Monthly Archives: January 2022

God’s judgement against the rich, James 5:1-6

As a general, overarching theme in this epistle, James has been contrasting the wisdom which is from the world, with the wisdom which is from above.  He has shown that contrast in a variety of ways.  For instance, James spent a great deal of time talking about the use of the  tongue, or our speech, as the evidence of which wisdom you follow – whether it’s the wisdom of the world or the wisdom from above.  You can tell by one’s speech.

But he really begins this epistle by talking about wisdom. And in those opening verses, we get some clues that I believe will help us properly understand the passage before us today in chapter five.  Notice in chapter one he talks about having faith through the trials of life, and the wisdom to do so which he says comes from God.  But then he contrasts that wisdom with the one who doubts.  The one who has faith has the wisdom from God, the one who doubts doesn’t really believe the wisdom of God and is instead following the world’s wisdom.

He then continues that contrast saying in vs 9, speaking of the brother of humble circumstances  and he contrasts him to the rich man.  Once again, we can assume that the humble follow the wisdom from God, the rich man follows the wisdom of the world.  And I think in that passage James sets the rich man as an example or illustration of one who lives by the wisdom of this world.

And again and again as we read this epistle, we see James characterize those who live by the wisdom of the world as being the rich.  In chapter 2, for instance, James contrasts the rich man with those whom he says are the poor of this world.  And again we see the parallel;  those who are poor in this world he says are actually rich in the faith, whereas the rich man oppresses the poor.  So in a broad sense, I think James is using the rich man as a metaphor for those who follow the wisdom of the world and treasure the things of this world, and he uses the poor as a metaphor for those who are rich in faith but poor in the riches of this world.

There are other examples of that as well, but I think I will let you study that out for yourselves and we will work on chapter five from that perspective; that the rich are illustrative of those who  follow the wisdom of this world, that live for the pleasure and the things they can get from this world.  That’s the default wisdom of this world, that if you work hard, if you do this, or do that according to the wisdom of this world, then you can enjoy all that this world has to offer – you can be content, satisfied, and live a comfortable, happy life. You can be rich in the things of this world.

And so we follow the wisdom of the world and we tell our kids to get good grades, send them off to a good college, to get a degree in a field with high paying jobs, and to pursue the American dream and promise them fulfillment and happiness.  Now, just to be clear,  the “American” part of that dream is not necessarily a bad thing.  It’s the same dream in Europe or Asia.  They just call it by another name.  However, in America we seem to have a better chance of accomplishing it.  We are told that we can accomplish anything we put our minds to.  And here we have enough freedom to be able to come closer to making that a reality than they might have in other countries.

So as we delve into chapter five and James rails against the rich, we need to understand that he is not necessarily pronouncing some horrible judgment on those who happen to end up with a lot of money at some point in their life.  But he is proclaiming judgment on those who live by the wisdom of the world, who have set their sights on acquiring material things as a means of finding happiness and fulfillment in life. 

Now one more difficulty this passage has is we can’t know for sure specifically who James is speaking to.  He doesn’t address the rich as brothers, or brethren, so some commentators see this as only applying to the unbeliever. But I’m not so sure that Christians can opt out of this criticism so easily.  Because I believe number one, that we have a default mechanism in our behavior even though we may be believers, which is to rely on the wisdom of the world more often than we realize.  And number two, I think all of us qualify as being rich by the metric that most of the world goes by.  Even those who live below the poverty level in America would be considered rich in many other places in the world.  But it’s not so much the amount of money or possessions that James is talking about, but the perspective of the world that believes in and follows the wisdom of the world, a wisdom that has materialism as it’s goal.

So James is condemning the world’s wisdom, the world system, while at the same time rebuking the same tendencies within the heart of the believer. He is exposing the materialistic perspective of the world, but he also knows it’s possible for believers to be just as materialistic and self-centered and indulgent and guilty of the same sins. 

So he begins with a scathing rebuke to anyone who has adopted the world’s wisdom saying in vs 1, “Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you.”  On the one hand, he is calling for repentance from those who hold to that false wisdom, and on the other hand, he is warning of impending judgement upon those who hold to such a world view. James says, you may think you are rich, that you have obtained happiness and fulfillment in life by living according to the world’s wisdom,  but you should be mourning for what you have lost, and crying out for the misery that God’s judgment will bring upon you.

It’s the same sort of rebuke that James offered in chapter four when he called out those who sought friendship with the world, but ended up becoming the enemy of God. To be rich is to be a friend of the world, to live in agreement with the world system which is engineered by the devil and produces every kind of evil.  

James speaks of a coming time when God will judge the world. He says in vs 3, it is in the last days that you have stored up treasure for yourself.  He goes on to speak in vs 7 and 8 saying that the coming of the Lord is at near.  So the misery that is coming upon the rich is the judgment of the Lord at His second coming.  The first coming of the Lord He came bearing mercy, the second coming He comes in judgment.  And James says that the day is near.

So James goes on to speak of four sins of this materialistic, worldly wisdom in this passage that will bring about the judgment of God. The first sin is what might be called the sin of hoarding.  Wealth was held in those days in three primary forms, and he says that in all three areas, they were guilty of hoarding it. 

One form of riches was corn and grain.  We find that example in the parable which Jesus gave concerning the rich man who built more barns to store, or hoard his crops.  There’s nothing wrong with storing corn or grain— the problem James points out is the fact that because they stored more than they could ever eat— James writes, “your riches have rotted” . . . literally, they’ve spoiled.  You didn’t use it for good, for the glory of God, and so it has become foul and putrid before the Lord.

Another form of wealth was clothing. There are many examples of clothing in the Bible being used as money.  For instance, Samson gave changes of clothing as payment for whoever solved his riddle.  James is talking here about people who had so many garments they could never use them all, and so they stored them away. They can only store them away in bigger boxes; bigger garages; bigger attics; bigger rental units; bigger barns.  It’s amazing to me to see how they keep building more and more storage units.  People have huge houses, sometimes two houses,  big garages, and yet they need to rent a storage facility to hold their excess.

Notice what James says next in verse 2. Your garments have become moth-eaten.  Again, the point made is that in storing it away and not using it, the moths ruined it and destroyed it.  I remember once years ago when I was an antique dealer.  I was at these people’s house trying to buy some things, and they told me that they also had some Navajo rugs.  We went back into a bedroom and under the bed the pulled out some boxes in which they had stored these Navajo rugs which today would be worth a good bit of money.  But when we pulled them out and unfolded them, it became obvious that moths had gotten into the rugs and laid their larvae which then ate the wool.  There were large gaping holes all throughout the blankets.  They were completely ruined because they had not been stored correctly.

That’s what James is saying here, the garments that the rich had accumulated and stored away, had no value anymore because they had been ruined by moths. Jesus said that if you had two coats, you were to give one to him who had none.  Garments that are used for the Lord’s purposes do not get moth eaten. But these selfish rich people who stored up their wealth in garments found they were worthless in the day of judgment.

The third way of storing wealth was gold and silver. He writes in verse 3, “Your gold and your silver have rusted, and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure!”  One of the things that makes gold and silver valuable is that they don’t rust. What James is probably referring to, since the judgment is the context here, notice the last phrase of verse 3 where James says that they have stored up their treasure in the last days – what he is referring to is that it will be as if their gold and silver have turned to rust.  In the judgment, the world’s gold and silver will be as worthless as rusted iron.  When iron rusts, it becomes like the moth eaten garments – it just denigrates in your hand.

The point James is making is that the currency of the world is worthless in heaven.The things that are valued in the world’s wisdom have no value in the kingdom of God.  At the judgment, those things that you hoarded, you valued, which you sold your soul for will have no value whatsoever, and in fact James says they will be a witness against you and will fuel the fires of hell.  It’s an echo of what Jesus taught in Matt. 6:19-21 saying “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal;  for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

I don’t know if you remember a few years ago some mortuary company had these billboards that promised you could be buried with your motorcycle or car or whatever it was that you treasured or which defined you while you were living.  I don’t know how that worked out for that funeral home.  I haven’t seen any of their billboards lately.  But I read a story not long ago about a man who had a similar ambition. His chief purpose in life was to get as much money as he could. He not only loved money and everything it could buy, he hoarded it all for himself.

In fact, this guy wouldn’t let his wife spend any of it. He made her promise that when he died, he wanted her to have all of his money buried with him in the ground. It was his and he wanted to keep it all for himself. And unbelievably, his wife promised him she would do what he asked. When he died he was enormously wealthy. At his funeral, attended by his wife and just a couple of her friends, just before the casket was lowered, the wife put a large box on top of the casket before it was lowered into the ground. The wife’s close friend said to her, ―”You’re not foolish enough to keep your promise to him, are you?” She said, ”But, I promised him I would.” Her friend protested all the more, ”You mean to tell me that you kept that selfish demand of his —you actually put all that money in the casket with him?” The widow said, “I sure did … I wrote him a check.”  

So following hoarding comes the second sin of materialism, which is defrauding.  James says in vs 4,  “Behold, the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields, [and] which has been withheld by you, cries out [against you;] and the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.”

In this case, James is describing those who in the wisdom of the world to use people, to take advantage of people, in order to climb and claw their way to the top.  The end justifies the means, and if that means I have to step on others then so be it.  That’s the wisdom of the world  that says “go for all the gusto you can get.”  “You can have it all if you’re willing to sacrifice everything.” 

James uses the example here of a day laborer, who was according to Jewish law supposed to be paid at the end of the day, instead, he says the rich man held back his pay, and he was in danger of never getting paid at all.  I once worked for someone many years ago like that who used me to paint a house in Greenwood.  I was in a pretty desperate place at the time and really needed the money. It took me several trips back and forth to finally finish the job, but the company who hired me kept finding fault in what I had done.  So I went back and redid a large portion of it. That happened again, until I finally realized that they were just putting me off not wanting to pay me.  Then when I finally confronted them and they gave me a check, I went to their bank to cash it and was told there was insufficient funds in the account.  Turns out, that was the modus operandi of this company, to hire people to do a job and never intend on paying them.

Now that’s an extreme example of what James is talking about.  Most people aren’t that crass and obvious about it.  But there is a wisdom of the world that values making a buck over treating people fairly. And that is what it means to defraud someone.  James says the Lord of Sabaoth hears the cries of those that were taken advantage of.  That title is also translated in some versions as the Lord of Hosts.  It means the Lord of armies.  God’s might is able to rectify and repay those that do injustice to others.

The third example of the materialistic worldly wisdom is self indulgence. That’s found in vs 5, “You have lived luxuriously on the earth and led a life of wanton pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.”  

James speaks of a life lived in luxury and wanton pleasure.  That’s the goal of the wisdom of the rich man.  These people are using their wealth to gratify their love of luxury and to satisfy their lusts for sexual gratification.

Back in James day, the Romans were notorious for gluttonous feasts and sexual orgies.  They actually had these latrines built into the temples where they indulged in these festivals so that when they had gorged themselves on food, they could throw up in the latrine and then eat some more.  In contrast to that, the Christians were displaced from their homeland, they had often lost their occupations in the process, and were probably wondering where they would get their next meal. 

From a human perspective, it looked like the rich, worldly wise people were living the best life possible, enjoying every pleasure in abundance, but James says that they are actually fattening themselves for the day of slaughter.  He likens it to the farm animal that eats and eats but doesn’t realize that it is only so that they might be slaughtered later.  He is speaking metaphorically about the judgment that will be greater because of their self indulgence. It’s interesting to think about how so much that we consider essential, that we work and spend our money on, is actually a luxury that would be inconceivable to people living a hundred years ago.  And we try to justify our lifestyle in the name of providing for our families, when really we have to have all these luxury items that we think are essential.

Just compare the average house of the generation that lived in the 50’s and 60’s in comparison with the average house today. You can’t even find a builder today that will build a house like that.  It’s not marketable unless it has a top of the line kitchen, walk in closets, a two car garage, and all the modern conveniences.  I’m not saying we have to live in a hut to be spiritual, but I am saying we have bought into the world’s wisdom for what is an acceptable standard of living.

There is a final characteristic James speaks of concerning the worldly wise rich man, and that is ruthlessness. He speaks of it ruthlessness in vs 6, “You have condemned and put to death the righteous [man;] he does not resist you.”  

More than likely James is speaking metaphorically here about putting someone to death.  But in Jewish legal terms, taking away the livelihood of someone was the equivalent of murder.  One rabbi a couple of centuries before Christ said it this way, “As one that slays his neighbor is he that takes away his living.” 

Having even a little experience in our legal system, it’s not hard to see that the rich are able to take advantage of the courts, whereas the poor are not able to afford to defend themselves.  I think using the legal system to their advantage is  what James is speaking of.  Remember back in chapter 2 vs 6 James said, “But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court?”

What he is talking about is that the innocent man is personally abused, beaten down and ruined by a court, that instead of dispensing justice, is able to be controlled by the rich. And according to the wisdom of the world, all is fair in love and war and business, even if it means taking everything from the innocent to stuff the pockets of the rich. Those that follow the world’s wisdom are ruthless, taking advantage by every means possible to keep themselves rich and add to their riches.

Notice at the last part of verse 6, James says that the righteous man does not resist you.

This can mean one of two things: one,  that the righteous man doesn’t have the

ability to show up in court. He doesn’t have the  money to hire a fancy lawyer; he doesn’t even have the ability to photocopy the paper to file his complaint.  There is a man that I have befriended in prison that I’ve seen this happen to again and again.  He has lost so many court battles simply because he didn’t have access to a phone, or to a lawyer, or even able to get things photo copied.  The prison charges him money to make copies, and he has no money, so he can’t make the copies and loses the appeal.

The other possible option is that the righteous man doesn’t even try to fight back legally, and chooses instead to be ruined and leave his vindication up to God.  We can’t be sure, but that latter interpretation is very likely the one James had in mind, given the use of the word righteous as a description of this innocent person.  

In that case where I painted a house in Greenwood and the business that hired me gave me a bad check, I remember I called them and asked for them to pay me what they owed me.  The guy on the telephone became so vile, so filthy mouthed, he cursed me up one side and down the other.  It was actually unnerving to hear the hatred in his voice.  I was very upset and considered all the ways I could try to legally get my money.  Then later that night I began to pray about it and asked the Lord to show me what to do.  The next morning, I wrote this guy a letter.  I said I knew that they owed me the money but I had decided I was going to forgive them for defrauding me, and I wasn’t going to take any legal action against them. I said I had also owed a debt that I had not been able to pay, and the Lord had forgiven me, and by His example, I had decided to forgive them. I tried to use it as a means of witnessing to them their need of salvation.  I never heard from them again, and I don’t doubt but that they laughed over the idea that they thought  they got away with it.  But I know that the Lord will vindicate me, that he saw what I did, and I believe over the years He has restored so much more than I lost in that deal.

Listen, the wisdom of this world says that the end justifies the means, and the goal in life is he who dies with the most toys wins. The wisdom of this world says that there is no God, or that God doesn’t care, or even that if there is a God, He just wants us to be successful in the things of this world, and so we are justified in cutting corners, or we’re justified in being ruthless or stepping on people in our pursuit of the goal.  Of course, nothing can be further from the truth. God sees, and God will judge the world for every deed, and even every careless word that they have done.

Rather than trusting in the wisdom of the world, Paul told Timothy in 1Tim. 6:17-19 “Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. [Instruct them] to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed.” 

Jesus told us how we are to gain that life in Matt. 16:24-27 and it is the opposite of the world’s wisdom.  He said,  “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.  For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and WILL THEN REPAY EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS.” 


I pray that if you are following the wisdom of this world today, if you are rich in this world, then you will repent, weep and howl, and ask God for forgiveness, for Him to transform your heart, so that you might escape that judgment which is coming on all the world.  Renounce the riches of this world, renounce the wisdom of this world, and in exchange the Lord will give you the next world, and the wisdom which comes down from heaven, that you might have life and have it more abundantly.  That you might obtain  an inheritance [which is] imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you.

The evidence of earthly wisdom, James 4:11-17

James has been continuously referring to two dominant themes in his epistle.  Pretty much everything he has said up to this point stems from one or both of these themes.  And I would say that both themes are closely related.  Those themes are wisdom and what he calls our tongue, or to put it in our common vernacular, our speech.

Wisdom and speech are related in that our speech is the evidence of wisdom.  Now he has taught us early on in this epistle that wisdom is from God.  Wisdom is the  knowledge and application of spiritual life which comes from God.  And our speech is one of the primary means of applying that knowledge.  Jesus said, “What is in the heart, comes out of the mouth.” And  Paul said, with the mouth a man confesses what he believes in his heart. Romans 10:9-10 “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus [as] Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”  

So it’s not enough to just believe, but you must say what you believe and your speech gives evidence of what you believe.  But James tells us repeatedly that it’s possible to say one thing, but do another which shows that you actually don’t believe what you claim.  James says in chapter  2:14 “What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?”  And you will see that theme discussed again and again in all aspects of our life – this speech that belies our faith.

Now the context for what James is discussing in this section we’re studying today, is found in chapter 3, where James spoke of the tongue being a restless evil which cannot be tamed, and said that from the same fountain cannot come fresh and salt water at the same time, or good speech and evil speech should not coexist in the same mouth.

And of course, the source for that fountain is wisdom.  According to James in chapter 3, there are two types of wisdom – the wisdom which is from God, and the wisdom which is of the world. And so your speech indicates which wisdom you have, and by which wisdom you are living.  

The wisdom which is from the world is our default wisdom.  That is the natural wisdom by which we operate under most circumstances.  That wisdom is what we call science, or education, or human intuition,  or being smart, or just good old common sense.  But James says that the wisdom of the world is demonic in origin.  It does not submit to God, but thinks itself smart enough and able to be independent from God. And according to chapter 3 vs 16, this earthly, demonic wisdom is characterized by jealousy and selfish ambition.

James 3:15-16 “This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic.  For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing.”

Now to those evil characteristics of earthly wisdom, James speaks in the passage before us. He speaks of jealousy as characterized by slanderous and judgmental speech in vs 11 and 12.  And then he speaks to selfish ambition in vs 13-16 which is marked by pride and arrogance, and then finishes this section with a summary statement about earthly wisdom as being sinful in vs 17 as he closes this chapter.

Let’s look at the first evidence of earthly wisdom then that is jealousy, which is marked by slanderous speech or judgmental speech.  James says in vs 11, “Do not speak against one another, brethren. He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge [of it.]  There is [only] one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy; but who are you who judge your neighbor?”

There is in this verse an echo of Jesus’s teaching in His sermon on the mount in which Jesus said, “Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.”

Now the way James speaks of judging is to say it is speaking against another person.  But what he is really talking about there is slander.  Slander is making a false statement about someone else to their detriment.  It’s called character assassination. Jesus’s statement seems to be more broad than that, but I think that it’s more than likely that James gives us the correct interpretation of what Jesus meant by his statement.  It means to judge with evil intent, to condemn, to damn. 

It’s the same kind of attitude which James spoke of in chapter 2, when he said that when you give preferential treatment to the rich man you have become judges with evil motives.  And then he says concerning that quickness to judge others, in vs 13, “For judgment [will be] merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.”

It’s important that we understand correctly what James is teaching here concerning judgment.  You often hear people rebuke a pastor or concerned Christian who raises questions about a person’s behavior, by saying, “Do not judge, lest you be judged.”  However, right after Jesus spoke about not judging, He then went on to say beware of false prophets, and that you shall know them by their fruits.  So in that sense, we are to judge others with righteous judgement, basing our judgement by their fruit, by their behavior.  

James is also not telling us that we shouldn’t rebuke others who are sinning. That is a necessary part of evangelism, to tell sinners that they have fallen short of the kingdom of God, that their sin has condemned them to eternal punishment, and that there is a way of salvation for those who repent of their evil deeds.  James speaks to that in the last verse of chapter five, saying, “My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back,  let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.”

But the slanderer is not interested in saving the sinner, but in maligning someone. People tend to think that the way to exalt themselves is to put down others.  So the idea that James is getting at here is the one who condemns with his speech another person, attacking him, speaking ill of him, maligning him, by that which is not necessarily the truth. When you slander someone, you’re not talking about them for their good, but to hurt them, to condemn them. James says this is devilish. 

 It’s interesting to note that in vs 7, when James references the devil,  he uses the Greek word diabolos.  Diabolos is interpreted as the devil, but literally it means the slanderer.  And in vs 11, to speak against someone means to slander them.

In Rev 12:10 we see that description of the slanderer applied to the devil, saying, “And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.”  Slander is the modus operandi of the devil.  He accuses the Christian before God. And he uses other people to slander one another and accomplish that same purpose.

In addition to doing the work of the devil, James says that the one who judges with evil intentions puts himself above the law, and in effect, puts himself on par with God as a judge. Blind to his own sin, the slanderer is not aware of the seriousness of his error.  Jesus said by what measure you judge, you will be judged.  And so we need to leave judgement to God, and focus on removing the mote out of our own eye, before we focus on the speck in another’s eye.

James says there is only one lawgiver and judge, who, of course, is God.  We all are going to be judged by God for every careless word that we speak.  So if we understood the law properly, then we would all cry out for mercy.  And our salvation is based on mercy, for by the keeping of the law is no one made righteous.  If we depend upon mercy, then how much more should we be merciful to others, rather than to condemn them. 

James says, “but who are you, to judge your neighbor?”  By that question, he reminds us of the royal law, which is to love our neighbor as ourselves.  If we loved our neighbor as we love ourselves, then we would not slander them, we would not condemn them, but we would show mercy towards them, because that’s what we desire for ourselves.

The next example of earthly wisdom that James discusses is what he called in chapter 3, selfish ambition. Selfish ambition is simply pride, and pride is marked by arrogant speech, which is boasting.  James says  starting in vs 13, “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are [just] a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.  Instead, [you ought] to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.”  But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.”

Now again, it’s important to understand what James is saying, and what James is not saying.  He is not saying that it’s wrong to make a business plan.  He is not saying that it’s wrong to have goals.  There are plenty of admonitions in the Bible about preparing for the future.  Or how about the godly example of Joseph whose plan called for saving during the years of plenty for the years to come of famine?  So the problem is not having a plan.

But what James is talking about here is the pride of man that makes plans and boasts as if he were the captain of his destiny and the master of his life.  As if he has all the time in the world at his disposal.  James is speaking of the ludicrousness of taking for granted the fragility of life, and that what you have in life is from God, even to the very next breath that you breathe.  

James says the problem is that you make plans apart from the wisdom of God. You make plans according to the wisdom of the world which is sourced in pride.  But James says, you don’t know what your life will be like tomorrow. As an example of that, I can’t help but think of what life was like before the virus.  We took so many things for granted.  No one could have imagined three years ago what life would be like today.  No one could have imagined the freedoms that would be lost, the businesses that would be closed down, the lives that were lost, the effects on life and liberty that have come as a result of this virus.

I will confess that lately I have felt the effects of it more than ever.  One thing that I’ve become more aware of is my own vulnerability.  I used to think I was bullet proof to a certain extent. I don’t know if it’s my age or my health or a combination of both, but lately I feel vulnerable. I realize more than ever the fragility of life.  We take good health for granted when we are healthy.  And I will say we take our liberties for granted until we lose them.  We take peace for granted in this country.  I pray that we don’t wake up one day to the harsh realities that it seems we are headed for.

James says that it is arrogant to make plans as if God does not control the outcome of the world, as if we can make ourselves rich, we can make ourselves successful, we can do what we want without considering the Lord. Whether the world realizes it or not, everyone is totally dependent upon the mercy of God for their next breath.  Paul said in Acts 17:28, “for in Him we live and move and exist.”

James says that your life is but a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. I’m sure you have all seen the early morning mist that hovers just above the ground on some chilly mornings.  But when the sun comes up it disappears.  It was just vapor.  That’s a picture of the temporary nature of our life.  By the time we start to figure it out, it’s over.

Moses wrote about that in Psalm 90, saying, ‘’ we end our days with a sigh.”  He went on to say “As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, Or if due to strength, eighty years, Yet their pride is [but] labor and sorrow; For soon it is gone and we fly away.”

So instead of making plans in our arrogance, irrespective of God, instead we ought to say, “if it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”  God is sovereign in our lives.  He has numbered our days. He directs our steps.  Proverbs 16:9 “The mind of man plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps.”

To say that “If it’s the Lord’s will…” is not a mantra that we tack on to our plans, like when we pray “in Jesus’s name, Amen.”   It’s not a way to sanctify our own plans.  But it means to submit to the sovereignty of God in every thing we do.  The Scottish hymn writer Horatius Bonar put it this way; “no part of day or night from sacredness be free.”   Everything we do we do for the Lord.  Even things as mundane as your day to day work are to be done as unto the Lord.  Even our submission to civil authorities is for the Lord’s sake.  Even the love that spouses are to have for one another is to be as unto the Lord.  

To say “If it’s the Lord’s will…” means simply to put the Lord first in your life.  For the Christian, there is no separation between the secular and the sacred.  There must be no distinction between my will and God’s will.  Our will is to do God’s will.  Whatever we do we need to do for the glory of God. Therefore, the Christian should accept the lordship of Jesus Christ in every aspect of our lives, living in obedience to the will of God as revealed in the word of God.

As Solomon’s wisdom tells us in Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding;  In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.”

Finally, we come to a summary of this section on earthly wisdom in vs 17. The wisdom of the world produces sin.  James says, “Therefore, to one who knows [the] right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.”  There is a wisdom that produces sin.  It’s the earthly wisdom that is demonic, and produces every evil thing.  There are sins of commission which we have looked at, such as pride and slander and boasting.  But there is also a sin of omission, of neglect.  

We have been given wisdom in the word of God.  God speaks to us about what we should do, and what we should not do.  Sometimes it’s easier to focus on what we should not do. Far too often we think we’re ok because we haven’t committed any of the gross sins of the flesh like adultery or murder or so forth. But there are also some things which we should do, and if we neglect to do them, after having been shown the truth, then James says that’s a sin.  To neglect the commandments to love one another, to forgive one another, to edify one another, to pray for one another and other commandments like those, is just as grievous a sin as the sins of commission.

In our study on Wednesday nights we are looking at Revelation, and particularly the second coming of the Lord.  The first coming of the Lord He came to show mercy, but in the second coming the Lord comes in judgment.  And this is what the Lord Himself had to say about that coming, and the judgment which He will render; particularly the judgment He will give to those who knew His will, and did not do it.  

Luke 12:42-48 “And the Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and sensible steward, whom his master will put in charge of his servants, to give them their rations at the proper time?  “Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes.  “Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions.  “But if that slave says in his heart, ‘My master will be a long time in coming,’ and begins to beat the slaves, [both] men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk;  the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect [him] and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces, and assign him a place with the unbelievers.  “And that slave who knew his master’s will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will, will receive many lashes,  but the one who did not know [it,] and committed deeds worthy of a flogging, will receive but few. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.”

You have been given much this morning.  You have been given the knowledge of God’s will.  I urge you to show wisdom now and do it  – to not just be hearers of the word, but doers of it.  I urge you to submit to the will of God in your life, that the Lord will be sovereign over your plans, over your work, and over your life.  Don’t resist the Lord in pride, thinking that you have plenty of time to serve the Lord later, but for now you want to live like you want.  Don’t believe the false lies of the devil, and give place to pride and selfish ambition.  But rather “Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.”

The source of conflict, James 4:1-10

I remember when I was about 27 years old or so, going to France on vacation, alone. I didn’t know the language, didn’t know anyone there, and had no real idea where to go. But being young and foolish, I didn’t see not knowing the language as a big problem. I thought it would be an adventure. It was, I suppose, a great adventure that I still remember. But if I am honest, not knowing the language made the trip a lot more difficult than it should have been. It cost me quite a bit more than it should have as well, as I overpaid for things that I need not have, usually because I didn’t understand what I was paying for or how much I was spending. And I suppose though I thought it a great adventure at the time, looking back on it, I realize now that not knowing the language was a big disadvantage, and kept me from really enjoying all that France had to offer.

I suppose I tell you that as a bad analogy to what James is saying about living life with wisdom from above or having earthly wisdom. You could equate it as knowing the language of heaven as opposed to only knowing the language of earth. Back in the last part of chapter three, James speaks of the necessity of heavenly wisdom and contrasts that with earthly wisdom. James says the natural inclination is to live life according to earthly wisdom. This is the way that Proverbs 14:12 speaks of, saying there is a way that seems right to a man, but the end is the way of death. It’s popular wisdom, the wisdom of the world, the wisdom that is based on man’s intuition, man’s science, man’s knowledge, and man’s purposes.

That kind of earthly wisdom sounds good to us, it seems more logical, more satisfying. But James says in chapter 3 vs 15 “This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing.” The point is, James says, it sounds good, but it ends badly. It ends in disorder, confusion, chaos, destruction. And it results in the condemnation of sin, which has eternal consequences.

On the other hand, James says if you know the wisdom from above, then you will live a life which has a completely different outcome. He says in vs 17, “But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peace-loving, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial, free of hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”

Now, as we come to chapter 4, we need to understand that James is continuing this line of reasoning. He’s not suddenly introducing a new thought, but he is elaborating on this line of reasoning, which is the contrast between heavenly and earthly wisdom. In contrast to the heavenly wisdom which produces peace, earthly wisdom is characterized by selfishness and envy and selfish ambition; and as we read earlier, it results in disorder and every evil thing.

And to that eventual outcome of earthly wisdom, James asks the rhetorical question, “What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you?” The answer is another question. “Doesn’t it come from the earthly wisdom that you live by? Doesn’t it come from the pleasures that wage war in your body’s parts?”

Of course, the answer is affirmative. When selfishness and envy exist, when living by that motto of get all you can get for yourself is your mantra, then it results in disorder and every evil thing. It results in dissatisfaction, because you can’t satisfy your lusts. Lusts are a raging desire that can never get enough. The more you feed it, the more it wants. It can never be satisfied.

Now when James speaks of lusts, he doesn’t mean just sexual lusts. It’s unbridled desire for pleasure. The word in the Greek for pleasure is hedone. It’s not hard to see that is the root for the word in our language which is hedonism. Hedonism means the pursuit of pleasure; sensual self-indulgence. It’s a philosophy of life that says that pleasure (in the sense of the satisfaction of desires) is the highest good and proper aim of human life.

There was a rock band back in the late sixties called the Grass Roots, who wrote a song called “Let’s live for today.” It had a catchy melody and terrible lyrics, and an even worse slogan which it espoused to live by. A lot of the lyrics aren’t worth repeating, but the general idea can be understood in one verse which says, “We’ll take the most from living, Have pleasure while we can, Two, three, four, Shah-la, la-la-la-la live for today, Shah-la, la-la-la-la live for today, And don’t worry ’bout tomorrow, hey, hey.”

That sort of attitude might sound appealing on the surface, but the result is disorder and every evil thing. It causes strife, conflict, wars. Now when James speaks of wars, he is probably speaking metaphorically. He is talking about a war that goes on in the members of your body, your flesh. There are three arenas in which we battle sin. There is the flesh, the world, and the devil. Three areas in which we battle temptations to sin. And James is going to address all three in this passage. He addresses the battles of the flesh in vs 1 and 2, the world in vs 4 and the devil in vs 7. But perhaps the most difficult battle is the battle in our own flesh.

I suppose that’s because it’s harder to recognize the enemy within. It’s intrinsic to our nature. It’s easy to see it as sin in other people, to see their selfishness, their greed, their envy. But it’s hard to see it in yourself because it feels so natural. It feels good, so it must be good.

So James gives us some examples of how the battle in the flesh looks. Vs 2, “You lust and do not have, [so] you commit murder. And you are envious and cannot obtain, [so] you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with the wrong motives, so that you may spend [what you request] on your pleasures.”

Once again, James speaks metaphorically – this time of murder. I don’t think he’s really accusing the church members of murdering one another. But he’s speaking metaphorically of being angry and hateful. Though it is certainly true than in some cases lust has led to murder, I think it more likely that he is speaking metaphorically of hatred and anger towards another person. And it comes as a result of unsatisfied lusts for what is not yours. Desire for pleasure that you cannot get causes anger and hatred, which is the source of conflicts and quarrels.

The same idea is expressed in the sin of covetousness. When man gives free reign to his desires, he wants what is not his. That’s the sin of coveting. But though he covets, he still cannot fill his desires, it’s an appetite that cannot be satisfied, and so it leads to more and more envy and strife and conflict.

James says you do not have, because you do not ask God. God gives good gifts to men. He gives us all good things to enjoy and supplies all our needs. But that reluctance to ask God reveals that we don’t want what God has given us, but we want more, and more being that which is outside of the will of God. Our motives reveal we are not content with what God can provide us, but we want what is contrary to the wisdom of God.

So consequently, even if we pray, we don’t get what we want. The failure is not that God does not answer prayers, but that our prayers are not according to the will of God. Our prayer is not that it will further the kingdom of God, or for God’s glory, or to achieve God’s purposes. But our desire is to satisfy our carnal lusts for more pleasure, to try to satisfy the desire for what the world says is good and enjoyable. So actually those prayers are that God would serve our carnal lusts.

So James says when we pray, we ask with the wrong motivation. Our prayer is not in submission to God, but in demanding that He do what we want Him to do, to satisfy our lusts. And God will not answer that prayer.

The lusts for the world is in opposition to the love of God. That is the contrast between the wisdom of the world and the wisdom from above. It’s loving the world rather than loving God. That’s the source of our conflicts and quarrels and wars within ourselves. And James says to have a love for the world is nothing short of adultery.

Vs 4, “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” James is speaking again metaphorically, but this time in the context of our relationship to Christ as we are the bride of Christ. And what he is accusing us of is adultery if our fidelity to Him is broken by our infatuation with the world.

The problem is that as Christians we are saved from the world, delivered from the world, and betrothed to Christ. Paul said in 2Cor. 11:2 “For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you [as] a pure virgin.” To look back in fondness at the world, or to desire again the lusts of the world, is the equivalent of a bride going back to an old boyfriend. Even though she may claim he is just a friend, any husband would recognize that is tantamount to adultery. And in like manner, God won’t accept our being enamored by the world without being jealous. He will not tolerate such behavior from His bride.

Now let’s be sure we understand what we mean by the world. We are in the world, but not supposed to be of the world. To be of the world means to be of the world’s wisdom, the world’s value system. It’s the satanically devised world system that the entire human race is caught up in, which is designed to entrap and enslave and destroy. The world then is in opposition to God. And so James says that if you are a friend of the world, then you become an enemy of God.

John told us the same thing over in 1 John 2:15, “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away and [also] its lusts; but the one who does the will of God continues [to live] forever.”

My mother used to quote a line which I still remember. I don’t know who said it, but it’s a good adage to live by. “Only one life will soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.” That certainly sums up what John is saying there about the world passing away and also it’s lusts. Only the one who does the will of God will live forever.

So to love the world is to be an enemy of God. And if you are enamored by the world and you begin to lust after the world, then if you are really the bride of Christ then He will be jealous of you and take measures to turn you back to Him. So James says in vs 5, “Or do you think that the Scripture says to no purpose, “He jealously desires the Spirit whom He has made to dwell in us”? But He gives a greater grace. Therefore [it] says, “GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.”

James refers to a general truth of scripture to prove his point. That God is jealous for those who are His, who are born of His Spirit. But if we repent of our infidelity then God will give us an even greater grace. He gives grace to the humble. To humble yourself is to repent. God is opposed to the proud, that is the person who loves the world, who lives by the world’s wisdom, the wisdom that appeals to the human ego. The proud is the person who lives by the world’s wisdom. He isn’t dependent upon God but he is independent, selfish, full of pride in himself. That person is a friend of the world. And he is in opposition to God.

But God gives grace to the humble. To be humble is to acknowledge your dependence upon God. To submit yourself to God. Peter uses the same quotation as James to stress the need for humility, saying in 1Peter 5:5 “… and all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT HE GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE. Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, so that He may exalt you at the proper time.”

Now to that point James speaks of another aspect of this war that we battle against sin, and that is the devil. We battle the temptation to sin in the flesh, in the world, and from the devil. The devil is the architect of the world system. He designed the world system to entrap and entice men into sin, and he uses it to destroy us and bring us into condemnation.

Paul speaks of this world strategy which is of Satan’s design in Eph 2:1-3 saying, “And you were dead in your offenses and sins, in which you previously walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all previously lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the rest.” That’s the condition of those who are trapped in the world system. But as Paul tells us, Satan is the architect of this world system.

But now James tells us how to deal with Satan directly. First of all, he says submit to God. Don’t be proud. Don’t fall for the lie of Satan that you need to be independent. That you can take care of yourself. Don’t fall for that lie, that is pride. And pride is the devil’s original sin, and one that he knows all too well how to trick us into.

So James says in vs 7, avoid pride, and rather submit to God. “Submit therefore to God. But resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come close to God and He will come close to you. Cleanse [your] hands, you sinners; and purify [your] hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable, and mourn, and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into gloom.”

To submit to God means that we recognize the Lordship of Jesus Christ and we submit to His rule and reign in our lives. Pride and independence will prevent submission. Most people that are not saved, and not saved because of pride. They refuse to submit to Jesus as Lord. And they don’t accept the fact that they are in need of a Savior. I read of a notorious serial killer in the news yesterday who was claiming that he really wasn’t a bad guy. That may be an extreme example, but most people don’t think that they are really a bad person, and so they don’t really need a Savior.

But we not only need a Savior, we need to submit to God. To honor Him as our Creator, our Maker, to whom we owe the service of our life. That idea of serving the Lord is one that is sadly missing in most salvation explanations today. Modern Christianity teaches that God serves us. Not that we are to serve God. But that’s the lie of the devil to turn the truth around like that. We need to submit to the Lord, and do His will, and do what He commands us to do. That’s what it means to confess Jesus as Lord.

James says concerning the devil, to resist the devil and he will flee from you. How do you resist? I suggest to resist is to resist the lie, the resist the temptation to take pride in your accomplishments, in what you’ve achieved, in who you are. Pride is the devil’s weapon. If he can get us to listen to pride, then he will accomplish all kinds of evil in us through it. Resist pride and you will resist the devil. And when he has gotten no where with that temptation, he will flee from you. Why? Because you rely on the Lord as your strength. You rely on the Lord as your captain. You are dependent upon the strength of God’s might. And the devil is no match for the Lord. He flees before the Lord. So when we rely upon the Lord and not on our own strength or goodness or knowledge or whatever, then the devil will flee from us.

The other way we resist the devil is to draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Do you remember the old cars that used to have bench seats in them? Back in those days before bucket seats girls used to snuggle up to the boyfriends and they would be so close together that from behind all you could see was two heads looking like they were on one body. It’s amazing there weren’t more wrecks. But you let the two lovebirds get married, and little by little you would start to see more space between the couple. You could almost tell how long someone was married by how close they sat together. After a few years, the woman was all the way on the far side of the seat, with her hand on the handle, like she was ready to leap out of the car.

Well, James is saying here that’s the problem with our marriage with the Lord. Our love for God grows cold and our infatuation with the world gets hotter. The solution is to draw near to God. Let me be real practical on that subject. You want to draw near to God? Then make a commitment to be in church every time the door’s open, whether you think you need it or not, whether you think what the pastor has to say is worth it or not, whether you feel like it or not. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Read your Bible every morning. Spend quality time in prayer every day with the Lord. That’s living in dependence upon God. Avoiding those things is living in pride.

And then practice repentance. That’s what James means when he says, “Be miserable, and mourn, and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into gloom.” James isn’t being a kill joy here. He’s not saying you can’t have fun in life, you can’t laugh. But he is stressing the importance of repentance in a right relationship with the Lord. Acknowledging our sin is key to having a close relationship with the Lord. The devil will tell you when you sin that you’ve really done it now. God can’t forgive you again. God doesn’t love you now, you’ve done this so many times before. Satan will try to keep you in your sin, and to wallow in your sin. He will say, what’s the point of repentance? But James says, no, don’t listen to the devil. Resist the lies of the devil. Repent, and God will give you a greater grace. And the devil will flee from you.

Repentance is simply acknowledging your sin, turning from your sin, and realizing that God can deliver you from it. It’s agreeing with God about your condition. Pride is agreeing with Satan that you’re really not that bad of a person.

So the way to resist the devil is to humble yourself before God, to repent, and to draw near to Him. Rather than listen to the wisdom of the world and try to exalt yourself, to glorify yourself and feed your ego, James says “Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.” That’s the counter intuitiveness of the wisdom from above. That the way to exaltation is not through selfish ambition, not through envy, not through selfishly taking whatever you think will make you happy, but in humbling yourself before the Lord. And when we are humble before God, then He will lift us up. He will exalt us. And that position is one that we will have for eternity.

Peter says in “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. Be of sober [spirit,] be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 But resist him, firm in [your] faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen [and] establish you. To Him [be] dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

Earthly vs Heavenly Wisdom, James 3:13-18

At the beginning of a new year, a lot of people come up with a new year’s resolution that they intend to accomplish during the upcoming year.  Most of them don’t stick with it too long. I thought about a new year’s resolution quite a bit.  I plan on starting a new exercise program.  And I’ve already gotten started on my resolution. I’ve watched a lot of video’s about different workout plans.  But to tell you the truth, that’s probably about as far as I want to go with it.  Just watching all those video’s was exhausting.

It would be nice if you could get in shape just by wishing for it.  Imagine if God were to give you  one wish that He would grant you.  Well, He did jut that with a young man named Solomon. Solomon had inherited the kingdom of Israel from his father David. And after he had established his right to the throne, he sacrificed to God 1000 burnt offerings.  And in 1 Kings 3 we read that God appeared to him in a dream and said, “Ask what you wish Me to give you.” That’s what we all dream of, isn’t it?  I wonder what we might answer to that question.  If you could have one wish, what would you ask for?

Well, you know the story.  Of all the things that he could have asked for, Solomon asked for wisdom. And the Lord was pleased that Solomon asked for wisdom and not riches or long life or any number of other things. And so the Lord granted that request, making the promise that no one before or after him would be the equal of the wisdom of Solomon. And in addition, the Lord gave him riches and a long life.  Years later Solomon wrote the book of Proverbs, and he began by speaking of the importance of wisdom, saying, Prov. 1:7 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

Now you will remember that James started off in his epistle, in chapter 1 vs 5,  by speaking about the importance of wisdom.  And as I said at that time, to understand what is meant by wisdom, or gaining wisdom, you have to consider the context, especially of the verses which come before.  Starting in chapter 1 vs 2, James talks about trials of our faith, and God’s purpose in them.  We learned that trials come from God, and we are to endure in them, so that God may complete our faith in us.  God uses trials as a means of maturing us in our faith.  And by the way, that’s the goal of our faith, that we might become mature  Note how James ends that passage, he says, “that you may be perfect and complete (that’s a phrase which speaks of spiritual maturity). And then he says to be spiritually mature means you are lacking in nothing.”  Lacking in nothing.  That’s a key to understanding wisdom, in vs 5.

Because in vs 5, James says, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God.” Notice the repetition of the word “lack.”  So we go through trials that God may mature our faith, that we would be spiritually mature and not lacking in anything.  Then immediately, he follows that by telling us something that we may be lacking.  That’s the connection between spiritual maturity and wisdom.

So James says that if we are to be mature in our faith, nothing lacking, then we need the wisdom of God. We need to know the plan of God, and how we fit in that plan.  We need to know His plans  for us.  We need to know His will, that we may be obedient to it. Wisdom then is knowing God’s truth, knowing God’s will, knowing God’s plan, knowing what God’s purposes are for our lives, and for the world.  Strong’s concordance of the Greek word sophia from which comes our word wisdom, gives several definitions of wisdom.  But the one which I think applies most here says, “wisdom is the the knowledge and practice of the requisites for godly and upright living.”

I think that wisdom is absolutely vital for the second phase of our salvation.  The first stage being justification, the second is sanctification, and the third is glorification.  All three are necessary phases for our salvation to be complete.  Hebrews says concerning sanctification, that without it, no one will see the Lord.  So Christian maturity, or sanctification, is essential, and without it, then the Bible says you aren’t saved.  That’s what the scripture says, not me.

So I think James uses “wisdom”  as a synonym for the gospel.  Jesus said concerning Himself and His gospel, in Matt. 12:42 “[The] Queen of [the] South will rise up with this generation at the judgment and will condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.”

James has a unique writing characteristic whereby he brings up a subject, makes some remarks about it, lays down some principles, and then later on circles back around to expand even more on that subject.  And that’s what’s happening here in chapter 3. He has just finished giving an argument at the end of chapter 2 about someone who says, or claims to have faith, who claims to be saved, and yet there are no works to support or give evidence of that salvation. James says if there is no evidence in his works, then there is no saving faith.

He then went on to show in chapter 3 the incongruity of someone who says they have faith, and yet their talk betrays them as someone who has not been changed by salvation.  James says can a fountain bring forth both blessing and cursing?  These things must not be.

Then continuing in that theme James addresses wisdom again. In a similar fashion as when he discussed faith vs works,  In this section he is going to show the difference between true wisdom which is from God, and a false wisdom which is from the world.  And so he begins with true wisdom.  He says in vs 13, “Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom.”  

What James says there is similar to what he has said about faith.  He says, if you have wisdom, then you will exhibit it by your works.  If you have salvation which produces spiritual maturity, then you will show it by your deeds.  Wisdom cannot be divorced from it’s evidence.  Wisdom then is not the accumulation of knowledge and facts, even knowledge and facts about God, or about the Bible.  But it is shown by one’s deeds.  Wisdom is not just knowledge, but the application of knowledge which is evidenced by the way you live.

And let’s take note of how he describes that evidence.  He says it’s good behavior, deeds performed in the gentleness of wisdom.  The KJV uses the word meekness instead of gentleness.  And I like that word better, though they both say the same thing.  But the idea of gentleness or meekness is not to be confused with weakness.  It’s not a mealy mouthed, limp wristed behavior.  The best way to understand meekness is strength under control.  It was used to describe a horse that had been tamed. You still hear the term gentled as a way of describing horses that have been tamed.  They still have tremendous strength and power, but it is under control.  

So it is with meekness, gentleness.  It is being under subjection to the Lord.  It’s being under the control of the Spirit of God.  It’s submission to His plan, His way.  Other Bible translations use the word humility instead of meekness.  And that is ok as well.  Humility is bowing to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in your life.  It’s esteeming others as more important than yourself. It’s not being proud, arrogant. 

The opposite of humility then is to be proud, arrogant.  And that’s the defining quality of the world’s wisdom.  Vs 14, “But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and [so] lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic.”

Let’s be sure to notice this reference to the truth that James makes in that verse.  Wisdom is founded on the truth of God’s word.  God’s word is wisdom.  It is absolute truth against a world of relevance and deception and double meaning.  Today we often hear people saying they believe in science.  As if science is truth and God’s word is fallible.  The Bible says, “let God be true, and every man found a liar.” I’m not saying that all science is a lie.  But I will say that God’s word is true, and when so called science contradicts God’s word, then such “science” is a lie.  More often than not, it seems that science is influenced by a political agenda, more than any unbiased,  empirical evidence.

Now the apostle Pau speaks to this idea that James contrasts between godly wisdom and the world’s wisdom. He gives a similar statement in Galatians 5:19-23, but substituting the idea of the fruit of the Spirit vs the fruit of the earthly nature. He says, “Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality,  idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions,  envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

The first set of behaviors are deeds of the flesh, which are evidence of the wisdom of this world, which are of the natural man, the carnal man, and even worse, are demonically inspired.  You cannot be a child of God, supplied with the wisdom from God, and have those things characterize your life. 

You know, the original sin was pride, which is selfish ambition.  Satan said he would be like the Most High.  And perhaps all sin stems from pride and selfish ambition.  Caring more about yourself than about others.  Of course in Satan’s sin of pride there must have also been jealousy.  And so James identifies these as motivations for sin, whereas Paul identifies the sins themselves.  But make no mistake, pride and jealousy and selfish ambition are the root of all sins.  And if your behavior exhibits those things, then James says you don’t have godly wisdom, but you are operating under the wisdom of this world, which is demonic.  He says, “where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing.”  Such attitudes produce evil.  Godly wisdom produces good behavior, but worldly wisdom produces evil behavior.  It’s just that cut and dry.

The world system champions selfish ambition.  Movies and television glorify those who sacrifice anything and anyone for the sake of climbing to the top.  The end justifies the means.  Selfish ambition is a synonym for ego. The world tells us the way to happiness, to fulfillment is to feed our ego, to satisfy our ego.  But God’s word tells us to slay our ego.  To lay it aside for the sake of building up others. To be humble, to do good deeds in the spirit of meekness.  Quite a contrast that James presents here between godly wisdom and the wisdom of the world.

But then he leaves off worldly wisdom and goes back to talking about godly wisdom and gives us a description of it, so that we might be able to recognize it, and also to utilize it and put it into practice.  He says in vs 17, “But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.”  Seven characteristics of wisdom. Let’s think about each of them briefly.

First, it’s pure. I think it’s significant that pure is first.  Because I believe that when he says wisdom is pure, he is speaking of being holy.  God is holy, and as Peter said, we are to be holy because He is holy.  But pure also has the connotation of chaste.  Chaste is the word from which we get the word chastity.  It has the meaning of avoiding extramarital affairs.  And when we think of the Lordship of Jesus Christ, then that is how we should think of our relationship to him.  We are as Paul said in 2 Cor. 11:2  to be a chaste virgin.  He says,  “For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you [as] a pure virgin.”   We don’t leave our devotion for Christ to have an affair with the world.  We have pledged our life to Christ, so we must be chaste in that regard.

Peaceable is the next description.  Peace loving is another possible translation. Heb. 12:14 says,  “Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.”  So the author of Hebrews says that peace is essential to sanctification. We are to be conciliators, We love peace.  We don’t love dissension, or making trouble, or strife. Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”

Gentle is the next characteristic.  We have already talked about gentleness, meekness. Meekness is strength under control. Being submissive to God and to authority.  Not egotistic.

Then reasonable: it means of sound judgment. Not acting rashly, not speaking before you think. Able to be reasoned with.  Listening to reason.  God’s wisdom is reasonable.  He is not asking us to live unreasonable lives, to do some crazy thing, or to take a vow of poverty, or a vow of silence.  But to live in a way that shows love for our fellow man, and our love for God.   Reasonable means willing to yield, not being stubborn. It has a lot to do with peaceable.

Full of mercy and good fruits.  I suppose mercy and good fruits are actually speaking of the same thing, so it’s counted as one characteristic.  Mercy is a fruit of wisdom. If you have godly wisdom, then it will be evident by showing mercy. In other words, he reaches out to those around him. He puts into practice the words of Jesus who said, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” We show mercy to those who don’t deserve it. Otherwise it is not mercy. We follow the example of Christ who showed mercy to sinners.  And mercy is what James calls good fruits.  Good deeds.  Deeds of mercy.  Not merely feeling sympathy, but showing sympathy by your deeds.

The next characteristic of wisdom is unwavering.  That speaks to something James spoke of earlier about a double minded man.  Unwavering is without dubiousness.  Without duplicity.  Without uncertainty.  We can know for sure how we are supposed to live because the Bible is unambiguous.  It is God’s certain word.  And so we can be unwavering in our resolve.  We can be stedfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.

The final characteristic of wisdom is without hypocrisy.  The Greek word for hypocrite means an actor on a stage, who performs for the applause of men.  So to be without hypocrisy means to not act for show, to be seen, to gain approval from men. But we seek to gain approval from God.  It means to love one another with sincerity, without having an ulterior motive.  It means not wearing a mask. Not hiding behind a false face.

The conclusion then to this section of James argument concerning wisdom from above versus wisdom from below, is found in vs 18.  He says there, “And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”  James uses the analogy of a farmer who sows a seed and expects to get a harvest of what he planted. And so what he’s saying is that we plant righteousness by our good behavior, by our good deeds.  And we plant that righteousness in peace when we make peace. 

That statement is difficult to parse as the translation is one that is difficult.  But what we can be certain that James is saying, is that the fruit, or the evidence of wisdom is righteousness.  Wisdom is carried out by peacemakers, and when we are peacemakers, then righteousness is our fruit.  Jesus said, “You shall know them by their fruits.”   So you will know those who have the wisdom from God, because they will show the fruit of righteousness in their lives.  Their life cannot produce bitter water and sweet at the same time. They cannot say they have faith and not have works. So then if they are  wise and have understanding, then they will show by their good behavior their deeds in the gentleness of wisdom.  

Listen, in all of these examples of faith, of the tongue, of wisdom, James has been trying to show the difference between those who claim to be saved, versus those who really are saved.  And the point that must be understood is that to be saved requires a complete transformation from the carnal natural man, to be a new spiritual man, with a new heart, a new spirit, and a new nature.  This transformation is not something you can achieve on your own.  Just as a baby cannot orchestrate his own birth, neither can a man orchestrate his own salvation, which is called the new birth.  But as Jesus said, you must be born again.

And by being born again, God gives you a new heart, a new spirit, and a new nature, that has new desires, that is able to be like Christ. Only when you have been born again can you ever hope to be the sort of person that James says is a person of wisdom.  Only then can the Spirit of God be in you, and work in you, and lead you into the paths of righteousness.  And the only way to be born again, is to confess that you are a sinner, you are earthly, natural, carnal, corrupted, and ask God to cleanse you, to change you, and to renew a right spirit within you. God promises to answer that prayer on the basis of what Jesus Christ did for us by dying on the cross, and paying the penalty for our sin, that we might receive His righteousness.  Only when you have first received the seed of His righteousness, can you expect to have the harvest of your righteousness.  I pray that you have received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior today so that you may come to know the wisdom which is from above.