James 3.13-4.3, 7-8a

Two Kinds of Wisdom

13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. 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. ¹⁷But the 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. ¹⁸And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.

Friendship with the World

4Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you?2You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures.

7Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

It is interesting to see how wisdom and understanding are linked to lifestyle. This is the strongest testimony. I am where I am, theologically, mostly because of the testimony of the lives of those who have ministered to me. Rowan Williams mentioned how he was once very conservative in his views on human sexuality and women priests; but then he looked around and saw the company he was keeping, and he decided to review his ideas. Earthly wisdom seems to vaunt itself and sometimes even pride itself in lavish and selfish lifestyles. People like Bertrand Russell claimed to be such a profound philosopher and indeed was a celebrity of his day; but his personal life was so horrid, that I cannot take him seriously. His ‘opponent’ – on the other hand, F C Coplestone, was such a saint, that even though he is less well known, he is becoming more noted.

God thinks differently – as the Gospel passage of last week reminded us – and so ought we.

We read in this passage a hearkening back to the warning that not many should become teachers. Barclay points out that the scholar and teacher is always under temptation, and in the first instance to arrogance. It was arrogance that was the besting sin of the Rabbis. The greatest of the Jewish teachers were well aware of this. In ‘The sayings of the Fathers’ we read: “He that is arrogant in decision is foolish, wicked, puffed up in spirit …’ Teachers and especially preachers are therefore in constant danger: they are used to being listened to and having their words accepted; they are used to telling people rather than listening to them. It is difficult to be a preacher and teacher and remain humble.

We are also under temptation to bitterness. Quite often we are men of peace, but our tongues can be as sharp as a razor. It is difficult to argue without passion and to retort without wounding. Barclay writes: “To be utterly convinced of one’s own beliefs without at the same time being bitter to those of others is no easy thing, and yet it is a first necessity of the Christian teacher and scholar.” As we debate things within the Church – it is good to remember this!

Barclay ends with four characteristics of the WRONG kind of teaching:

1.      It is wrong if it is fanatical;

2.      It is wrong if it leads to bitterness;

3.      It is wrong if it is wrongfully ambitious;

4.      It is wrong if it is arrogant.

Real wisdom is of inestimable value, but it is not easy to recognise in today’s world where there are values that are so markedly different to the standards of Christ. James gives us a good reminder of what worldly wisdom is all about, firstly what it is in itself and then he describes it in its effects. Barclay suggests that in itself it is three things:

Firstly, it is earthly – it measures success in worldly terms and its aims are worldly;

Secondly, it is ‘unspiritual’ - it is characteristic of the natural man. The ancients divided human experience into three parts – body, soul and spirit. At first, we would agree, but they meant something different then. They believed that humans and animals shared both bodies and souls – it was the latter that distinguished both human and animals from other living things; the soul referred to physical life. Today we refer to the ‘soul’ in the same sense as the ancients referred to the ‘spirit’ – that which makes us distinctly human. What James is then saying is that this wrong kind of wisdom is more than an animal kind of thing, or as Barclay suggests: “The wrong kind of wisdom is the wisdom which a man shares with the animals and which is part of his lower nature.”

Lastly, it is devilish – its source is not from God, but the devil. It produces, not the kind of people which God delights in, but the kind of situation in which the devil delights.

James then describes how this arrogant and bitter wisdom has an impact on people and communities. Most notably it results in disorder. Instead of bringing people together, it drives them apart; instead of producing peace, it produces strife; instead of producing fellowship it produces disruption in personal relationships. Barclay writes:

“There is a kind of person who is undoubtedly clever; he has an acute brain and a skilful tongue; but his effect in any committee, in any Church, in any group, is to cause trouble, to drive people apart, to forment strife, to make trouble, to disturb personal relationships. It is a sobering thing to remember that the wisdom that than man possesses is devilish rather than divine, and that such a man is engaged in Satan’s work and not God’s work.”

I end with James’ description of the nature of true wisdom – as explained in verses 17-18. He uses a number of words to describe it:

1.      Pure

2.      Peaceable

3.      Gentle

4.      Willing to yield

5.      Full of mercy and good fruits

6.      Without a trace of hypocrisy

Wisdom is ‘pure’ - pure enough to approach God because it is cleansed from all ulterior motives, cleansed of the self and so has become pure enough to see God. Barclay comments: “The true wisdom is able to bear the very scrutiny of God.”

Wisdom is peaceable: This is the wisdom that produces right relationships. Clever and arrogant wisdom separates people from each other and takes delight in putting others down. True wisdom brings people closer to each other and so closer to God.

Wisdom is gentle – it knows when it is actually wrong to apply the strict letter of the Law, it knows how to forgive when strict justice gives him the perfect right to condemn. He knows how to make allowances when not to stand up for his rights who knows how to temper justice with mercy that there are greater things in the world than rules and regulations.

Wisdom is ready to yield – not in the sense of being pliable and weak, but in the sense of not being stubborn and of being willing to listen to reason and to appeal. It is not rigid and austere beyond all appeal.

Of course, true wisdom produces the fruits of the Spirit – love, joy peace, patience, gentleness, kindness and self-control and is without hypocrisy.

Barclay is fantastic in his unpacking of the meanings of words and I am once again humbled by his incredible insight and wisdom in this passage.

James describes a world I want to live in – but don’t; he describes the Kingdom of God and that which we, as Christians, ought to be seeking to establish. But sadly, these standards do not often even apply in the Church – and it is these standards that should establish orthodoxy above all else.

Let’s strive to live in the Wisdom of God.