LISTEN
WATCH
READ
Nate Roten / James / Wisdom / James 3:13–18
Main Idea
Worldly wisdom and godly wisdom will both produce a harvest in your life.
Personification of Wisdom
Proverbs 2:1–11 CSB
My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, listening closely to wisdom and directing your heart to understanding; furthermore, if you call out to insight and lift your voice to understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it like hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and discover the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He stores up success for the upright; He is a shield for those who live with integrity so that he may guard the paths of justice and protect the way of his faithful followers. Then you will understand righteousness, justice, and integrity—every good path. For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will delight you. Discretion will watch over you, and understanding will guard you.
Solomon personifies wisdom as a woman calling all humanity to embrace her and have life. James’ purpose today is to identify which lady we are supposed to listen to.
Passage
James 3:13–18 CSB
Who among you is wise and understanding? By his good conduct he should show that his works are done in the gentleness that comes from wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your heart, don’t boast and deny the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from above but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there is disorder and every evil practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peace-loving, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without pretense. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who cultivate peace.
I – Godly Wisdom (v. 13)
James encouraged us to ask for the wisdom we need in trials and not doubt that God will give it to us. But, evidently, many in the church sought wisdom from other sources. They are eating fruit from the wrong tree. God’s tree has branches loaded with ripe, juicy fruit, but the one they eat has fruit that looks just as appealing but is rotten and putrid. James wants them to know this, so to get everyone thinking, he asks a question.
“Who among you is wise and understanding?”
The anticipated answer is ‘I am’ because he just warned aspiring teachers, so we can assume he is still addressing them directly, even though this applies to all believers generally. Now that he has them looking at the wisdom they claim to have, he wants to help them discern the type of fruit they are reaching for. He does this by paralleling the kinds of wisdom, as he did with the type of faith one has, either living or dead.
Just like works are proof of a living faith, good conduct is proof of godly wisdom. They need to review the evidence to discern the type because there are multiple types. They need to discern which fruit they are consuming, and they do this by reflecting on the nature of their actions after having consumed that fruit.
Godly wisdom is revealed in a person doing works and in the spirit that work is performed.
Good works = good conduct demonstrated in gentleness.
Gentleness = humility and is an essential marker of godly wisdom.
Is that how you would identify godly wisdom vs worldly wisdom? Why do you think James started here?
There are dozens of reasons why, but the simplest and most profound reason is because that is what Jesus demonstrated:
Matthew 21:5 CSB
Tell Daughter Zion, “See, your King is coming to you, gentle, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
It is a fruit of the Spirit:
Galatians 5:22–23 CSB
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things.
Hang onto that fruitful imagery. We will come back to it again.
For now, it’s interesting that wisdom is not necessarily linked to what we say, which is what we would typically associate it with… speaking wise words like the Proverbs. For James, wisdom is linked to how we act. Wisdom is shown by our behavior, not by our intellect.
James wants to begin here since he sees worldly wisdom creeping into the infant church and does not like what he sees.
II – Worldly Wisdom (vv. 14-16)
Worldly wisdom may seem beneficial at first, but for God’s people, it proves to counter all that God is. Though James doesn’t say it this way, the wisdom and false virtues from the world that he saw creeping into the church and developed two types of rotten fruit:
1. Bitter envy – Painful or resentful awareness of another’s advantage and the desire to possess the same advantage (- Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary). True wisdom has no room for this false virtue. It immediately creates rivalry and hostility in relationships. How can you love someone you resent or are jealous of? This isn’t an attribute God possesses. In reality, this is a core attribute of our adversary. Envy is one of the reasons why Lucifer fell in the first place.
Isaiah 14:12–14 CSB
Shining morning star, how you have fallen from the heavens! You destroyer of nations, you have been cut down to the ground. You said to yourself, “I will ascend to the heavens; I will set up my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the mount of the gods’ assembly, in the remotest parts of the North. I will ascend above the highest clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.”
And it has led to some of the most horrendous acts of evil in scripture. Here are just a few examples:
• Cain murdering Abel
• Joseph’s brothers rejected his vision and sold him into slavery
• Saul perpetually trying to murder David
• The Pharisees plotting murder when they see Jesus’ wisdom and popularity
True wisdom would reject such a vile way of thinking that acts as a gateway to other sinful actions.
2. Selfish ambition – ambition is a strong drive for personal success, while selfish ambition is a drive without moral inhibitions. In other words, you are willing to throw anyone under the bus or use them as rungs on a ladder to step on so that you alone can make it to the top. It’s not difficult to see how this false virtue stands starkly against the message of the gospel or the nature of God Himself. The love God has for us, which is the love we are to have for one another, is a selfless love, not a selfish one. Our love is to be known for its sacrificial nature, just as Jesus sacrificed His life on the cross to accomplish our redemption.
Don’t deceive yourself. And, as you understand what James is saying, don’t be deceived and lie to yourself that you sometimes don’t reach for these fruits in your life. In a fallen world with fallen natures, we are all prone to allow envy and selfish ambition to drive our actions at times. When was the last time you envied a family member, friend, or co-worker when they got a promotion, a new house, or saw a glamorous vacation on social media? Was there a seed of bitterness that started to grow? During the race for the new position, were you willing to slip in a few tidbits of harmful information about the other candidate as you answered questions about your own qualifications? Have you neglected time with your family to pursue a better job, social prestige, or hone a particular skill by giving it too much of your life?
This can be especially dangerous for teachers and Pastors. It is so easy to envy the knowledge, public speaking skills, or popularity of other preachers. That envy might lead you to selfishly promote yourself in unhealthy and ungodly ways. And when you finally reach the top, your arrogance might lead you to believe you are as awesome as people think you are, and then you fail morally. Isn’t that what we’ve seen happen to many celebrity pastors lately?
Don’t read this verse and begin to point the finger at other people you know this would apply to while failing to see how they have already taken root in your own life. True, godly wisdom will have the humility to see how you have allowed these influences in your heart and mind. This recognition will also keep you from arrogantly boasting in your so-called state of innocence.
James wants us to grasp a deep understanding of how wisdom born of these two elements is the opposite of godly. They are terrible on an increasingly wicked scale that will yield an exponential harvest of unrighteousness.
1. earthly – worldly wisdom is man-made at best… wisdom that might not be harmful but sticks to human philosophies born from fallen faculties or decisions made for self-gratification.
2. unspiritual – a worse state is a wisdom that still might not be harmful but isn’t willing to acknowledge any form of spiritual truth. There is a hardening against it. It would be hard for modern readers to hear this and not see the wisdom that atheistic scientists are producing. They promote a wisdom that claims the natural world is all that exists, so every explanation they provide is void of any relationship with God or the spiritual realities He has shown us. We just saw from Proverbs 2 how the Lord is the giver of wisdom, so to claim to have wisdom apart from Him is simply foolish.
3. demonic – just like an uncontrolled tongue can be ignited by the fires of hell, our cherished wisdom can originate from God’s nemesis instead of God himself. A whole host of evils have derived from a quest for ungodly knowledge. One doesn’t have to go far beyond the 1st century to find it. A quest for secret knowledge and wisdom was growing even in Paul’s day. They were called the gnostics. They boasted of having a secret knowledge that made them almost god-like, and one of their beliefs that stemmed from this exclusive knowledge was the corruption of the physical world. In light of that dualistic thinking, some would try to abstain from worldly lusts, while many others indulged in every type of sexual sin because the physical body was beyond saving, so why not?!
God’s wisdom opposes worldly wisdom. In fact, it confounds those who think they are wise by eating the fruit of worldly wisdom:
1 Corinthians 1:18–21 CSB
For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but it is the power of God to us who are being saved. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will set aside the intelligence of the intelligent. Where is the one who is wise? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the debater of this age? Hasn’t God made the world’s wisdom foolish? For since, in God’s wisdom, the world did not know God through wisdom, God was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of what is preached.
The hard truth of worldly wisdom is that wherever there is envy and selfish ambition, there is disorder and every evil practice. Every evil we see in our world, can you believe that? Not only are these rotten fruits, but they spread their rot to everything else they touch. At the core of envy is bitter dissatisfaction and jealousy. At the core of ambition is selfish pride. When a person is unsatisfied with their life, is bitterly jealous of the lives of others, and is willing to do whatever it takes to get what those people have, you can see how that would lead to a wide swath of evil actions. And when you combine those motives with the defiling, destructive power of the tongue and the budding temptations from the heart, then maybe it’s not too difficult to see why we have all the evils we see in the world.
Our job is to avoid this type of wisdom at all costs. It can get so nasty that we initially forget how innocently these things can take root. At first, it is just a little glance on social media to see how well off one of my friends is, and that motivates me to try and get what she has. That’s not too bad, right? But soon, I resent her for having all those things and experiences when I’m stuck at home just going through the motions. That envy always turns sour, and so do my thoughts, body language, and actual language—a rift forms in our relationship. I start to neglect her… then, the next time there is an opportunity for us both to have that thing I want so badly, I’m willing to shove her out of the way to get it. And so I continue down the dark rabbit hole.
Is that what you really want from life? The world will say to get what you want and do whatever makes you happy. Is that true wisdom talking?
The life-giving truth the enemy doesn’t want you to know is that when you flee from this type of corrupt worldly wisdom to pursue godly wisdom, you are freed from the confines of your own self-interest and jealousy. Those things form a prison around you, but the wisdom from above will break those iron bars and give you the freedom to pursue God faithfully and wholeheartedly as you trust Him with your welfare.
So now, we have seen what worldly wisdom is and what it will do to you. Let’s now do the same for godly wisdom.
III – Cultivating Godly Wisdom (vv. 17-18)
We’ve already learned a few attributes of God’s wisdom. It is humble and leads to good conduct in good works. But James has much more to unpack. This is why my sermon is called Wisdom’s Harvest. James describes how wisdom produces fruit much like Paul presents the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5. There are eight fruits we can partake of, many of which are promised blessings to us from The Sermon on the Mount. This shows us that we are to expect an outpour of blessings when we passionately pursue God’s wisdom. And, out of these eight fruits, the chief among them is purity.
Pure – God’s word is pure, completely void of any contaminant (Ps. 12:6). He desires to present us as a pure bride for His son (2 Cor. 11:2), so it should come as no surprise that His wisdom is pure and undefiled. Just as His unchanging nature guarantees that I can trust the rest of His attributes, the purity of God’s wisdom guarantees the remainder of its benefits. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God (Matt. 5:8)
Peace-loving – In a world filled to the brim with anxiety, we should long for the fruit of peace. The world tries to offer inner peace through meditation, yoga, chants, and intentional seclusion, but none can produce real and lasting peace because that only comes from the Prince of Peace. Godly wisdom loves and pursues peace like a lost treasure. This is the exact opposite of what is produced by envy and selfish ambition. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God (Matt. 5:9).
Gentle – We’ve hit on this already, but James reiterates its importance by keeping it in the list of true wisdom’s virtues. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth (Matt. 5:5).
Compliant / Obedient—This is the only verse in scripture where this word is used, but we can understand what it means based on the context. Wisdom is open to searching out the true meaning of a thing or circumstance and obeying the truth we learn about it. If we are open to reason and are obedient to wisdom’s call…
Proverbs 2:10 CSB
For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will delight you.
Full of Mercy – Mercy is not receiving something you deserve, like showing compassion to an enemy. God is abundant in mercy. That much is evident in my life as I reflect on who I was before He saved me. While I was an active combatant against God’s holy throne, He loved me and called me out of my destructive lifestyle. I deserved death, but He gave me life. Because wisdom comes from God, it is also full of mercy. Wisdom looks beyond the superficial and evil inclinations of the heart, knowing that no one is beyond God’s ability to save. And we act accordingly. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy (Matt. 5:7).
Full of Good Fruits – Our works are likened to fruit. The Spirit produces fruit in our lives. We are the first fruits of His creatures (James 1:18). Wisdom produces a harvest of delights in our lives if we pursue her. Read Proverbs 2 again from this point of view and see what your life can be filled with. Not only can we have the fruits of wisdom in our own lives, but we can be used by God to bring them to bear in the lives of others as we demonstrate a living faith by good works done in gentleness and good conduct.
Unwavering / Impartial – Wisdom makes you steadfast and immovable in the truths you have learned and the moral character God has revealed to you without being judgmental or divisive. Like God, wisdom has no favorites but is devoted to the truth. Unlike the double-minded man who is unstable due to doubt, wisdom is hyper-focused, single-minded, and unwavering.
Without Pretense / Sincere – Pretense is someone trying to make you believe something untrue. It’s a deception. You are presenting false appearances. Wisdom does not present any false appearances. She is always sincere in what she presents and how she presents it.
When you pursue this type of righteousness, it will also yield a harvest. Instead of harvesting bitterness, jealousy, dissatisfaction, and every evil practice, you bring in a harvest of righteousness like a cornucopia filled with these different types of fruits from James and others from scriptures like Proverbs 2. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied (Matt. 5:6).
But James doesn’t stop there. He reminds us how these fruits were first planted. They were sown in peace, sown by the peacemakers. From inception to implementation, peace characterizes wisdom.
Takeaways
- Worldly wisdom and godly wisdom will both produce a harvest in your life. Our job is to recognize which version we are pursuing, which will be known by our behavior, not by our intellect.
- Bitter envy and selfish ambition lead to a harvest of evils. Don’t let them take root.
- Godly wisdom will lead to a harvest of righteousness that is filled with good fruits.
- What type of harvest are you bringing into the storehouse?
Questions to Consider
- What does the passage suggest about the nature of godly wisdom compared to worldly wisdom?
- How does the scripture define ‘selfish ambition,’ and what are its implications for our spiritual lives?
- How can you apply the concept of gentleness as a marker of wisdom in your interactions with peers?
- In what areas of your life do you recognize the presence of envy or selfish ambition?
- How might you demonstrate the fruits of wisdom, like mercy or gentleness, in your daily interactions?