The Meekness of Wisdom (James 3:13-18) [2025-12-14]

All right, good morning, church family.

Once again, if you would open your Bibles or type in your

devices the book of James, chapter 3.

James 3 · chapter mention

And this morning we're going to be in verses 13 to 18.

Will Lord Willie finish chapter 3 this morning and be on chapter

4 next week? James 313 to 18.

Let's read the text to open us in a word of prayer, and then we

will jump into the sermon this morning.

James three, beginning in verse 13, here's what James writes to

us. Who is wise and understanding

among you by his good conduct? Let him show his works and

meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter 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, and

demonic. For where jealousy and selfish

ambition exists, there will be disorder and every vile

practice. But the wisdom from above is

first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of

mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.

And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who

make peace. You will pray with me.

Lord, this morning I pray that you would help us to understand

the the nature of the relationship between wisdom and

meekness and what wisdom is and what it looks like and what it

means to be wise and what invalidates our wisdom, what

affirms it. We pray God that you would show

us this relationship. Lord, help us to see the

connection. Help us to make that connection

in our lives. That we would be men and women

who are not only wise but who are meek as well.

I pray this in Jesus name, Amen. Meekness is one of those

qualities that seems elusive, doesn't it?

No matter how much you try to get it, it, it's, it's like it's

just always out of your grasp. It's like trying to to catch the

sunlight or trying to catch the wind.

You can see it, you can feel it. You know what it looks like, you

know what it feels like. But just like the sunlight in

the wind, no matter how much you try to grasp it, it's just,

it's, it's elusive. It feels like you can never get

it. Wouldn't it be great if there

was a well that you could go and drink from, and that as you

drink this water from this well, it would make you meek?

Wouldn't that be great if you know, the same way that Gatorade

supplies electrolytes, this well would supply meekness?

Turns out there is such a well, and the name of the well is

wisdom. James tells us that the source

of meekness is wisdom. Get wisdom, get meekness.

That's what we're going to talk about this morning, the

connection between these two. So let's start off with the next

edition of the text. I'm going to start off by

explaining the text and trying to give us understanding into

it. And then I will give us

application at the end. I believe we have 7 points of

application. So let's start off looking at it

section by section, verse by verse.

We'll start by looking at verse 13, a the very first part where

James asked a question, who is wise and understanding among

you? This morning, James starts off

our passage by asking this question, who is wise and

understanding among you? Now, of course, this raises the

question for us, what does it mean to be wise and what does it

mean to be understanding? Well, James is about to tell us

in a few verses, what are the qualities of wisdom?

So I will wait to let James answer that question.

But as far as understanding the Greek word that James uses here,

it only occurs once in the New Testament.

Here's the definition for the Greek word pertaining to being

knowledgeable in a way that makes 1 effectual in the

exercise of such knowledge an expert or learned.

Now the question is, is why is James asking this question?

Why did? Why does he start by asking this

question? Who is wise and understand among

you? My guess is that there were some

in the church who were claiming to be wise and claiming to be

understanding. There were some who were

self-proclaimed sages in the church.

Similar to what Paul wrote in Second Corinthians 12/11/16

where he says for you gladly bear with fools being wise

yourselves. Now Paul is clearly making that

comment in cheek, and so James is likewise wanting the church

to know that church body wisdom is not determined by a

self-assessment. It is not determined by a title

or a credential or a test score. So what determines if someone is

wise? Look at their team B?

By his good conduct, let him show his works.

So James challenges this so-called wise and understanding

person by his good conduct. Now what does that mean?

Conduct here can mean either behavior or way of life.

When Jesus saved us, he's he not only changed our spiritual

nature, but he also changed our conduct.

He changed the way that we live, and James says that through the

way that we live, we will show our works.

So what James is doing is he's actually returning to his

argument that he started in James 2, where, if you remember,

some of the church said they had faith.

There were people in the church who proclaimed to have faith,

but James challenged him there and said you must show your

faith through your works. And likewise here James is

saying, 1 can say that they have wisdom, that they have

understanding, but they must show their wisdom, they must

show their understanding through their works.

In other words, godly wisdom will produce godly works.

Just as the evidence of faith is works, the evidence of wisdom is

also works. That's what James is saying

here. Look at verse 13 C in the

meekness of wisdom. Now what does that mean?

The meekness of wisdom? Well, let's first answer what is

meekness? Meekness is not a word that we

often use. We use use the word humility.

We don't often use that word, but it is a biblical term.

This is one of my favorite Greek words that that James uses here.

It is a fruit of the Holy Spirit and the fruit of the Holy

Spirit. We call it gentleness, Lovejoy,

peace, faces, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

gentleness. That word for gentleness is the

exact same Greek word here for meekness.

I love this definition that the Greek lexicon gives here.

It is the quality of not being overly impressed by a sense of

1's self importance. That's a good definition, the

quality of not being overly impressed by a sense of 1's self

importance. Now why does James call it the

meekness of wisdom? How are we to understand the

relationship between these two terms?

What's the connection between meekness and wisdom here?

There are two ways to interpret this.

Number one is source. We could understand this as a

source. We would interpret this as

meekness that comes from wisdom. In other words, wisdom is the

source or the cause of meekness. The other #2 is a description or

quality. In other words, meekness

characterized by wisdom. So wisdom gives a quality or a

character to weakness. It's like it's not just

meekness, it's a wise meekness. Now, what are the two does James

intend here? I I think we could argue both.

We could say both. But if we had to choose, I think

he intends the first meeting. I think he means source.

What James is saying is that a truly wise person will be a

humble person. The source of humility is

wisdom. If we want to get humility, get

wisdom. Look at verse 14.

A. But if you have bitter jealousy

and selfish ambition in your hearts.

So James gives 2 sins here. These are either real or

hypothetical that the church that he's writing to may have

had. The 1st is bitter jealousy.

Interesting enough, the word for bitter here is the same Greek

word for salt in verse 11, the Greek word for jealousy.

It can take a positive meaning like to be zealous, right?

The the the word can mean mean to be zealous or something.

But here it clearly has a negative meaning.

It could be positive or negative depending on the context.

Paul writes about this vice. He says for a while there is

jealousy and strife among you. Are you not of the flesh?

First Corinthians 33 You remember in Corinth there was

jealousy and strife among them. And Paul says these point to the

fact that you are not of the Spirit, you are of the flesh.

He also lists jealousy as a work of the flesh in Galatians 520.

That's the first one. The second one is selfish

ambition. This is one word in the Greek.

It can mean strife, it can mean contentiousness, it can mean

selfishness. This is also listed as a work of

the flesh in Galatians 220. There it's translated as

rivalries. We all remember the Apostle

Paul's words in Philippians 2, three, where he says do nothing

from selfish ambition or vain conceit.

Look at verse 14. B.

Do not boast. If you have bitter jealousy and

selfish in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth.

Now what does James mean here? Do not boast to be false to the

truth. Well, it appears that some in

the church are boasting that they are wise and understanding.

Now, both senior doesn't necessarily mean that, you know,

they're going around just announcing to everybody, but

perhaps there is a certain aura, if you will, that they walk

around as the church thinks of me as wise and understanding.

However, because they had bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in

their hearts, James writes, they were being false to the truth.

How so? How so?

How are they? How are they being false to the

truth? What truth, James is saying,

Look, if you were truly wise, you would be meek.

And if you were meek, you would not have bitter jealousy and you

would not have selfish ambition in your hearts.

But your hearts reveal your pride, and your pride reveals

your lack of wisdom. That's the argument James is

making. He's saying you can claim all

day long that you are wise and understanding, but if you have

these two sins going on in your heart, it testifies that you are

actually not wise. You don't have understanding.

Look at verse 15. This is not the wisdom that

comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, and

demonic. Now, wisdom from above clearly

refers to wisdom from God, right?

It's wisdom from God and and James wanted to contrast this

with worldly wisdom. If we are dealing with

capitalism, jealousy and ambition are good things, right?

Here in America, we are capitalistic society and just on

a capitalistic level, jealousy and ambition are good things.

They promote a free market. They promote healthy

competition. We're not all trying to be poor.

It is good that we we see people doing well.

We desire to do well. That drives capitalism, that

drives production. That's a good thing for a

capitalistic society. However, we're not dealing with

capitalism. We're dealing with the church.

James says that in the church, this kind of wisdom is not from

God. It's not from above.

So where is it from? James describes it with three

adjectives #1 he says it is earthly.

Now what's wrong with somebody being earthly?

The definition of this Greek word reveals what's wrong with

it. Here's the definition pertaining

to that which is characteristic of the earth as opposed to

heavenly. In other words, earthly wisdom

is not heavenly wisdom. Two, unspiritual, unspiritual.

Here's the definition of that word pertaining to life of the

natural world and whatever belongs to it, in contrast to

the realm of experience whose central characteristic is

spirit. If you remember, Paul uses this

term in First Corinthians 214 where he says the natural person

does not accept the things of the Spirit of God that were

natural. They are being unspiritual.

What Paul is saying is that fleshly wisdom is not spiritual

wisdom. And then he gives one more

adjective, third one demonic, originating from the lower

spirit world. Paul writes in First Timothy 41

and later time stumbled apart from the faith by devoting

themselves to deceitful spirits and the teachings, IE wisdom of

demons. In other words, demonic wisdom

is not godly wisdom. So James is saying that this

wisdom that is going on in the church that he's writing to,

this wisdom is of the world, it is of the flesh, and it is of

the devil. Look at verse 16.

For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be

disorder and every vile practice.

James says that if a church does have jealousy and selfish, there

will be two consequences. Number one, there will be

disorder. Does that mean disorder?

Here's the definition. Opposition to established

authority, Unruliness. This is the exact same word used

by Paul and 1st Corinthians 1433 where he says God is not a God

of confusion. That word confusion there

disorder. God is not a God of disorder.

Same word 2, he says there will not only be disorder, there will

be every vile practice also translated as evil thing or evil

practice. So what's James getting out

here? James is saying, look, a little

leaven leavens the whole lump. In other words, sin always

breeds more sin. If you have jealousy and selfish

ambition in the church, it doesn't just stay confined over

here, just as you can't put leaven in a, in a, in a lump of,

of, of dough and expected to stay confined there.

It will spread and James is saying so will these sins.

They will spread in the church. It will breathe more sin, more

disorder and vile practices. Look at verse 17.

But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable,

gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, and

partial and sincere. So we know what wisdom from

below looks like. We know what wisdom from below

looks like. What does wisdom from above look

like? James gives us 7 descriptions of

this type of wisdom. Let's briefly look at them one

at a time #1 He says pure wisdom is first.

Pure could also be translated as holy.

That word pure can be translated holy or pure.

Either will do. It means pertaining to being

without moral defect or blemish. It's the same word used in

Philippians 48. If you remember what Paul says,

whatever is pure, think on these things.

I want you to notice that as this is first, this is first.

Just as love is primary in the fruit of the Spirit, I think

that it's that's true. Love is the first purity and

holiness is primary in the fruit of wisdom #2 peaceable,

pertaining to being conducive to a harmonious relationship, or

pertaining to freedom from anxiety and inner turmoil.

In other words, this means that wisdom is characterized by

someone who is peaceful and a peacemaker.

So not only are you peaceful, meaning you are full of peace,

inner peace, but you also are someone who makes peace.

You are a peacemaker as well. Three gentle.

I like this definition too. Not insisting on every right of

letter of law or custom. Yielding kind, courteous,

tolerant. This is actually one of the

qualifications of overseer. Same word, an overseer must be

gentle. 4 Open to reason. None of the major translations

translate the same way because this word is only used once in

the New Testament. They all translate differently.

ESV has open to reason and ASB has reasonable.

NIV has submissive that Bible has accommodating, CSB has

compliant, and RSV has willing to yield.

So you can choose which translation you like best.

I guess they will all work, I think in some nuance. 5 Full of

mercy and good fruits. Notice not just merciful.

Wisdom is not just merciful, it is full of mercy.

If you remember, Jesus commanded us to be merciful even as our

heavenly Father is merciful. And not just a few fruits, but

full of fruits. Wisdom is not just that we have

an apple or two on the tree, it's full of fruits.

If you remember, Jesus said that good trees bear good fruits. 6

Impartial. This is the only time this Greek

word is used. Again, James uses a lot of one

timers. So only time this Greek word is

used could take the nuance of impartial pertaining to being

not being prejudice. It could also take the nuance of

unwavering. That's how the NASB translates

it. They translate as unwavering.

It could take the nuance of without variance or uncertainty

or inconsistencies. Either will do so.

Wisdom is either impartial or unwavering.

Or you could say both. Both would be true.

And then last 7 sincere. The Greek word is literally any

pokritos. Literally translates as not a

hypocrite. Here's the definition pertaining

to not being without pretense, genuine, literally without play

acting. Play acting in the Greek was,

you know, somebody would play a part to where they have two

faces, right? Like this is who I am in in real

life. This is the part that I'm

playing. And this this is where we get

the word hypocrite from where somebody wears two different

faces. And James is saying that wisdom

is not having that. So if we put all this together,

wisdom from above is first pure and holy, peaceful and

peacemaking, yielding and accommodating, merciful, full of

the Holy Spirit, not prejudice and not wavering, genuine and

not hypocritical. Those are the fruit of wisdom.

Verse 18, last verse of our passage.

And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who

make peace. Now the ESV kind of gives a a

wooden translation here the the NIV smooths out this

translation. Here's how the NIV translates

it. Peacemakers who sow in peace

raise a harvest of righteousness.

Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of

righteousness. You remember Jesus said in the

Sermon on the Mount. Blessed are the peacemakers, for

they shall be called sons of God.

The idea here is that we reap what we sow, Paul writes in

Galatians 6-8. But the one who sows to the

Spirit will reap from the Spirit.

Reap what? Eternal life?

What James is saying is that look, if we sow demonic wisdom,

we will reap A demonic dwelling, but if we sow wisdom from above,

we will reap A dwelling from above.

We'll stop their exposition. Application of the text.

I have 7:00 or 8:00. I can't.

I wrote 8 here but I think it's 7:00.

I could be wrong, but it'll be a surprise when we get to 7 or

finish it #1 Wisdom isn't what you know, but what you show.

Wisdom isn't what you know, but what you show.

James starts off with a question.

Who is wise and understanding among you?

Now that's an interesting question, isn't it?

Because it's clearly rhetorical. It would, isn't it?

I mean, isn't it? It would be quite odd if

somebody wrote back to James. Dear James, I am sincerely Matt.

It's like asking the church who is humble among you.

The moment we say me, we have become a humble liar.

Part of the reason that James asked this question is because

it appears there's a misunderstanding in the church

as to what exactly is wisdom. There's a misunderstanding in

this church or the churches as to what exactly is wisdom.

What does it mean to be wise? Often people will equate wisdom

with one or several qualities, right?

When we think about what does it mean to be wise, we often will

equate it with a lot of qualities.

A Knowledge. A wise person is someone who

knows a lot. B Intellect.

A wise person is an intelligent person C experience.

A wise person is someone who's lived a long time, or lived

longer than me at least, and has walked many paths, or D success.

If a person is successful, they must be wise or E well read.

A person who's well read will be wise.

That's not how the Bible talks about wisdom, though.

None of those are how the Bible talks about wisdom.

What is the closest synonym to wisdom in the Bible?

That's a question I posed for you.

I'm curious how you would answer that.

What is the closest synonym to wisdom in the Bible?

Here it is obedience. Obedience.

The wise person is the obedient person, James asked.

Who is wise and understanding among you by his good conduct?

Let him show it. Let him show His wisdom through

his obedience. You see, to grow in knowledge

without growing in obedience is simply to grow in pride.

You grow in knowledge or doctrine or theology or rhetoric

or argumentation or any of these things, and you don't grow in

obedience. All you have done is grow in

pride. If you want to be a wise man, If

you want to be a wise woman, obey God, because the only path

to wisdom is through obedience. That's it #2A wise person will

be a humble person, and a prideful person is not a wise

person. A wise person will be a humble

person, and a prideful person is not a wise person.

James writes let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.

Now as I mentioned the exposition, I think this is a

genitive of source. In other words, James is saying

that wisdom is the source or the cause of humility.

Now how is wisdom the source of humility?

How does this work? Douglas Moo writes this this

Christian meekness comes from understanding our position as

sinful creatures in relationship to the glorious and majestic

God. Let me give a a worldly example

to illustrate this as to the point that MU is making here.

I like to watch business shows. I like to watch business shows

like the prophet or the fixer. The prophet used to this is

businessman named Marcus Lemonis.

He he runs Camping World and he invests in companies and used to

be the show called The Prophet. Now he's not doing the fixer.

He basically goes around and he like fixes other businesses.

It's kind of like I guess Ramsey's kitchen thing that he

does where he fixes kitchens. He does this with businesses.

He invests his own money and obviously, you know, he says

he's doing it to help them, but it's clearly to help himself

like make money. When he goes into these

businesses, often with these small businesses, one of the

reasons that the business is struggling, maybe not one, maybe

the main reason is because the CEO wants to do everything,

wants to do everything. They want to do branding and

marketing, web design, product development, accounting and

finances, operations, sales. They they want to do everything.

It's not just that these leaders are prideful, it's that they're

not wise. They don't have a good

perspective of who they are and how others are better.

Amazon would have never become Amazon if Bezos was insistent on

writing every code. I don't even know if he knows

how to write code. It is important that we have a

right perspective of who we are and who others are.

Likewise, in the Christian life, often the source of our pride is

not having a right perspective of ourselves and not having a

right perspective of God. You see, the foolish man says

what a man to be mindful of. The wise person says what is

man, that you are mindful of him.

There is no such thing as a wise person who is not also humble,

it doesn't exist. And there is no such thing as a

prideful person who is wise, it does not exist.

Wisdom and meekness will all three.

Comparison leads to competition and competition leads to

carnality. Comparison will lead to

competition, and competition will lead to carnality.

James seems to suggest that there's bitter jealousy and

selfish ambition going on in the church.

Craig Blomberg, A commentator, writes this.

This kind of envy seeks the best for oneself, regardless of what

might be good for another person, always wishing for

others to have less than oneself, whether with

possessions or with opportunities.

You know, And I, I was thinking about this as I was preparing

the sermon this week. Like, where does bitter jealousy

and selfish ambition come from? Like, what's the source of it?

Where, where, how does that well up in a person's heart?

And, and I think one of the main breeding grounds of this, where

these two sins take root is comparison.

How easy it is in a church to start comparing ourselves to

others. Where do you live?

Where do you work? What school did you graduate

from? What kind of car do you drive?

Do you have a boyfriend or girlfriend?

How many kids do you have? How well behaved are your kids?

What school do your kids go to? Are you an elder or a Deacon or

just a member? How much money do you make?

How well dressed and how fashionable are you?

How much Bible knowledge do you have?

How well respected are you in the church?

And on and on and on. Do we not struggle with this?

Do we not look to our right and to our left?

And we use others as the measure of where I stand in the pecking

order. If we start comparing ourselves

to others, here's what will happen.

Comparison always leads to competition.

Always. And competition always leads to

carnality. It leads to bitter jealousy.

It leads to selfish ambition. James says that if we have these

sins, do not boast and be false to the truth.

Now what truth is he saying there?

That we are wise? Do not boast and think that you

are wise and understanding if you are in a competition with

someone and anything. In other words, James is saying

that if we have bitter jealousy, if we have selfish ambition in

the church, we testify not to our wisdom, we testify to our

folly. 4 Make sure the wisdom you abide in is from above and

not below. Make sure the wisdom you abide

in is from above and not below, James writes.

This is not the wisdom that comes from up, down from above,

but it's earthly, unspiritual, demonic.

In other words, for James, there's only two sources of

wisdom. There is wisdom from above and

there's wisdom from a bow below. These are the only two sources

of wisdom. All wisdom comes from either

above or from below. 1 is from heaven and the Spirit and the

Father, the others from the world and the flesh and the

devil. And I was thinking about this

like about how different the wisdom from God is from the

world, right when I, when I stop.

And I was thinking about like man isn't, isn't God's wisdom so

drastically different from the wisdom of the world?

Let me give you some examples. When we are insulted, does not

the world's wisdom say to us, Don't let someone disrespect

you, But does not God's wisdom say it is to our glory to

overlook an offence? When it's time to choose a job,

the world's wisdom says choose whichever one makes the most

money. But does not God's wisdom say to

choose a job that will allow you to glorify Him, allow you to

build His Kingdom, and allow you to be committed to the local

church? When dating, the world's wisdom

says look for compatibility, but does not God's wisdom say to

look for character? When someone sins against us,

does not the world's wisdom says hold a grudge or give them a

cold shoulder, or you know better yet, cancel them?

But does not God's wisdom say that we are to forgive as we

have been forgiven? When it comes to our money, does

not the world say spend, spend, spend and save, save, save?

But does not God's wisdom say it is better to give than to

receive? When we are in the position of

leadership? Does not the world's wisdom say,

listen, you're the leader now, don't show weakness, never admit

fault, present a strong front. But does not God's wisdom say

that we are to be servant leaders when we were choosing

how many kids to have or whether to have kids at all?

Does not the world's wisdom say that we should base this

decision on finances or how much we can emotionally handle?

But does not God's wisdom say that children are heritage from

the Lord? Blessed is the man who fills his

quiver with them. When dealing with trials, the

world's wisdom says you should avoid suffering at all cost, but

does not God's wisdom say that suffering produces endurance?

When dealing with self identity, the world says promote self,

affirm self, but does not God's wisdom say to deny self?

When you are making decisions, Does not the world's wisdom say

it is best to trust your gut, trust your instincts, and be

decisive? But does not God's wisdom say

trust the Lord and wait on Him? Brothers and sisters, make sure

the wisdom you are abiding in is from above and not below.

I say this to you because we are living in the 21st century in

Seattle, WA and almost all of you are swimming in worldly

wisdom. I don't mean that you believe it

or abide in. I'm saying almost all of you are

swimming neck deep in it. I hear it from you.

I hear the arguments you make. Godly wisdom will often like it.

It'll look crazy. Crazy to your coworkers, crazy

to your family. Isn't that what we're supposed

to look like? Aren't we supposed to look

strange to the world? 5 Jealousy and selfishness are

fertile soil for every sinful seed to grow.

Jealousy and selfishness are fertile soil for every sinful

seed to grow, James writes Were for selfish.

Jealousy and selfish abuses exist.

There will be disorder and every vile practice.

Craig Blomberg writes this When we fight for power in Christian

circles, evil establishes A foothold.

When we operate with worldly values, seeking our own honor

and status, we even offer Satan an entrance into the House of

God. Now we see this multiple times

in the New Testament, do we not? If you remember when Jesus had

just finished telling his disciples that he was going to

die for them, right after he says I'm going to die for you on

the third day will rise again. After he tells them that, they

go on their journey. What are they?

They start an argument. Remember what they were arguing

about? Who was the greatest?

Hey, hey, who you think is? Who thinks the goat?

Who's the greatest disciple? On another occasion, James and

John had come up to Jesus and they're kind of timid. 11 Gospel

says the mother asked. Another one says they asked.

I don't know which of the two it is, but it seems to me that they

wanted to use their mother as a shield, right?

They bring mom and they want to ask and they're like, and Jesus

like, what is it guys? What do you want to know?

They're like, would you let us sit on your right hand and left

hand in heaven? And the other disciples resent

them for asking this question. The Pharisees did all their

righteous acts to be seen by others.

They love to be praised by the crowds in the book of Acts.

The gospel is going forth, right?

The church is growing. The apostles are are are growing

the church. And what are the Pharisees feel?

The Pharisees feel nothing but jealousy of the success of the

apostles. When Simon the magician saw the

power that Paul wielded through the Spirit, what did he do?

He tried to purchase it. They said how much do you want

for this kind of power? Ananias and Sapphira, they lied

about their gift. Why?

Because they wanted the church to think they were generous.

In Corinth, factions developed as to who was the best group.

Hey, who about you? What?

I follow Paul, OK, but I follow Apollo's guys.

Cephas. Cephas.

In Galatia, the Judaizers are trying to influence the church

with their false teaching. Why?

They're trying to win them to themselves.

The Judaizers want them to come to their side.

And Philippi. There were some who were

preaching Christ out of envy and rivalry.

Why they thought they would have flicked Paul and his

imprisonment and even John and 3rd John.

I totally forgot about this passage.

John warns against Diotrephes who, quote, likes to put himself

first. Man John, John's, like he, likes

to put himself first. The reality is that nothing has

changed with human nature. These are all still temptations

for us today, are they not? They are temptations for grace

and truth. They are temptations for every

church. Jealousy and selfish ambition

will destroy a church from the inside out. 6 Just as there is a

fruit of the Spirit, there is also a fruit of wisdom.

Now I don't know why, I guess because the word fruit is not

used there, you know, but like, I, I think you know, in the same

way that we have fruit of the spirit and some of the people

put that on their wall or, you know, memorize a song.

I think we should have a fruit of wisdom.

I, I really do. What's interesting is that in

the book of James, James is virtually silent on the Holy

Spirit. There are no verses in his

letter about the Holy Spirit. Maybe one, but I think you can.

Sometimes they use a lower case S because it could just mean our

Spirit. James does not talk about the

Holy Spirit and yet for Paul he mentions the Spirit several

times all throughout his letters.

Now interesting enough, some commentators have concluded that

wisdom and James is synonymous with the Spirit and Paul.

I think that may be a stretch, but I could see how commentators

get there because just as there is the fruit of the Spirit,

there is also a fruit of wisdom. In other words, if a person

wants to know what does it look like for a person to be filled

with the Spirit? If you came up to me and you

asked me, Matt, what does it look like to be a person who was

filled with the Spirit? My answer, if I only had like 10

seconds to tell you, my answer would be this.

Here's what it looks like. You ready, Lovejoy?

Peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

gentleness, self-control. That's what it looks like.

That's what it looks like to be filled with the Spirit.

And the first that came up to me and said, Matt, what does it

look like to be a person who is filled with wisdom, right?

How do I know if I'm wise? How do I know if you're wise?

How do I know if I should trust this person or that person?

How do I know? Here's one way you could answer

it. Pure, peaceable, gentle, open to

reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.

Now I would love to plant here and give a separate application

for each virtue. Maybe 15 years ago I would have

done that, but for time's sake I will just give one brief

exhortation for each. One brief for each really fast.

A pure or holy. God's wisdom is holy, meaning

it's set apart. It doesn't look like the world's

wisdom. It looks different.

It looks holy. Be peaceable.

Wisdom is both peaceful and a peacemaker.

The wise person is not anxious. Let me say that again.

The wise person is not anxious. He trusts in the Lord.

The wise person does not 'cause conflict, he brings peace to

conflict. C Gentle Peter Davids writes.

The wise person does not get angry, combative, or defensive

even under provocation. D Open to reason.

The wise person is eager to listen to others and understand

their argument or their point of view.

They are open to reason. E full of mercy and good fruits.

If the wise person were a tree, they would be a tree of life.

This tree would be full of fruit and one of the most common

fruits. As you went to pick fruit from

the tree, one of the most common fruits you would find on this

tree is mercy. F Impartial wisdom embraces

people without cultural, economic, or social prejudice.

Wisdom has open arms to all. G Sincere wisdom has integrity.

Wisdom strives to be above reproach.

The wise person is the same person in private as they are in

public. Last point #7 What type of

farmer we are in this life tells us what type of field we inherit

in the next. What type of farmer we are in

this life tells us what type of field we inherit in the next.

Now, here's the thing with this type of wisdom.

What, what James is just so here's the thing.

This is going to be the hardest part.

When you leave this place, you know, like this will be the

hardest part for you. It won't be popular with the

world. It won't be praised by the

world. You do this, you walk out of

here and you live like this. You won't have people praising

you that you're wise. You'll have people calling you a

fool, dumb, ignorant. It's not popular.

This type of wisdom will look weak and unattractive because in

the eyes of the world, meekness is weakness, accommodating is

degrading, kindness is blindness, gentle is just

sentimental. Sincerity is insecurity.

But here's what you also need to remember.

James reminds us that what type of farmer we are in this life

tells us what type of field we inherit in the next.

Peacemakers who sow and peace raise a harvest of

righteousness. You see, the world may not visit

your fruit stand, but God does. The world may not approve of

your produce, but God eats at this table.

The seeds of wisdom that we plant in this life will yield a

harvest of righteousness in the next.

Don't live for the world to think you're wise or experienced

or successful or any of these things.

Live for the wisdom that marks us as followers of Jesus Christ.

Let's pray.