Our reading this week is from James 3:13 – 4:3, 7-8a. To read this now, click here.

Shortly after beginning seminary, I started pastoring in a small church of only about a dozen people. I remember that one of them in particular was not to keen on college. He hadn’t been, and he didn’t have a very high opinion of it.  In fact, he would often refer to seminary as “cemetery.” 

Maybe he saw the state of the church today, and how liberal many seminary had become, and that’s why he had such a low opinion. In his mind, not only was a seminary education unnecessary, it could be downright harmful. The concern was that all that learning might destroy your faith. I’ve always been learning something, I’ll never stop, so I wasn’t quite sure what he meant.

I’m not really sure that he knew what he meant, he was just drawing on his experiences. He had seen people go to college and come back with a fraction of the faith they had when they went. I have to admit that I have, too. As people go off to college, they’re exposed to different world views, and if they don’t have a firm understanding of what they believe and why they believe it, their faith can take a beating. This doesn’t have to happen, but it often does happen. It’s important to make sure your learning and your head knowledge never overshadows your ability to have a daily encounter with the Word of God. Your relationship with God needs to be continuously fed – and that’s different from feeding your mind. Not everyone understands that.

James seems to have sensed a similar problem in the early Church. His warning came as he contrasted earthly wisdom with godly wisdom. His question for us to consider today is an important one, and it’s found in verse 13: “Who is wise and understanding among you?”

That’s a really important question, isn’t it? Who is wise? I used to think that being wise meant having a lot of knowledge. More learning would bring more wisdom. But it doesn’t always work that way, does it. I think James has a better definition for us. He sees wisdom as the ability to discern God’s principles for living. And understanding is being able to apply those principles to everyday life.

Some of the wisest men I’ve met have not been highly educated. I’ve had Sunday School teachers with little formal education, but they were incredibly wise people. I’ve met people who were highly educated, and very wise, but their wisdom went far beyond their field of study. Of course I’ve also met people who had earned doctorates but seemed to have no common sense. They just didn’t seem very bright. You may have met people like that, too.

James is writing this letter, in part, to point out a concern that he has that earthly wisdom is spilling out into the church and is destroying the fellowship. Unfortunately, this kind of wisdom causes the same problems in today’s Church, too.  I’m always amazed at how relevant James’s words are for the Church today.  

James lists two of the most prevalent characteristics of this worldly wisdom:  bitter jealousy and selfish ambition. When these sins creep in, there is no room for reconciliation or redemption, or even Christ himself.  Selfish ambition leads to rivalries and splits in the body. It creates a very unhealthy, very bitter, body, not a church that models after Christ, and not filled with the love of Christ.  As James makes clear, wherever we find this worldly wisdom we find disorder and every vile practice.

Carolyn Schneider holds that worldly wisdom is all about power. As she puts it, “those who don’t have it want it; even if it is just the smidgeon of power they can feel by besting their equally poor Christian brother or sister in a fight.”  I think I would prefer to see it as a reliance on one’s self.  When you are worldly wise, you are the center of your own universe, you rely on your own abilities. And you want nothing more than to be left alone to live your own life.

James simply has no room for this kind of wisdom.  In verse 15, he tells us this kind of wisdom is “earthly, unspiritual, and of the devil.” It takes over our hearts and taints everything we do.  It might not surprise you then to see that this worldly wisdom doesn’t exhibit the characteristics of godly wisdom, and in most cases, it’s completely opposite of Godly wisdom.

So what is godly wisdom? James gives us a list. Wisdom from above is

Pure  Its motives are open and above board. There’s no self-centeredness, but it looks to what’s best for the body.

Peaceable  It is not there to confront and make enemies but simply to support the principles of the Christian life.

Gentle  The Greek word here is sometimes also translated as tolerant and open-minded.

Open to reason  It is open-minded but will not be changed with every wind of doctrine.  Everything is examined in light of the Word of God.

Kind or full of mercy  Doesn’t lift up oneself, takes care not to hurt others.

Helpful or produces  Seeks to be of service to others.

good fruits 

Genuine   You can say that what you see is what you get, it’s real, it’s authentic.

Sincere  There is no hypocrisy or falseness here.

I’m not gong to look into any of these characteristics any further, except for one.  I think there is a good possibility that many of us today might misunderstand the one about peace.  We often think peace is just the absence of war.  For James, peace meant a lot more, it meant “shalom,” meaning to be complete, perfect and full. What we think of peace is a part of it, but it’s a very small part of it.  

The Chinese have three different characters in their language that stand for peace.  None of them have to do with war or the absence of war.  The first deals with peace in the home. Peace in the home means the absence of trouble, people get along with each other.  The second symbol means equality among people, everyone is treated as equals. The third character indicates that peace comes when everyone has enough to eat. The idea of having all you really need to survive, and then being content with what you have. 

In this Chinese understanding of peace, maybe James is saying to us that godly wisdom comes when we establish strife-free homes, when we treat all people as equals, and when we provide for the basic needs of those around us. 

So, according to James, wisdom has nothing to do with knowledge.  It almost seems to be more about motives.  Gavin Ellis writes, “When your motives are self-centered and selfish, when they are full of quarreling and fighting, then you are not really acting in wisdom. . . . But, when you are motivated by the things of God, when you are motivated by peace and love for your neighbor, then you discover a wisdom that no amount of schooling could ever teach you.”  

That is godly wisdom. This is what it means to have the mind of Christ.  And it is at the heart of James’s statement in 2:17, “Faith without works is dead.”

So I ask you this morning, what about you. Some of you are highly educated. Some of you didn’t complete high school. And it doesn’t matter. The question is, “Who among you is wise?” Wisdom comes from life, it comes from experiences, it comes from God and knowing his Word. So I don’t care how much knowledge you have, I do care if you are wise?