Godly Wisdom- James 3-4
James 3:13 – 4:3, 7-8; Mark 9:30-37
James’ letter has a lot of practical advice for how to live as Christians. We can sort of hold it alongside the Sermon on the Mount, which also shows us what it looks like to live in the Kingdom. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus deals with things like anger, lustful thoughts, marriage, making promises, revenge, loving enemies, giving to those in need, how to pray and fast, anxiety, judging others, and treating people the way you would like to be treated. These are all very common issues, and Jesus teaches us how to practically approach these things with a heavenly mindset.
Likewise, James’ letter deals with issues like not showing favouritism to the wealthy, our faith having an effect on how we live, being mindful of the way we speak, and having patience in suffering. These are all pretty practical and everyday realities that we face. And James is giving practical advice about facing these realities with a heavenly mindset.
In the portion of the letter we read today we are looking at wisdom. There is wisdom from God and there is worldly wisdom. God’s wisdom reflects His character. So, boasting, bitterness, jealousy, and selfishness, are signs that God’s wisdom is lacking. It is evidence of a false wisdom that leads to bad places. God’s wisdom will lead to inner peace and peace among fellow believers.
Wisdom isn’t Just about words. Earlier in his letter James warned us about the danger that comes with speaking. He says,
“Not many of you should become teachers … For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man” (3:1).
This is a humbling word for preachers. We preach better than we are because we are reaching for a high bar, which is the way of Jesus. As a preacher, it is easy to repeat the teachings of Jesus about forgiveness, but living those teachings is the harder thing. … So rather than point to wisdom being expressed by the words we say, James says,
“Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom” (3:13).
Show your wisdom by how you live. Look at a person’s life if you want to know if they are wise, not just their words.
One modern view of wisdom sees the wise person as having a lot of information. Or, maybe they know how to solve certain intellectual problems. … But, this worldly wisdom doesn’t necessarily have to manifest in a person’s relationships. A person can be considered a wise professor and be on their 6th marriage, with no relationship with their children, who treats their teaching assistant with cruelty, is in constant conflict with other faculty members, and they can still be considered “wise”. … In the ancient world wisdom was much more wholistic. Wisdom had to do with living life well. So, the wisdom James is talking about is supposed to manifest in our lives, not just our words. Our wisdom should show itself by a good life.
There is also an interesting quality attached to this good life that James says is evidence of wisdom. The good works we do should be done with gentleness. That is an interesting consequence of wisdom- a good life with works done with gentleness. We don’t often associate gentleness with wisdom.
It reminds me of something I read recently from a monk named John Cassian who lived in the 4th and 5th century. He was talking to an elder about the goal of the Christian life. They said that the goal of the Christian life is the Kingdom of God, which is not surprising. The elder told John that there is also an immediate goal that leads to that broader goal. For example, if my goal is to go to Calgary, my immediate goal might be to put gas in my car. If my goal is to learn to play the guitar, my immediate goal might be to learn chord shapes. … So, the broad goal for the Christian life is to enter the kingdom of God in all its fullness. The elder said that the immediate goal is tranquility of heart. That was surprising to me in a similar kind of way. … Just as I didn’t really connect gentleness to wisdom, I never really thought about tranquility of heart as being an important part of the way to the Kingdom of God.
James goes on,
One modern view of wisdom sees the wise person as having a lot of information. Or, maybe they know how to solve certain intellectual problems. … But, this worldly wisdom doesn’t necessarily have to manifest in a person’s relationships. A person can be considered a wise professor and be on their 6th marriage, with no relationship with their children, who treats their teaching assistant with cruelty, is in constant conflict with other faculty members, and they can still be considered “wise”. … In the ancient world wisdom was much more wholistic. Wisdom had to do with living life well. So, the wisdom James is talking about is supposed to manifest in our lives, not just our words. Our wisdom should show itself by a good life.
There is also an interesting quality attached to this good life that James says is evidence of wisdom. The good works we do should be done with gentleness. That is an interesting consequence of wisdom- a good life with works done with gentleness. We don’t often associate gentleness with wisdom.
It reminds me of something I read recently from a monk named John Cassian who lived in the 4th and 5th century. He was talking to an elder about the goal of the Christian life. They said that the goal of the Christian life is the Kingdom of God, which is not surprising. The elder told John that there is also an immediate goal that leads to that broader goal. For example, if my goal is to go to Calgary, my immediate goal might be to put gas in my car. If my goal is to learn to play the guitar, my immediate goal might be to learn chord shapes. … So, the broad goal for the Christian life is to enter the kingdom of God in all its fullness. The elder said that the immediate goal is tranquility of heart. That was surprising to me in a similar kind of way. … Just as I didn’t really connect gentleness to wisdom, I never really thought about tranquility of heart as being an important part of the way to the Kingdom of God.
James goes on,
“if you have bitter envy [some translations say ‘jealousy’] and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth” (3:14).“For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind” (3:16).
These things are evidence of a lack of spiritual maturity. If these things are present, then the kind of wisdom James is talking about isn’t present. It isn’t godly wisdom. The motivations of envy and selfish ambition will produce bad fruit. James goes so far as to say it is demonic.
Envy and selfish ambition seem to have become almost valuable in our world. … Marketing strategies will sometimes take advantage of envy to create a desire to buy things. Maybe they create a sense that “most people have this, why don’t you?” Or maybe we see a model holding a product, or wearing certain clothes, or standing next to a fancy car, and we subtly receive the message that we could be like them if we had that thing.
Selfish ambition is often admired and considered a mark of the “successful”. A kind of hero in our society is the person driven by selfish ambition- a person who grows up poor and ends up rich, perhaps stepping on a few fingers while climbing the ladder of success.
Selfish ambition is likely what is behind the disciples arguing about who is more important, which leads to Jesus saying,
Envy and selfish ambition seem to have become almost valuable in our world. … Marketing strategies will sometimes take advantage of envy to create a desire to buy things. Maybe they create a sense that “most people have this, why don’t you?” Or maybe we see a model holding a product, or wearing certain clothes, or standing next to a fancy car, and we subtly receive the message that we could be like them if we had that thing.
Selfish ambition is often admired and considered a mark of the “successful”. A kind of hero in our society is the person driven by selfish ambition- a person who grows up poor and ends up rich, perhaps stepping on a few fingers while climbing the ladder of success.
Selfish ambition is likely what is behind the disciples arguing about who is more important, which leads to Jesus saying,
“Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all” (Mk 9:35).
Jesus pulls the rug out from under that kind of selfish ambition by making the way to ‘be first’ the road of humility.
Envy and selfish ambition are poisonous motivations. Even if we seem to do good things, those good things will be twisted by our bad motives. … Maybe you’ve experienced someone trying to help you with the wrong motives. It leaves you with a strange feeling.
Imagine someone who starts serving at a homeless shelter because they are jealous of a friend who volunteers at the shelter. People think this friend is incredibly kind and good. So, this other person starts serving there because they want to be seen that way too, but there is an edge to it. There is a touch of bitterness towards their friend who serves at the shelter very naturally, out of a desire to love others. They are doing something good, but it has been poisoned a bit.
Say that same person does everything they can to become the volunteer of the month and have their picture put on the wall, and their face in the paper. There isn’t really anything wrong with that in itself, but internally, they are sticking their tongue out at their friend, who everyone said was so good and kind. … This is how envy and selfish ambition can even poison good things.
Godly wisdom, on the other hand, James says,
Envy and selfish ambition are poisonous motivations. Even if we seem to do good things, those good things will be twisted by our bad motives. … Maybe you’ve experienced someone trying to help you with the wrong motives. It leaves you with a strange feeling.
Imagine someone who starts serving at a homeless shelter because they are jealous of a friend who volunteers at the shelter. People think this friend is incredibly kind and good. So, this other person starts serving there because they want to be seen that way too, but there is an edge to it. There is a touch of bitterness towards their friend who serves at the shelter very naturally, out of a desire to love others. They are doing something good, but it has been poisoned a bit.
Say that same person does everything they can to become the volunteer of the month and have their picture put on the wall, and their face in the paper. There isn’t really anything wrong with that in itself, but internally, they are sticking their tongue out at their friend, who everyone said was so good and kind. … This is how envy and selfish ambition can even poison good things.
Godly wisdom, on the other hand, James says,
“is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace” (3:17-18).
Godly wisdom will show itself in all these good ways. Notice how often peace is mentioned. It seems that peacemaking is a particular mark of godly wisdom. …
James writes about another sign that the community is lacking wisdom.
James writes about another sign that the community is lacking wisdom.
“Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from?” (4:1).
Those external battles come from internal battles. We have cravings that are at war inside us, James says (4:1). We want what we don’t have, and this leads to disputes and conflicts (4:2). Our desires are disordered. We want the wrong things. The envy and selfish ambition that James mentions are examples of these disordered desires.
Back at the beginning of the letter James says,
Back at the beginning of the letter James says,
“one is tempted by one’s own desire, being lured and enticed by it; then, when that desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and that sin, when it is fully grown, gives birth to death” (1:14-15).
James is reflecting this again, that disordered desire, if not dealt with, leads to destruction. …
Our lectionary actually skips a part of this section of James, where James seems to be quoting a proverb,
Our lectionary actually skips a part of this section of James, where James seems to be quoting a proverb,
“God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble”.
These are the two basic root ways of being. The Early Christians tell us that pride gives rise to all sin. And humility gives rise to all virtue.
James encourages us to pay attention to our inner life. But he also encourages us to not stop there. Our inner life should manifest in our outward life by the way that we live in the world. … Faith and works are interrelated. Works are the outward expression of our inward faith. But even good works can be twisted by disordered inner desires like pride, envy, and selfish ambition. But this isn’t something we do all on our own. There is help available. So, James encourages us,
James encourages us to pay attention to our inner life. But he also encourages us to not stop there. Our inner life should manifest in our outward life by the way that we live in the world. … Faith and works are interrelated. Works are the outward expression of our inward faith. But even good works can be twisted by disordered inner desires like pride, envy, and selfish ambition. But this isn’t something we do all on our own. There is help available. So, James encourages us,
“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you” (4:7-8).
AMEN
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