We’ve seen, over the past few weeks, the importance of wisdom for life. Godly wisdom will lead us along paths that lead to life. We’ve also seen that the alternative to following God’s wisdom, choosing to live foolishly in God’s world, is to risk our lives.
Well clearly it’s better to be wise than to be foolish. It’s better to live a life that’s blessed by God than to risk missing out on the good things God has planned for us. But how do we do it? How do we get wisdom, and once we’ve got it, how do we show in our lives that we have it?
How do we get wisdom?
I hope you’ve picked up the first step, at least, as we’ve been going through this series. Wisdom begins with the fear of the LORD. That’s the major theme of Proverbs. The conclusion of the writer of Ecclesiastes is this: "13The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God, and keep his commandments; for that is the whole duty of everyone. 14For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil" (Eccl 12:13-14 NRSV). So fear God, not in the sense of being scared of him, but in the sense of understanding where you stand in respect to him.
You see, despite our desire to rule the world, we don’t and we can’t. God is the only one with the right and the ability to do that. If you’ve seen the movie Bruce Almighty, you’ll remember that it shows just how true that is. For those who haven’t seen it, it begins with Bruce experiencing something of the situation that Job found himself in. Everything in his life is going wrong. So he yells at God, telling him he’s being unfair, unjust. "Why don’t you just kill me and get it over with?" "If you’re God why can’t you make things go right for a change?"
So God decides to show him why he’s God and Bruce isn’t. He arranges it so that Bruce takes his place. He gives him all his omnipotent power. And suddenly Bruce is thrown in the deep end. He realises just how much there is to think about if you’re going to be God over the whole world. It’s far too much to handle. So God says he’ll just make him responsible for a small part of the city but even that proves too much for Bruce. Well, in the end Bruce realises that God is the only one who can be God.
But it’s more than just realising our inadequacy, our weakness compared to God. It’s also understanding that God’s innate purity means that we’ll always be unworthy subjects by our own merits. If we were to appear before God right now we’d be overcome by our impurity. We’d want to hide in shame.
Now that could leave us feeling anxious and afraid, except that we also know that our God is a God who’s dealt with our inadequacy through Jesus Christ’s work on the cross. We understand that although God is totally transcendent he’s condescended to lower himself to our weakened existence in order to raise us to his level once again. That’s why 1 John 4:18 can say "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love." (1 John 4:18 NRSV) John sees that God’s love, shown in Jesus Christ rules out the sort of anxiety associated with being afraid, even if it doesn’t remove the need to hold God in awe and wonder. God is at the same time a God into whose presence we enter trembling because of our own unworthiness, and a loving father into whose arms we can run, crying "Abba, Father!"
But that’s the start: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." But God doesn’t just leave us there. He also promises to give us wisdom if we ask for it.
Turn back to James 1. Look there at James 1:5-7: "If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you. 6But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind; 7for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord. (James 1:5-7 NRSV)" If you want to be wise, then ask God for wisdom and he’ll give it to you gladly.
But make sure you mean it. You can’t be half hearted when it comes to asking God for wisdom. As we saw last week the path to wisdom requires a choice: do you go right or do you go left. If you try to do both you’ll end up crashing into some stationary object. You can’t be half wise, half godly in the way you live, in the choices you make. Otherwise you become like the double-minded person, basically unstable, unreliable, the sort of person that no-one trusts because you’re likely to change your mind tomorrow, or even the moment you’ve made a decision, or given your word.
The key to wisdom, notice, is a firm trust in God. This is part of the fear of the LORD. It’s understanding that God can be trusted and then actually placing our trust in him.
Well, if we’ve asked God for wisdom, how do we show that we have it? What’s the next step in actually living wisely.
How do we show that we have Wisdom?
Here’s where we come to the passage in James 3. "13Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom." Here’s the flip side of wisdom. If you want to be wise, you need to show your wisdom by the way you live. And how is that? By your good life. Through works done with the gentleness that’s born of wisdom.
He highlights what this means by showing the opposite sorts of behaviour. "14But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. 15Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. 16For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind." Now of course it’s not politically correct to be negative about someone, is it? There’s some sense to that when it comes to talking about others. It’s always easier to think of things to criticise about someone than things to praise. Not to mention that if you can criticise something in someone else, you feel justified in thinking better of yourself!
But what we’re talking about here is self-examination. Here James is asking us to look honestly at our own hearts, at our own actions and motivations, to work out whether we’re truly acting with wisdom.
What is it you see when you look at your behaviour; when you listen to yourself talking? Are you envious of others? Do you envy them their gifts or their success, their family, their jobs, their looks, their new car?
What is it that motivates you? Are you motivated by selfish ambition? By the desire to get to the top no matter what? Do you desire power in the roles you take on? Do you avoid positions where you know you won’t be able to exercise the power you desire?
When you make decisions, how much do you focus on the effect they’ll have on you, or on your own agenda as opposed to that of others in the community or the church?
How about in your speech. Are you prone to boasting? To exaggerating for effect? Do you tend to emphasise how good you are, or your family is, or your church is, while downplaying others’ successes or focussing on their failings?
Now I could say I’ve seen that sort of behaviour in others, but that would be to fall into the very trap of foolishness that I’m talking about. No my job is to ask whether I’ve done any of that, whether I fail in any of those areas.
Notice where that sort of behaviour derives. It doesn’t derive from godly wisdom does it? This actually fills out a bit the picture of the foolish woman in Proverbs 1-9. "15Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish." This sort of wisdom derives from the fallen world in which we live. Far from being spiritually based it’s the work of the devil.
Well, enough for the negative, what’s the positive side of wise living? "17The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy." It seems to me that this is a tough list to live up to. Purity has the idea of being morally upright, innocent, blameless, motivated only by the sincere desire to serve others, ignoring self interest. That’s the first test. Then there’s the test of peaceable, gentle behaviour. This is in stark contrast to the bitter envy and selfish ambition of the worldly person. The wise person seeks peace above selfish desire. They’re willing to yield to others even if their own desires aren’t being met. They’re full of mercy in the way they approach others. They bear good fruit, without any sense of partiality or hypocrisy.
You’ve probably noticed that some people do lots of good works, but their motivation is actually self serving. They’re working to boost their own sense of importance or they do good things for people they think might be able to do favours for them at a later date.
But the wise person acts out of pure motives, not seeking their own welfare but only that of those they’re serving.
And notice the result: "18A harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace." The result of wise living is that we enjoy the peace that only God can give.
Do you remember these proverbs from Prov 10 that highlight the lesson of James 3: "6Blessings are on the head of the righteous, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence. 7The memory of the righteous is a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot." And here are some more: (Prov 10:27-30) "27The fear of the LORD prolongs life, but the years of the wicked will be short. 28The hope of the righteous ends in gladness, but the expectation of the wicked comes to nothing. 29The way of the LORD is a stronghold for the upright, but destruction for evildoers. 30The righteous will never be removed, but the wicked will not remain in the land."
It seems wisdom is worth having. So how do we find wisdom? We begin by realising that God is the source of all wisdom and then we ask God to give it to us. How do we show that we’re wise? By our good lives; by works that are done with gentleness that’s born of wisdom. By our purity of life, by behaviour that’s peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and goodness. Show that sort of behaviour and there will be no doubt that you have the wisdom that comes from above.
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