Wisdom part 1
James 3:13-16 · Miles Driedger · Jul 9, 2023
James, No. 25
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261931554776

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

All right. So we are, I think this is lesson number 25. Did I have that correct from looking at the spreadsheet? Let's see. I didn't, I guess as long as you're following the date and you look up this is the right verses. All right. So this might be lesson 25. We're not sure, but this is wisdom part one. So we are, we're moving into James three versus 13 through 16. And I'm going to, you can see on the slide there, we're going to back up and read from verse 8 down through 16, just to get our context from last week.

So James writes, But no one among mankind can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who have been made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come both blessing and cursing.

My brothers, I don't know what translation this is. I guess that they put sisters in there. That's just anyway. These things should not be this way. Does a spring send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives or a vine bear figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh.

And then today's verses. Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior, his deeds and the gentleness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing."

What I wanted to do is review it a little bit, so what we talked about last week, and I think it's important because James has been speaking about, he begins speaking about wisdom here, but I don't think he's really changed topics yet. So we want to pay careful attention to those preceding verses for the context of today. Last week we took a little bit of time, we backed up and kind of built up a kind of a greater context for those books. Really, the material we covered last week could be summed up pretty simply. And I think when we boiled it all down, we said that James is basically saying that we as believers have this unusual thing that goes on with our tongue.

And we could say maybe this, well, everything in creation produces one kind of fruit. The tongue has this odd fruit bearing which is either good or evil. I could say both good and evil, but it really happens, it can't be both at the same time. It's one or the other, right?

And we know that the reason for this strange situation is that the believer has two sources within us. And source is really the key concept. And that's important as we move into today's verses. So, that's why I want to just back up and look at that. You know, James has been talking about the source behind our tongue, and source is still really important to understand as we look at this today.

And you know, it's really important because if we fail to understand as believers, and I fell into this camp for a long time, but if we fail to understand the reality of both our indwelling sin nature as well as our new nature in Christ, then really we'll chase our tails in circles for a long time and we'll never understand this strange and frustrating condition that we find ourselves in between the time of salvation, the day that we accept the gospel, and the day that we see Christ face to face.

And, you know, it really is frustrating, right? It's like Paul writes about, right? Oh, wretched man that I am, who will save me from the body of this death? It's like, There's a tremendous frustration and it becomes much clearer to us when we understand these two natures.

If we don't understand that, you know, it's a terrible, really a terrible place to be in as a believer. Right. And we see lots of people out there in the Christian scene, so to speak, that don't have a grasp on this, and they go kind of different directions. It's just incredible, and you can link it many times back to a misunderstanding that they have a fallen nature that can do bad things, can sin just like the Our brother Hal had a list of all the sins, he compiled a list of all the sins a believer can commit. And guess what? They're just the same as unbelievers.

That sounds like a fun list. Oh yeah, it's real fun. But no, it's critical, it's critical. It really is. You know, and one of the things I wanted to note here is We need to see that there's no difference between Paul and James, really. They don't contradict each other. That's such a common misconception. Right. But they both teach this fact, and it's a really critical fact, right?

So, we can see that both of them teach that there are two natures within the believer. Both of them teach that we are not slaves to the sin nature. Once you understand you have two natures, the next, I think, critical thing to understand is that you're not a slave to the sin nature.

All we see it, I think, very clearly in Romans 6.11, where he says, you reckon or consider yourselves dead to the sin nature and alive to God.

And we noticed last week in the Greek interlinear, I really like the way they put it in James 3.10. James says, it's not necessary, brothers of me, for these things to be so. And that, I think, is very parallel. He's saying, look, you're not a slave to this other source, to this sin nature.

He doesn't use the same language as Paul, right? Paul comes in with all this clarity on this whole issue. But if we understand that James and Paul were inspired by the same Holy Spirit, they're speaking to the same church, we understand that though they may use somewhat different ways of talking about it, the message is the same. But neither neither Paul nor James lets us come away from this understanding of our two natures with the idea that we are that we're just to, you know, bounce back and forth between the two.

Right. Right. Sometimes sometimes people kind of get that idea. Well, I just, you know, kind of whatever whatever I feel like right now, whatever is right. you know, let one nature or the other dominate me. But they don't give us that idea. They say, no, you're not.

But isn't it amazing the abundance of scripture that tells us to abide in Him, walk with Him, and so many other words that are used to show us that's the method we are to employ in our Christian life. And that's another thing you get a hold of. God is not slack about showing us the method we are to It's basically Christ, but he uses various words in our relation with Christ to be free from this sin nature. Yeah, absolutely.

And I put it this way, we're under absolutely no obligation to respond to the desires of the flesh. As believers, we don't have that obligation. And really, it comes down to faith, right? It comes down to, you know, do we know that? Do we know that fact that we're not slaves to sin and hatred, and are we trusting that fact? And not only are we not slaves, but do we recognize the new life that we have in Christ and our freedom in that? So, I wanted to quickly look again at just the, what I call here, sort of the structural context. I think this is just a little bit helpful when we get into wisdom here.

And what I mean by that is that we saw that in James 2.12, he has a statement, so speak and so act as those who will be judged by the principle of freedom.

And we underline there so speak and so act because I think that outlines the next sections here where in so act, It kind of reverses the order, but from chapter 214 down to 226, James teaches on works or actions and what that looks like. And then from 3.1 down to 3.12, he's speaking specifically about the tongue and, of course, teachers. And so if you kind of look at that as a bit of an outline, I think that Paul's not departing from this. I think he's actually kind of reaching back and drawing together what he's saying about our works and words and what the source of that is. You know, because James has made it clear that there's always a source or a wellspring behind what we say and what we do.

And in verses 13 through 17, now I know 17, that gets into, I think it's Andrew's for next week, but in that section, James is speaking about the two possible sources behind our works and words. And we've been talking here about the sin nature and the new nature, but here James describes these two kinds of wisdom. And the one kind is what he calls earthly, natural, and demonic. The other kind is, he says, is from above, pure, peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering without hypocrisy. And so I think that what James is getting at is this is what's behind these things we've been talking about. This is what's behind that. And then James asks this question, who among you is wise and understanding? Why is James asking that question? Any thoughts on that? Any thoughts on why he would ask that question at this point in the conversation? Basically, I sprung this on you. I didn't give you any advance notice.

I just, that's kind of a question that, you know, I came to myself when I got to this point in the text. You know, why is he asking that here? We've been talking about the tongue and all this, and all of a sudden he's asking who is wise in understanding. But, you know, Jesus has been talking about wisdom since the beginning of the book.

That was a little while ago here. I wasn't even in the study at that point. But first of all, trials is the major theme of the game, right? And we know that for sure. But if you read in Chapter 1, particularly verses 2 through 8, you can see that wisdom is that, maybe we could say, is that by which we navigate and endure trials.

And that's what he talks about right in the beginning of the book. So now he's coming back to this question of wisdom. He's really, I think, circling back around to kind of his main thesis for the book. And under the structure here of speaking and acting, we can sort of see the way James is setting this up. So like we said in 2.14, is he's introducing works.

He says, what uses it or what practical benefit is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but has no works, can that faith save him? And if we ask save him from what, I think in context we say from buckling under trial or from being creamed by the trial rather than enduring it. So, James is saying that there has to be something of substance behind what we say. and what we do. If we say that we have faith, but we're not actually operating out of the wellspring of heavenly wisdom, then our claim has no real benefit in the face of a trial, in the face of the things that we endure.

And likewise, in chapter 3, verse 1, James, as he turns to talk about the tongue, he says, and I kind of paraphrased it here, he says, don't be too eager to become a teacher. You know, the desire to teach is fine, but be aware that there are two possible sources that can be motivating or controlling your tongue.

And if it's not heavenly wisdom behind your tongue, then you're in trouble. So back to our question here, why is James asking who among you has wisdom? I think in part it's because it's not readily apparent. It's not immediately apparent who has godly wisdom, because it's not enough to just claim that you have this heavenly wisdom.

Wisdom from above, as he refers to it here, will be manifest for what it is through the outworking of our works and words. I think that's what James is saying. And we'll kind of come back to that a little bit here, but it has to do with some of what he's introduced in the beginning of chapter three. You know, someone has a desire to be teacher. You know, we shouldn't be too quick about just, you know, pushing somebody into that position. There needs to be a real discernment into whether You know, is it just talk? Is it just doctrine? Or is it applied doctrine? Hey, Miles? Yes?

Couldn't James be using that question as an encouragement to be wise and understanding? You know, he's trying to bring it out in his audience there, isn't he? Yeah. Yeah, that's a good point. I think I think that definitely is an important part of what he's getting at, yeah. You know, I think in Paul's writings, and especially in Solomon's writings, he encourages people to be wise. He encourages his son to be wise, you know, and I think that's what James is doing here. He's encouraging wisdom and understanding in his audience there. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. No, that's a good point, Jim. Yeah, it's not a question to beat you over the head, you know, like, oh look, you know, you don't have this.

But it's an encouragement to look carefully, you know, to understand. Yeah, to seek it out. That's what Solomon was encouraging, is to seek understanding, you know. Make it an active part of your lifestyle. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, good point for sure. And I think, you know, it's interesting because in the last half of verse 13, James kind of responds to this question. He says, you know, who among you is wise and understanding? And then he says, let him show, you know. And so he says, you know, it kind of resonates with what he's been saying in the last chapter and a half. You know, if you got this wisdom, then let it show.

We know that's kind of James, sort of James mentality or his flavor, right? He doesn't want empty doctrine. And so if you have this, this wisdom let us show, and I think we need to be aware that as wonderful as it is to know about things like our position in Christ, it won't have a practical effect in us until we're counting on it by faith. Or as James puts it, doctrine without expression is useless.

I came across this quote from Joachim Sparks in his book, Our Warfare. Now, he's speaking at this point in the book about our spiritual warfare. He's talking about what the enemy, Satan, really opposes. And our focus today isn't Satan and his opposition to the church, but I wanted to bring in this quote to point out the difference between doctrine and the living expression of it. He says, I don't have the full quote here, sorry. I've got the last half of it on the screen, but I've got the first half of it here on my paper, so let me read out loud. He says, there may be a presentation of doctrine without organic expression.

That does not worry Satan very much. We may be orthodox and as sound as it is possible to be, and still not meet the full force of Satan's objection. But, let an organic expression of the Church for practical purposes be brought into view, and you will find trouble coming from everywhere and nowhere." He says, again, when Christianity is formal, ecclesiastical system, sorry, a formal ecclesiastical system without spiritual power, Satan does not trouble himself or it one little bit.

Yeah. When there is but a name, a title, a designation without correspondence to the divine pattern, it is left to go on its way unchallenged. But let the Lord bring into view something that really sets forth Christ corporately, then there is trouble. And I kind of snipped out, that's a little bit, cut out some chunks in between and stuff, but I took out the portions here that kind of highlighted the fact that, you know, if it's just doctrine, you know, if it's just creed, but there's no living expression of it, then from his point of view, writing here on spiritual warfare, Satan isn't worried.

You know, from our perspective here, from kind of what James is talking about, you know, it's quite useless. It's quite useless if we know these things as truths, but they don't come into practical application by faith in our day-to-day walk. So how does James say that wisdom is to be shown? You know, it's fine to say that that, you know, things should show in our life.

I mean, people read James and they come away with that pretty easily. Oh, there's the other half of it. Sorry. Okay. It's good. I'm learning. I have some stories to tell about trying to find a verse. What's this verse? I can't think of it. It's the next verse and I can't read it.

It'll be there in the printed version anyway. So how does James see this wisdom is to be shown? And I was saying, you know, people come away as James saying, oh yeah, you know, it needs to show. And you come away with a very works-oriented kind of mentality, right? You know, James says something's got to show. So, you know, I'm going to have to get to work here, pull up the bootstraps and put on works, right?

So, I'm going to just, I kind of, what I did is I took the next part of the verse here, 13b, and I just broke it down. Oh, see, I did it again. Where's the first part? The next chart? That's funny. There it is. Everything in reverse order now. So you can see how the verse is in bold on the left there.

Let him show out of good behavior his works in gentleness of wisdom. And that's a little bit of an amalgamation of some translations, but I tried to kind of make it as close to the original text as possible there. But then in brackets have given sort of an explanation based on a bit of word study. And so we could just kind of go through that. So let him show means to expose to the eyes or give proof out of or by means of good behavior.

And that, you know, there's a lot actually in those words. Good is a long, lengthy string of sort of synonyms if you look it up. The first one is beautiful, but honorable or proper, or interestingly, useful is in that list as well. And I think that also fits quite well with James' theme.

But behavior, an interesting one, is a state of being or the conduct, behavior, or manner of life. So, out of this you know, proper, honorable, beautiful manner of life, his works or acts in gentleness of wisdom. So it is, you know, this works or outward expressions, you know, works and words are to show the reality or the presence of this wisdom, but it's to come out of this this good manner of life.

And, you know, as believers, we have the righteous life of the Lord Jesus as the source of our life. We have this good manner of life within us. It's not ours. It's Christ. You couldn't put that kind of expression on a person apart from Christ to say that they have a good manner of life, a beautiful manner of life. You know, we have to understand that that comes from Christ. And again, in James here, we can claim to have this nature of Christ, we can even know that we have it, but unless we're actively exercising faith in that, then there's no outflow or outlet of that righteous life. It has to be an active walk of faith. And I wanted to notice that these works are done in a gentleness of wisdom, or a gentleness that is sourced in wisdom.

I don't know when these are going to pop up, but there we have it. Well, you know, it's the thing where you go through and you decide when to bring in certain bullets. Yeah. And it's tricky. It's tricky. You can get out of order. You're in trouble. Yeah, there we are. So, here's all the sorting. I'll just bring it all up. Yeah, bring them all up, yeah. And then it should be, there we go.

So, I wanted to look at this gentleness, or your translation might have meekness. And the word is prautes. And it's an interesting word, and it doesn't mean weakness like it might kind of imply. You know, we sometimes think meek is weak, like a limsy or something. But I really liked what Zodiatis said and then what I got from a Blue Letter Bible from Larry Pierce. Zodiatis. Proutis is not readily expressed in English since the term meekness suggests weakness. Right. Proutis is a condition of mind and heart which demonstrates gentleness not in weakness but power. It is a virtue born in strength of character. And I would add to that, that strength of character is not ours. We don't have strength of character. That is a Christ attribute.

And then Larry Pierce said, gentleness or meekness is the opposite of self-assertiveness and self-interest. That's really important because we're going to come back to that theme there, self-assertive, self-interested kind of thing. It stems from trust in God's goodness and control over the situation. The gentle person is not occupied with self at all.

And then I said, you know, there's a confidence or a strength that comes from this source of wisdom. And remembering that wisdom, and I think you guys have probably talked about this before, wisdom is not so much what you know, but knowing how to apply that knowledge in a skillful and practical way. Or we could put it simply, skill in living.

And there's a superhuman ability to navigate the most pressing trials when we know the source of our new life. I hope superhuman is kind of an okay word, I don't mean to put a mental image of Superman up there, but we understand that we have this, with the nature of Christ in us, we have this ability infinitely beyond us to navigate the most pressing trials. And that makes sense, you know, if we have wisdom, and we know how to navigate the difficulties in life, then we have a sure and steady confidence. And on that basis, you know, we can act in confidence.

So, I just wanted to draw that out a little bit, because, you know, when we read, oh, you know, our good works in gentleness of wisdom, it doesn't really, it doesn't mean a lot, but when we kind of fill out the fullness of what that word praotes means, it's, there's a lot there. So, So now let's look at the wisdom.

So as I said, wisdom is basically skill in living or knowledge applied. And it gets quite interesting here, now as we get into these two kinds of wisdom, and like I said, in verses 14 through 17, James describes these two kinds of wisdom. So taking our definition that wisdom is sort of a skill in living, we could say that there are two distinct skill sets for life.

And there are fundamentally only two kinds of wisdom. And that's helpful. That's actually something that J.D. McCulley, when he was up here, taught us in the Bible framework. There are only two different worldviews. And at a fundamental level, there's only two different ways of looking at life. There may be, you know, a thousand and one different flavors to it, but there are only two, you know, fundamentally two ways of thinking and living. There are two skill sets. And the world's skill set for living or for success in life.

That's the verses that we're looking at today here, and we're going to get into that here. And then the wisdom that comes down from above, that's next week's topic, so I'm not going to try to step into that too much here. But James says in verse 14, but if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie it against the truth. In other words, if you say that you have this wisdom, and yet you know that in your heart you are selfish and jealous, which is in a present or continuous sense there, then stop arrogantly claiming to have this wisdom, is essentially what he says.

And notice that self is really the center of this way of thinking. If we look at the The word there, bitter jealousy, and then we'll look at selfish ambition. Bitter jealousy is pitron zelon. It's a zealousness or a zeal in embracing or pursuing, defending anything, an envious, contentious rivalry. So, when you see that in your heart, you know that you don't, you're not, and if that's what you're functioning on, you're not functioning on the wisdom that comes down from above, you're functioning on this earthly wisdom.

And then similarly with selfish ambition, this was a really interesting word, I liked the definition, I think this came off Blue Letter Bible. They use the word electioneering. And right away you get this vision of, you know, politicians, you know, but even ourselves, you know, or this intriguing for office, but a desire to put oneself forward. And that can be so common in our hearts to want to get ourselves to the front of the line, you know. And, you know, looking at the meaning of those two words, I think we can easily see the connection with 3.1 where he says, let not many of you become teachers, my brethren. Because, like we said, there seems to have been this kind of jockeying for position in the early church. And, you know, everyone had something to say.

But James is actually really stern here. And he says that if that desire to speak is not coming from the Spirit, but from your own self-glorifying zeal, then there's a big problem. And this is the world's kind of wisdom, you know, fighting tooth and nail to get to the top. But notice what James says about this kind of wisdom in verse 15 on the screen there. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic.

And I should have one more. There we go. And this comes from, this is borrowed from Chester Macaulay, slightly, very changed, but earthly, points to the world, natural means it's of the flesh, and demonic says that it's of the devil. And we know those three. Also, we recognize that, oh, the world, the flesh, and the devil.

And that's what this wisdom is sourced in, you know. This wisdom is everything contrary to godliness, and it's consistent with the desires of the sin nature, it's consistent with the world system, just the way the world operates, and it's in line with the mind of Satan himself. So, I think that really makes it quite clear there. I want to look at verse 16 here. Okay, we have five minutes, so let's see if we can... Alright, two slides left, so I think we can take it. But feel free to comment. I don't want to actually try to write a little bit less so that there was more time to have interaction. But 316, for where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder in every evil thing. And we'll notice that jealousy and selfish ambition, same words.

So where that exists, there's disorder in every evil thing. You know, when this is the operating system, when this kind of wisdom is the operating system for an individual, James says that you can be sure that what is being produced is disorder and every evil thing. And interesting that the word disorder is the noun form of the adjective that we looked at in 1 verse 8, and in 3 verse 8, which is unstable or restless or uncontrollable. Andrew kind of pointed out, I was talking about the tongue, it's an uncontrollable evil. And it's the same word here in the noun form. So that's what's present when we function on this wisdom.

And in every evil thing, literally thing there is pragma, which is where we get the word pragmatic. And it literally means deed. So there's every evil deed and these evil deeds are very pragmatic. You think of your pragmatic politician or your pragmatic individual and the end justifies the means.

And that's what James is getting at in that. So those things are what's present. And you know, when I first read this verse, I kind of get the idea or, you know, it's easy to get the idea that, oh, yeah, that's going to look really immoral or really disgusting or kind of distasteful. But as I really thought on this and really what James is saying, I realized, you know, What that kind of wisdom actually looks like is great leadership skills, wonderful charisma, smooth speech, flashy marketing.

Because this human wisdom is, like we said, it's natural or fleshly. So it appeals to the flesh. It's earthly, worldly. It appeals to what the world likes to see. And at the same time, it's demonic. It's satanic. And that's the part we don't see. But Satan loves to see this.

Names and faces come to mind far too quickly, and I don't want to name anybody. Because we could easily point the figure back at ourselves. We really could. I think when you look at almost any big-name church leader, Really, you'll see a perfect example of human wisdom at its finest. Because all these things, and we could extend that list, really exemplify what most of those individuals are all about.

And God says that it's evil. These things, they sell. They really sell well, but they are truly evil. And, you know, it's worldly, it's fleshly, and it's demonic. Because, and this is why it's evil, it's not evil because it looks immoral. It's evil because it's something other than the life of Christ being put on display.

You know? Let's come back to your, it's the source. It's the source. Yeah. That's right. Yeah, it really is all about the source. And I think we sometimes do make that mistake. We think that if the source is evil, it's going to look corrupt. But frankly, when the source is evil, it usually looks pretty flashy.

I know. It can. It definitely can. So, you know, and it's really, when you begin to see it through the eyes of Christ, you kind of see this kind of thing as a gaudy sort of display. But you know, the world eats it up with a spoon, right? Right. Of course, what the world loves is really what God, you know, spews out of his mouth, right?

But it's important to understand, as much as we can point the finger, it's important to understand that we're all fully capable of having, you know, our words and actions sourced in this very same kind of wisdom, you know, this thoroughly evil kind of wisdom.

And because we have the same, so the same two sources, it really is. And it takes spiritual discernment to see and know this kind of wisdom for what it is. And I think that's what James is really talking about here as he brings this together, this section here. You know, they had people jockeying to become teachers and taking on places of position and stuff. And people were, you know, people show all kinds of, you know, works and say all kinds of things, but it's critical to know what the source of those things is.

And that takes spiritual discernment, I think, so. Any comments before we close? We're just past the time. Yeah, in verse 15. where it says such wisdom does not come from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. The Holy Christian Standard Bible says it's earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. You know, it's a little more specific there. You know, anything that's natural is really unspiritual.

That's right. Yeah. Yeah, and that's the contrast, isn't it? That's the difference. Yeah. That is spiritual, or it's natural, fleshly. Yeah. The flesh is very deceptive. All these things from the world really appeal to the flesh. And as Christians we have to be very wise about that and cautious about that. Yeah, absolutely.

I did find this verse kind of stood out to me this week just because of the context of studying this in John 4, 14 where Jesus is talking to the woman at the well and he says, but the water that I give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life. That's what James is talking about. This living water that's been put in us, it springs up to eternal life. That's the source that he that he intends to produce out of each of us. And this is James. This is Jesus' brother. James is Jesus' brother.

So he probably heard these things when he was saved. And when he got saved, it just made all the sense in the world. I'm thinking he probably heard some of these things at least as often as anyone else ever would have, right? Yes. Yeah. growing up and everything, and it's just, wow, look at the guy.

Yeah, you really see Jesus' words coming up in James, for sure. Yeah, they probably hated Jesus because he was so perfect. Well, that's one of the things that this verse points out, and from James' perspective, living with Jesus as his brother physically on the earth, here he out of that new nature that he has.

And verse 13 says, let him show. That's a command. Let Christ show. I don't know if that's a good summation of that or not, but it sure fits the context. And next week we're going to look at, show what is good, right? Wisdom that is good. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty good.

Let's close in prayer here. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this opportunity to look into your Word, Lord. We thank you that we have this source, not of ourselves. We thank you that we have the very life of your dear Son indwelling. And Lord, you desire to produce his righteous life through us, simply by faith. And so we just pray that that we learn to see the flesh for what it is, that we learn to see this earthly wisdom for what it is, and that we would begin to depend more and more fully and completely on this new life that you have put in us and you desire to work out through us. In Jesus' name, Amen.