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Church, this morning we are back at our study of the book of James. I've changed the title slightly from uh pure speech comes from wisdom to wisdom from above. Right, and we are now at uh chapter 3, verses 13 to 18, where James is actually continuing his train of thought in his in this chapter. Right, in the first 12 verses, we see James addressing those who want to be teachers in church, right? That they should be careful about that desire to teach. He warns about the destructive power of the tongue and admonishes the church to control our tongue.

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So now James shifts his focus to wisdom. For those who think they can teach others, are they actually wise to teach?

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So this morning we'll explore what wisdom is, uh, what does it mean to be wise, and also how we can know that we are actually living wisely. But first, what is wisdom, right? I mean, who among who amongst here wouldn't want to be wise? Is there anybody here who don't want to be wise? You want to live and die a fool, right? I'm sure most, if not all of us, want to have wisdom, want to think that or believe that we make wise decisions in our lives. Wisdom is desirable, but what exactly is wisdom? Right? Um so people have tried to distinguish wisdom from something that it is not, right? Or something that is close to but not quite, right? So one way to think about it is wisdom versus knowledge. Someone once said that knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.

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SPEAKER_00 1:45

Knowledge means having information or awareness about something. And today we have access to an exceeding, an excessive amount of information. If we wanted to, we could acquire all kinds of knowledge that was not possible even just decades ago. And even with that knowledge, we don't necessarily become wiser. And so wisdom is something else other than knowledge. It is about application, right? It is about what you do or what you do not do based on the information or based on the knowledge you have. Many years ago, I think this is almost a decade ago, I was listening to a podcast uh by Radio Lab. The interviewer was interviewing a computer scientist and researcher. She was the one who basically developed the technology for deepfake. With deepfake, you could at the time you could uh you know edit videos and audio so that you make people look as if they're saying certain things that they are not actually saying, right? Um she was the one who helped develop that technology. And at one point, the interviewer asked her uh what she thought about the power of this new tech, the ethical issues behind it. And the researcher was caught off guard, right? Uh she may or may not have known that it can be used to fake videos of politicians and celebrities. But her response is simply this as a technologist, as a computer scientist, she just went ahead with developing it without really considering the implications or the ethical issues that come with it. So here we have a knowledge to create a new technology. But wisdom will be concerned with the ethics behind it and ask if it was ever wise to create such a technology. Right? Knowledge can give us the information and the know-how. But wisdom guides what we actually do with that information. And so that's the first way of distinguishing wisdom. Wisdom versus knowledge. A second way, uh a quite quite related way, is wisdom versus foolishness. And scripture is just replete with examples of wisdom and foolishness. Right in chapter, uh Deuteronomy chapter 30, verses 15 to 20, I'll just read out selected verses. Um Moses tells the the assembly of the people, see, I set before set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. Verse 19 says, This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curses. Now choose life. Right? The wise will choose life, and the foolish will choose death and curse. And so Jesus teaches a story, right, in uh the at the end of the Sermon of the Mount, in chapters, uh Matthew chapter 7, verses 24 to 27. Very quickly he says this everyone then who hears these words of mine, but does them and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock, right? The rain come, the flood, the winds all come, and the house still stands because it is founded on a rock. But those who hear the word of Jesus and does not do them are like the fool who built his house on sand. Right? The rain, the rain, the flood, the winds come and beat against the house, and it fell with a great fall. And so that's that's the second way of thinking about wisdom, right? Wisdom versus foolishness. This morning's passage, uh, James kind of distinguishes wisdom, true wisdom, right, in another way. He distinguishes wisdom between uh true wisdom, wisdom from above, and a wisdom that is more of this world. Yeah, I'll just I'll just use and I'll just use like woolly wisdom to kind of refer to to this second type of wisdom. And James begins with a rhetorical question, right? Uh in verse 13, he he asks, Who is wise and understanding among you by his conduct? Let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. If you recall in chapter 2, James talked about two different kinds of faith, right? And he says that faith without works is dead.

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SPEAKER_00 6:07

And so now he says that wisdom without works is dead. And in this one verse we see two marks of wisdom from above. The kind of wisdom that God gives us have these two marks. The number one is wisdom is practical, right? The Greek word for wisdom here uh is it it refers to someone who is learned, who is skilled and intelligent. Right? In the Old Testament, the word used for wisdom, especially in Proverbs, uh, means something similar, skill or practical expertise.

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Wisdom is not about a bunch of academics and theologians sitting around thinking about life, thinking about what's the best way to live. Wisdom is about putting things into action, it's rooted in not what we say, but how we live our lives.

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SPEAKER_00 6:57

It is about having the skill and the expertise to love, to live well in God. It is the knowledge of God applied in our lives. And so that's the first thing. Wisdom is practical. Second thing is that wisdom is meek. He he uses the word meekness, and I think all of us may have this con this idea that meekness means weakness, right? Uh we associate it with being docile, being timid, or being passive, right? But that's not quite what the word means. Um the way the Greeks use this word helps to illustrate what meekness actually means, right? Uh and for them, imagine a wild stallion, this powerful horse that is just running uh in the wild, strong and powerful, right? Um imagining the the horse now being trained, being what they call broken and put under the control of a trainer. That broken stallion is considered meek. Right? Not that he has lost all his strength, it is still really powerful, but now that power has been brought under control. Meekness really means uh strength under restraint or power under control, and in our case, power under the control of the hands of God. Where the natural man wants to lash out at people when something happens. The wise man keeps power under God's control and thus acts wisely. And so that's how James kind of opens his his his uh his salvo, right, against uh worldly wisdom. And he says that wisdom is both practical, you should be able to see in your lives, and meek is humble, right? And so from there, James goes on to outline uh the kind of wisdom that is of the world. And let me just quickly read for us again verses 14 to 16. He says this if you have bittern jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. He repeats a phrase here, for where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vow practice. I've uh there highlighted for us verse 15 because I think I think that's central to what James is trying to say here, right? There are three major influences in our lives that can corrupt wisdom, that can corrupt our wise living. The if I can have the next slide, uh the first is what refer he refers to as an earthly wisdom, right? Literally means earthbound, human or man-made. Something that's just from this realm. Right? Another term we we often use in the scripture is woolly. That is a kind of woolly wisdom.

unknown 9:56

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SPEAKER_00 9:56

And then we see that there's a descent, right? It kind of gets worse and worse. So first is a worldly kind of wisdom, second is um an unspiritual wisdom. And that word translates to something that means soulish, right? Something that just comes from our soul. Um, biblical language again, we often say it is fleshly, right? Our carnal passions and desires. Right? So wisdom can be woolly, can be soulish or fleshly, and worst of all, it can be demonic. Something that is of the devil. And James is saying these are the wrong sources for our wisdom, the wrong sources for our living, because they corrupt us and uh cause us to do evil. Uh, King Solomon is a standout example of how one can be corrupted by woolly, soulish, and demonic uh wisdom. Um, if you if you know King Solomon's story, he is the son of David. He comes to the throne at a pretty uh young age, uh in his teens. Um and and the the Lord, uh if I yeah, we have the side there in 1 Kings chapter 3, uh verses 1 to 15, it recounts this story of how God comes to Solomon in a dream. Right? Um, I'll quickly read out this part in verse 5. At Gibeon, the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, Ask what I shall give you. Verse 9, uh Solomon writes, This give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil. For who is able to govern this, your great people? Right? God asked, just tell me what you want and I'll give it to you. Instead of asking for riches, for power, for for for uh some for for anything else, right? He asked for a discerning mind, wisdom to govern the people. And from verse 10 onwards to the end, we we see that it pleases the Lord that Solomon has asked this. And God gives him that that wisdom, right, to govern the people, but he also gives him the riches and the power and the fame and everything else that he didn't ask for. Right? Amazing. And Solomon is from then on is known as the wisest man to have ever lived. Right in chapter 4, we see how how Solomon is just held as this pinnacle of wisdom. And his life should end really well then, right? If you're so wise, right? You should you should be able to kind of just uh sail through your life and then die uh at a ripe old age uh happily. When we go a few chapters ahead to 1 Kings chapter 11, we see how Solomon, though given uh a wisdom from God, decided to allow other sources of wisdom to lead him astray. In chapter 11, we read that Solomon loved many foreign women. He loved women from the nations that God has said, don't intermarry with them, because they will lead you astray. But of course, Solomon did not hid that word from the Lord, right? And so he had a total of 700 wives and 300 concubines, right? And scripture tells us his wife, his wives turned his heart away after other gods, right? His wives turned his heart away from God to go after other gods, and to the point that he built altars and high places for these foreign gods. Um and really sadly, you know, and when I when we say a demonic kind of wisdom, he even uh built altars for gods like Molech, to whom the Ammonites would sacrifice children, right? Which is why in scripture it is often said to be an abomination to God because they would sacrifice children to Molech. And Solomon, the wisest man on earth, was taking part in these things. For Solomon, it was a descent down the corrupted wisdom of the world, the flesh, and the devil. And this is the kind of wisdom that James is speaking against, right? The three main influences in our life that can that can draw us away from God: the world, the flesh, and the devil. Um, it is interesting that James, uh, if I can the next slide, looking at verses 14 to 16 again, right? It is interesting that James speaks of people harboring jealousy and selfish ambition. Right? At first, when I read when I read this, I don't I don't quite see the connection from this to any of the other parts of this passage. Um but it seems clear at least that people who harbor jealousy, who uh have selfish ambition, they are they they are they are thinking like the world, they're thinking according to the flesh, they are thinking according to uh demonic wisdom. Right? But uh as I have said in the beginning, James still have in mind those who want to teach and are causing problems in church. Right? And he's saying that these people, those who desire to teach, those who desire to do things here, um they are they are acting out of bitter jealousy and they are acting out of selfish ambition. And because of that, there is what he says, disorder and every vow practice. And these are really, really strong words, right? And I've been mouling over them for the past week. Um, and so it got me thinking, why do people want to be teachers in the first place? Why do people want, why, why were there people in James' time who desired to be a teacher? So let me start my train of thought by by asking, uh, do you have someone in your life whom you look up to, whom you think is wise?

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Maybe your parents, uh, maybe your siblings, maybe your your teacher, maybe someone, right? Uh someone who may be uh wise in relationship or marriage, someone who is wise in you know finding jobs or finance or choosing the right school. All right, do you have someone whom you think is wise? And if you have someone who whom you think is is wise, my my guess is that you would you would go to the person, right, and to to ask the person, ask for advice, ask for counsel, and follow the person's advice. Right? They have a certain kind of say, a certain kind of influence in your life, right? We won't follow fools, but we'll give time to listen to wise people, right? And in James' time, people will look up, especially to the teachers, for wisdom. They will look up to the teachers for things to do with faith, to do with church, to do with life. So what if there are people who desire to have that kind of influence in people's lives? And I think James is really speaking against uh these people who desire to have some kind of influence in other people's lives. Right? They want they want to be that wise person that people will come to for advice, for counsel, for their expertise. Right? And they think that they should be the teachers instead.

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SPEAKER_00 17:20

And so, in other words, when I brought it down, it's really about authority, it's about power, it's about being the expert who dispenses wisdom, having a say in people's lives, becoming influential in the way people live and act and act. And when they are not given the authority and the place in church, they become bitter, envious, and they act out of selfish ambition. And really, it concerns not just those who really want to be a teacher or a pastor in our context now. It doesn't just concern those who uh want to be preachers, right? I'm gonna guess like majority of people here will never aspire to be to be here preaching out the out of the pulpit, right? So it doesn't just concern people who want that very overt role of being a teacher, a pastor here, right? But it can be any other kind of leadership role. A PCC member, a connect group leader, or a worship leader, right? Um, or even maybe a soft leadership, right? Not on any leadership board per se, but still an influential member of the church. James warns that those who desire these positions in the church, that they are not driven by bitter jealousy and by selfish ambition. Especially when they are not recognized and we're not given certain positions in church, right? And they start to undermine church leadership, they start to badmouth pastors and leaders, they start to sow discord amongst members and create what James calls disorder in the church. And it is really nothing new. It has happened in James's time in his church, it has happened to Paul in some of the churches he founded with the super apostles and everything. Uh, and it happens today. Right? I I just recently learned about this is someone from another denomination and another church altogether. Um, but it happened on the pastoral level. A pastor was just going around creating factions, right? Telling some members, hey, don't listen to this pastor, you know. Um, and so sewing, discord, bad mouthing, and it created a lot of problems in the church, right? This kind of behavior is a way of saying, I am the wise one. Come follow me and listen to me. The other pastor, the other person, the other leader, doesn't know what he is saying or doing. Right? Come and follow me. And James has very strong words for these people. Right? The main issue is not so much about challenging leadership, right? There may be appropriate times to challenge leadership, right? It but it is more so about creating division and disorder in the body of Christ where everyone suffers. Right? When you seek to break people down, when you seek to divide people, everyone in the church suffers. There's no winner, right? There's no winner in this situation. Except maybe the devil, right? But other than that, other than the devil, there's really no winner in this kind of situation. And there is also no wisdom at all, at least not from God, because the wisdom from above will never soak discord in the body of Christ. So as I as I reflect on on this part from James, um yeah, I think James was really telling the people of his time, if anyone wants to be considered wise, wants to be considered influential, wants to take up some sort of position in people's lives, then we must really be careful that we don't strive for it out of jealousy or out of selfish ambition. Because, as he says, that will lead you down this staircase of the world, the flesh, and the devil. And we'll go down, uh, we'll be we'll descend into corruption. And so these are these are words that James uh warns the church about, and uh we may unknowingly operate from the wisdom of this world, right? Um the the bigger point here actually being the main focus here actually is that is that whatever we do, whatever we say, we don't just affect ourselves, right? We affect our relationships with people and with the church, with the community at large.

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SPEAKER_00 21:46

What wisdom we follow will inevitably bear on how we relate to other people's other people, whether we build people or whether we hurt people. In this case, in particular, it will hurt the church, it will create disorder. You'll create chaos and trouble. And so, as you know, James speaks against this this this uh this this um attitude or this posture, right? Is there a better way? Can we give up jealousy and selfish ambition for something better? So he talks about a different kind of wisdom. If this is the wisdom that is from the world, I mean I use it as as a catchphrase for the world, the flesh, and the devil, right? If this is the wisdom that is worldly, right, what is the other kind of wisdom that we can strive for? And he says that there is the wisdom from above.

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SPEAKER_00 22:38

And if there's a wisdom from above, what sort of relationship does it foster in our lives? So James tells us that in verses 17 and 18, but I want to add also uh verse 13 and see how when James kind of ends at begins and ends with with this kind of wisdom, what that looks like in totality. Right? Um in the end we will we see that if following the worldly wisdom brings disorder, following the wisdom from above brings peace. If one seeks to tear down, the other seeks to build up. If one brings disorder, the other brings unity, the other brings peace amongst people. Um yeah, so now this this portion is gonna really be just a list uh of qualities or of fruits of wisdom, right? Um and it's really got to do with our relationships with people, our friends, our colleagues, spouse, our family members, and even others in church. Um and it can get a bit tedious. I'll try to be quick uh going through all of this. But at this point, if I can ask this, maybe just to just to pause for a moment, to just allow the Lord to search our hearts. As we go through this list, this list is a list of qualities uh of wisdom, right? And there may be some parts of it that will speak especially to us, right? And I pray that the Lord will begin to uh impress upon your heart certain parts of wisdom that we may find uh we need help in. We may find we need God, would you just come and help me with this particular area of my life?

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SPEAKER_00 24:16

So as we run through briefly, we ask the Lord to speak to us and surface anything that we need to address in our lives. So let's go back to uh verse 13 and then to 17 and 18, uh, the end of this passage. James says, Who is wise and understanding among you by his good conduct, let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. Right. The first is this uh good conduct, right? Making choices that honor God. Right? Does God's wisdom come through in our everyday living? Can people see us and somehow see the wisdom of God? Right? The Lord has called us to exercise his wisdom so that we we read this in uh Ephesians chapter 3, verse 10. Through the church, the manifold wisdom of God may be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. Right? Through the way we live our lives, God's wisdom may be made known. And primarily, primarily through our actions, through the way we live, not through the things we say. Right? So that's one. The first thing, good conduct. Second is meekness, as we have just covered just now. Uh, in the third beatitude, Jesus says, Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Meekness is choosing to keep your strength under God's control and restraint, so that we may treat one another with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. Right? We don't just because we have might, just because we have power, doesn't mean we need to act it out all the time. In fact, most of the time, you'll be wiser if we can keep it under control. Yeah. Verse 17, he says this that wisdom is pure. And really, this is the top of his list, right? Um, and of course, we get that pureness from only from God Himself. Um and here's the thing, we may receive something pure from the Lord, but if our hearts are tainted, then what comes out of our hearts will be impure. If we are angry, if we are bitter, if we are hurt in our heart, if there is jealousy, if there is selfish ambition, then whatever comes out of our mouth that proceeds from our heart from our heart will be full of anger, full of jealousy. That will bring disorder to our relationships, isn't it? Right? You may say something, right? You may say something good right to your spouse, but if you're in the midst of an argument and you're really, really angry and you don't control your tongue, then what comes out will only hurt. What comes out will only uh deepen the issues between you and your spouse. And so Jesus says, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. If we harbor any if we harbor any impurities in our hearts, if we are filled with, I don't know, anger, with bitterness, with envy or with selfish ambition, right? Let us commit them to God and ask him to cleanse us that we may be pure before him and before all men. Right next, James says that wisdom is peaceable. It's translating uh another word like peace-loving, that we um we love peace and it is the opposite of being contentious, right? Doesn't mean we avoid conflict, but it means that even in conflict, we do all things to promote peace, right? Um so Jesus says, Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Right? The beatitudes is so infused with God's wisdom. And really the question we have to ask is, am I a peacemaker or a troublemaker? Right? Do I do I actively seek to argue with people? Do I seek to win quarrels with people, or do I seek to promote peace with the other person? Right, the next uh quality here is gentle, uh gentleness, being reasonable, stressing the spirit of the letter the law instead of the letter of the law. So it has a sense of being fair, being generous, uh, being gentle as in the way you deal with people. Um and quickly following that is open to being open to reason, right? Willing to listen and willing to be persuaded, willing to yield and not being inflexible, uh, which is which is something that is more of a problem that we care to admit, right? Someone said that it is important to know the distinction between going into a meeting, knowing your own mind, and going into the meeting, having your mind made up.

unknown 29:20

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SPEAKER_00 29:20

There's a difference between going to talk to someone, knowing what you think, knowing your convictions, right, and going into that meeting, having your mind already made up. Because when you already have your mind made up, there's really no point talking because you will not listen. Right? But God says that is not the kind of wisdom we want to have, right? We want to have a mind. Uh we want to have the wisdom that says, I know what I believe in, but I am open to dialogue, I am open to arguments, and open to be persuaded. Um very quickly uh to the second last part, uh, wisdom is full of mercy and good fruits. Right? Um, mercy being that compassion of God, not giving uh us what we deserve, right? Not giving us the punishment we rightfully uh deserve. And people will be able to perceive again our wisdom by the fruits we bear. And lastly, he says that wisdom is impartial and sincere. Uh it is not, is it is without uncertainty, it is not hypocritical, right? It is not two-faced, it is genuine, it is authentic to other people. And so James actually ends with this um this particular line. He says that uh in verse 18 that a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. He talks about wisdom, he ends with peace, right? And and this is usually really the trajectory, right? If if there's anything, if you have missed out all these other things, you you kind of dose off a little bit, right? This is the one thing that I want you to take away. Wisdom leads to peace, right? Wisdom leads to peace. And it is the peacemaker, the peace lover, who sows peace into the lives of other people, into the community, right? And from there we have fruits, we have a harvest of righteousness. And so that's where James takes us, right? Having the wisdom from above that eventually leads to peace among men. And I know James has just went on and on uh about qualities of wisdom, and um, it's a way of saying basically that wisdom really comprehensively covers all aspects of all our relationships, right? And as we were reading through uh reading through it, now I don't know whether you feel that you were challenged by God in any anything, right? Whether there's something that you may need to address in your life. Um if you feel the Lord's uh have has spoken to you, right? Let us remember that we cannot attain any of these qualities on our own effort. It is, after all, a wisdom that comes from above, right? It's precisely because it is not man-made that it is not something that we can come up with ourselves. If it is if it's a wisdom from above, then we have to ask. Our memory verse for this month, um James chapter 1, verse 5, tells us precisely this, right? If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and you'll be given him. But let us be sure of what we are doing when we do this. Okay, and I'll end, I'll end uh my sermon with this. Let us be sure of what we are doing when we ask God for wisdom, right? Because we are specifically asking for his wisdom.

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SPEAKER_00 32:49

If you have someone you seek counsel, you want to seek counsel with someone whom you think is wise and all, you go to the person, you talk to the person. I uh I mean, it's not too presumptuous to think that you will actually see that person as as like, yeah, I want to follow this person. Right? I have a problem in my life, you know, I know that this guy is very good with this, right? If I go and talk to him, then I mean, chances are I want to follow his advice, I want to follow his wisdom for my life. Right? Asking for God's wisdom is saying that we want to follow his way. Right? Asking for God's wisdom is saying, Lord, you are the wise counsel. Whatever you say, I will do. Asking for his wisdom without a commitment to follow will really lead us nowhere. I mean, you can ask, God can give, you don't follow, then what is the point, right? We simply revert back to uh a wisdom that is the world, the flesh, and of the devil, right? Verse 6 actually continues to say this um those who ask God for wisdom, let him ask in faith, with no doubting, right? Not being too faced about it, right? For the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. And so desiring God's wisdom requires faith and trust in him, to the point that we will follow his word for us and not waver.

unknown 34:19

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SPEAKER_00 34:20

His is the only way and the only wisdom that leads us to true peace. Uh, whether it's peace in our hearts, making it pure, or whether it is peace with other people, bring wholeness to one another. Right? And so those who are those of those who are those of us who are praying for God's wisdom, may the Lord give us courage and strength to obediently follow his way, so that his true wisdom may soul all the things we say and do, and that we may live wisely and become uh promoters, ambassadors of his peace. Let us pray. Almighty God, we ask that you grant us wisdom to make choices in our lives that will honor you, that will bear good fruit. We pray that you will help us to be free from the wisdom of the world, the flesh, and the devil, so that we may be unhindered in hearing and heeding your spirit's guidance in our lives. Lord, would you cleanse our hearts of all unrighteousness, all impurities, and give us discernment in all we say and do, so that we may always pursue peace with everyone around us. Lord, from this day, help us to follow your ways so that we may be made wise. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.