Wisdom From Above (James 3:13-18)

Daniel L. Arter

James: Practical Christianity • Sermon • Submitted 4 years ago

James 3:13–18

Wisdom

Good Works

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Transcript

Welcome

Hey guys, thanks for joining me this evening. For those of you on Facebook Live, feel free to join us on Zoom if you’d like to ask questions or give out prayer requests. If not, that’s fine as well. I hope you’re all having a great week, I know some of you started working again, so I’m sure you’re tired and just want to eat dinner and go to bed, so thank you for choosing to study Scripture with me instead.

Before we do anything else, I’d like to open us up with prayer.

Prayer

Pray for those suffering with COVID-19

Pray for those that are slowly returning to work

Pray for all our essential workers that have been working

Sermon

Introduction

This evening, we’re tackling a topic that in one sense, if we get this topic right; a lot of issues are alleviated. It is a topic that most people think they have, even if they don’t and it is a topic that changes the way we act and the way we think and even the way that we feel. Sometimes this topic is confused with another and we’ll take a moment to discuss both topics later on and I’ll do my best to explain what the differences between the two are. The topic that we’re focusing on this evening, is spoken of throughout the Scriptures, in Psalms, we’re told that “the mouth of the righteous utters” this particular topic, Proverbs tells us that fools despise is, the Bible tells us that it is available to those who seek it if they seek it through knowing God, and by the time we get to the New Testament, we’re told to walk in it, look for it, find it, and use it.

Our topic this evening, is wisdom, which isn’t the same thing as knowledge though knowledge helps to inform wisdom and it isn’t the same thing as intellect and it isn’t the same thing as education, though you can be educated in wisdom and you can have intellectual knowledge of wisdom. Wisdom informs our thinking, informs our actions, and informs our feelings and even if we don’t exactly have a great definition of the word wisdom we can all think of someone in our lives that we consider to be wise—that person might be a pastor, might be a grandparent, might be a teacher, or may just be a friend and whenever we talk to that specific person we walk away with the sense of wisdom being passed down to us.

And while we might think that we can never be wise, that it is beyond us to be wise; the Bible tells us to search for wisdom, seek wisdom, the Bible tells us to be wise and it even informs us as to where we can find wisdom.

But before we keep going, let’s take a look at the passage of Scripture for this evening. James 3:13-18. It is a little bit of a shorter passage than what we’ve been working through lately, but the topic of wisdom is such an important topic that it warrants taking a whole message just to focus on wisdom.

James 3:13–18 ESV

13 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 from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. 18 And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

We’re going to look at this passage and in general the topic of wisdom in three sections: (1) we’re going to develop a working, biblical definition of wisdom and we’re going to start by looking at Vs. 13, but we’ll also look at a number of other passages in order to develop this biblical definition of wisdom, (2) we’re going to take a look at what James calls Earthly Wisdom (14-16), and (3) we’re going to take a look at what James calls Wisdom from Above (17-18). All of this will give us a working definition for wisdom, call us to seek wisdom, and show us what true wisdom looks like.

What is Wisdom? (13)

James in Vs. 13, says, “who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.”

And this initial statement, brings up multiple questions because we need to understand what wisdom is according to Scripture before we can even answer the question that James is posing. So, let’s start with, “What is Wisdom?”

And like I normally would, I looked up the term in the dictionary first, so let’s explore what Merriam-Webster says about wisdom. Merriam-Webster gives three primary definitions for the term, (1) “the ability to discern inner qualities and relationships,” (2) “a wise attitude, belief, or course of action,” and (3) “the teachings of the ancient wise men.” And under the 1st main definition, “the ability to discern inner qualities and relationships,” they also define wisdom as, “Good sense,” “generally accepted belief,” or “accumulated philosophical or scientific learning.”

All of the definitions seem to be decent definitions, though there are issues with each one. For instance, I’m fairly certain that in elementary school, we teach children that they cannot utilize the term that they’re trying to define in their definition, so I’m not entirely sure if “a wise attitude” or “the teachings of ancient wise men” actually tell us anything useful.

As for the actual decent definitions, “the ability to discern inner qualities and relationships,” is definitely a part of wisdom. It takes wisdom to develop discernment, but discernment in and of itself is not wisdom. Wisdom is more than that.

“Good sense,” relegates what wisdom is to simply common sense and while common sense has a role in wisdom, it isn’t all wisdom is. Wisdom is more than that.

“Generally accepted belief,” is a little bit vague to me and I don’t think it actually defines wisdom, I think it actually defines what we would consider “orthodoxy” to be when it comes to Christian beliefs. What the normal beliefs are in Christianity are considered to be orthodox.

And then the last definition, “accumulated philosophical or scientific learning” would actually fit the definition for what the Bible calls knowledge, not wisdom.

So as compelling as the definitions are, they don’t necessarily encompass what the Bible means when it poses the question, “who is wise among you?”

So, let’s consider for a moment, what the Bible says about wisdom:

In James 1:5, the Bible says that if anyone lacks wisdom, to ask God and it will be given to him

Psalm 111:10, says that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who practice it has good understanding”

Proverbs 9:10, says that “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight,”

These three verses make it clear that wisdom, true wisdom comes from the Lord. When the Bible mentions “the fear of the Lord” it is really talking about the reverential attitude that we ought to have for God, and the implication is that we won’t actually gain true wisdom until we start understanding who God is and who we are because of who God is.

In the Proverbs 9:10 passage, we’re told that “the knowledge of the Holy One is insight,” the word that’s translated as insight in the ESV, is usually translated as understanding in other verses and if you compare the ESV to the KJV or the NASB, you’ll find out that those translators chose to translate the word as “understanding.” So, quite literally, the passage is saying that understanding our position with God and understand who God is produces wisdom and knowing God is how we gain understanding.

If you’re like me, you’ve noticed that these verses have told us where to get knowledge and wisdom, but they haven’t told us what exactly it is and unfortunately, the Bible doesn’t exactly spell it out, but some additional verses that would help us get some insight into what the Bible calls wisdom are:

Proverbs 16:16, “How much better to get wisdom than gold, to get insight rather than silver!’ — expresses the great worth of wisdom; that wisdom is far better than riches

Proverbs 3:13-18 says, “Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who gets understanding, for the gain from her is better than gain from silver and her profit better than gold. She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her. Long life is in her right hand in her left hand are riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her; those who hold her fast are called blessed.” — This passage tells us again of the great worth and value of wisdom, but not only that, we’re told that the person who finds wisdom will be called blessed—and will possibly experience, riches and honor, pleasantness, and peace (I’m saying possibly experience, because its a Proverbs and Proverbs aren’t promises, they just explain the typical pattern of what occurs).

All of this, while not exactly defining what wisdom is, does give us some ideas of what we’re seeking for when we search for wisdom

If we seek for wisdom, we’re seeking for something that is extremely valuable, that will bless our lives by possibly allowing us to experience riches and honor, pleasantness in life, and peace (though let me assure you that I’m not preaching a prosperity gospel; again, that comes from a Proverb, which is not a promise, just some insight on the typical pattern on how things work). If we’re truly seeking wisdom, these affects may happen, but what I do know will happen, is that we’ll have a reverential fear for the Lord.

How do I know that? Because the Bible says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; if we don’t understand who God is and where we stand because of God, we won’t gain the wisdom that God is trying to offer us. And if we’re truly seeking the wisdom that begins at the fear of the Lord, we’ll also gain some amount of understanding

Judging by what the Bible says about wisdom, it seems as if wisdom is something that allows us to think and act differently and that would be the first part of my biblical definition of wisdom, but before we can get that second part of the definition, we need to talk about one other topic.

Let me take a brief moment, before we jump back into Scripture to explain the difference between understanding and wisdom

If you paid attention to some of the verses that we looked at, you’ll notice that wisdom and understanding is frequently mentioned together in the Bible and because they’re mentioned together so frequently, we might think that they refer to the same thing, but they do not refer to the same thing.

Wisdom and understanding are two different things; and in the case of understanding, you can actually have understanding without having wisdom.

Understanding or knowledge is essentially, information that we learn through experience, reason, or education. It is knowing what the Bible says or in a secular context, it is knowing what a text book says.

And you can actually have understanding or knowledge without actually being wise. A person can be an utter fool and have all the knowledge in the world—knowledge does not make one wise

Now, on the other hand, you cannot have wisdom without having knowledge

Why is that? Because our wisdom actually depends on our knowledge and understanding. We cannot make wise decisions if we don’t have knowledge to inform our wisdom.

Or in other words, I need knowledge and understanding in order to make wise decisions.

When the two women come to King Solomon each claiming that a child was their son, Solomon exhibited wisdom and understanding in a tremendous way:

He listened to the two women and their complaints (which in and of itself is wise) and in listening to the two women he increased his understanding of the situation. In addition to the understanding that he learned from the women, he has understanding from his previous experience, such as the fact that he knew a true mother who loved their child would never harm her child.

And combining his knowledge of how a true mother wouldn’t hurt her child and the knowledge that one of the women in front of him clearly wasn’t the mother, he proposed a solution that seems barbaric and absurd, but shows how wisdom utilizes knowledge to make a wise decision

He suggests cutting the child in half so each women could have a piece of the child knowing full well through his knowledge that the true mother would never agree with the idea. And in this situation the true mother of the child gave up her child to protect him and Solomon could then reunite the child with the true mother.

Another example that’s a bit more modern could involve driving a vehicle. If you drove up to a train track, you knowledge and understanding would tell you that the flashing lights and stop bar means that something is coming down the track. Now, you could take a moment to assess how far the train might be based on sounds and sight and you could take time assessing you knowledge of how quick your car can move and how quick the train can move

And you can spend all that time thinking through the “what ifs” of driving over the tracks anyways—despite the flashing lights and the stop bar. That all has to do with knowledge and understanding

But it is wisdom that tells you that the train is quicker than you think it is, the train is heavier than you think it is, and your little car isn’t as strong as you think it is. And it is wisdom that tells you not to drive over the tracks despite your “knowledge” of how quick your car can move.

Or one more example, knowledge is knowing how to hold a gun, aim a gun, and shoot a gun; wisdom is knowing when to shoot it.

Wisdom and knowledge or understanding, both occur over and over in the Bible. What we see from Scripture is that Wisdom is the ability to discern right from wrong or true from false based on the knowledge that you’ve learned. And knowledge is information gained through experience, reasoning, or education.

So, when James says in Vs. 13, “Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom,” he’s making a statement that essentially says that someone who is actually wise and someone who is actually filled with understanding, can and should show his wisdom in his good conduct and his good works.

Or in other words, just like the person who claims that you can have faith without works, he’s inviting those who think they are wise and understanding, to prove it. And he doesn’t ask them to prove it by showing off their wisdom or showing off their knowledge—he doesn’t ask for their credentials in that sort of sense, he doesn’t want to see their diplomas or see their publications

He was to see in their conduct and in their works that they are wise and understanding. In other words, good conduct is the basis on which someone can demonstrate true wisdom.

And that good conduct and in his good works, he is to do these things in the meekness or humbleness of wisdom.

The idea being that there is a humbleness or meekness that is to come with wisdom

And everything that person does in his life should be influenced by the meek wisdom that he has obtained.

A truly wise and understanding person will have a life that reflects someone who is wise and someone who is understanding and someone who is meek.

Now, what we’re about to learn from James 3 and what other passages of Scripture also state, is that there is a difference between godly wisdom and earthly wisdom and he does this by showing us what each type of wisdom looks like and in doing so, he also teaches us the attributes that describe a wise person’s life. To help differentiate between the types of wisdom, whether or not it’s earthly or godly wisdom, I’ll do my best to utilize those terms.

Earthly Wisdom (14-16)

James 3:14–16 ESV

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.

James brings up a series of attributes that define what he calls earthly, unspiritual, and demonic.

In Vs. 14, he says that “but if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth.”

Which because of the wording, might be a bit confusing, so let me take some time to explain this a little bit—first off, let’s figure out what the Bible means by bitter jealousy and selfish ambition

Bitter Jealousy — Bitter jealousy is in contrast to regular jealousy, which might seem like an odd thing to say, but let me explain by saying that there is a type of jealousy that is good and we typically utilize a different term to differentiate between bitter jealousy and regular jealous and that term is “Zeal.” If you look at at the Greek word that’s utilized there, it can actually mean jealousy or zeal

Which means that not all jealousy is bad or wrong—the Bible talks about God being jealous for us, Paul tells the Corinthians that he feels a divine jealousy for them, Jesus is described of being consumed by a sort of zeal when he confronts the money changers for their sin, which isn’t a sense of wrongdoing, but rather a sense of excitement towards them or a sense of eagerness. It can really be defined as an unselfish zeal for the Lord

It just happens to be that the good type of jealousy isn’t what James is talking about, he’s talking about a bitter jealousy, which is defined by selfishness, harshness, possibly violence and it is this type of “jealousy” that typically comes with envy towards another person.

Selfish Ambition — Just like jealousy, ambition itself is not a wrong thing. It is good to set goals, push yourself, and expect a lot from yourself, but this type of ambition is different

This type of selfish ambition goes hand in hand with bitter jealousy and this isn’t a normal healthy form of ambition. Or as Aristotle describes the Greek word, “A self-seeking pursuit . . . by unfair means”

This is the type of ambition that seeks to do whatever possible, even hurt other people for their own selfish gains.

James warns people who are characterized by this bitter jealousy and selfish ambition to not boast of it and don’t be false to the truth

In other words, don’t be proud in your bitter jealousy and selfish ambition that you’re passing on as godly wisdom.

Don’t show confidence in this bitter jealousy and selfish ambition that you’re claiming is godly wisdom.

And don’t be false to the truth or don’t try to pass this type of wisdom off as true, godly wisdom. It isn’t.

And these terms, Bitter jealousy and selfish ambition are set apart from the good conduct and meekness of wisdom shown in Vs. 13. This is very much the antithesis to good works, good conduct, and godly wisdom soaked in humility, gentleness, and meekness.

James feels so strongly about this false type of wisdom that he claims in Vs. 15, that “this is not the wisdom that comes from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic” and he explains why in Vs. 16, “for where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.”

Vs. 15, makes it clear that this is a type of wisdom, but it isn’t godly wisdom that comes from above. And in doing this, he draws the line between godly and earthly wisdom in a more distinct way.

He defines this wisdom as earthly, unspiritual, and demonic

Earthly doesn’t always depict sinfulness, it is not a negative connotation, it sometimes refers to where something comes from, but when utilized in conjunction to talk about our thinking or our behavior, “earthly” has a negative nuance, that suggests a perspective that neglects God and God’s will. There is a type of philosophy that does not take into account God or his word. One of my all time favorite professors used to say that the history of western philosophy is the history of man attempting to explain the world apart from God and that it was like a group of people in a dark cave reaching out in the darkness to see what’s around them when in reality there’s a huge skylight in the cave, if they would just accept the reality of God.

Unspiritual—which simply means that the person stands in contrast to the person who seeks to know God and seeks God; this person has no want or desire to pursue God, which means that the wisdom that he possess is opposed to God. Proverbs 28:26, would consider this person as “he who trusts in himself”

And demonic, the false wisdom that people are boasting about, is not from above; it is from demons.

Douglas Moo, “In sum, this false wisdom, which does not lead to good works and humility, is characterized by ‘the world, the flesh, and the devil”

And in the description of this earthly wisdom, he tells us that this earthly wisdom that is characterized by bitter jealousy and selfish ambition and defined by its worldly, flesh-focused, and demonic focus results in disorder and vile practices

James tells us that wisdom that is defined by bitter jealousy and selfish ambition results in disorder and every vile practice—and already in this book, he’s described a series of sins and attitudes that reflect this type of wisdom: we’ve seen restlessness (3:8), instability (1:8), we’ve seen evilness and double-mindedness; and in this passage we’ve seen envy and selfish ambition.

We’re getting this distinct image that anywhere that “wisdom from below” reigns supreme, there is disorder and there is sin and the perfect example of this, unfortunately, is in local churches.

And you can see this quite easily, because in a lot of churches, the word of God, which tells us the wisdom from above is neglected when it comes to decisions. Rather than praying before decisions, pastors and deacons rely on their own thinking and then utilize the Bible to justify their own opinions

And as the church leadership starts to do what benefits them rather than doing what the Bible tells them to do; the congregation along with the leadership is led into disorder and sin.

We can see this in families—in which wisdom from below reigns supreme and instead of caring for one another, they’re more concerned with their own selfish needs

We can see this in corporate America—the multi-billion dollar CEO with 100,000 employees that just barely make it by.

And what James is telling us, is that if this type of earthly, unspiritual, demonic wisdom reigns supreme in our thinking, we should expect these results.

In contrast to that, James describes what wisdom from above looks like and it is night and day different.

Wisdom from Above (17-18)

James 3:17–18 ESV

17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. 18 And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

James gives off a series of attributes concerning wisdom from above and quite frankly, it kind of reminds me of the fruit of the spirit in Galatians 5:22-23 in that both Paul and James is emphasizes humility, peaceableness, and upright behavior; and what Paul says the Holy Spirit produces, James says that wisdom produces, which might infer that James is stressing the fact that if we pursue God and seek wisdom from God, the wisdom that is given to us is similar or maybe even identical to the fruits of the spirit worked within us. Regardless, James states that:

Wisdom from above is pure—and this is the overarching attribute of godly wisdom. That is why James says that wisdom from above is first pure. And the idea is a moral blamelessness. This type of wisdom is free from sin and it makes complete sense, because God himself is free from sin; he is holy and we’ve been commanded to be holy like he is holy; so realistically, we cannot utilize wisdom that isn’t pure.

Wisdom from above is peaceable—which is appropriate, because if you remember, James just said that wisdom from below is not peaceable. Not to mention that the Old Testament also states that wisdom is peaceable, Proverbs 3:17 says that wisdom’s way is pleasantness.

Wisdom from above is gentle—to be gentle is to be kind, willing to yield if necessary, unwilling to be demanding in a negative way

Wisdom from above is open to reason—which means that the person is willing to hear other perspectives and weigh them out. That doesn’t mean that they’re gullible, simply that they’re willing to defer to others when the issue does not concern fundamental doctrine or morality.

Wisdom from above is full of mercy and good fruits—true godly wisdom will be filled with mercy and good fruits to them that need mercy. Remember James’ previous statement that true religion is to visit orphans and widows in their affliction; he goes a step forward and states that godly wisdom is also full of these things and it makes sense again, that he would expect wisdom from above to show up in actions, because in Vs. 13 he says that a wise and understanding person should, “By his good conduct show works”

Wisdom from above is impartial and sincere—the idea is that the godly wisdom ought to be unwavering which indicates a purity or singleness of heart and without double-mindedness.

And he closes in Vs. 18, with the result of utilizing that wisdom from above, “And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”

Those that have this heavenly or godly wisdom sows peace. James gives a fairly clear picture that true, godly wisdom results in a harvest of righteousness sown by those that make peace in peace.

There are many commentators who believe that James is confronting a group of people within the church that claims to have extra wisdom, but in reality are dividing the church up in anger and bitterness.

That is why he makes such a clear point that any wisdom that results in disorder and vile practices isn’t true wisdom

This is also why he makes it a point to say that someone with true wisdom, will show that wisdom in his good conduct, his works, and in his humility.

And that is why James spends this paragraph explaining that wisdom out of bitter jealousy and selfish ambition is not wisdom at all.

I realize that we went over a lot of material and it might have felt like standing at the bottom of a waterfall and having all that water dumped on you, so let me help you with some application and then we’ll close for the evening.

Application

We started off this evening by defining what wisdom is:

And in doing so, we came to realize that there is two different types of wisdom: earthly wisdom and godly or heavenly wisdom

Earthly wisdom is seen as the type of wisdom that rejects God, rejects spiritual things, and has no concern with the Bible

Heavenly wisdom is seen as the type of wisdom that comes from God, is spiritually minded, and is completely concerned with the Bible.

And so, when it comes to heavenly or godly wisdom, we are to seek that type of wisdom and when it comes to earthly wisdom, we’re to reject that type of wisdom.

So, what exactly should we do? If we are to seek one type of wisdom and reject another kind of wisdom?

We are to reject any sort of wisdom that rejects God and is selfish, focused on ourselves, demonic and leads to disorder and sin

If you want some ideas of what that type of wisdom is:

In the first century they had Greek philosophers that for a most part all rejected God and all of their philosophical views (for the most part) were selfish in that they focused on themselves and they had no concern for spiritual things or for God.

In the 2nd-3rd centuries you had a religious belief called Gnosticism that took Scripture and in an attempt to make Scripture say what they wanted it to say they twisted it by adding elements of philosophy with it

In our modern era, we still have philosophical thinking—for instance, we live in a postmodern world. What that means is that we live in a world that philosophically believes that there is no absolute truth and in this belief of a lack of absolute truth, the world rejects that there can only be one God and there can only be one way to heaven, which the Bible contradicts by saying that Yahweh is the one true God and Jesus is the only way to heaven. Postmodern thinking is very self-oriented and even in the instances when someone is postmodern in their thinking and religious, they aren’t as concerned with spiritual things as they think they are.

In our modern era, we still have religious beliefs that have changed the meaning of Scripture to make it say what they want it to—that is why the Mormon religion utilizes a different book in addition to the Bible; and that is why the Seventh-day adventists use their own version of the Bible.

In all of these instances, they have focused on wisdom that rejects God (like the philosophical view) or they’ve focused on wisdom that twists God (like Gnosticism and Mormonism)

Any type of wisdom that attempts to add to Scripture as in the Gnostics with their desire to add philosophical views to the Bible or any type of wisdom that rejects parts of Scripture like postmodernism, ought to be rejected.

In addition, any type of wisdom that tells us we should sin, needs to be rejected. Any type of wisdom that encourages us to care only for ourselves, or enjoy live’s pleasures apart from God’s plan is not the type of wisdom that we are to seek

Instead, we are to be seeking the type of wisdom that comes from God, isn’t focused on ourselves, that as James describes in in Vs. 17-18, is pure, peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere, and sows peace.

Which means any wisdom that doesn’t match that description, is wisdom that we’re to reject. This also means that we need to be discerning when it comes to where we get our wisdom from.

The Bible says that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”

We need to understand that God is God and we need to understand our position compared to God before we can expect to start learning wisdom. We understand that God is good and God is love, but we also need to understand that God is holy, God is sovereign, God is in control. Once we start wrapping our minds around that, we can start developing heavenly or godly wisdom.

In addition, we find wisdom when we read God’s word. Psalm 19:7 says, “the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. Or in other words, as we study Scripture and apply it to our lives, God grants us more wisdom.

So, obviously, the more we seek God and the more we study God the wiser we’ll become

Now, we might get the idea that heavenly, godly wisdom only comes from the Bible, but that isn’t true. We also gain wisdom by learning from our mistakes and we also gain wisdom from learning from other people’s mistakes.

We can gain godly wisdom from reading devotional literature, books, occasionally there is tv programs that present wise ideas, but we must filter all of our wisdom through the sieve that is the Bible. If it doesn’t mesh with the Bible, it is not the godly wisdom that we’re looking for.

Lastly, we need to continuously seek knowledge and understanding. While wisdom was the topic for today, wisdom utilizes knowledge and understanding

In other words, we have to continuously grow intellectually through our study of Scripture and our journey seeking God, because wisdom that comes from God utilizes knowledge that God gives us.

We need to always be learning so that our wisdom has knowledge to build on.

So, quite simply: (1) be discerning as to where your wisdom comes from: if its earthly, unspiritual, and demonic, reject it, but if it is pure, peaceable, gentle seek it. (2) Study the word of God, for two reasons: for wisdom and for knowledge both come from God if we want wisdom and knowledge, we should go to the source of wisdom and knowledge. And lastly (3) utilize the Bible to discern whether something is worth pursuing or not. The Bible tells us which philosophies are worthwhile and which aren’t, the Bible tells us which pieces of wisdom are truly wise and which aren’t. The Bible tells us the heart of God and the heart of God is always worth pursuing. More than anything this evening, remember that true wisdom comes from above.

Closing

Just a reminder, if your church isn’t meeting or if it isn’t livestreaming at the moment, feel free to join me Sunday morning at 10:30am as we continue in this series on James. I’ll be preaching from James 4:1-12 and I’d encourage you to take some time reading that beforehand. I’m going to pray for us and then we’ll close.

Prayer

Pray for wisdom that comes from above

Pray that we continue to seek Jesus Christ and seek the wisdom that he offers

Pray for those who are following earthly wisdom.

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