Two Kinds of Wisdom | James 3:13-18 | Faith That Works

We often think that if we just had the right tip or trick, we could solve every problem in our lives—from our health to our marriages. But information alone isn't wisdom.

In James 3:13-18, we see that there are two kinds of wisdom competing for our hearts. One is earthly and unspiritual, fueled by a "bitter sludge" of jealousy and selfish ambition. The other is from above: pure, peaceable, and full of mercy.

To live wisely, we must use the Word of God as a filter, catching the toxic influences of the world and allowing the purity of Christ to shape our conduct. As believers, the "fear of the Lord" is our starting point, giving us the capacity to live lives that bring glory to God and peace to those around us.

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Thank you for joining us for this week's sermon from First Reformed Church in Edgerton, Minnesota. Each week, we dig into God's word, trusting that the Holy spirit will continue the good work of sanctification in us. I think that we tend to associate the idea of wisdom with information. If someone can tell us obscure information, we assume they're smart, we assume that they are wise. But at the same time, we also understand that there is a dramatic difference in being able to regurgitate information and having discernment on how that information is to be used. I'm guessing we've all known someone who was Booksmart, had no problem making the grades, But they didn't make very good decisions in their life. There's a difference between having information and having wisdom. Our passage from James this morning once again draws out something that we know and something that we have seen in our own lives. We tend to have a belief that many of our problems come from a lack of information, a lack of knowledge. If we could just find the right tip or the right trick, we could solve what ails us. If we just got the knowledge that we need, we would poof, lose 50 pounds.

We would have a better marriage. We may even solve world hunger, or we may even be able to implement a plan for world peace. We just need more information. Well, even though our thoughts are that we just need some knowledge, that we need some magic bullet, we do inherently know that that's not true. We know that we need not only to know what to do, we need to put it into practice. This idea has been important. It's been a theme through our time in James. He says that we are called to be doers of the word and not just hearers. That principle applies as we consider the idea of wisdom this morning. We will hear the commands But are we to just agree with them in principle? Wisdom is letting it shape us and letting it come out of us in how we act. Will we learn the wisdom God and just follow it away in our memory banks? Or will we let the wisdom of God shape us and therefore help us know how to view the world around us? As we land in the second half of chapter 3 this morning, we see James asking a question.

He asks, who is wise? Who has understanding? Now, I'm not sure how the original audience would have answered this question, but I'm guessing it might be similar to how most of us in our time would maybe answer it. I think we would probably answer this question and employ a false sense of humility. Well, I'm not wise. I don't know that much. But really, in reality, deep down, we are pretty confident in ourselves. We will reject sound advice because we think we know better or because we think we're more wise than those who have come before us. We believe our circumstances are unique and that what we've experienced, that lets us ignore the rules or the guidelines that have been set up. We've all done this. No matter how unwise or unintelligent we think we are in some areas, we all have things where we're convinced that we know better than anyone else, and we will do whatever it is we want to do to our own detriment. Well, after this question about who is wise, James wants to correct that attitude. Because we see James make this point that wisdom is found in good conduct and in meekness.

Now, too often, that is the last place that we think that we are going to show our wisdom. When we believe we're wise, we tend to open our mouths and speak, not be deliberate to act in good conduct. We don't tend to see wisdom in restraint. If we believe ourselves to be wise, we want to make sure that people know. On top of that, we tend to view meekness as a personality fault instead of a strength. We associate meekness with weakness. Here, James does a variation on a theme that he's had earlier on in this letter. That theme is being slow to speak. He's reminding us of this here again. For us, wisdom is associated with teachers. Wisdom is associated with the passing on of knowledge. But James here is concerned with things like bitter jealousy and selfish ambition, boasting and not being truthful. He wants wisdom to be associated with conduct. When we stop and we think about what he's saying here, we've seen what James is describing play out in front of us many times. Whether it's in ourselves or in someone else, we know that speaking quickly looks like what he's saying here.

Because we like to think that we've got all the answers, and we start talking because we want to be the center of attention or we want to get the benefit of being the smart one. And then what happens? We spoke too quickly, and it spirals out of control to where we either brag about ourselves unnecessarily or we exaggerate the truth to make it seem like we are worthy of this position of being seen as wise We're trying to garner this view that people might have of us of being smart about something, and the whole thing gets out of control. What I've described here is so often how the world works. This is how you get fame. This is how you get status in the world by building yourself up. But James wants us to know that when we act this way, this isn't wisdom wisdom from God. Jealousy and selfish ambition. They're more than just sins we commit, things we do. They are like an infection that gets deep down in us. And selfish ambition and jealousy can fester. And the result of this infection is that it blinds us from having wisdom and true understanding.

While the world may see the idea of using ambition and jealousy as a means of motivating ourselves for success or a means by which we get all that we can get from the world, James makes it clear that this is not Godly wisdom. In fact, he says that it is earthly, unspiritual, and he takes it even further. He says it's demonic. Where those things are prevalent, he says there's disorder in every vile practice. And once again, we know what James is talking about here. We know that jealousy and selfish ambition can take over. If you've ever been in an environment that fosters those attitudes, you've seen firsthand what James is saying here, and you know it's true. And there is always a selfish ambition in people. It's a persistent temptation to conspire, to bring gain for ourselves, to build ourselves up. If you build yourself up that way, If you do that, the world will likely applaud you. They will see you as a go-getter. You've taken the world and you've done something with it. Now, James isn't saying that as Christians, we can't be motivated to be successful or to work hard to make our way in the world.

That's not what he's saying. I want to be clear. What he's talking about here are going after those things and doing it in such a way that violates the law of God. Let's be honest about how hard that can be, because the temptation will always be there to go after the easy path to success. The temptation is always there to tear down others so that you can claw yourself up. But James lets us know that as those who have been saved by the mercy and grace of God, we have a higher calling than that. And James tells us what that is. The wisdom that comes from God is pure, peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits. Impartial and sincere. And that list is great. But at the same time, we read that, and I think we find it as very convicting. Because in our mark, in our sin, we miss the mark of this wisdom because we have a disposition to selfish ambition and jealousy more than we have to find ourselves striving after these virtues. This reality is the point where we need to bring in an important truth about wisdom.

This needs to frame the way we understand wisdom. Because as I said, these are not things that we naturally gravitate to. This is why we want to have wisdom that acknowledges the nature of where our wisdom comes from. There's a vital spiritual truth that we find both in the Salter and in the Book of Proverbs. It says this, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. If we are going to be truly wise, this is where wisdom starts. The fear of the Lord begins with our acknowledging our sin and turning to Christ in repentance and faith. Wisdom begins with our knowing that we deserve the wrath of God for our rebellion against him. Wisdom means that we know that we are prone to selfish ambition and jealousy more than we are to that wonderful list that James made about how we should behave. If we're going to have the wisdom from above, it begins with our acknowledging that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Wisdom is hearing the gospel and believing by faith that God has forgiven our sin and that he calls us to a redeemed life and a renewed mind.

If we get that wrong and we desire to be wise, we are just going to spin our wheels. To be on the track of being pure, peaceable, gentle, open to reason and full of mercy, we need to know that these things are only possible because Jesus has saved us from our sin. With that framework then established, now we can go back to those wise virtues that are listed in verse 17 and know that God doesn't simply call us to have this wisdom. He equips us with his word and with the ind dwelling Holy spirit. Our efforts to do these things are not a fool's They are the result of a renewed mind as those who have been saved by the grace of God. As we look at this list, it's decidedly practical for us. It shows us what a sanctified holy life looks like. If we seek this wisdom from above, we can see how it would cause our lives to bring glory to God. It starts out with the fact that wisdom from above is pure. Wisdom isn't just being nice or agreeable or having some knowledge. It starts with the idea of purity.

And so this points us to wholeness, which means that we are to be set apart, that we are to be different from the world. And again, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And so it is naturally going to look different than what the world sees as wisdom. And so in order for us to be wise, then we need to desire to align our lives with the law of God. And the easiest way to do this is to filter what we think and do through the summary of God's law. You know it. It summarizes the first table of the law and the second table of the law. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. If we filter what we are doing through Through that, our wisdom is going to naturally shine through in the darkness of the world. Because loving God and loving neighbor is antithetical to jealousy and selfish ambition. When we love God and we love our neighbor, that summary of the law is going to stand out. From this then also flows being peaceable and gentle. When our motives and actions are pure, we aren't protecting our ego or trying to advance our own agenda.

In turn, we will find that we don't have to be abrasive or defensive, and we will see that gentleness is the best path forward because we trust God and his truth rather than our own ambitions, which, again, are rooted in selfishness and jealousy. And so James also says here that this wisdom from above is also open to reason. I think it's important to point out here that this isn't saying to be open to just anything and have no standard of discernment. That's not what he's saying. To be open to reason doesn't mean that we just accept any worldly argument. We have to run all of this through our filters of the fear of the Lord being the beginning of wisdom and the truth that wisdom from above is pure. So this morning, at the request of the high school youth, we had cold brew at the welcome desk. Now, making cold brew at the scale that we need is relatively easy. You grind the coffee, you put it in a large, porous bag, you let it sit for 18 to 24 hours, and then you pull out the bag. While the bag acts as a filter of sorts, but it isn't perfect because even though the grind of the coffee is relatively coarse, There's some seepage that happens and a sludge results at the bottom of that container.

Now, if you're one of these cold brew drinkers who adds one part coffee to 35 parts milk and sugar, you won't notice. But if you're like me and you just pour it over ice and drink it black, trust me, you notice. It's very bitter. So we run that cold brew through some regular white coffee filters to get the sludge out. Now, just looking at the cold brew in the dispenser, you wouldn't notice it. But when you see it in contrast to the white filters, you see how amazingly effective that is, how it gets the sludge out. Just as those filters catch that bitter sludge that can ruin the flavor of that coffee, the fear of the Lord and the purity of his word, that acts as a filter for us. We are open to reason and willing to listen, but that doesn't mean that we just throw out our convictions and swallow every worldly idea a hole. Instead, we need to run what we hear through the filter of God's truth, and we need to allow the pure wisdom to pass through and let the sludge of earthly, unspiritual and demonic thought get caught in the filter, and then we need to throw it out.

When we process through what we see and what we hear in this way, we not only keep our minds and hearts from the sludge, but we also show the world how refreshing and clear and life-giving wisdom that comes from above is. And the world will see then that we are full of mercy because this will bear good fruit and it will show impartiality and sincerity. I don't need to convince you that the world needs more of this. We know this. When we live out the list that James gives us here as people who are filtered by the word of God, we are told as we move to verse 18, that this goes beyond just personal, emotional, or intellectual growth. James tells us that this bears fruit that is the harvest of righteousness. The wisdom of the world, so-called, is fueled by the sludge of jealousy and selfish ambition. These things will always result in disorder, discontent, and strife. It doesn't bear good fruit, but the wisdom from above brings about a harvest of righteousness. It bears fruit beyond us and brings peace to those around us. It is light in a dark place. It is fresh water in a desert.

It is a feast after a famine. If we want to see this harvest of righteousness in our families, in our workplace, in our church, we need to do more than just seek peace. We need to actively create peace by making use of the wisdom from above that we have available to us because we have been saved by the grace of God. And once again, as I've said throughout our time in James, I think we're convinced of this. We get this, we see this. I am confident that we see and understand what James is saying here, and we agree with his argument and his conclusions. I think where the application then comes for us is being convinced that we can actually be wise. We're prone to thinking that seeking wisdom is for intellectual elites, and we're not capable of that. But we need to remember that intellect is not the same as wisdom. To do that, we We need to first realize that the call for wisdom is for all believers. This doesn't mean that we need to be experts in theology or Christian ethics. What it means is that we seek out living in light of the truth of God's word instead of seeking after the things of the world.

We are wise when we desire to conform our lives to God's law instead of seeking selfish ambition. We are wise when we seek to love God and our neighbor. We are We're wise when we run everything that we hear through the filter of God's word. That's when we're wise. The most important thing that I think we need to hear again as we ponder this call to wisdom is this, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. This means that you are already wise. If you are in Christ, you have heard the gospel. The Holy spirit has quickened faith in your heart and you have turned to Jesus in repentance and faith. That means that you have the beginning of wisdom because you are blessed to have the fear of the Lord. And whether you presently feel like wisdom is something that escapes you or whether you feel like you're moving down the path of wisdom. I want you to look at this proverb here today, and I want you to remember it, and I want you to chew on it this week. Really think about it. Seriously, I want you to dwell on this idea that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

This will shape how you see and understand the world. I want you, as you think about this proverb, to not only believe that you can be wise, but I want to challenge you with one final question that naturally flows out of this proverb and from this passage that we've read this morning from the Book of James. This is the question I want you to think about. What does it mean for you to be wise? As I said, we generally relegate the idea of wisdom to someone else. They are wise. But you, Christian, are called the wisdom. You have the blessing of God's word, and you have the Holy spirit to guide you on the path to wisdom. So I ask you again, what does it mean for you to be wise? In that difficult conversation tomorrow morning, in the way you scroll through your feet, in the way you respond when you're proven wrong? What does it mean for you to be wise. Let's pray. Great and merciful God, we thank you that you have blessed us with the beginning of wisdom. That through the proclamation of your gospel and the work of your Holy Spirit.

You've brought us to faith and help us to understand the fear of you. Help us to ponder on this idea that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And help us to know what it means for us to be wise. Where are you calling us to be wise this week? Where can we be wise and be your witnesses to a lost and dying world? Where can we be light in the darkness? Where can we be water in the desert? Through your word and spirit, bless us with the knowledge of knowing how we can be wise to the glory of Christ. It is in the name of Jesus that we pray. Amen. Thank you for joining us for this week's sermon. For more information about First Reformed Church, head to our Facebook page or website, edgertonfrc.org.

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