PRAY FOR THE WISDOM THAT COMES FROM HEAVEN
James 3:13-4:6 - September 18, 2005 - Pentecost 18
Dear Fellow-Redeemed and Saints in the Lord:
There are many people in the Old Testament and New Testament who stand as examples for believers today. One example is Solomon--we probably remember quite a bit about Solomon. He was the son of David, and Solomon was the one called by God to lead God’s people. Solomon also built God’s temple, a permanent place for a house of worship for the Lord God Almighty. Solomon was young and inexperienced when the Lord called him to lead these children of Israel. So one night the Lord appeared to Solomon. He said to Solomon, "Solomon, ask for whatever you want and I will give it to you. Ask for anything or everything in the world." We may remember what Solomon asked for. Solomon said, "Since I am young and inexperienced and you gave me this great many people to lead, I need wisdom to know your direction in what to do." Solomon realized the importance of wisdom, not his wisdom or the wisdom of the world or the wisdom of earthly advisors that might surround him, but the wisdom that came from above, the wisdom of God.
That is what we are going to look at today, God’s wisdom that comes from above. Paul wrote to the Romans: "Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out"(Romans 11:33). This unlimited wisdom of God is almost beyond our limited understanding. In our text James reminds us: Pray for the wisdom that comes from heaven.. Then he tells us why: PRAY FOR WISDOM THAT COMES FROM HEAVEN because:
I. Worldly wisdom produces selfish lives
II. God’s wisdom produces spiritual living.
II. WORLDLY WISDOM PRODUCES SELFISH LIVES
I encourage you to read chapter 3 of James. He starts by talking about the danger of the tongue. The tongue is very small, but yet it steers the life of a person just as a rudder, which is very small, can change the course of a ship. Then he comes down to the fact that words start from the heart, the heart that is evil at birth. The evil heart of man can easily lead to evil actions. Verse 14: "But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth." Of course, even though these people were believers, there was envy, jealousy, and ambition; an ambition to be number one. It was there because they still had a sinful heart. These believers were not completely perfect. James writes that if bitter envy and selfish ambition is there, don’t brag about that. James reminds the believers that attitude is only worldly wisdom. It is exactly the way the world lives.
James continues: 15Such "wisdom" does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil. Even though the world around them is doing ungodly things in their wisdom to get ahead, doesn’t mean they should do the same. You have to remember this was a challenge for these believers. There were very few and maybe none who were lifelong Christians. Christianity was the new teaching, and so they had lived a long time in the ways of the world. They knew what it was to get ahead at the expense of everyone else. They knew what it was to have jealousy and ambition and that drive to put others down so that they may increase. James is reminding these believers that Christ has changed everything. Worldly wisdom is only self-serving, selfish wisdom. That kind of thinking James describes as even demonic, comes from the devil.
James goes on. This type of worldly thinking can lead to all sorts of problems. In our text, chapter 4: "What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?" There is always that battle to always get my way or do what I want to do. Some of them did everything to get their own. It ended up with fights and quarrels. They looked out for themselves and no one else. And even more James says: "You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God." Very simply, they did not ask because in their own thinking they felt they could do everything themselves. They were going to grab everything of this life they wanted. They didn’t even ask God. They didn’t even acknowledge that God was the giver of all things.
When or if they did ask, listen to how they did pray: "When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures." They prayed selfishly. They lived in the wisdom of the world, which is selfish. They did not look out for their fellow Christians, but for themselves. In other words their worldly wisdom lead many of these believers to selfish lives.
We are not much different than these early believers, are we? The fact is we might even be a little bit worse. These early believers spent a little more time in worship than we do on a weekly basis. Of course, they didn’t have the Bible to take home with them to study. But we probably don’t study God’s word as much or as often as we ought to. We spend a lot of time in this world doing our business, carrying out the affairs of this life. We see all kinds of things happening. We become very wise in the ways of this world. We may even pick up the bad things of this world. Worldly wisdom is like a low-grade infection that can burst into an all-consuming fever at a moment’s notice. We have in our hearts selfish ambition. We have the jealousy that we might feel short-changed because we don’t have as much as our neighbor. Our possessions are not as nice as his or as many. That is worldly thinking. Just watch the ads on TV or in magazines and see how the world makes it seem the only way to be happy in this life is to have everything. This worldly thinking can lead into all kinds of unpleasantness. Walking in the wisdom of the world is part of our sinful nature. We will want to walk in the ways of the Lord who says, "Love God above all things and love your neighbor as yourself." Enough people already walk in the ways of the world that says, "Look out for yourselves. Look out for number one. I am the only one that is most important." In Galatians Paul warns: "If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature" (Galatians 5:15,16).
God says what James writes, pray for wisdom that comes from heaven that God would give you. Pray not only for God’s wisdom, but the will to live lives opposed to worldly wisdom. We know the worldly wisdom. It has made life better in some places. We also know worldly wisdom of the theories that are proposed and considered as fact. How often these facts are later changed. Those things that can’t be proven by facts are considered worthless. Those wise in the ways of the world look at the Bible as not very provable. Why? That is the foolishness of the wisdom of this world. Listen to Paul to the Corinthians: "For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: ’He catches the wise in their craftiness’, and again, ’The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile’" (1 Corinthians 3:19,20). What happens? In our lifetime sometimes in the wisdom of the world we think that the doctors have all the answers, psychiatrists have all the answers, and yet we know and we rejoice that they don’t have all the answers, but God does. We rejoice because miracles do happen apart from all conventional, worldly thinking or opinion. That is from God.
How are you and I are to separate ourselves from the wisdom, the philosophy and the thinking that is so prevalent in our world which says to look out for ourselves, to be ambitious, to strive against our neighbor at all costs. James says to ask for that wisdom. Jeremiah says the same thing: "Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know" (Jeremiah 33:3). We need to ask God for his wisdom like Solomon. Solomon said, "Lord, I can’t lead these people. I can’t depend on myself or my advisors or the wisdom of the world and other rulers. I need your wisdom."
The wisdom of God at times may be quite contrary to the wisdom of the world. So the Lord says to us, "Pray for the wisdom that comes from heaven." Worldly wisdom only produces selfish living. James continues that Godly wisdom produces spiritual living.
II. GODLY WISDOM PRODUCES SPIRITUAL LIVING
Remember, these believers had a hard time, because they had lived a long time in the ways and wisdom of the world. Because of that, their hearts were divided. They had divided interests. In verse 4, God says: "You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend to the world becomes an enemy of God." They would rather make their bed, he says, adulterous with the world, rather than dwell in the presence of God. That was worldly wisdom, worldly thinking. James says, "You need to ask. Pray for that wisdom that comes from heaven." James adds, "Guess what. The world is not your friend." He wrote: "Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God." They were to live in the world but not be a part of the world. This was a very difficult choice, a very difficult task especially for these believers. Remember they had not been trained in the ways of the Lord from childhood on.
James warned them: "Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely? But he gives us more grace." James asks, "Do you think you are good at heart?" They weren’t. They were like everyone else, born into this world as an enemy of God, born into this world with a sinful nature, born into this world with hearts towards envy, jealousy, and coveting.
Thankfully and joyfully as believers, they realized that God gave them more grace, the grace of eternal life. So he says: "That is why Scripture says: ’God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’" Again this was exactly the opposite to the wisdom of the world--the proud, the arrogant, the ambitious seem like the ones who are going to get far in this life. The humble are going to get stepped on. They are going to be pushed aside. But God gives grace to the humble. God gives grace to these believers. God opposes those who are proud – the worldly thinkers in their worldly wisdom and ways.
Now he describes this heavenly wisdom and this living that is vital to the Christian life. "But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere." This is quite a list. We can just see the people reacting to those words, pure, peace-loving, submissive, considerate and kind. These characteristics are the very essence of Christianity. These traits may not be the essence of the world and its thinking and philosophy, but the very essence of Christianity because of the sacrifice Christ made for every believer.
Then James adds: "Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness." We come back to the beginning of our text where he says: "Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom." They would love one another, not to get patted on the back or that others would see them, but done in humility as Christ in humility came and sacrificed himself on the cross. They would live their lives in God’s wisdom. Today, we live our lives in God’s wisdom. The advantage that we have is that most of us from very little on were brought up in the Christian faith. We were taught and we believe and know and confess that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. That still doesn’t stop us from being dragged into the wisdom and thinking of this world. It still does not stop Satan from tempting us or the world or our own sinful flesh. Sometimes we give in and we go with the wisdom of the world, because the thinking of the day says this and everybody is doing it. We can’t be that different, can we? What does the Lord say? He says, "Be careful." Our Lord reminds us today: "No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money" (Luke 16:33). Scripture capitalizes "Money." We could put "God and the world" or "God and ourselves" or anything that is a false god (rather than Money).
Very simply, the Lord says, "Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you as well." This is God’s wisdom. God’s wisdom is that we wouldn’t care at all about the things of this life, because we are busy caring about the things of God’s kingdom. I have seen that, and hopefully you have seen it and experienced it in your life from time to time. Hopefully we are so busy reading and studying God’s Word or doing something for God’s church so that we forget about the cares and worries of this life. Maybe you have seen after a tragedy and then realize the most important thing is our faith and God’s wisdom. If not, then the Lord says we are to ask for God’s wisdom.
What is God’s wisdom? God’s wisdom is to know his word. Job, who lost everything, cattle, sheep, buildings, and families, never blamed God. God encourages Job: "And he said to man, ’The fear of the Lord--that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding’" (Job 28:28). Our text describes this that in this world there is confusion and disorder, fighting and quarreling. God’s wisdom is to know him; and as we begin to know him, we learn to shun evil. We know as we grow in years we also grow in God’s wisdom. The things or the sins we did in our youth we probably don’t do anymore because we know they are wrong. We have grown in God’s wisdom.
Yet, the Lord reminds us to us to ask and to seek his wisdom. Psalm 86 tells us: "Teach me your way O LORD, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name. I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart: I will glorify your name forever" (Psalm 86:11,12). The Lord tells us what the blessing is in walking in God’s wisdom. It knows that God’s wisdom is always right. The blessing in walking in God’s wisdom knows that in the end you and I and every believer will praise God’s name forever. Forever is not here on earth, but in heaven. We might not think very often in our prayers to pray and ask for God’s wisdom; but we need to, don’t we?
Let us go back to Solomon. Solomon was the wisest man that ever lived. The Lord said, "Since you did not ask for the destruction of your enemies or wanted to get even or other things, I will make you wise. As an added blessing, I will make you prosperous." No matter how rich people are today, no one has been richer than Solomon. No one ever will be richer than Solomon because that was the Lord’s promise. Yet, what happened? Toward the end of his life, Solomon married many wives and had concubines in the hundreds. They began to lead him astray. He fell into the trap of walking in the worldly wisdom, of being selfish, pleasing his own desires. God’s wisdom was misplaced.
James writes a couple thousand years later and says to the believers here: "Pray for wisdom. Pray for wisdom that comes from heaven, because the wisdom of this world in which we live and breathe and walk and dwell is selfish and can lead us astray." God’s wisdom, which comes heaven, is the complete opposite, isn’t it? God’s wisdom gives us life (even, eternal life) and it moves us to spiritual living. Hosea says: "Who is wise? He will realize these things. Who is discerning? He will understand them. The ways of the LORD are right; the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them" (Hosea 14:9). Ask the Lord for his wisdom, pray earnestly for God’s wisdom. Then and only then we will not stumble in God’s wisdom, but we walk in God’s wisdom right into the gates of heaven. Amen.
Pastor Timm O. Meyer
Sunday radio broadcast @ 9:05am on KQNK 106.7FM or 1530AM + www.kqnk.com
Readings, Pentecost 18(ILCW-A): ISAIAH 55:6-9; PHILIPPIANS 1:18-27; MATTHEW 20:1-16
