Trailblazin Ministries

Wisdom Contrasted: Part 1 - James 3:13-18

Written by LaRosa Johnson
Wednesday, 19 March 2008

Now that we have taken a good portion of time dealing with the perils of the tongue and the steps needed in order to keep it contained, it is now time for us to move forward and look at the next portion of James' letter. The verses that immediately follow tie in very closely with the previous subject matter, as it deals with the idea of wisdom; more specifically, an earthly wisdom versus a heavenly wisdom. This is very appropriate as it takes wisdom not of this world in order to subdue and control our tongue, and in effect live out everything that we have studied up to this point in the letter. The verses that contain this information are James 3:13-18, a rather short portion of text, but, again, packed full of biblical truth.

Our objective today is to briefly give an overview of the text before we delve into our verse by verse study. It is important for us to have a broad overview and take the big picture into consideration so that we are better equipped to keep things in context when looking at it in a more in-depth manner. Let us begin by looking at the text:

James 3:13-18 (NASB) - 13 Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. 15 This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. 16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. 17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. 18 And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

As is pretty obvious from the text, we can see that James is contrasting earthly/natural/demonic wisdom with the wisdom that is from a higher source (i.e. the Holy Spirit). In giving his comparison and contrast, we see James giving us the characteristics and behavior that follow both of these types of wisdom. If you have the wisdom of this world, you will likely find it characterized by jealousy, selfishness, and disorder. In other words, the wisdom of this world tells us that we are to look out for self first and to discard the feelings of others. In sharp contrast, we see that heavenly wisdom is characterized by a much different mind set, including: purity, gentleness, reasonability, mercy, and honesty. If we were to sum this kind of wisdom up, it would be the kind of wisdom that puts others first, much like the life of Christ. This wisdom also sums up a lot of what we have already studied in the letter, such as having a pure religion and putting your faith to work, as those kinds of things require a heavenly wisdom to execute.

In a very broad sense, James' approach towards wisdom is looking at it from an everyday point of view and how we are to apply it to our daily lives. As is commonly seen, wisdom has an impact on our daily lives and plays a part in just about every decision that we have to make, large or small; therefore, it is important to know where the source of our wisdom is coming from, whether it be from God or man. Also, a lot of what James is speaking of directly correlates to the truths of Old Testament Scripture found in the wisdom literature (Job to Song of Solomon) and this division of wisdom.

As an overview, we can see the distinction between worldly/human wisdom and heavenly wisdom. In our following studies, we're going to take a look at each of these verses in-depth and see the full realm of truth that Scripture is speaking of concerning these two types of wisdom and how it relates to the life of the believer. Until then, grace and peace!