Wisdom From Above

Thank you for reading this sermon from Christ Fellowship. I hope and pray that this sermon will be a blessing of grace and truth to you. With that said, let me encourage you not to use this sermon as a replacement for your local church. Christ Jesus did not establish his Church simply for us to consume content. Instead, He calls us to be part of a real, covenant family.

Yeah, so we’re continuing our study in James this morning. If you want to open there, it’ll be in James 3, verses 13 through 18. Before we go into the text, I want to pose this question for you to think about who comes to your mind when you think of someone who is very wise. Who do you look up to as a person that is wise who you would trust? I was thinking about this question. A number of people came to mind for me. A lot of pastors, mentors that I’ve had, professors that I have. But I was surprised at this one guy who came up in my mind. I’ll give you a little information about him. We met this man, Grace Ann and I met this man on our honeymoon in Costa Rica. He was the father of our Airbnb host, if that makes sense. So our Airbnb was in this village in Costa Rica. We were staying in this little guest house. And then the Airbnb host, his whole family stayed with him in the house right next to us. His grandfather was part of that family. Grace Ann and I both agreed it was probably our favorite part of Costa Rica. But it wasn’t because of the building that we were in. The building we were in had no AC, had bugs everywhere. We saw one giant spider one night and it just disappeared right before we went to bed. So that wasn’t our favorite part. But the favorite part that we had was just this family who really welcomed us in and treated us as if they were their family. And they were just our Airbnb host. They would make breakfast for us in the morning. They had two little kids that we would play with and get to know. And really what stood out to me was just the grandfather’s kindness to us. He would get up, he would make us breakfast, he would make us coffee. They owned this coffee farm that we were staying on. It made us this amazing coffee. And he just had this really humble kindness about him. He didn’t really speak any English. Some of you know our Spanish isn’t that great. But as we communicated with him, we found out that his wife had passed recently. And he was mourning. But he also communicated that he had this deep hope and this deep trust in God. And even this joy that was in God. I think this is really the biblical wisdom that we need. It’s not necessarily knowing all the right answers. It’s more so knowing how to navigate the ups and downs of life with a deep trust in God. And it’s a trust that produces humility. It’s a trust that produces meekness and kindness to others. That’s the wisdom that James has for us this morning. So let’s go into our text starting in verse 13. Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct, let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. So if you remember Mike Sermon from last week, he’s talking about the dangers of the tongue. How words can start this wildfire that can spread and cause destruction. It’s likely that in this context James, he’s talking about teachers of the church community who are using their words to cause division out of this jealousy that they have. They’re building themselves up. They’re calling people to follow them. It’s causing strife within the church. And this is why James poses this question we just read. Who is wise and understanding among you? James is saying, hey, you’re all competing for status. You’re all proclaiming that you have this wisdom that other people don’t. Who is really wise among you? Come and show us this wisdom by your works. So he calls them to court. He says, hey, come, present your case, demonstrate that you really are wise by showing these good works. So he’s seen this principle in James already with faith. Or he says, if you have a true faith, then it will produce works that you walk in. He applies this very same principle to wisdom. He’s saying, hey, if you have true biblical, godly wisdom, this is what it’s going to look like. You need to show it by your works. This is like when you had math class in school and you give your teacher the answer. She says, hey, you need to show your work. I don’t know if they still do that for you all. It was not my favorite part of math class. So I’m like, I have the right answer. Now I have to show everything that I did to get it. My mom was a math teacher. She heard me complain about this. Now she’ll tell you there’s a reason that you have to show your work. It’s to show that you actually understand the problem. That you didn’t just plug it into chat GPT and get the right answer. You have to show that you have this knowledge of what’s going on. It proves that you have a genuine understanding. And this is what James is asking them to show. He’s also, that’s why he’s asking us to show as well. That’s what God’s calling us to. He’s not just asking, do you have the right answers? He’s saying, hey, you need to demonstrate that you know the right answer. That you understand the gospel, the humility it produces. That’s why he says that they need to walk in the meekness of wisdom. And that word meekness, it’s not something that we normally talk about. I think you rarely hear the word meek. You rarely describe someone as meek today. But it’s the word that James has in this very important word. Jesus says, blessed are the meek, they shall inherit the earth. Earlier James says, receive the implanted word with meekness. And this weakness, or or meekness, it’s not just a humility, though it includes that, it’s not just a gentleness, though it includes that as well. Really the idea that James is communicating here is this willingness to be wronged. And that’s hard for us. A willingness to be wronged and not retaliate to just accept it. The Greek culture at this time didn’t celebrate meekness. They celebrated strength. They said a strong, confident person shouldn’t yield to others. They should defend themselves at all costs. The same goes for the culture that we live in. We don’t really celebrate meekness. We often describe people who are meek as doormats, or pushovers, or someone who doesn’t have any backbone. And so this character, this virtue, it’s very frowned upon, it’s not really celebrated. And yet it’s a virtue that Jesus calls us to. It’s one that’s proclaimed in the New Testament. Jesus says that someone slaps you in the right cheek, turn your other cheek. And so it’s a call to us, do we walk in this lifestyle of meekness? Do we yield? Do we care more about showing strength and knowledge rather than we care about showing grace to others? Are we more concerned about answering a person’s objection than we are concerned about that person? James is saying this wisdom, it it produce pride. It shouldn’t produce dominance. It should produce a meekness and a humility. It’s a wisdom that humbles us, that frees us from the need to fight for ourselves. Let’s keep reading, starting back in verse 14. But But you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. And so James, he’s going to describe this meekness, this meek wisdom farther. But first he shows us the opposite. He’s saying this is what it doesn’t look like, and this is what a lot of you are walking in. It’s this wisdom that has this bitter jealousy, this selfish ambition. Meaning it’s a jealousy that is sorrowful, it’s a jealousy that is angry. When you see that others have possessions that you don’t have, when you see others have a higher status than you, it’s this anger, this indignation. It’s an ambition that only thinks about yourself, only thinks about personal gain and advancing, and rising up through the ranks. It’s not for the good of others. And James says, if you have this kind of jealousy, this kind of ambition in your heart, do not boast and be false to the truth. So why does he say that? How is this boasting false to the truth? Remember, I think he’s still talking about teachers here. And the irony is that these teachers are proclaiming a gospel that should bring the utmost meekness, and they’re denying the truth of the gospel simply by boasting and their ability to teach it. This gospel should humble us, right? What is the truth of the gospel? It’s that we’re sinners who are condemned before a holy God, and yet we are saved by His grace. And any knowledge, any wisdom, any Christian maturity that we have, it comes solely from His grace and from His generosity, and to claim it as our own is denying that truth. So first, when I read this, I’ll be honest. I didn’t feel super convicted. I was like, I don’t think I’m boasting in my wisdom all the time. I don’t think I’m going to stand up here and be like, hey, you guys need to listen to me. I have all the wisdom. Hopefully I’m not doing that, because that would be bad for y’all. But I think this warning goes deeper than just external outward boasting. I think this wisdom, this warning, it goes deep into our heart. Because look, what does James say the real issue is here? He says, if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts. And so the boasting itself isn’t the core issue. It’s symptomatic of what’s going on in the heart. It reveals this bitterness, this jealousy. And so even if our boasting isn’t loud, even if it’s not outward, it can still manifest itself as this inward sufficiency. It’s a boasting that subtly says, hey, I’m a little bit better because I know these answers. So wisdom that says, hey, this person is struggling right now. I’m not struggling in that way. It takes a little bit of pride in that. It’s a very subtle, dangerous wisdom that we can fall prey to. And notice the fact that he actually calls this wisdom. He says this is a kind of wisdom, this jealousy and ambition. So when we think of wisdom, we think more of the intellect, more of the mind. Biblical wisdom, more so speaks about the heart. Regardless of the the this wisdom as the core of a person, it reveals your deepest beliefs that drive your actions, that produce the fruit of what’s going on internally. So he’s saying, hey, this is a wisdom, this is a heart condition that produces bad words, selfish words, jealous words. This is what commentator Dan Doreani says about this wisdom. He says, it’s a wisdom that says I need to look out for myself because no one else will. I must get what I deserve. This isn’t the wisdom that comes down from God. It says, hey, I’m giving you everything you need. It’s a wisdom that says, no, I need to go grasp this for myself. I need to trample over others. I need to make sure that I’m passing the ranks and I’m rising up so that I can attain what I need. This is a wisdom that brings destruction as we’ll see. It’s a wisdom that we need to be freed from. Let’s keep going in our text. Going back into verse 15. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder in every vile practice. So James, he describes this wisdom as earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. We’ll get focused on those words for a second. That word earthly communicates this idea more of earthbound. So it only considers the material things of this world. It doesn’t consider any other provision that may come from God. It’s a wisdom that says, hey, this world is all there is and I need to go out and grasp it. It’s a wisdom that is also unspiritual. This word that means fleshly, that’s purely human and natural. Paul uses this word in 1 Corinthians. He says the natural person does not accept the things of the spirit of God. And so it’s a wisdom that’s devoid of the spirit’s power, that trusts the desires of the flesh, rather than the prompting of the spirit. The last word James uses is this word demonic. This word demonic, it means it denies the goodness of God. Just as Satan tries to twist our view of who God is, it denies that God is good. It denies that God will provide for you. We’ve seen this wisdom before. Back in Genesis, the Garden of Eden, the wisdom from above comes from God and he says, hey, I’ve given you all that you need. I’m going to provide for you. You just can’t eat of this tree. And yet the wisdom from below comes, the wisdom of the serpent. And he says, did God really say that? He actually accuses God of being selfish and ambitious. He says, God just doesn’t want you to eat because then you’ll be like him. God’s just trying to protect who he is. He tries to twist around and skew our view of God’s goodness. And because Adam and Eve ate of this tree and transgressed the command of God, this is now the default mode of our hearts. Our hearts are naturally selfish. They’re naturally ambitious and jealous because we believe the lie of the serpent, that we need to go grasp what we want. We’re tempted to trust in our fleshly desires rather than desires of the spirit. We’re tempted to look to the fangs of this world for provision rather than Christ. We’re still tempted by the devil to deny the goodness of God. This is a wisdom that is destructive. If you look at conflict, if you look at destruction in your life, this is probably what lies behind it. This jealousy, this ambition, this belief that I need to provide for myself. So it’s a wisdom that’s destructive. It’s a wisdom that we need to be freed from. And this is the wisdom that God provides. Let’s go back to our text starting in verse 17. But the wisdom from above is pure, it’s first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. So we need this wisdom from above, and yet we can’t get it on our own. Because the default mode of our heart is jealousy and ambition, we can’t change our heart, we can’t trust that God will provide some wisdom from above. And yet that’s kind of the whole point of this wisdom, is that we can’t figure it out. But it comes down to us, God reveals it to us. He brings this wisdom to us, and he brings it to us as a person. In 1 Corinthians, Paul says, because of God, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that as it is written, let the one who boasts boast in the Lord. Underlying this jealousy of our heart, underlying this ambition, is a deep fear and a deep knowledge that we don’t have what it takes to save ourselves. That’s what drives it. It’s knowledge that we can’t bring fulfillment, we can’t bring salvation, and it’s driven by this fear and this knowledge of our sin. We don’t have what it takes to provide for ourselves. And yet Jesus comes down and he says, I know you don’t have what it takes, but I’m going to provide for you. I’m going to bring you this salvation that you can’t figure out, you can’t solve. I’m going to bring it to you, I’m going to give it to you. I’m going to take your needs upon myself. I’m going to empty myself so that you can be full, so you can be provided for. I’m going to fight for you so that you don’t have to fight for yourself. I’m going to die for you so that you don’t have to take this weight and this punishment upon yourself. Jesus is this wisdom from above that comes to us. He’s the complete opposite of the wisdom from below. He says, you don’t have to fight to gain what you need. I’m giving you what you need. You’re secure in me. He simply calls us to lay down this wisdom from below. James earlier, he says, God gives generously to those who ask for wisdom. The only wisdom that we need is the wisdom to receive Christ and who he is, to receive his fulfillment and his provision. So that’s the call this morning. Let his wisdom seek into your heart and let it transform it. When we receive this wisdom of Christ, it transforms our life. It actually equips us and empowers us to walk in this way of wisdom that James describes in verse 17. Look at the descriptions here. First pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits and partial and sincere. Because we are pure in Christ, we don’t have to be stained by the sins of this world. We’re cleansing Him. We’re separated from the world so that we can be found in Christ. We can be peaceful. We can be gentle and open to reason because Christ has given us all the security that we need. He’s given us the status that we need. We don’t need to fight others. We don’t need to elevate ourselves because we already have the status of being sons and daughters of God, of being found righteous and valued in Him. It’s a wisdom that transforms us, that we can extend mercy and love and forgiveness to others because we have received this forgiveness. Because we are products of grace called to show grace and peace to others. This is the wisdom that transforms us and builds this character, builds this manner of life within us. You’ll also notice that James, he’s not prescribing a bunch of actions for us to take. He’s not saying, hey, do this, do this, do this. He’s just giving character traits. If we’re honest, that’s frustrating sometimes. I think we just want to know the answer in any given situation. I’m like that. I’m like, don’t make me figure it out. Don’t give me a bunch of options. Just tell me what to do and tell me the clear way forward. Maybe you’re in a situation right now, a conflict, an unknown of life, and you’re like, God, would you just tell me what to do? Would you just reveal to me these steps that I need to take in order to fix things? I’m sure you know that’s rarely how God works. Wisdom, it’s not figuring out different signs from God that we see. It’s not waiting for him to speak directly into our minds. God, he doesn’t give us all the answers. That’s not biblical wisdom, but he does give us something better. He gives us a person, a person to look at. Here’s how this works. My eyesight is horrible. Without glasses, without contacts, I might be legally blind. I don’t know. I should probably give that check. I cannot take care of myself without glasses or anything. There’s two ways that I could fix this eyesight. There could be one way where I just have this person beside me who walks with me everywhere I go and describes the room to me, like describes what these signs say outside. That just tells me what to do no matter where I go. That would be one way. The better way would just to be to have glasses or to get contacts, to have my vision fixed so that I can actually see the world as it is. And that’s what God does for us in Christ. He doesn’t tell us exactly what to do in every given situation. He actually gives us a new perception of reality. He gives us a new way to view the world, to view ourselves, to view others, but most importantly to view Christ. This is really how wisdom is built. That the more we look at Christ, the more we know Him, the clearer we see the world around us. The more we look to the cross and see God’s love displayed for us in Christ and His sacrifice, the deeper grounding we have as we go forward. The better we’re able to know how to navigate situations, how to navigate the unknown. Because Christ has already been our security. He’s been our example and we’re called to imitate Him. And the more the seeds of the gospel, the more Christ is sewn into our heart, the more we’re transformed to not be selfish, to not be ambitious, to be pure, to be peaceful, to be loving to others, to know the love of God in Christ. This is the call this morning to lay down the wisdom of the world, to lay down the ways that we try to provide for ourselves and simply trust in the finished work of Christ on our behalf, to imitate Him to others, to view the world through the lens of a forgiven sinner who is walking among other forgiven sinners. This is the call to be reconciled to God and to make peace with others. Let’s pray.