Christopher Rush

This year, during our consecrated times together, we will be exploring the cardinal virtues: wisdom, courage, justice, moderation, as well as the three foundational Christian virtues of faith, hope, and love.  While it might appear to a cursory examination that these will be disparate messages relating in no way to one another, that is certainly not true.  When I say that this message concludes the subject of wisdom and that next week we will discuss courage, do not think that you will be allowed to forget about wisdom.  As Mr. Moon said earlier, wisdom is the foundation of all the virtues we will examine throughout the year.

In math class, when you have advanced so far as to leave even numbers behind, regardless of the complexity of the calculations you and your calculator will be computing, you will never leave the basic principles of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.  In English class, when you have advanced so far that you can analyze patterns and themes from any literary era or movement, interpreting metaphors, ironies, and symbols with the ease of an Inkling, you will never leave the basic principles of grammar, mechanics, and usage.

Wisdom is the goal, as well as the commencement.  Last week Mr. Moon exegeted for us the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount.  Perhaps the most interesting aspect of that list is the fact that the first and last categories of people both receive the same reward.  “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 5:3).  “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:10).  Eternal life is the beginning of the Christian experience; it is also its end.  Even so, wisdom is the beginning of these virtues and will also be their end.  So do not think that while we are talking about courage or justice or faith that we aren’t talking about wisdom — we are always talking about wisdom.

As we sort-of-but-not-really conclude our time with wisdom, it occurred to me that a practical passage on wisdom would be of great benefit to all of us.  This is an odd occurrence, since I usually despise practical sermons.  In my day I have visited a diverse panoply of church bodies and heard a variety of speakers.  Often, in my experience (which, if it differs from yours, good for you), practical sermons and series do not require the church attendee to open a Bible.  An odd thing, isn’t that, for a gathering of Christians in an official “body of Christ” situation to neglect?  If I had to pick one thing that I hoped of all graduates of Summit Christian Academy after they leave my humble tutelage — just one thing — it would not, I must admit, be the chiastic structure of The Iliad, or great symbols of the Mississippi River in Huck Finn, or even that they purposed to commit the Shakespearean canon to memory.  The one thing, if I must choose only one thing, that I hope for all students of Summit, is that you love the Word of God (both written and incarnate), and cling to it desperately as you go out to a world that passionately hates you.  So today, without apology, we will be reading from the Word of God.  And, conveniently enough, it is both doctrinal (my personal favorite) and practical.  Bonus.

The Book of James is a superbly practical book.  Last year, the Men’s Ministry Team spent much quality time reading this book, and we examined its dozens of explicit commands on how to live the Christian life.  Throughout his letter, James makes many of his points using a great literary device known as juxtaposition.

Juxtaposition places two opposite ideas or characters next to each other to compare and contrast their attributes.  This technique has been used throughout time in many areas, from literature to music to general entertainment.  Homer places the greatest warrior of Greece sulking in his tent; next to him, Homer places Hector, Troy’s last, best hope for victory.  Taking both of his works together, we see the warrior mentality of Achilles contrasted with the strategic guile of Odysseus.  When opposite characters aren’t enemies but friends, they are sometimes called “foils.”  Hamlet has his Horatio, Darcy has his Bingley, and Holmes has his Watson.  I didn’t realize it when I first thought of these three examples, but upon further reflection it occurred to me that Hamlet, Darcy, and Holmes are all silent, brooding thinkers, while Horatio, Bingley, and Watson are all resolutely loyal to their often-sullen friends.

Many songwriters have also employed juxtaposition to get across their points, usually within about three minutes:

Well I would walk a million miles

To give her all that she needs

She would walk a million more

To do well as she pleased

Once upon a time I was fallin’ in love

Now I’m only fallin’ apart

So, so you think you can tell Heaven from Hell,
blue skies from pain.
Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?
And did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?

Back in the day when comedians were funny because they were funny and not because they were vulgar, some of the greatest comedians of the 20^th-century came in pairs — not pairs of comedians, but pairs of entertainers.  One was the comedian; the other was the straight man, often, but not always, a singer.  If you don’t know Abbott and Costello, Martin and Lewis, or Hope and Crosby, then you probably don’t actually know what comedy is.  No offense.

Though many of the previous examples of juxtaposition were opposites, they were complementary opposites (except for the music — funny how that happens).  Holmes and Watson and Abbott and Costello needed each other for success.  The juxtapositions James puts forth in his letter, however, are not complementary.  Most of his juxtapositions are either one choice or the other.  One choice is for life, the other for death.  And, like Romeo and Juliet, life and death can’t really spend a whole lot of time together.

In chapter 3, James gives the classic exhortation on taming the tongue.  He concludes by pointing out the inconceivability of the same water source producing both salt and fresh water and the unimaginable situation of a fig tree producing olives or a grapevine producing figs.  From those logical impossibilities James turns to the subject of wisdom.  And, as his wont, he juxtaposes two kinds of wisdom in James 3, verses 13-18:

¹³Who is wise and understanding among you?  By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. ¹⁴But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth.  ¹⁵This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.  ¹⁶For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.  ¹⁷But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.  ¹⁸And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

(English Standard Version)

As we have seen throughout this month, wisdom, according to the Bible, has nothing to do with self-aggrandizement.  Pride, boasting, and self-serving behavior are not acceptable by-products of wisdom.  In his classic commentary, Matthew Henry says, “[t]hese verses show the difference between man’s pretending to be wise, and their being really so.  He who thinks well, or he who talks well, is not wise in the sense of the Scripture, if he does not live and act well.  True wisdom may be known by the meekness of the spirit and temper.”  People who boast about their knowledge may in fact know a great deal of information.  Wisdom, however, they lack.  Wisdom is meek and allows the wise to live well.  Of the two kinds of wisdom, let us focus on the negative then turn to the positive.

Earthly wisdom is, in fact, no wisdom at all.  We may think we are being wise or intelligent when we plan and perhaps even succeed under our own strength or ability.  When we focus on ourselves, though, we can’t but help to think that all people are focusing on themselves.  So when we succeed, as James intimates, on our own power we boast and brag since it is something we have done by ourselves — no one helped us, not even God.  “Look at what great things I have done,” we say, perhaps only to ourselves.  Maybe our boasting is internal, and the world around sees nothing but a smug smile on our faces.  But James warns us that we have not in any way actually succeeding at anything.  We are, in fact, “being false to the truth.”  When we are consumed by selfish ambition and boasting about our accomplishments, we completely fail to see who has done the actual work or given us the ability to accomplish anything.

Also, as I mentioned earlier, when we are so wrapped up in selfish ambition, leaving no room for thoughts about others, not even God, we are forced to assume that all people around us are succeeding on their own merits and abilities.  This does not allow us to be glad for other people when they succeed, especially if it is against us.  If we are trying to win even something so inconsequential as a game with our selfish ambition and we lose, do we feel glad for our conqueror?  Of course not!  Our skills and abilities fell short, so we are deficient.  James readily acknowledges that a mind of selfish ambition cannot think positively about others.  Instead, as he says, we regard others with bitter jealousy.

Too many churches and too many Christians despise each other not because of doctrinal error or truly abhorrent practices, but because we are ensconced in selfish ambition and so are bitterly jealous of others when they succeed.  “Oh, well, if we lived in California and had Rick Warren as our head pastor, of course we’d have a huge, growing church!  Obviously if we had Chris Tomlin as our worship leader no doubt our worship times would be alive and meaningful — but we don’t have them!”  Utter preposterousness, as if God made a mistake when placing you here and now and not then and there!  Envying other churches because they have a success outreach campaign and we don’t?  This is certainly not admirable.  We aren’t to be jealous of Christians as if their success came from their strengths and abilities.

Selfish ambition is not new to the church.  Moments after Jesus restores Peter three times, according to the rule of three, Peter has the supreme dullness to look back at John and ask the Christ about what is going to happen to him.  Based on Jesus’ emphatic response, we can believe that Peter was not asking out of genuine concern for his fellow believer.  He was asking out of selfish ambition.  Jesus, knowing that could only lead to bitter jealousy, responded wonderfully.  “What is that to you?!  Don’t you concern yourself with what I have appointed for him.  YOU FOLLOW ME.”  Selfish ambition is lost in its focus and has no possibility of success or glorifying God.  The cure is to change our focus.  Follow Christ and His purposes.  Realize that we can do nothing on our own for good.  Any intelligence, any physical ability, any skill or talent we have did not originate within us!  Sure, we may have practiced and honed those skills and talents, but we did not endow them into ourselves when we were born.  All these things — our reasoning abilities, our strength, our very life — have come from above.  When we think we have done something we are mistaken and are being “false to the truth.”

Verse fifteen helps to clarify the nature of this selfish ambition.  When we believe that we are capable of success or goodness on our own, we are not truly employing wisdom.  The “wisdom” that enables bitter jealousy, boasting, and falsehood is not a heavenly wisdom; it is of this sinful earth — perhaps James is making the point that this kind of thinking is akin to the level of thinking done by a rock or a tree (not very complimentary).  Matthew Henry says of this verse

Those who live in malice, envy, and contention, live in confusion; and are liable to be provoked and hurried to any evil work.  Such wisdom comes not down from above, but springs up from earthly principles, acts on earthly motives, and is intent on serving earthly purposes.

Not only is it of this world, but James continues to describe its true origin: it is an unspiritual kind of thought process.  I would doubt that he is arguing for Monism, as if thoughts are merely chemical reactions to external stimuli and are simply mechanical functions of a material brain.  Instead, I believe he is trying to say that this kind of thinking is as far from God’s thinking as can be, a point he drives home in the last of his list of three: this thinking is demonic.  Now we get to the source of this “wisdom.”

Most people I’ve met, at one time or another, tend to get confused.  Well, about many things, but in particular, we all seem to believe that there is this thing that exists we like to call “what I want to do.”  Perhaps we phrase it like, “when I graduate and move out I’m going to start doing what I want to do, and my parents can’t do anything about it.”  “As soon as I get to college, boy, I’m going to do what I want to do.”  Unfortunately, though, and while I may be mistaken, I’ve come to believe that this thing we like to call “what I want to do” doesn’t actually exist.  There are really only two choices: what God wants me to do and what Satan wants me to do.

Now, please don’t misunderstand.  I am not in any way arguing, and I don’t believe James is arguing, for aggregate Dualism.  There are not, as some faiths posit, two eternal superpowers one we call “Good” the other “Bad” or “God” and the “Devil” (or both called “Lazarus”) constantly at war and neither is stronger than the other, but they are both equal and locked in mortal combat and we sometimes get caught in the crossfire.  That’s not what I’m saying: Satan and God are not equal in power or authority.  I’m saying that those are the only two alternatives we have by which to live our lives: God’s way or Satan’s way.  James, as mentioned before, does not give us a third option, usually.  We have a dilemma: whom will we follow?  What kind of wisdom will we employ?  There is no “my wisdom” or “what I want to do.”  Perhaps seeing the outcomes of both wisdoms will aid our choice.

Verse sixteen shows us the end of demonic wisdom: if we wrap ourselves in selfish ambition and jealousy, what do we find at the end?  Happiness?  Prosperity?  Never-ceasing fountains of root beer and skittles?  No.  We find “disorder and every vile practice.”  Selfish ambition and bitter jealousy are not easily sated.  In fact, I doubt they ever are.  Has Satan grown tired of doing what is evil yet?  I don’t think so.  And he’s very adept at it, too.  Jealousy can’t wish well-being on others and is not content to watch others succeed.  Selfish ambition does not promote harmony and cooperation but disorder and every vile practice.  I think we have all had enough experience at being alive that we need not go into detail about that phrase.  James, too, knows it is enough to say it before he moves on.  And so shall we.

The only other option before us is “the wisdom from above,” in verse seventeen.  This wisdom is “first pure.”  Have you ever had a cold glass of filtered water?  It is remarkable: no color, no taste, no additives — simply unadulterated refreshment.  It is no wonder that the best food and drinks that enable us to live a salubrious life are those that are pure.  Purity is essential.

Wisdom is peaceable.  Opposed to the disorder of selfish ambition and bitter jealousy, genuine wisdom is calm, quiet, serene, and harmonious.  The purity of a single glass of water expands to the tranquility of a placid lake in the cool of the late afternoon, sitting in a chair sipping fresh water reading Ivanhoe.  Peaceable wisdom acknowledges that God is the author of ability, intelligence, and success and needs not be jealous of others, since God is doing His work through others.  Peaceable wisdom knows that any achievements we do are because He has allowed and enabled them, not because we are self-sufficient.

Wisdom is gentle.  Certainly there is the time for righteous indignation accompanied by swift and concentrated justice.  Yet, wisdom is habitually gentle.  There is no boasting or bragging with wisdom.  College professors who bludgeon you with their lectures and ignore queries do so because they do not have wisdom.  They merely have a repository of knowledge and have no idea what to do with it.  Wisdom is calm and tender.  Jesus is the Lamb who was slain, silent before His shearers, benevolently taking the malevolence of sin upon Himself for us all.  Wisdom is honey to the lips, sweet and soothing.

Wisdom is open to reason.  Unlike the professors who allow for no argument or diverging opinions, wisdom from above seeks rational, intelligent discourse.  “Come, let us reason together,” calls the Lord.  We were created by and in the image of a rational Being who desires reasonable responses and interactions.  We could have been made mindless automatons who know of nothing but worshipping God, yet we have the choice and ability as Christians to reason with Him, to understand Him and His ways as much as we can.  God desires that.  Your teachers desire rational discussions and interactions with you because wisdom is open to reason.

Wisdom is full of mercy and good fruits.  Not Fruit Snacks, but real, pure fruit.  A pure, peaceable, gentle, reasonable attitude might be good enough from our perspective but not for the wisdom from above.  A bounty of mercy is almost too good to be true.  Wisdom from above understands the nature of fallen beings and the being-sanctified-but-not-yet-glorified nature of justified beings.  We need mercy, not just at the cross, but frequently, yea, daily.  Moment by moment, in fact.  Mercy does not obviate justice.  Just as the gentleness of wisdom allows for anger in its time, mercy does not let things go just to let things go.  Mercy has already paid the penalty for our transgressions, and mercy rebukes the Accuser when he tries to bring up forgiven debts.

Wisdom’s “good fruits” are the subjects of the remainder of our chapels this year, in the remaining cardinal virtues and the Christian virtues.  No doubt, too, they are the “fruit of the Spirit” Paul recites in Galatians.  James possibly also has in mind what he said in verse thirteen, that wisdom is shown in action.  Wisdom, some have said, is the right application of knowledge.  Having previously discussed earlier in chapter three that the same water source cannot produce both salt and fresh water, neither can the wisdom from above produce anything but good fruits.  The actions of the wise are good fruit.  Have you ever picked fruit from trees or vines?  It doesn’t take much effort to collect ripe fruit.  Actions done from wisdom are no struggle to perform and only benefit those who receive them.  Matthew Henry says this: “Those who are lifted up with such wisdom, described by the apostle James, is near to the Christian love, described by the apostle Paul; and both are so described that every man may fully prove the reality of his attainments in them.”

Wisdom is impartial and sincere.  According to Matthew Henry, “It has no disguise or deceit.  It cannot fall in with those managements the world counts wise, which are crafty and guileful; but it is sincere, and open, and steady, and uniform, and consistent with itself.”  Wisdom pays no attention to nationalities or gender.  It is consistent regardless of who needs it because it is pure.  In sincerity, wisdom never does anything “because it has to,” because it was assigned as homework, or “if it feels like it.”  Wisdom does what is right fully and whole-heartedly every time — all the time.

Then the good fruits of wisdom become an entire harvest of righteousness, and the peace that passes all understanding sows a bountiful reward for those who are blessed by the wisdom from above.  Genuine wisdom makes peace — how could it not?  It is pure, peaceable, gentle, reasonable, merciful, impartial, and sincere.  It does not “keep” the peace, placating tempers and symptoms while ignoring the sin and contention.  Wisdom solves conflict by bringing resolution, often by exposing sin and leading one to repentance and then, ultimately, peace.

How do we know which of the two kinds of wisdom we follow?  Our deeds will show us.  It is that simple.  If we are sowing a harvest of righteousness in peace, if we are pure, gentle, reasonable, merciful, impartial, sincere — we are wise with the wisdom from above.  If we are selfishly ambitious, bitterly jealous of others, always looking down and thinking about the things of this world, we are suffocating in the wisdom of this world, which is, in truth, a demonic distortion of wisdom.

The goal is wisdom, yet it is also the beginning.  I am reminded of the words of a not too-old spiritual, perhaps you may have heard it before.  This version I’m thinking of, though, is not the original, but the occasional live rendition performed years after its initial composition, done by the same artists, perhaps modified to reflect the growth and introspection after several years of performance and life:

You broke the bonds and

You loosed the chains

You carried the cross

You took my shame

You took the pain

You know I believe it

But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.

Just as in the Beatitudes with the kingdom of Heaven being the initial and final reward, just as eternal life is something we can have now and can have in greater fullness in the next life, so, too, is wisdom the beginning as well as the goal.  While it may seem like we are done talking about wisdom and that we are moving on to another topic, we will find throughout this year that the more we talk about courage, justice, moderation, faith, hope, and love, we are really talking about the “good fruits” of wisdom.  It is always what we are looking for, no matter how much we may find it, no matter how well we experience it and live it out.

As a benediction, I will close with one final quotation from Matthew Henry’s insightful commentary on James chapter 3:

May the purity, peace, gentleness, teachableness, and mercy shown in all our actions, and the fruits of righteousness abounding in our lives, prove that God has bestowed upon us this excellent gift [of wisdom].

This essay is adapted from a chapel address given September 28, 2007.