Who is wise and understanding among you? (James 3:13-18)
In our passage today, James opens up a new section by asking a question. So let's start, the same way. James 3:13:
(13) Who [is] wise and understanding/knowledgeable among you?
When you look around this room, at the people who are a part of this church, which of us are wise? Which of us, have understanding?
My guess is that most of us find ourselves instinctively wanting to raise our hands. We don't want to raise them high-- we don't want to seem proud, or arrogant. But we want to raise them like Baptists-- just high enough to signal we are wise, without really letting anyone else around us see.
Now, we should maybe pause here, and ask the obvious question: "What does it mean to be wise and understanding?"
But I'm sure we're good, right? We might be a little fuzzy on the details. We maybe don't want anyone to call on us, and ask us to explain it. But at the same time, we find ourselves thinking, "We are wise, and understanding."
If this is you-- if you've raised your hand-- then consider James's words addressed to you. And so James continues, to you:
He must show by his good conduct/behavior his works with humble wisdom.
When it comes to academic types of things, a few of us have seemingly always leaned nerd. We've always been the "A" students in school (, even before grade inflation was a thing). We've always had an intellectual curiosity about certain things. Our whole lives, we've been called "smart." We've found that when people have questions, we usually have the answer, or know how to find the answers. This may have started in school in things like math, and science, and English, but at some point it carried over into Christianity, as well. We have a hunger to know, and understand, the Bible.
But if we're doing it right, wisdom and understanding isn't just about understanding books of the Bible-- Exodus, or Joshua, or James. Ideally, we grow in knowledge of who God really is, and what He really wants. And then, ideally, we live in light of that knowledge.
What James is saying here, is the same thing G.I. Joes taught me as a kid. "Knowing is half the battle." It's great if you've reached the point where you have a broad "understanding" of spiritual things. But the other half of "wisdom" is doing. Understanding and wisdom must be shown in good actions, done with humble wisdom.
So that's the first thing that should make us pause here. Understand that wisdom is only truly wisdom when it is shown.
The other thing that we need to see here, is the focus on humility. James calls us to show by our good conduct our works with humble wisdom.
And that's where we tend to fall apart. If wisdom was just a matter of having the right answer in Sunday school, we'd be doing awesome. But wisdom is more than just understanding. True wisdom is marked by deeds done in humility.
Now, arguably, knowledge and humility are not naturally related to each other. Paul said somewhere that knowledge has a natural tendency to puff up. The more you know, the bigger your head, and the more important you think you are in this room. Your voice is more important. Your time is more important. You are more important.
Knowledge that's missing humility isn't wisdom.
At this point, let's back up, and reread verse 13:
(13) Who [is] wise and understanding/knowledgeable among you?
He must show by his good conduct/behavior his works with humble wisdom.
So we should find ourselves, first of all, raising our hands. All of us should want to be wise and understanding.
And then, secondly, we should find ourselves resolving that we will "do" better. If true knowledge and wisdom is marked by humility, then we will act in ways that are humble.
Verse 14-16 (reading from "de", Now comma, to "de"):
(14) Now, if bitter/harsh jealousy you have, and rivalry in your hearts, don't boast and lie against the truth.
(15) This wisdom isn't from above coming down, but earthly, soulish/unspiritual, demonic.
(16) For where [there is] jealousy and rivalry/selfish ambition, there [is] disorder/tumult and every evil deed.
So let's say you take James at his word, in verse 13. You raise your hand, say you're wise, and decide you will show good conduct in humility. And I think it's important that we hear this, first of all, within the context of the church. You look around this room, at the people in this room, and decide that you will treat each of us well. You will act in humility, toward me. And I will act in humility, toward you. James is focused on the church here-- not on the world.
What James adds to this (this is the sense in which "de" here signals progress I think), in verse 14, is that we can treat each other well, acting in humility, while still having a "heart" problem.
Let me give you a couple examples:
One of the weirdest things about this church is the number of people who are capable teachers. It's confusing, because it feels like Jesus picked some of you out to be teachers, to equip the church, but you don't really get to teach very much. It feels really out of whack, and I don't know what the solution is. But if, on any given Sunday, there's only two or three people that get to teach, and seven or eight people who could, then what's the end result?
Those of us who aren't teaching could end up harboring bitter jealousy and rivalry in our hearts. We could mentally pick apart the other teachers over subtle points of interpretation, instead of trying to take the good, and leave the bad. We could try to figure out how to weasel our way into a place where we get to teach more often, at the expense of others. When we are given an opportunity to teach, we can try to dress it up, and show off our learning, and try to create a groundswell of support for us.
Or imagine a church where there are two prophets. On a regular basis, God speaks through two people, and gives them words to build up the church. Do these two prophets find themselves competing? Do they find themselves feeling like rivals? What if God speaks a word through one prophet four weeks in a row, and the other gets nothing? A humble prophet will praise God for speaking through the other. He, or she, will celebrate the word, and take it seriously, and be encouraged, or challenged, by it. He, or she, will treat the other prophet's words, as God's words. Those words aren't less important, or less legitimate, because they came through the other.
Serving God and people is not supposed to be a competition. We aren't supposed to be rivals. And if you find yourself struggling with this, James says, "don't boast and lie against the truth."
What does he mean?
The first half of what he means, I think, is this: don't boast about being wise and understanding. That bitterness you're hiding, shows that you aren't wise. You may know a lot. You may be the Bible answer man or woman. You may be well-respected as a prophet, or teacher. But you aren't wise.
Now, the second half is a little more debated (and complicated). What does it mean to "lie against the truth"?
James has already used this word "truth" once in his letter. Let's turn back to James 1:16-18 (NIV no reason):
16 Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. 17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. 18 He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.
God gave birth to us-- to the church-- through the word of truth. The gospel is not just about the good news about a salvation from hell, or forgiveness from sins, or being freed from the power of sin. The good news is that God has given birth to the church, and created a kingdom community. There is a king-- God-- who rules through King Jesus. There is a kingdom people-- the church. There is a kingdom law-- loving God and neighbor. And there is a kingdom land-- right now, it's maybe wherever we are gathered together. But eventually, we will inherit the earth.
If you harbor bitter envy in your hearts, you are lying against this truth. I think what this means, is that you are lying against this vision for how God wants his kingdom to look. Bitter envy isn't in line with "the word of truth."
At this point, let's reread verses 15-16:
(15) This wisdom isn't from above coming down, but earthly, soulish/unspiritual, demonic.
(16) For where [there is] jealousy and rivalry/selfish ambition, there [is] disorder/tumult and every evil deed.
So earlier I said that if you are acting out of jealousy and bitter ambition, you're not wise. But there's a sense in which I'm wrong. Let's take a different example from church life.
Suppose at this church, there's one opening for an elder, and there's three of you who would like the position. If you're honest, you partly want it because you like getting to make decisions, and help plan out the church's path. You want to make sure your voice is heard. The thing that's blocking you, potentially, from getting your way is the other two candidates.
One way of understanding wisdom, rooted in the OT, is this: "Skill in living." Or you could say, "Knowing what you want in life, and knowing how to get it." You have a goal, plain and clear. And you work toward that goal diligently.
Now, James is saying here that there are two sources of wisdom. There's wisdom that comes "from above"-- from God. And there's also wisdom from below-- wisdom that's earthly, unspiritual, and demonic.
You can try to accomplish your goals in life using either type of wisdom. Both God and Satan offer a way to live skillfully on earth, and get what you want. The old cartoons with a devil on one shoulder, and an angel on another, with both of them talking into your ear, aren't completely off.
So, hopping back to the elder example: you could use worldly wisdom to try to get the one elder spot. You could bad-mouth the two other people. You could subtly let people know you are the best choice (2 Kings 15:4). You could try to sow division in the church, and lift yourself up by dragging the others down.
So there are two types of wisdom that you could use. If you use earthly, unspiritual, demonic wisdom, it will result in chaos, and evil deeds. If you use that wisdom, this church, this body, will become a madhouse. You might get your way, and become an elder, but it will come at a terrible cost.
What does God's wisdom produce? What does God's wisdom look like?
James continues, verse 17 (still trying to work from "de" to "de"):
(17) Now, the from above wisdom, on the hand, first of all, pure/holy it is.
Then, peaceable, gentle, docile/compliant/ready to obey, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, genuine/sincere.
The wisdom from above, first of all, is pure and holy. Then, James goes on to give another six or seven qualities about it. And when we look at this list, as a whole, what we see is that wisdom mostly has to do with how we treat each other. In the end, wisdom and understanding are not so much about what you know, as they are about how we will live in community with one another.
If we are using God's wisdom, we will be peaceable. There are times when we will find ourselves arguing, or debating, or disagreeing with each other. But the end goal, is that we live in peace with one another. And wisdom works toward that goal. When relationships are damaged, a peaceable person works to patch things up. But ideally, it never even gets to that point. A peaceable person lives in harmony with others, as a way of life.
Someone who is gentle, is kind and gracious and tolerant. Some of you are much better with people than others. You're good with your words, and know the right thing to say, and how to say it. Others of us struggle. Things don't come out quite like we'd hoped. It comes out in ways that could be misunderstood, or viewed negatively. Someone who's gentle, and tolerant, is willing to overlook those things, and isn't easily offended. They don't just hear the words; they see the person. Some of you are great at this, and I'm incredibly grateful for you. Gentle people are like the grease that keep a machine running smoothly. Maybe that's not a great example. lol. But those of you are gentle know what I mean. :)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
On "gentle," BDAG:
?p?e????, ?? (s. prec. entry; Hom.+; ins, pap [Mayser 92, 6]; LXX; PsSol 5:12; TestSol 1:1 VW; JosAs1:5; cod. A 15:8 al.; EpArist, Philo; Jos., C. Ap. 2, 211; Ar. 15, 5; Ath.; s. Mlt-H. 89; 314; 348) not insisting on every right of letter of law or custom, yielding, gentle, kind, courteous, tolerant
Louw-Nida:
88.63 ?p?e????, ??: pertaining to being gracious and forbearing—‘gentle, gracious, forbearing.’ µ?d??a ß?asf?µe??, ?µ????? e??a?, ?p?e??e?? ‘not to speak evil of anyone, nor to be quarrelsome, but to be forbearing’ Tt 3:2.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The third thing James mentions, is that wisdom from above is marked by being docile, or compliant, or ready to obey. To be honest, the word is used kind of broadly (it has a broad semantic range), and I'm not sure what exactly James means here.
If the James means "ready to obey," then we should find ourselves thinking about church leadership-- the pastors, and elders. As a rule, people who use God's wisdom, submit to church leaders, and do what the leaders think is best. At [my place of employment,] the first rule for employees, is that you work as directed. Your boss tells you to do something, you do it. Later on, you can call the union, or write a written grievance, or do all kinds of union things. But even at a union shop, you work as directed. If you do this, you are using God's wisdom. You are docile, and compliant, and ready to obey. When your leaders tell you to do something, your first instinct is to do it.
Now, we can think of exceptions to this, of course. And those of us who struggle with being compliant, and ready to obey, probably have a half dozen objections in our heads already. But as a rule, and as a way of life, someone using God's wisdom goes through life, ready to work as directed.
Luke Timothy Johnson glosses this same word in a slightly different way, as "a willingness to get along with others." Is this me? Is it you? Our priority, if we are wise, is to get along with others.
The fourth thing James mentions is this: "full of mercy and good fruits."
We tend to think of mercy in terms of forgiveness, or leniency. Picture a captured soldier. You could torture him, or kill him, but instead you show him mercy. When someone wrongs you, you show them mercy by not giving them what they deserve as punishment.
But I think when James talks about mercy, he's thinking about something else. He's talking about showing kindness, and doing good to people who are poor and vulnerable. Mercy is about how you treat the people on the margins of the church, and on the margins of society. The people who work the jobs you don't want to, who live in the houses you don't want to, and who struggle to get by.
And James has given us a couple pictures of what this looks like. Someone who is full of mercy will help orphans and widows in their distress. Someone full of mercy won't show favoritism, but will instead understand that God has chosen the poor of the world to be rich in faith, and heirs of God's kingdom. A merciful person will treat the poor not like dirt, or second class citizens, but as royalty. If someone in this church needs food or clothing, a merciful person will help them. All of this is what it means to "show mercy" (James 2:13). Mercy isn't about leniency; it's about helping people in need (so when the sinner famously says, "Have mercy on me, a sinner," he's asking God to show him favor and kindness. He's not saying, "Don't bring terrible judgment on me.")
The fifth thing James mentions, is being "unwavering." The same word (minus the prefix that makes it the opposite) was found in James 1:6. People who live using the wisdom from above, are unwavering in their faithfulness toward God. They are committed to God, sold-out for Him.
The last thing James mentions is being genuine, or sincere. Genuine people don't put on a show, or pretend to be something they are not. They don't play nice when they talk to others, and then show their true colors later. There aren't undercurrents of bitterness, or envy, or resentment. They are transparent, and open. With genuine people, what you see, is what you get, and you can take these people at face value.
In verse 18, James takes another little step forward (using "de"):
(18) Now, the fruit of righteousness is sown through/by means of peace by the ones making peace.
Our goal as individual disciples, and as the church, is to be a type of firstfruits among God's creation. We will walk righteously with God, and with each other. And when we do this, we produce the fruit of righteousness. It's like we are farmers, and righteousness is what we reap from our good works.
Now, how can we do that?
What James is saying here, in verse 18, is that the fruit of righteousness is only possible through acts of peace. We can claim to be righteous, based on the righteousness given to us in Christ. We can claim to be righteous, because we walk rightly with God, and read our Bibles, and pray, and fast, and tithe.
But the righteousness that God desires can only be found in churches that live in peace with each other.
Righteousness and peace are like love and marriage-- you can't have one without the other.
So suppose two of us are struggling to get along with each other. We've maybe disagreed about something church-related, or work-related. Maybe our personalities just sort of clash. Whatever it is, the end result is that there is unresolved tension between me and you. This tension makes it really difficult for the two of us to bless each other, and bless the church as a whole. If the church is like an apple, the two of us are like a giant bruise. If the church is like a human body, the two of us are an open wound.
So long as you and I live with this tension, or squabbling, we as a church aren't going to be able to produce the fruit that is righteousness.
It's into this situation, that a peace-maker steps. A peace-maker, recognizing this situation, will bring the two of us together, and help us to work through the issues, and reconcile us to each other.
Or maybe you don't need an outsider. If you know that there's a tension between you and someone else in this church, you can go to that person, and be a peace-maker, and fix things. Do this, and you will produce the fruit of righteousness.
But even this doesn't really do justice to James's vision for the church here. It's not enough to be peacemakers, in the sense of reconciling people to each other. James's vision for this church, is that we become a peaceable community. We live together, and serve together, and worship together, as a family that's humble, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruit.
------------------------------------------------------
James started this little section today, in verse 13, by asking a question: "Who is wise and understanding among you?"
He assumed that all of us, hearing this question, would find ourselves raising our hands. Or, at least, would find ourselves wanting to raise our hands.
But as we worked our way through the verses, what we saw was that James redefines wisdom and understanding. Wisdom is not primarily a matter of the intellect. It's not about understanding the teachings of John or Paul or James or Peter or Jesus. It's certainly not about wrestling with the nuances of Greek and Hebrew.
Wisdom is mostly about acting in a way, that results in peace, and sustains peace.
And if we hear James saying this, some of us should find our hands coming down. If righteousness and wisdom were just a matter of reading our Bibles, and tithing, and worshipping, we'd be good. But it's not. Wisdom is about being gentle, about being compliant. It's about being humble. It's about fixing broken relationships, when it's easier to just walk away.
In his commentary on this passage, Luke Timothy Johnson talks about two types of "spirits" within a church. A church can have a spirit of competition, or a spirit of cooperation. I think this is brilliant.
James is saying, we should act like we are all on the same team, with the same goal. Because we are. When God uses our brothers and sisters in ministry to do great things, we rejoice them with them. We celebrate each other. When someone else gets to play piano on a Sunday, my wife celebrates that person's ministry, and cheerfully worships God with them. She celebrates God, and not every missed note. When someone gets to sing up front, my firstborn sings with them, praising God. If someone gets a prophetic word, we use discernment, to be sure. But we treat it seriously, as God's word for us, regardless of which prophet it came through.
All of this is God's vision for this church. God wants us to be a peaceable community, that works as one, in a spirit of cooperation. We fellowship as one, worship as one, serve as one. We shine as one light to the world.
The person I know who models this best is my mother-in-law. She would die of embarrassment if she knew I was talking about her. So feel free, please, to make sure this doesn't get back to her. For real. But I want to end today by just holding her up as a model for us, of what a godly, mature, understanding, wise Christian looks like.
My mother-in-law is the type of person who for decades has been one of the first people to show up for church potlucks, to help get things ready. And for decades, she's always been one of the last one to leave, cleaning up until the very end. She's the type of person who always brings bars for people's funerals. She's the one who will always serve behind the scenes, in whatever area there is need.
Many years ago at her church, they got a new worship pastor who only played contemporary music. No hymns, ever. Partly, because the worship leader didn't really have the skill set for it. Partly, because he liked the newer stuff.
My mother-in-law took this with "compliance," and "docility." It bothered her, and she missed the hymns. But she wouldn't even really talk about it to her family. She was "peaceable" about it.
Perhaps her favorite expression in life is this: "I don't mind."
If there's 11 people, and 10 nice chairs, she doesn't mind getting the bench. If there's 11 people, and 10 chairs period, she doesn't mind standing. If there's one person who misses out on something, or won't get their way, her preference is that it be her. She "doesn't mind."
The only way to make sure she doesn't end up on the bench, or standing, is to claim the bad spots yourself. You have to make a mad dash to beat her, and then you can smile a little victory smile at her, and tell her, "I don't mind."
You will probably never see her up front, ever, in church. You'll never hear her voice in a church business meeting. She will always be the one behind the scenes keeping the peace, in her family, and the church.
So James asks, "Who among you is wise and understanding?"
If my hand goes up, in truth, it's to point at my mother-in-law.
Now, if I want to become more wise, and understanding, and more like my mother-in-law, what should I do?
Here again, for the second week in a row, we are supposed to remember that we have a role, and God has a role.
James assumes that if you are wise, then you must show it in good deeds, done in humility. James assumes that there is a path in life open to you, available to you, of being humble, and gentle, and docile. You can choose to have a spirit of cooperation, and not of competition. You can choose to "not mind." You can work with your brothers and sisters in Christ, and work for them. You can be a blessing to all of us.
Now, if living this way is a struggle for you, and you find yourself harboring jealousy and bitter envy in your hearts, there is a solution. Ask God for his wisdom. And if you ask, unwavering in your desire for righteousness, God will say "yes" to your prayer. He will help you become like my mother-in-law, so that being selfless and humble and compliant isn't a struggle. Instead, you will truly wise and understanding.
Translation:
(13) Who [is] wise and understanding/knowledgeable among you?
He must show by his good conduct/behavior his works with humble wisdom.
(14) Now, if bitter jealousy you have, and rivalry in your hearts, don't boast and lie against the truth.
(15) This wisdom isn't from above coming down, but earthly, soulish/unspiritual, demonic.
(16) For where [there is] jealousy and rivalry/selfish ambition, there [is] disorder/tumult and every evil deed.
(17) Now, the from above wisdom, on the hand, first of all, pure/holy it is.
Then, peaceable, gentle, docile/compliant/ready to obey, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, genuine/sincere.
(18) Now, the fruit of righteousness in peace is sown to the ones making peace
