Hope Through Wisdom
Notes
Transcript
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.
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.
When given the chance to ask God for anything, what would it be?
This is a question I have thought about extensively. It has changed over the years. When I was a younger man, it would have been something very worldly. Probably a better paying job or a nicer house. When I was a younger husband, and we were going through fertility issues, it would have likely been a child. There are times as I get older that it would be for more land and less house and fewer distractions.
Your answers may vary. Maybe you have played the lottery and want to hit that jackpot. I had to check. The highest it ever got to was in November of 2022 when it was $2 billion. I bet there were a lot of people that would have liked to have had God come to them at that time and tell them that they could ask him for anything and he would give it to them.
Most of what we would think could be measured. You can put a price or a number on it. But what if the greatest thing we could ask God for is something that is found in our spirit.
In the OT, there was a man named Solomon who was the ruler of Israel. If you are familiar with King David, he was his son who got the throne after David. Solomon’s rule started off unlike any other. God appeared to him and told him to ask him for whatever he wanted.
Solomon first responds with reverence. He gives God honor and glory for how much he has blessed him and his father before him. When we ask God for something, how much honor and glory are we giving him before we ask?
But then he gets to what he asks for.
9 Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?”
An understanding mind. But there was reason behind that. So that he could first govern the people that God had entrusted him with. But also to discern between good and evil. I think we could make a good case that even before Solomon asked God for wisdom, he had wisdom. He knew that in his own flesh, he couldn’t be what he needed to be. Now, what Solomon did with this wisdom would not turn out great for the people of Israel. He would go on to make marriage contracts with hundreds of women for political purposes and then let these wives bring in their pagan worship into Israel and corrupt the people.
So what we do with what God gives us is also important. What James is dealing with in our passage today is exactly what Solomon was dealing with. This contrast between worldly wisdom and Godly wisdom.
Godly Wisdom is a Humbling Wisdom
Godly Wisdom is a Humbling Wisdom
Wisdom exists on its own in our world. There are wise people who are ungodly. They make good decisions. This does not make them Godly. The world has a wisdom of its own. But the key to Godly wisdom is that is humbles us. It is a gift from the Holy Spirit that shows us how far off in our thinking that we can actually be.
You can make good decisions in the eyes of the world yet be so far off from what God wants you to do. As people of hope, we should be striving for godly wisdom and not settling for the wisdom of the world.
As Solomon wanted wisdom to be able to govern his people, this is him putting wisdom into action. When we are putting hope into action, we need the wisdom from God to do what he wants us to do and be the people he wants us to be.
Our passage will answer for us the question that I believe we should all have when thinking about our Christian walk and us having a desire to have Godly wisdom.
What does Godly wisdom look like?
Let’s go through our passage.
13 Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.
With this question, I think we can make the assumption that not all people are wise and understanding. And I would go as far as to say that not all Christians are wise and understanding. Going back to the idea of progressive sanctification where we are becoming more and more like Jesus as we live more and more life.
I don’t know about you, but I would like to think I am more wise than I was when I first began following Jesus. I pray that you all are growing in wisdom and understanding. If you don’t feel like you are, we are told in chapter 1 of James that we need to be asking for wisdom. So do that.
But why do we consider wisdom to be nothing but intellectual? I mean when you think of the idea of being wise, we think of thoughts and not actions. There are such things as wise actions. It is wise of me not to throat punch everyone who says something I don’t like. It is wise of me to keep my mouth shut sometimes when I really want to say some things. It is wise of me to pay attention to if a light is green or red.
See, our actions are an overflow of our thoughts. Being wise shows itself in our actions. This verse serves as a sort of introduction to this idea of wordly wisdom vs. godly wisdom. The wisdom we seek should be what manifests itself as meek actions. It is humbling.
Worldly Wisdom
Worldly Wisdom
Let’s look at worldly wisdom as defined by James.
14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth.
Strong language used to describe this. Bitter jealousy. I know that you may think that you would never fall into this category. But I bet if we dig just a little bit, we see jealousy in all of our lives. For me as a pastor, this one is easy. The best thing for me to do on a Sunday afternoon is to stay off of social media. All of the pastors are posting about church. This one had record attendance, this one baptized 37 people, this one had a massive outreach event. And what does that do to my flesh? Jealousy.
Maybe for you it isn’t those things but it is that neighbor who just bought that new boat. Or those retired colleagues whose grandchildren just graduated as valedictorians. Or kids, it is that friend from school whose parents let them have every single social media app known to man on their cell phone, when it reality it is putting them in some of the greatest danger of your generation. FYI, you don’t need a cell phone to begin with.
We are a jealous people. Bitter jealousy is nothing but a reflection of worldly wisdom. But it isn’t just jealousy. He tells us that selfish ambition is right there with it.
I don’t believe that it would be wise for me to talk about selfish ambition without talking about the greatest example of that found in the NT. During his ministry, Jesus gathered together 12 men to be his close followers. Of these men, he intrusted one of them with being his treasurer. His name was Judas. Judas had walked with Jesus, he had learned from Jesus, he had seen miracles, he had participated in them(has anyone actively participated in a miracle this week). But yet he was trapped by this worldly idea of wisdom. He thought that he knew better than everyone else. So when the Pharisees and temple leaders were out to get Jesus, Judas sold him out. Sold him out for a little money. His ambition took him over and when he got what he wanted, regret got ahold of him.
Bitter jealousy and selfish ambition are killers. He says don’t believe the lies. These are all lies that you have to be this way to make it in life. That is the lie that Satan wants you to believe. That you have to be like the world to get anywhere. But the life that the world is chasing is not the life that God has for you. In the next verse, he explains why this is worldly wisdom.
15 This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.
So when have 2 kinds of wisdom. Wisdom from above, which he states here is one of them. So if we have a wisdom from above, that means the other would be wisdom from below. James already told us in James 1:17 “17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”
So above wisdom is good. Then that means that below wisdom is bad. He labels it here. He says it is earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. Another way to say it is worldly, within ourselves, and from Satan.
In the book of 1 John, he gives us a warning that connects to this.
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.
17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
The lust of the eyes equal to what James calls earthly.
The lust of the flesh is equal to what James calls unspiritual.
The pride of life is equal to what James call demonic.
The warning here is to not love the things of the world. And although there are plenty of people who are not followers of Jesus who may be successful or may run a large company or may have the things in life that make you think that they have it together, none of that is a greater gift in life that Godly wisdom.
The influence that comes to our thinking and our actions that are from outside of God are corrupting us. We think that taking care of our money the way that God wants us to is wrong now a days and won’t work. We think that loving people the way that God wants us to is too hard for us especially when those people don’t look or think like us.
What have we, as Christians missed? This influence of bitter jealousy and selfish ambition has infected us, even in the church. Now, can we distinguish that this has influenced the church yet may not have influenced Christians. I don’t know if you know this but not everyone who goes to church or is a member of a church or even is a leader in a church is a follower of Jesus. I believe we are seeing a time in the church though where we are not letting people just join churches willy nilly. Most churches I know today have a process that you must go through and an examination to join. This really cuts out unconverted people from joining in membership.
But the fact that the church is effected by this is obvious. James tells us what this looks like.
16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.
Where this is, there will be disorder and every vile practice. Think about most every major denomination over the last 30 years. Disorder and every vile practice. Think about the divisions that have happened. All of the arguments of whether or not clergy can be male or female, gay or straight. Shoot, a lot of them don’t even know the difference between man and woman.
We will not be like that here. We will stand on God’s word and follow God’s word. We cannot be a home for hope for all if we are not unified around God’s word because then we will try to point them to other worldly things. Not only should our hope come from God, but so should our wisdom.
So we have this distinction between worldly wisdom and godly wisdom. So far we have seen what worldly wisdom looks like. Now let’s look at Godly wisdom.
Godly Wisdom
Godly Wisdom
James gives us a very detailed look at what it means to have godly wisdom.
17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.
This isn’t a pick and choose list. You can’t look at it and think well I will take this one and this one but I don’t really want to do this one. No. Godly wisdom will look like this, all of this.
Purity - Purity begins in the heart. It is about our motives. What is our desire? Is our desire to make much of ourselves and puff up our own ego? Or is our desire to do what Jesus commands when he tells us that we need to die to ourselves, take up our cross, and follow him. Godly wisdom, wisdom from above is first pure. Just like with Solomon when he asked for wisdom because he was already humble before God, that is what purity looks like.
Peaceable - Is your wisdom a peaceable wisdom? Are you always looking for a fight or are you trying to use words to resolve conflict? Does this mean that you must be some sort of person who doesn’t believe that righteous violence isn’t needed? Absolutely not. But we must be people who are using godly wisdom to get through conflict and not trying to stir up conflict instead.
Gentle - I saw a definition for this as strength under control. Do you have control? Many of these are covered under the fruit of the spirit(singular not plural) Galatians 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.” The fruit of godly wisdom sounds a lot like the fruit of the spirit. Are you being gentle in how you treat people or react to people. Are you asserting your advanced intellect over someone or are you gentle about how you are speaking to or even leading others.
Open to reason - This means that you are willing to hear someone out. I am marriage, this means that you are listening to your husband or wife and that is a chance that you are going to compromise. You have to set aside being stubborn or arrogant. This isn’t about being right about something, this is about being wise.
Full of mercy and good fruits - Showing compassion towards people who need compassion. What a wonderful measure of our wisdom being made manifest into action than our mercy being shown to others. Having compassion for those who are in need or are struggling in a certain way. You want to see the fruits of the spirit being lived out in you? Show compassion through service.
Impartial - This is a call back to chapter 2 when James uses the example of someone coming into church and you treating them different because of what they have to offer. We must be impartial, not showing favoritism but being fair and consistent.
Sincere - Not trying to put on a front or a mask for others to think you are something that you truly aren’t. That is wisdom being lived out. Being open to others seeing the real you.
Godly wisdom is these things. What you should notice is this progression and what all aspects of life that this covers. Purity describes our relationship with God. This is the foundation for all of life. Being peaceable, gentle, and open to reason describes how our attitude towards others should be. Being full of mercy and good fruits describes how we should act towards other people. And being impartial and sincere shows our character. All of life encompassed in what it means to have godly wisdom.
How does this look in someones life though? I think it may look different in everyones life because we are in different situations. For me, godly wisdom is going to look different as I shepherd Immanuel Baptist and shepherd my family compared to someone who doesn’t have children at home any longer. Maybe if you are retired and the house isn’t as full as it used to be, wisdom is finding new ways to serve your spouse with joy. Maybe it is finding ways to serve the church and the community in ways that you haven’t before because you now have that extra time. For people with families, godly wisdom is having hard conversations with your children and making sure that you are pointing them to Jesus both in word and deed. And loving your spouse in front of your children. Kids, you too can have godly wisdom. For you, maybe it is making sure that you are not falling into the lies of the world and making sure that you are being a sincere follower of Jesus. Not putting on some type of front to try to fit in with a crowd that won’t remember you in 10 years.
We can all have godly wisdom. And what happens when we have godly wisdom?
18 And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
The peace that you are bringing will produce a harvest of righteousness. I love driving around and seeing everyones garden start to produce right now. This rain in the last couple of weeks has just really made it look good. Soon, there will be a harvest. I am going to enjoy the spoils of fresh tomatoes and beans. And as good as a harvest as that is going to be, it is going to pail in comparison to the harvest of the one who brings peace that is of godly wisdom.
The produce of having godly wisdom is righteousness. It is you, as a whole person, becoming more and more like Jesus. Isn’t that our desire as followers of Jesus. The word Christian means little Christ. That is like a child looking up to their father and wanting to become just like him. That should be us with Jesus. We love the things that he loves, and despise the things that he despises. We do the things he tells us to do and don’t do the things he tells us not to do.
If we aren’t trying to be more like Jesus then we are going the other way and becoming less like Jesus. We are never in the middle. Life doesn’t produce fence riders. You are on one side or the other.
Conclusion
James answered for us the question of what Godly wisdom looks like. Now, we need to ask ourselves if this is true of us. Are we living our lives like we have godly wisdom or wordly wisdom.
If you can confidently say that you are living a life that has godly wisdom, then I want to encourage you to stay humble in that. Don’t let arrogance slip in and derail you. Continue to humble yourself before God and let him guide you. Find new ways to live out the wisdom that God has blessed you with.
But if you do not feel like you would fall in the category of godly wisdom and you are actually operating in worldly wisdom, do not be dismayed. There is hope. I believe that God is calling you today to make that step towards him in faith. The first step to this is what we call repentance. Give your life to Jesus. You cannot have godly wisdom without God.
Then we are called to be baptized.
We are going to actually respond together today through the observance of the Lord’s Supper. On the night before his crucifixion, Jesus took his disciples to a room and instituted a meal for them to observe. His instruction was to do this to remember him. We come together every so often and we observe this. Maybe you have heard it called the Lord’s Supper or maybe communion. But what it is is a way for us to slow down and to remember what Jesus did for us.
What did he do? He paid the price for our sins on the cross. And his sacrifice is what brings us eternal forgiveness.
ask deacons to come up
I want to make sure you know that what we are doing is largely symbolic. The bread represents the body of Jesus and the juice represents the blood of Jesus. At no point does this actually turn into a body or blood. Maybe you aren’t sure if you should participate. It is just fine if you don’t. This is for people who are professing to be followers of Jesus. If that is not you, then you should not. If you don’t really know, then don’t.
As baptist, we believe that this is reserved for those who have made a profession of faith and have been baptized as a believer. If you have not done this and would like to, then this is a great time for you to let me know you are interested.
We are going to pass out the elements. Once you get it, hold onto it and we will all take it together. If you have children who don’t understand, have a conversation with them about what this is and why it is for believers only. If you are not going to partake, just continue passing the plate on.
22 And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.”
23 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it.
24 And he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.
