Who Has Wisdom?
James 3:13-18
Pastor Alistair Begg
Excerpts from a September 2022 radio broadcast
The easy answer to “who has wisdom?” is: anyone with humility!
A secular viewpoint of wisdom says that an education equals wisdom, especially if the educated individual is a moral, ethical, practical, and an intellectual person. Jesus helps us see that while all those qualities are good, God’s wisdom is superior to any other kind of “wisdom”, and humility is the pathway to understand and gain God’s wisdom.
Being fearful of people and circumstances may cause you to seek self-help or self-improvement measures, but that would be an attempt to gain earthly wisdom, not Godly wisdom. Satan loves to blind our minds so that we succumb to temptation and believe that we will never get hurt. We can learn to take God’s word as the uncompromised truth so that we don’t follow secular society and earthly wisdom, which tells us we can improve on our own and therefore we don’t need God. Earthly wisdom is anchored in evil because it results in confused thinking, disorder, disharmony, and restlessness. Another result of earthy wisdom is arrogance. Arrogance and boasting lead to wrong thinking about ourselves as well as wrong thinking about issues in the world.
The Bible gives us both warning and encouragement about how we seek wisdom and how we live our lives. God’s word in the holy Bible helps us to know that our only hope of wisdom and salvation is with God and Jesus.
Let’s talk about God’s wisdom, based on biblical teachings:
Characteristics of true wisdom
· True wisdom is observable – Right thinking and right conduct comes from God and His word. Doing what is right in God’s eyes helps us to humble ourselves and submit to His word. True wisdom gets its heart and mind from God.
· True wisdom has accountability to God – When we follow earthy desires and replace God’s revelations with human rationality, we are then using our own intellect and not God’s wisdom. Becoming a Christian means we understand our own wisdom is inferior to God’s wisdom.
· True wisdom is found in humility – God commands us to be humble. Humility means becoming wise by bowing down to God. Have you ever bowed down to God and told Him that He is right and you are wrong? This is called humility. Contemporary man is not prepared to do this. We are a culture in crisis because we can’t even answer the question “who are you?” when asked. We must be able to answer the question by saying “I am a moral being who is accountable to God.”
· True wisdom says everything on earth is temporary – God is in Heaven and will take care of your needs. Remember that one day you may no longer know why you are here or why one thing would better than another. Life’s thrills are few and far between as you will one day realize. The pursuit of happiness will no longer be a great quest. Focus on God and His wisdom. What you eat, your fashion choices, and your social activities have no significance when compared to knowing God and His plan for your life.
· God’s true wisdom is powerful – His wisdom helps us resolve issues and take action on important things in life. A fool’s wisdom distracts by allowing individual agendas like the Internet and the TV to use up precious time. God’s word provides a firm foundation. When His divine word is studied and applied, Jesus helps us to know that our only hope in life and in death is God’s wisdom.
· God’s true wisdom reveals His character – His mercy is an essential aspect of His character. Our sin says we don’t deserve His mercy or forgiveness, but He gives it to us because He loves us. This is an all-embracing concept for all people to hear. God’s ordained and acceptable behavior for humanity is often ignored by secular society. He who shows mercy to the battered and the beaten are obeying God—and an unwillingness to do so displays a heart of stone, especially in light of a God who loves everyone and forgives those who ask. Forgiveness is the obligation of the forgiven, so show mercy to others!
True wisdom defined
· True wisdom is not intellectual or logical. It is practical, moral, and ethical. It is based on the knowledge of God.
· True wisdom is the fear and knowledge of God that is worked out in everyday life. It is made up of unflawed things that are true and right, coming from a heavenly source.
· True wisdom is pure. The nature of pure wisdom is peace. Interactions in your relationships (or with strangers) should be peaceable rather than contentious. It is not acquiescent but a wisdom that is faithful and submissive to the God of peace. We should intentionally become promoters of peace and unity.
· True wisdom is considerate, submissive, and untainted by hypocrisy. When you are considerate, you are fair and generous and give others the benefit of the doubt. When you allow yourself to yield to persuasion, you are willing to submit by listening and being persuaded by what is good and best. Being non-hypocritical means you are partial and sincere, but without being two-faced.
· True wisdom is full of mercy. It reminds us every day that one of God’s expectations for us is to understand His mercy. Understanding His mercy makes us realize that we need to grant the same mercy to others. When we grant mercy, the action of doing so points others to God. His mercy also reminds us of His wisdom and love for us. He loves each and every person and expects all people to love one another. We do this because everyone is a child of God who is loved by God. So we treat others the way God asks us to treat them (like we ourselves would want to be treated by God). Always grant mercy to others.
True wisdom on display
· True wisdom is displayed by a humble heart. A humble heart demonstrates the quality of a Christian life. Because God gives grace to the humble, be articulate when you demonstrate humility. It is the essence of God, Jesus, and the message of the gospel.
· True wisdom is displayed by recognition that God is the alpha and the omega. Those with humility in their hearts have a high view of God, one that He deserves! They also have as a generous view of others and sober judgment of themselves.
· True wisdom is displayed by following the standard set by Jesus for behavior. We should never believe bad things about people unless there is proof, and we should handle whatever the issue is in a way that is pleasing to God. God’s goodness ties hearts together, displays God’s kindness, and helps everyone to go out into the world and do good. But we can’t do it on our own—we need to humble ourselves as Jesus did. It is only then that we receive God’s wisdom.
· True wisdom is a call to know Jesus and to be more like Him. With a right view of God, ourselves, and others, we can live a fruitful life. We can learn, grow, and love one another. But to do this, we are dependent on God every day we wake up. Then when we go out into the world, we count our blessings, knowing God is with us as we do our job—spreading the gospel message with love and humility, using God’s wisdom in all that we do.
God has revealed Himself to us
God’s wisdom makes the wisdom of this world seem foolish. When we assess what is going on in the world, we know the godless culture and corrupt government has led us to have few goalposts, few (or no) rules to follow, and right from wrong has been redefined by the culture and essentially changed into the foolishness described throughout the Bible. Our forefathers created the Constitution based on Christian principles, but over time we have removed God from our culture and we have ignored God’s revelations to humanity.
A good example from the past of ignoring God’s revelations and wisdom is the trial of the Menendez brothers for murdering their parents. The brothers were clueless about right thinking and right conduct, and they were arrogant enough to wrongfully think they were solving their problems by eliminating their parents. The hung jury could have used some wisdom from Heaven to make some moral choices about what they heard in the courtroom.
Ask God to take control of your life with His righteousness and truth
God’s righteousness and truth lead us to His wisdom. Here are some suggestions for how to ask God for His wisdom in your life when you pray:
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- 1/ Ask Him to remove bitter envy or selfish ambition from your heart. These things always result in disorder and sometimes in evil practices.
- 2/ Ask Him to help you become a peacemaker. Peacemakers are a harvest of God’s righteousness. Acting as peacemakers to clear up issues or miscommunications can help us persevere during trials and conflicts that present themselves in life.
- 3/ Ask Him to help you understand false wisdom (envy, selfish ambition) and the source of true wisdom—God Himself.