“TWO KINDS OF WISDOM”
Scriptural text: James 3:13-18; 5:7-12
Earthly Wisdom (James 3:13-16). The Bible declares that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” (Psalm 111:10). This makes it clear without an appropriate appreciation of God, it is impossible to be truly wise. The moral component and sense of reality is missing without God. There are people who are described as “wise in the ways of the world,” but the breadth of their wisdom is limited because it doesn’t take God and his purpose into account.
Anything that might claim to be, wisdom which was not from above would spring from one of three main factors. James listed them here saying that they would be earthly, that is of the world system, sensual, things that appeal to us because they allow us to gratify our senses, words, or actions of outright defiance to God.
Twice in these three verses, James pointed to envy and self-seeking as the result to succumbing to the influences of the world, the flesh, or the devil. Along with these he mentioned boasting, lying and confusion specifically and then, in case someone wanted to try to argue with him, he added, “and every evil thing.”
Heavenly Wisdom (James 3:17-18) “But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”
In these verses, James contrasted the wisdom from above with that which is not from above. The first characteristic of godly wisdom is purity. Here the end never justifies the means. Something that is pure is not contaminated by anything else. It is not a mixture, solution, or alloy. It is 100% one thing, whatever it might be. For James, pure wisdom is not only contaminated by moral sin, it is not mixed with foolishness, human desire or benefit, ignorance, or anything else that we might conceive of.
Next James claims that godly wisdom is peaceable. It is not aggressive, belligerent, volatile, violent or out of control. A peaceable person will do anything necessary to keep the peace. Being peaceable may call on us to humble ourselves to be wise, for only ungodly wisdom would prompt us to put ourselves first, to overwhelm the will of another with our own, to control, manipulate, or coerce someone else so that we can realize our vision of reality.
The next characteristic of godly wisdom is gentleness. Secular society values power, control, influence, bravado and saving face. But “wisdom” which includes such things is not of the godly variety.