The Wisdom from Above

Who is wise and understanding among you? 

That’s how our text begins this morning. James, the brother of Jesus, writing a letter to the church scattered throughout the world, asks, “Who is wise and understanding among you?” Now as you know, the schedule of preachers and topics at Bethel is managed by [A]. And when he asks us to preach, it is the prospective preacher’s responsibility to first apply the text to ourselves, personally. Last time I was up to preach, the text was “if any man lacks wisdom, let him ask of God…” and now this: “Who is wise and understanding among you?” Now I’m not going to try to pin this on [A]. God must be trying to tell me something. And I don’t think it is a coincidence that these two preaching requests on the topic of wisdom just happen to span a significant career change decision. So please be patient with me as I navigate that -- I think that this is also a reminder that I will need to be continually asking God for wisdom.

In moments of clarity and honesty, we all recognize the value of wisdom, and we all understand that God is the only source of wisdom -- there is nothing remotely like wisdom in the animal kingdom; it is only due to our creation in the image of God that we can consider wisdom at all -- and we all long for more of it in our lives. Everywhere we go, we hear whispers of the words of the poet (T. S. Eliot):

Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?

We live, after all, in an “information age” -- and our vast storehouses of information and formal knowledge mask the fact that we, as a society, are deeply impoverished when it comes to wisdom. Part of our problem is that technological advances have deceived us into thinking that the new is always better than the old, and the trendy is always better than the traditional.

But if we’re serious about wisdom, we need to have some respect for tradition. As Jeremiah wrote:

This is what the Lord says:
“Stand at the crossroads and look;
    ask for the ancient paths,
ask where the good way is, and walk in it,
    and you will find rest for your souls.

So yeah: ask for the ancient paths. And you would discover what Solomon says on the subject of wisdom almost three thousand years ago. His writings still represent treasures of wisdom. They just don’t get old, folks. Let me read a few representative proverbs (2:2,9,10):

My son, if you [turn] your ear to wisdom
    and [apply] your heart to understanding—
Then you will understand what is right and just
    and fair—every good path.
For wisdom will enter your heart,
    and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.

Please notice two things. First, that line: “Then you will understand what is right and just and fair”? Another way to put that would be “Then you will understand... justice” -- because that’s what being “right and just and fair” is all about, after all. Solomon is making it clear that the goal of wisdom is, in fact, justice. Please understand what this means: if society is struggling to be fair; if the church is in conflict over “social justice,” this crisis is best understood to be a crisis of wisdom. And anyone who wants anything resembling true justice should be doing everything they can to seek true wisdom -- starting, as James tells us, by coming to God with a request for wisdom.

Second, “for wisdom will enter your heart …[and it] will be pleasant to your soul.” Previously, we read, “ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your soul.” The goal of wisdom is justice, but one of the benefits of wisdom is personal well-being. It’s funny: the last two times I was up here, I had good reason to mention the happiness studies, and now I have another good reason. Because there are four things that correlate significantly with human happiness. Gratitude -- I mentioned that a few months ago. Meaning -- I mentioned that last month. The fourth one is forgiveness -- that might show up next month? But the third one is caring for others. When we spend our time and our energies bringing justice and mercy to those around us, it will “be pleasant to your soul.”

Let me use two more items from the Old Testament to establish the connection between wisdom and justice, both from the story of Solomon. You may remember: not long after Solomon was crowned the king of Israel, God appeared to him in a dream saying, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.” And then, because God was so pleased with the substance of Solomon’s request, He granted it to him with these words (1 Kings 3:11,12):

So God said to [Solomon], “Since you have not asked for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have you asked for the death of your enemies but have instead asked for discernment in administering justice, I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart....

Now in Sunday School, they would tell you that Solomon asked God for wisdom. But once again, as we can see from God’s reply, both Solomon and God understood that the point of wisdom was to be better able to understand and administer justice. And to drive the point home, right on the heels of God’s promise in these verses, the Bible tells a story in order to illustrate Solomon’s great wisdom. 1 Kings chapter 3, verse 16:

16 Some time later two prostitutes came to the king to have an argument settled.17 “Please, my lord,” one of them began, “this woman and I live in the same house. I gave birth to a baby while she was with me in the house. 18 Three days later this woman also had a baby. ...
19 “But her baby died during the night when she rolled over on it. 20 Then she got up in the night and took my son from beside me while I was asleep. She laid her dead child in my arms and took mine to sleep beside her. 21 And in the morning when I tried to nurse my son, he was dead! But when I looked more closely in the morning light, I saw that it wasn’t my son at all.”
22 Then the other woman interrupted, “It certainly was your son, and the living child is mine.”
“No,” the first woman said, “the living child is mine, and the dead one is yours.” And so they argued back and forth before the king.
23 Then the king said, “Let’s get the facts straight. Both of you claim the living child is yours, and each says that the dead one belongs to the other. 24 All right, bring me a sword.” So a sword was brought to the king.
25 Then he said, “Cut the living child in two, and give half to one woman and half to the other!”
26 Then the woman who was the real mother of the living child, and who loved him very much, cried out, “Oh no, my lord! Give her the child—please do not kill him!”
But the other woman said, “All right, he will be neither yours nor mine; divide him between us!”
27 Then the king said, “Do not kill the child, but give him to the woman who wants him to live, for she is his mother!”
28 When all Israel heard the king’s decision, the people were in awe of the king, for they saw the wisdom God had given him for rendering justice.

This story comes right after the Bible has just finished telling us that Solomon was the wisest man alive. It represents the pinnacle, the height of wisdom. This is the story that the Spirit of God chose to demonstrate for us what wisdom is like. Note that wisdom is not about science. And wisdom is not about theology. Solomon did not solve a puzzle or prove a theorem. Solomon is not revealing the mysteries of the universe. Instead, we see Solomon reunite a prostitute to her child. We see justice being granted to one who might expect no hearing at all; we see the strong and powerful and rich and wise taking the time to deliver fairness and kindness and mercy to the weak, and powerless, and poor and foolish. This is the essence of wisdom. This is the picture of God’s wisdom for us. And just so we don’t miss the point, the story concludes with all Israel observing that God had given their king wisdom… for rendering justice.

And this is the background that James had when he wrote about wisdom. This is the foundation that he is going to build on for us. Let’s turn to that text now. James 3:13-18:

Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. 15 This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. 17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceful, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. 18 And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness.

So what is James doing here? Well, he’s making it clear that there are competing “wisdoms”. There is a “wisdom from above” and then there is an “earthly” wisdom. That is, there is a “true wisdom” and there is a “counterfeit wisdom.”

Paul writes that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against “principalities and powers” (in King James) or against “spiritual forces of evil (in the NIV), and one of the strategies of the enemies of God is to insinuate counterfeits into the church. Let me describe how this works: when the church places value in any word, whether the word is “faith” or “love” or “justice” the enemy takes that word, twists it, and makes it mean something that it was never intended to mean in the first place. Then, this counterfeit is smuggled into and imposed on the church, putting us on the defensive. And all too often, we don’t have the knowledge or the confidence to be able to say, “hold on: that’s not what the Bible means by that word at all.”

Unfortunately, the reason that the enemy succeeds in these attacks is not just that we have failed to faithfully transmit what, exactly, these precious and important words were intended to mean in the first place. But that all too often the church has also failed to be the example of love and faith and justice that God calls us to be.

So James is addressing the challenge of the enemy wanting to insinuate  “counterfeit wisdom” into the church. And the stakes are high, folks. Earlier, we established that the goal of wisdom is justice. So that means that if we start buying into the enemy’s “counterfeit wisdom,” you can be sure that the end result will be a “counterfeit justice.”

As I’m sure that you are aware, all bank tellers are trained to detect counterfeit money. And they tell me that this training primarily involves becoming intimately familiar with the detailed features of authentic currency. James’ strategy here is similar: he is going to identify for us the key features of authentic wisdom, and as we become more and more comfortable with the real thing, we will simultaneously become more competent at detecting any counterfeit. So James begins by telling us that “true wisdom” is characterized by good conduct done in meekness.

That “good conduct” business -- it is easy to overlook, perhaps because we’re in such a habit of thinking that the church is all about having us behave well. But it is an important reminder that true wisdom moves us -- and it moves us toward justice. It isn’t an academic thing; it isn’t something that resides in our heads. Two weeks ago, James reminded us that “faith without works is dead.” And just like with faith, wisdom without works is also dead.

But that “meekness” now: it isn’t a word that we use very much anymore. Other translations use the word “gentleness” and still others use the word “humility” -- so that might help us to understand better. Humility and gentleness: rare commodities these days, but these are the first key features to identify the wisdom from above.

Typically, those who pose as the “wise” among us today are more frequently characterized by the exact opposite: their arrogance, their nasty put-downs of others, their pride in wearing a mantle of authority. And our society actually rewards people like that, giving them a voice in the media, and even electing them to our highest offices. So, naturally, the temptation to copy such behavior is strong, even, unfortunately, in the church. But James is saying that this kind of arrogance is the first indication of a counterfeit wisdom. The truly wise will know how to be humble; and how to be gentle. The truly wise will also know when to be humble and when to be gentle.

And James has given us plenty more to go on in order to distinguish between true and counterfeit wisdom (v17):

...the wisdom that is from above is first of all pure, then peaceful, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

The wisdom from above is first of all pure. Please note how this proceeds: first, the wisdom comes from above. As James tells us in his first chapter, all good gifts come from above, from our gracious Father. Then, after that, the wisdom from above is pure. I’ve noticed that churches occasionally seem to get this backwards: as valuable as personal purity is, we don’t preach purity so that then people will then be wise, so that they can then bless God. Instead, God blesses us with His wisdom -- and encourages us to ask for more of it -- and then that wisdom then guides us toward personal purity.

“Then peaceful, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruit, without partiality and without hypocrisy.” Remember the connection that we established earlier between wisdom and justice? James is quite aware of it, too. And so we see the hallmarks of Biblical justice -- that is, being “reasonable” and “full of mercy” and “without partiality” -- featured as characteristics of true wisdom as well.

So be careful: when someone is ungentle, when they are unpeaceable, when they exhibit precious little mercy, look out! This is not someone demonstrating the wisdom from above. This is not someone that you want to define justice for you.

You know, by its very nature, justice isn’t justice unless there is a justifier. So who is your justifier this morning? Who do you look to for your justification? (or, using more common language) Who do you look to for your validation? Some people look for validation on social media; some people look for it in academia; some people look for it from the law, I suppose. Some people look for validation among their friends, or perhaps their community. But none of these are true justifiers. None of them deserve to have that kind of power over you, and we get ourselves in deep trouble when we grant them that kind of power. Instead, Paul makes it clear (Romans 8:33b):

It is God who justifies. 

In fact, it is only God who truly justifies. And looking for justification (or validation) elsewhere is quite simply a breach of faith, and also a recipe for disaster. One of the tell-tale features about all those other counterfeit justifiers is that they all seem to require allegiance to some political movement or other.

And that’s where things start to get tricky. You see, all manner of people are quite happy to be gentle and reasonable and peaceable -- as long as they are dealing with their own “tribe.” Far too often people today demonstrate “selective mercy” or “selective gentleness” -- according to their political leanings. You know how that goes: the standard that political opponents are held to is one that would never be applied to political supporters. James would likely tell us that that's partiality and, frankly, hypocrisy. Rather, the test of true wisdom is being able to exhibit gentleness, reason, mercy, and impartiality when dealing with outsiders.

Because the “peace” that only applies within one’s political orbit really isn’t of much value. Mercy isn’t mercy that counts unless it crosses the boundaries that divide us. Gentleness isn’t gentleness that counts unless it reaches out beyond our comfort zones. Let there be peace and justice between people of different races, by all means. Let there be peace and justice between the sexes. But let there also be peace and justice between those of competing political leanings.

Our common over-simplification in the world of politics involves the words “left” and “right”: “progressive” and “conservative”. They each have their own brand of justice, and they are almost mirror-images of each other -- both failing to extend mercy and fairness beyond their own “in-group”. The progressive criticism of the conservative brand of justice is that it often marginalizes those who look or behave differently. On the other hand, the conservative criticism of the progressive brand of justice is that it often marginalizes those who think differently. Now, the progressive Christian might say, “well, God cares about how people think.” But the conservative Christian might say, “well, God also cares about how people behave.” Neither one is no closer to true justice than the other. Both are failures. Both represent counterfeit justice.

But who can rescue us from this lose-lose situation? Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory in Christ Jesus, in whom are found all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. In Ephesians, Paul writes about how Christ has torn down the most pervasive cultural barriers of the time -- let me read his words taking his situation as the prototype of all cultural barriers (2:14-16):

For Christ himself has brought peace to us. ... [For] in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall[s] of hostility that separated us. ...He made peace ... by creating in himself one new people from [a very divided humanity]. 16 Together as one body, Christ reconciled [us of all] to God by means of his death on the cross, [where] our hostility toward each other was put to death.

And later in the same letter, Paul tells us that this unity we find in Christ is the best defense against the danger of counterfeits (4:14):

[when] we all come to such unity in our faith…[then] We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth.

You see, the only remedy to the failures of politicized counterfeit justice is to break free from the thinking of left and right, and to look up, coming to God asking Him for wisdom from above. And when we do, James also tells us that He will give freely without finding fault. But we need to come confident that God is, indeed, the only true justifier; that He is the only true source of wisdom. If we still need validation from human sources, we’re doing that double-minded thing that James so strongly warns us against in chapter one.

Faith, love, justice, wisdom -- all of these are critical to the life and health and the effectiveness of the church. So let us not be seduced by counterfeits this morning. Don’t settle for any less than the wisdom from above. But remember: even though this wisdom, as Solomon puts it, “will be pleasant to your soul”, the goal of wisdom has always been for us to “understand what is right and just and fair.” May God also share His vision for justice with His church even as he answers our prayers for wisdom.