. Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:5, “blessed are the meek, for THEY shall inherit the world.” This is exactly what James has in mind here. The powerful, boastful, and envious of the world are ultimately not the ones who win the world. It is those who know that even while the kings of the world set themselves apart and scheme together, God sits enthroned in the heavens and laughs, holding them in derision. The wise man knows this is God’s world, upheld by God’s laws, and God resists the proud… but he gives grace to the humble.

A couple years back there was a company you may have heard of called Theranos. It was a high tech health company that promised to revolutionize health care through fast, comprehensive, and cheap blood testing. The claim being made was that with only a few drops of blood, their technology could give you detailed reports of health problems that would make early screening for disease cheap and effective. This technology could save countless lives and its founder, Elizabeth Holmes, made sure to let everyone know. She gave many interviews, promising to revolutionize health care. During these interviews, she even deepened her voice to sound more masculine and authoritative to bolster people’s confidence that this company was the real deal, and she successfully raised $9 billion dollars in investment. But there was one problem, it was all a lie. There was no revolutionary technology, only empty promises, endless boasting, and insatiable greed. 

My father-in-law’s company by contrast is not worth $9 Billion dollars - nowhere close. It’s a small elevator company in Barrie that doesn’t even do any marketing. My father-in-law, Doug, is a Christian businessman that deliberately brings the principles of God’s Word to bear on his company. One thing I learned working for Doug is that building your business on God’s Word not only helps you sleep at night, but it works. 

Competitors would cut corners

Empower employees, give generously

His Business operated on its reputation - who wouldn’t want to work with someone with integrity?

No boasting necessary. Money would just come in. 

Remember that this is God’s world and that it's upheld by God’s laws. You will be tempted, not just by the gurus of this world, but by co-workers, friends, and family, to accept a false standard of wisdom - a standard that in God’s eyes falls short of the real thing. So you need know how to identify when you’re seeing the world’s wisdom or true wisdom, which takes us to our second point: Worldly Wisdom.

Worldly Wisdom (3:14-16)

James tells us how to identify when something is informed by the world’s definition of wisdom. He tells us, “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, and demonic.” We are instructed first to examine our hearts. As James has already made clear, wisdom is not just head knowledge, it begins in the heart and as Solomon reminds us, it originates from a heart that fears the Lord. We can identify the world’s wisdom when we see a departure from this heart posture to one fueled by bitter jealousy and selfish ambition. But why specifically jealousy and selfish ambition. It is because these are characteristics that create discord with others. 

Jealousy looks outwards and sees other people, not as others created in the image of God, but as something lesser than you. It is a heart posture that believes you are somehow owed something you don’t have that the other person does have. It denigrates the other person and even worse, accuses God of injustice. If wisdom begins with a reverence towards God in acknowledging that his ways are above our ways, jealousy calls God’s sovereign choices into question - Jealousy says to God, “Why are you giving this good thing to him. Do you not see how deserving I am? Why have you given me this difficult thing to face and blessed this person? You either don’t understand this situation or you are unjust” Now, I can’t imagine that anyone actually rehearses their jealous thoughts in this way, but it is the reality of how it plays out before God.

Likewise, selfish ambition looks inward and seeks to resolve the conflict you’ve created with God through self appointed means. In jealousy we repress the knowledge that we are all image bearers and the knowledge that God is sovereignly and justly administering his graces. In selfish ambition, we try to fix the problem by using the tools at our disposal to correct the injustice. Since the selfish heart has already put itself ahead of others, it has no problem harming or neglecting others to get its way. This is why James tells us in verse 16, where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.” Once you have adopted a heart posture that dethrones God, elevates yourself, and puts others beneath you, every sin imaginable becomes possible.

Jealousy and selfish ambition set the stage for our faculty of wisdom to run amuck, like a hijacked plane. Instead of using the gift and virtue of wisdom to accomplish what God designed it for, we twist it to demonic ends. And we can do this with any virtue. Think about the virtue of self-control. It is one of the fruits of the Spirit, but if self-control is used to slowly and methodically build a business that harms people’s lives - like something in the cannabis industry - then that virtue has been misused, and has been weaponized for more demonic purposes than if you never had the virtue at all.

James does not shy away from telling us the origin for this variety of wisdom. He tells us that it is earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. The word “unspiritual” here can just as easily be translated “natural,” which I think helps establish the point James is getting across here. When we hear that something is natural, we tend to think of it as good or at least normal. If you go to the grocery store and you see on your box of cereal, “all natural ingredients”, you’re going home feeling good about yourself that you made the healthy choice, and you’d probably be right. But natural does not mean good. Afterall, there are many things in nature that will kill you. And James here is highlighting an important point that Paul outlines in Romans 8:20 - that creation is subject to corruption and bondage because of sin. It is because of that sin in the world and in our hearts that selfishness and jealousy feel natural, but like other things in nature that kill, the sin in our heart means to do just as much.

Don’t think that just because something sounds right or feels good that it is. I thoroughly enjoy listening to podcasts and there is a lot of excellent non-Christian content out there - more than I could possibly consume in my lifetime - but mixed in with a lot of good content are subtle falsehoods that fail the test of wisdom we just talked about. If we don’t first pass what we hear and what we believe through the Word of God, we too are being false to the truth as James says in verse 14. We cannot afford to be passive listeners to what’s out there, especially when we’re listening to content that approaches the truths of the Bible without fully acknowledging the truth of scripture.

I immediately think of someone like Jordan Peterson, who has a very successful podcast.

Edifying. Informative. A lot of it is true.

Mental gymnastics by Christians to reframe Peterson’s beliefs

Eat the meat, spit out the bones (he doesn’t have wisdom that comes from the Holy Spirit)

Be mindful of what content you consume but even more the people you spend time with. Is there anyone in your life filling your heart with the worldly wisdom James speaks about? Is it a co-worker? A family member? Is it a TV show or podcast you listen to? If so, ask yourself, who is influencing who? If you’re seeing your heart being moved in the direction of selfish ambition or jealousy, what are you going to do? Remove yourself from the situation? Stop watching/listening to that content? Or re-engaging that relationship with the intent to be a light amid the darkness? To be that light, though, you need to first know, how can I display the wisdom from above that James talks about? This brings us to our final point: Heavenly Wisdom - what it looks like and how we cultivate it.

Heavenly Wisdom

We know that earthly wisdom is marked by its emphasis on jealousy and selfish ambition. This contrasts with heavenly wisdom, which is first pure. Purity is an attribute of the heart. Where jealousy and selfish ambition originate in a heart opposed to God’s law order, a pure heart acknowledges the goodness of God and comes under his authority willingly, which is the beginning of wisdom. It is a heart that is content to live with God at the center, and by definition avoids all those things that bring defilement. It is from the quality of purity that TRUE wisdom manifests its attending virtues - peaceableness, gentleness, openness to reason, mercy and good fruits, impartiality and sincerity. With purity at the beginning of that list, we arrive at the number 7 qualities of heavenly wisdom, which I don’t think is a coincidence. 7 in scripture is the number of completion, and I believe James here is showing what perfect and true wisdom looks like. 

When we look to the book of Proverbs in the OT, the book of wisdom, there is another list of 7 that James may have had in mind. In Proverbs 6, Solomon mentions that there are 7 things that are an abomination to the Lord - haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run to evil, a false witness that breathes lies, and one that sows discord among brothers. When you compare these two lists, you will notice that there are a number of contrasts. First, there is a contrast between peace and discord. Second, there is a contrast between integrity and deception, and third, a contrast between openness and closedness. 

The first contrast, between peace and discord is one that highlights the aims of heavenly wisdom versus earthly wisdom. Since earthly wisdom originates in a heart set on itself, its aim is self-seeking with no concern for others. The aim of heavenly wisdom by contrast is to live at peace with God and others. The purpose of the law in the Old Testament was to establish peace among the Israelites, peace among the nations, and peace with God. True wisdom is directed toward this end because it comes from a joyful understanding that we live in God’s law order and none of us have the right to overturn that order. 

The second contrast, between integrity and deception highlights the manner in which wisdom operates. Since earthly wisdom is cut off from God, it partakes in the same animating principle of the demons, which is selfish ambition and jealousy. It seeks to avoid God’s law order and live in a fabricated universe of its own design, so it necessarily lives in the realm of deception. We can only avoid God’s law by living in our imagination. Heavenly wisdom, by contrast, joyfully recognizes that the world is the Lord’s and there is only blessing to be found by living in the truth. Those that live according to heavenly wisdom stand on the truth amid a culture of lies and stand firm in the knowledge that the truth of God’s Word will prove itself in time.

The third contrast, between openness and closedness highlights what heavenly wisdom and earthly wisdom result in. Since Earthly wisdom is set on the aggrandizement of self, it is closed to the needs of others. Earthly wisdom is like a solar system where you are at the center and everything else revolves around you. Other people are a means to your ends and the moment they are no longer useful, you are free to dispose of them because they have nothing left to offer. Heavenly wisdom results in an openness to others - it brings good fruit and acts of mercy because it recognizes God’s love for creation, the damage sin has brought, and the role we play in administering God’s grace to the world. It is a wisdom that is aligned with God’s purposes because it delights in God and his law.

There is one final point to make in this contrast between earthly and heavenly wisdom and it is most important point of all - it is the Spirit of God in us that makes access to this wisdom possible and it is available when we ask. In fact, this accessibility to wisdom is one of the first thoughts in James’s letter. “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach.”

How then do we cultivate this type of wisdom? Well first and foremost, ask! Ask God to give you a pure heart, to kill the jealousy and selfish ambition in you, and to teach you to walk in integrity to love and serve others. Then, look to others in your life.

Screen discipleship in podcasts - not the way we are going to grow in heavenly wisdom

We need incarnational examples of heavenly wisdom. 

Paul - imitate me as I imitate Christ

We need to be that for one another - think of those ahead of you, other behind you

Illustration: Pastor Russ → worldview advantage/humility is single most attractive trait in business → his example and advice set me on a course to cultivate wisdom in my life.