Signs of Wisdom

Introduction

A. Raise your hand if you think you are a wise person. Raise your hand if you think you are a foolish person. I’m not sure what we call those of you who don’t know. I have known some wise people in my life. Some of them are in this audience. I’ll not embarrass them but trust that they are wise enough to know that I am talking about them.

B. We possess more knowledge today than ever before. Someone has estimated that, if all of man’s accumulated knowledge from the beginning of recorded history to 1845 were represented by one inch, what he learned from 1845 until 1945 would amount to three inches and what he learned from 1945 until 1975 would represent the height of the Washington Monument! Since then, who knows how many times it has doubled. With the advent of the Internet, we have more knowledge at our fingertips than we can possibly process.

C. Few people, however, would argue that the incredible leap in scientific, technological, and other such knowledge has been paralleled by a corresponding leap in the common sense wisdom, not to mention spiritual and moral wisdom. If anything, man’s understanding of what he is doing and why he is doing it seems to decrease as his practical knowledge increases. Why aren’t people any better? Knowledge alone isn’t enough.

D. Now, some have tried to make practical application of knowledge and turn it into wisdom, and sometimes in a very humorous way. In his book The Dilbert Principle, Scott Adams offers a blend of sarcasm and irrefutable wisdom in “Dilbert’s Laws of Work”:

1. Don’t be irreplaceable. If you can’t be replaced, you can’t be promoted.

2. When you don’t know what to do, walk fast and look worried.

3. Everything can be filed under “miscellaneous.”

4. If you are good, you will be assigned all the work. If you are really good, you will get out of it.

5. If it wasn’t for the last moment, nothing would get done.

6. Keep your boss’s boss off your boss’s back.

7. Eat one live toad the first thing in the morning, and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.

8. Is this what you think of as true wisdom? The real problem is that most people have no idea what true wisdom is. And often, they settle for a wisdom that is not wise is at all. In fact, James tells us that there is a wisdom that is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil and contrasts that with heavenly wisdom. We will do that as well today.

The Text

A. Having explained the importance of controlling the tongue so as to be teachers for God, James in 3:13–18 demonstrates additional control that needs to be in place for teaching to take place. In this case, heavenly wisdom needs to rule rather than earthly wisdom. From the beginning, James tells us that heavenly wisdom will be demonstrated in humble service. This humility would have been hard to swallow then and is hard to swallow now.

B. Remember Jesus speaking of the religious leaders who blew their trumpet when they gave money to help the poor or who stood on the street corners praying in a loud voice in order to show their piety? This is the same idea that James is presenting. When I was going through college, one of my professors told me how important it was to get to know the right people so that they could help me find the right job. This conventional wisdom is not heavenly wisdom. Toot your own horn we are told because no one else will toot it for you. Godly wisdom serves because God serves. We do not look for ways to make our service known. To do so means that we push God out of the way so that we can be seen.

C. Look at how James compares and contrast wisdom from the devil and wisdom from God. Devil inspired wisdom harbors bitter envy or being contentious. It selfishly seeks its own agenda. Such wisdom leads to disorder and every evil. Devil inspired wisdom creates chaos and anarchy in which every person seeks what he or she wants. Earthly wisdom is self oriented.

D. In contrast, heavenly wisdom is pure (unspotted from the world 1:27), peace loving or making, considerate or thinks of others, submissive or willing to yield to persuasion, merciful and filled with good fruit or is willing to show loving kindness to others and is impartial and sincere or not hypocritical.

E. Can you tell the difference between the two types of wisdom? In a nutshell, earthly wisdom is selfish and heavenly wisdom seeks what is best for others. Do you have earthly wisdom or heavenly wisdom? Before you answer, let’s consider some practical applications.

Application

A. Earthly wisdom vs. Godly wisdom.

1. Earthly wisdom says give your children freedom; don’t inhibit them, don’t restrict them; they won’t grow. Godly wisdom says give them boundaries. Earthly wisdom tends to produce children who only look out for their own interest rather than the interest of others. Boundaries provide children with an arena to build confidence and to flourish.

2. Earthly wisdom says it’s okay to live together before you get married. Godly wisdom says you commit yourself to one person for the rest of your life. Every recent study that has been done has proven that godly wisdom is accurate. Those who cohabit are 60% more likely to divorce than those who do not cohabit before marriage.

3. Earthly wisdom says that sex is a natural part of life’s experience and that such an experience will help you know a person better as well as yourself. Godly wisdom says that sex is the fulfillment of a vow of faithfulness not just some biological experience.

4. Earthly wisdom would say he who dies with the most toys, wins. Godly wisdom says, he who dies, still dies and we all face God.

5. Earthly wisdom says you have to be like the world to win the world and so we do the things of the world and we dress like the world. Godly wisdom says that one cannot win another to Christ by being like the world. While I would be an advocate that we invade our society and we create relationships in every way that we know how, we cannot do that at the sacrifice of our claims as believers.

B. So how will we know if we have Godly wisdom? We can take James list and probably compare it with our lives and come to some conclusions. But let’s list a few ourselves. We know we have godly wisdom when:

1. We practice peace instead of trying to win an argument. Life isn’t fair. Injustice happens. Some wrongs need to be righted. These are truths. But those with God’s wisdom will find ways to react and be peaceable rather than contentious. Earthly wisdom looks only for its own selfish desire; godly wisdom looks to preserve the other person.

2. We practice consideration toward others. People with earthly wisdom look for ways to satisfy themselves rather than looking for ways to help others.

3. We practice real submission. This means we have to be teachable. We have to be willing to consider the extreme possibility that we are not right about something. We have to be willing to yield to another.

4. We practice mercy toward others. When we are hurt by others the last thing we want to do is extend mercy. Aren’t you glad God didn’t think that way?

5. We practice impartiality. We are not prejudiced. The color of a person’s skin; the amount of money in the bank account; the amount of education do not matter to us. What matters is Jesus.

C. So what kind of wisdom do you have? We end up demonstrating that godly wisdom through our lifestyle that is godly. And people are attracted to it. James is so practical. Devilish wisdom produces division and bad stuff. Godly wisdom produces peace and righteousness. Practice godly wisdom. Invitation.

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