James 3:13-18

¹³ Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. ¹⁴ But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. ¹⁵ This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. ¹⁶ For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. ¹⁷ But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. ¹⁸ And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.

The book of Proverbs is largely a book on wisdom. As we saw last week, wisdom is not so much about knowing a lot of things, but about knowing God and obeying Him. Wisdom is more about a posture of the heart rather than information in the head. Proverbs 9:10 tells us, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.” Knowing and fearing God is true wisdom. That manifests itself in one’s disposition and character. Those who know God and fear Him are humble. Those who do not are proud. James draws that same line of distinction between the wisdom of the world and God’s wisdom in James 3:13-18. From that passage, we can draw four marks of true wisdom: godly living, motives, fruits, and attitudes. Last week, we addressed the first two of those marks and this week we will deal with the latter two.

The third mark of true wisdom that we can draw from this text is that of godly fruits. “Envying” (jealousy) and “strife” (selfish ambition) are the motives of the wisdom of the world. They originate, not from God, but from Satan and fallen mankind. Everything about the world system is centered around the great “I” of self. This type of motivation bears a certain kind of fruit. It bears the fruit of “confusion and every evil work.” “Confusion” comes from a Greek word that means “disorder.” Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 14:33 that, “For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace.” A different form of the word has already been found in James 1:8 when James wrote that “a double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” Another form of the word is found in James 3:7 to describe the tongue as “an unruly evil.” The uses are consistently describing something evil and out of control. It most likely refers to the fighting that was present among the Christians that James wrote to that will be addressed in James 4:1-3. Not only is worldly wisdom marked by disorder, but it also produces “every evil work.” This phrase categorically refers to every kind of evil action. The meaning then is that every evil action in the world comes from a heart that is driven by worldly jealousy and selfish ambition. True wisdom, instead, is marked by godly fruits that are the opposite of jealousy and selfish ambition. True wisdom is marked by humility and the fruit of the Spirit that begins with sacrificial love (Galatians 5:22-23).

The fourth mark of true wisdom is godly attitudes. The list that he provides is an all-encompassing list of godly character, attitudes, and dispositions. “Pure” comes from a word that has the same root as the typical word for holy. It describes something clean and without sin. Many outwardly good actions are tainted by sinful motives and agendas. “Peaceable” refers to something that produces peace as opposed to strife.  “Gentle” is not the typical word that is translated “meek” elsewhere, but has the meaning of being considerate, reasonable, and patient. It is used in 1 Timothy 3:3 to describe a pastor as one who is “patient, not a brawler.” “Easy to be intreated” is a word that means compliant or submissive. It has to do with being teachable. Worldly wisdom approaches everything from the perspective of “my thoughts are the standard and anything not conforming to my thinking must be wrong.” This is the opposite. John MacArthur says, “It is teachable, compliant, and not stubborn.” Selfish ambition from worldly wisdom brushes up against godly leadership and divine truth and immediately stiffens its neck. “Full of mercy and good fruits” describes being merciful toward others who wrong us, but also speaks to kind actions to benefit others. It is an “others-mindedness.” “Without partiality” and “without hypocrisy” speaks to righteous judgment and discernment as well as matching one’s life to the judgment that we apply. All of this results in “peace.” This is not the peace of sinful compromise, but the peace of living in godly harmony with each other in the body of Christ. All of this is about putting aside ourselves and allowing God to have His way.

What type of wisdom characterizes your life? Is your life marked by godly living? Are you motivated by selfish ambition? Does your life bear the peaceable fruit of righteousness? Is your attitude that of peaceful submission? James provides these things, not only as things to pursue and obey, but also as tests of spiritual maturity and relationship with the Lord. A heart that is driven by selfish ambition, stubbornness, and rebellion toward others in the body of Christ is one that is rebellious toward God. The answer for worldly wisdom is humility. It is humbling ourselves before the Lord that He might produce in our lives the fruit He desires and have His will lived out in His Church.