Heavenly Wisdom Is Meek, Not Weak

James 3:13-18

13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. 14 But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. 15 Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16 For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.

17 But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. 18 Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.

Heavenly Wisdom Is Meek, Not Weak

What’s the difference between knowledge and wisdom?

Knowledge is having the facts. Wisdom is knowing how to use the facts you’re given.

Here’s an example: At 10:00 last Sunday night, when I was getting ready to go to bed, I knew that my dog hadn’t been outside for a couple hours. That was a fact that I knew. How I used that fact would determine whether I was wise or not.

Should I have said to myself, “She’s a big girl. She’s been house broken for 3 years. She’ll be fine till morning.” Or, should I have said, “I’ll regret it in the morning if I don’t let her out now, even though I’m tired and just want to curl up in bed”?

It would have been the wise thing to do let the dog out. It would have been wise… Do we always make the wise decision? Sadly, we do not.

That’s the difference between knowledge and wisdom. You can have all the facts, but if you don’t use them the right way, you can actually be foolish rather than wise.

In our Second Lesson for today, James tells us that there’s a difference, not just between knowledge and wisdom, but between worldly wisdom and heavenly wisdom. In other words, we can use the facts we have in a way that the world would say is smart, but God would not. Our goal today is not only to know what heavenly wisdom is, but to understand how to use it.

Let’s dig into worldly wisdom first.

James begins this portion of his letter with a challenge. He calls on every Christian who considers himself wise and understanding, and he basically says, “Prove it!”

That’s been the theme for the entire letter that James has been writing. He’s writing to people like you and me, who take time to worship on a Sunday morning, who are practicing the Christian faith, who other people in this world could easily identify as followers of Jesus. To us, James has a not-so-subtle message: “It’s not enough to be known as or to claim to be a Christian. You actually have to do what Christians are supposed to do.” Otherwise, as we heard last week, your faith, if it is not accompanied by actions, is dead.

James makes a similar point today, only this time it’s about wisdom. It’s not enough for you to know things. It’s not enough for you to have facts that other people don’t. James wants you to show that you have wisdom, i.e. true, heavenly wisdom, “by your good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.”[1]

Sadly, that’s not what we so often do. Instead, we fall into the traps that James mentions: bitter envy, selfish ambition, disorder and every evil practice. These are the hallmarks of worldly wisdom. Worse, James calls them, earthly, unspiritual, demonic.[2]

Like a noose slowly cinching tighter around the neck, James makes it clear that the wisdom of the world, the wisdom that is guided by bitter envy and selfish ambition – the wisdom that we so often use – is not innocent or trivial. It represents everything that God is not.

It’s not the heavenly ideal; it’s dirty and corrupt like the world.

It’s not spiritually minded; it’s carnal and reckless.

It’s not godly wisdom; it’s devilish and demonic.

This is a big deal, especially among people like us who claim to be Christian, who want to be wise and understanding. It has no place in our hearts, yet that’s where it makes its home.

Think about what you’re willing to say or share on social media. It is so easy to feel like because you have the facts on the vaccine, on a particular political policy or candidate, on how to raise your children – you feel like because you have the facts, you can say it. But do you ever stop to think about the impact that those words are going to have on someone else (who, by the way, will be quick to share facts of their own on those same topics)?

That’s worldly wisdom – the kind that’s more interested in getting something off your chest than in being helpful or constructive. That’s worldly wisdom that’s driven by my need to be heard and my need to be right because I have the facts, and that doesn’t particularly care how those facts are used. Worldly wisdom teaches us to be quick to judge other people based on the facts that they share, e.g. “Oh, you’re anti-this or pro-that; I have no patience for you.”

Worldly wisdom is earthly, unspiritual, demonic, and all too familiar.

Heavenly wisdom, on the other hand, is pure, humble and good, but above all, it’s rare. Here’s how James describes heavenly wisdom:

But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.[3]

Does that sound like you? Are all your motivations pure and your thoughts squeaky clean? Do you use your wisdom, your intellect, your knowledge to make peace? Are you meek in the sense that you would be willing to be walked on and mistreated and humiliated without retaliating or talking back? Are you submissive, or, as the Greek suggests, are you willing to be easily persuaded when you get into an argument or disagreement? Are you quick to forgive, slow to judge, free of hypocrisy?

That’s a tall order! I know I don’t live up to it. I’m sure you can think of ways that you don’t either – whether it’s the pride that refuses to accept an insult or to allow someone else to be right, or the selfishness that refuses to forgive and always holds a grudge.

Heavenly wisdom is rare and, frankly, impossible for human beings. Well, impossible for all but one.

This is Jesus, isn’t it? In fact, Paul, writing to the Corinthians, says,

“Christ Jesus… has become for us wisdom from God – that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.”[4]

Jesus was all these things perfectly, completely. He was pure – without fault or failure or even the slightest sniff of sin. He was considerate and submissive, or as the Greek would put it, he was meek, choosing to be abused – physically, mentally, emotionally – rather than to stand up for his own rights. He was full of mercy, showing love and compassion to people who didn’t deserve it – to sinners like you and me who wallow in worldly wisdom far too often.

For us he bore good fruit by hanging on a tree and being the sacrifice to pay for our sin no matter who you are or what you’ve done, because he’s impartial and sincere. He didn’t just talk about his love for you; he did something about it. He gave his life for you, so that you could be at peace, so that you and I could be free of guilt and shame for our bitter envy and selfish ambition, so that you and I could be reconciled to God and at peace with him.

That’s the heavenly wisdom that comes from above. That’s the humility and love of our Saviour. That’s the freedom and forgiveness we have in Jesus. He is our life and our light, the one who cleanses our souls and gives true, heavenly wisdom to those who have the humility to listen.

So, I’ll ask you the same thing that James asked his first readers,

“Who among you is wise and understanding? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.”[5]

When you know that you’re a sinner saved by grace, i.e. that you don’t deserve God’s love but you’ve been given it, that brings the humility we need to set our rights aside, to be meek and considerate, willing to “give in” for the sake of someone else. God’s got us taken care of. What he gives us is all we need.

I am more than grateful for the gift of his gospel and his promise of forgiveness in Christ. Because I have that, I can endure the scorn and shame of other people. I don’t have to assert my dominance or insist on being right or stating the facts as I see them. God’s got my back.

Now, I’m free to be peace-loving, to be a peacemaker – not just someone who likes peace but someone who makes it. The wisdom that comes from heaven teaches us how to do that. Just think about some of the times in you life that peace is threatened.

Someone cuts you off in traffic. You don’t have to cuss them out. Your boss is unreasonable and demanding. You don’t have to mutter under your breath or talk behind their back. You’re arguing with your sibling about whose turn it is to pick up the living room or do the dishes. Even if you’re right, it’s not worth the price of winning.

The attitude of a Christian is the same as the attitude of Christ: peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy, impartial and sincere[6] – not because we have to be, but because that’s what Jesus was for us; not because it’ll make life easier (sometimes it will, sometimes it won’t), but because we’ll reap a harvest of righteousness.

The world will laugh at you for being a doormat to other people. The world will call you weak, not wise. But God will smile on you, seeing in you a reflection of his love for you.

So, be humble, and seek the wisdom that comes from heaven. Be wise and show it by your good life in Christ Jesus our Lord. God give you the strength to live according to his good will. Amen.

[1] James 3:13

[2] James 3:15

[3] James 3:17,18

[4] 1 Corinthians 1:30

[5] James 3:13

[6] James 3:17

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How Do You Prove that Your Faith Is Not Dead?

James 2:1-18 (selected verses)

1 My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. 2 Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. 3 If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” 4 have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

5 Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?

8 If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right. 9 But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. 10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. 

14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”

Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.

How Do You Prove that Your Faith Is Not Dead?

Is your faith alive? How can you tell?

I have a stethoscope here. Where could I put it to hear your faith’s heartbeat? Or maybe we take a trip up the road to the medical imaging center and borrow their MRI machine. Where could we see what your faith looks like?

It’s not that simple, is it? There is no body part that makes your faith function. But faith is a part of your life, and faith itself can be alive or dead. The question is, how can we tell the difference?

James gives us a few ways to know whether faith is alive or dead, and they might not be the first things you would have thought of. The two proofs that James mentions in chapter 2 that a person’s faith may be dead, or at least deathly ill, are snobbery and insincerity.

I don’t know about you, but those seem like rather minor things, don’t they? I mean, don’t get me wrong, they’re not good; I wouldn’t advocate for you being an elitist hypocrite, but are those really mortal sins?

James says so, and he reminds us that every sin is a mortal sin. You might have heard the way that Paul puts it in Romans 6:

For the wages of sin is death.[1]

This is the way that James puts it in the verses we read a moment ago:

If you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as law breakers. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.[2]

All it takes is one sin to make a person a sinner. All it takes is one hole in a balloon for that balloon to be totally useless. It’s not going to hold any air no matter how big or many holes it has. All it takes is one sin to make a person a sinner. And so, while the “big ticket” sins, like murder and adultery, may have greater consequences than snobbery and insincerity, they carry the same guilt.

A sin is a sin, and all it takes is one to make you a sinner.

But James mentions two and warns us against these two in particular because of how fatal they can be to your faith.

First, James says:

My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism.[3]

Can you imagine making a poor person sit on the floor at church because they are “less than” some other more important person? I’ve seen Christians come up who in church and excited to hear about Jesus for the very first time – I’ve seen Christians come up to them and say, “You’re in my seat.” What does that say about who is more or less important?

I’ve heard church leaders – men who serve on church councils – talk about budgets and when the projected income is less than the expected expense, they say, “I guess we’ll just have to start doing more evangelism so that we get more people to give more money so we can pay our bills.”

Have your eyes ever gotten big when someone new comes to church – they have kids to support our Sunday School, they musical talents that can be used in worship, they have property on a lake you’d like to visit. That’s favoritism.

It’s not as rare as you might think, and it’s more serious than you might like to imagine.

Favoritism goes against everything that Christianity stands for. Favoritism forgets the forgiveness that God has given to you. God didn’t choose you because of your status, because you belong to his favourite segment of society, because of what you could offer him. James says:

Listen, my brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?[4]

God didn’t choose you because of how wonderful you are. He chose you because of how wonderful he is. He didn’t choose you because of how rich in worldly wealth or earthly ability you are. He chose you because of how rich in mercy he is. And in the riches of his compassion on sinners like you and me, who commit many more than this one sin of favoritism, he chose you to be his heirs, to make you members of his family by sending his Son to become one with you – to share flesh and blood with a sinner like you, to live and die for a sinner like you, so that a sinner like you could see the kingdom he promised as your eternal inheritance.

You don’t earn inheritances. They’re given to you because someone loves you. And God didn’t love you because of who you are. He loved you because of who he is.

You could be recovering from an addiction to alcohol, drugs or pornography. You could be a lifelong Christian or brand-new to the faith. You could young, old, male, female, rich or poor. God didn’t choose you because of who you are. He chose you because of who he is – a God who loves sinners of every shape and size, who doesn’t show favoritism, but who loves all of us equally.

That’s why favoritism is so fatal to faith, because it works in cross purposes to God’s unconditional mercy and grace.

But favoritism is not the only thing that can make your faith flat-line. The other mortal sin that James mentions is insincerity. Again, it’s not as rare as you might think, and it’s more serious than you might like to imagine.

That’s why James paints this picture of a homeless person without food or clothes. It’s preposterous to think that the “Christian thing to do” would be to say, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,”[5] but not do anything to help him.

And yet, don’t we do that? Don’t we sometimes say all the right things but then fail to do anything? James warns us that if your faith is not active, then it could be dead, or at the very least deathly ill.

Now, you don’t have to rake the leaves. That doesn’t have to be your expression of faith. You don’t have to give a monetary gift to a person in need. You don’t have to serve on the Refugee Committee, the Sunday School program, a service team, the altar guild, as an AV technician. You don’t have to install a speaker in the library, contribute to the new hymnals, sing in choir or play for worship. You don’t have to do any of those things to have a faith that’s alive.

But if you have a readymade list of literally dozens of various options for people of every talent level and time commitment, options that directly serve other people’s needs, and you don’t do any of them, what does that say about the vitality of your faith?

Now, I want to be clear about this – and this is James’ whole point – we cannot critique other Christians according to how much they contribute. Our contributions, our time, our money are not measuring sticks to compare Christians with each other.

But they can be a self-diagnostic tool, i.e. a way for me to judge myself – to try to put a stethoscope on my heart of faith, if that were a thing. How faint – or strong – is your faith’s heartbeat? Of course, you don’t have an organ in your body that you can measure. But you can look at what you do. Do I claim to have faith but don’t follow through? Do you say the right things, but don’t actually do them?

Looking at your own works, then, can be a way for you to do some self-reflection. And again, “works” does not necessarily mean volunteering at church. Church is not the center of the universe. You can show that your faith is alive by what you do at home, at school, at work, on the bus. You can show your faith by loving your spouse and caring for your children; by being a good employee at work or student at school. You can show your faith by the kindness you show to strangers, and not just lip service or when other people are looking. James’ whole point goes back to his first verse:

My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ...[6]

James appeals to your identity as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus didn’t just talk the talk, he walked the walk, all the way to his cross on Calvary. He did everything he said he would in his love for you. He won that inheritance for you by swapping places with you so that God could have mercy on you. He took the punishment you deserved for your fatal sins and gave you the right to be called children of God, just like he, your brother, is the one and only Son of God.

That’s why James calls him our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.[7] And that’s why James starts this section of Scripture reminding you who are in Christ. Your worth and value doesn’t come from what you do; it comes from what Christ has done for you. But it does matter what you do, because every action is a reflection and confession of your faith in Jesus.

So, go. Show that your faith is alive. Love your neighbour, not only as you love yourself, but as Jesus loved you – without prejudice or partiality, with sincerity and action. Be who James calls you – a brother or sister in faith, but especially a believer in our glorious Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Be who God has made you and show that your faith is alive by what you do, because of what he has done for you. Amen.

[1] Romans 6:23

[2] James 2:9,10

[3] James 2:1

[4] James 2:5

[5] James 2:16

[6] James 2:1

[7] Ibid

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