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Study of the Epistle of James
Okay, today we're in James chapter 3. So if you turn there, starting with verse 13 and then we're going through chapter 4 verse 12, but we'll just read verses 13 through 18 today, right now. So James 3, 13 through 18.
Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not and lie not against the truth.
This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.
And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. So first we have that the test of humble wisdom. And so in verse 13, who is wise and understanding among you by his good conduct, let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.
So the word for wise in this verse is sophos, which refers to a teacher. And it seems that James is still speaking to those who would be teachers. And sophos has to do with speculative knowledge, theory, philosophy, that type of thing.
And then the word understanding in this verse is the Greek word for epistet, the Greek word epistemon. And this is the only place this word is used in the New Testament. But it means specialized knowledge, like that of a highly skilled craftsman or tradesman, or professional who's doing work.
And so notice these are at the opposite ends of the spectrum. On the one hand, we have the theoretical type of knowledge. And on the other hand, we have the highly practiced, specialized knowledge of exactly what to do to accomplish something.
And both of these types of knowledge are good and necessary. God wants us to live out these types of wisdom in our lives. And teachers need not just the theoretical knowledge, but they also need to have practical knowledge of how to do things and how to do the right things.
And so God wants us to show our works in meekness of wisdom. The word meekness in this verse has the idea of tenderness and graciousness, as well as power under control. And the word was often used to describe a horse that was broken and made useful.
And so this harks us back to last week, where we were talking about the tongue. And one example that was given by James is that you could put a bit in horse's mouth to control the horse. And in this verse, however, it's not talking about what you say, but what you do.
So last week, we talked about controlling the horses with his mouth. And this week, we're talking about the wisdom of what you do. And it's associated with this word meekness, which means, you know, which has to do with keeping a horse under control.
The verse says, let him show his works. Not only do we need to control our tongue, we need to control what we do. We need to be able to take the theory that we've learned and use it to pull the reins the right way and put it into practice in a skilled way, to do something useful and beautiful for the Lord.
The theory has no value if you don't actually end up doing something. So we're to demonstrate our wisdom of the theoretical and our understanding of specialized knowledge with what we do, in that those things that we do are to be done with the attitude of meekness.
We don't want to use our knowledge to tear others down or to be self-promoting or arrogant. We want to control our use of the power of our knowledge and apply it with a gentle and loving way so that we're tender and gracious in what we do.
We want God's Word and God's Spirit to take the reins and be in control of what we do. And then James gets into describing false wisdom, which of course we don't want to have false wisdom. He describes four and then he also describes four different types of division as we go along.
The first division is between things above and below. So let's look at verses 14 through 16. 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, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exists, there will be disorder in every vile practice. And here we see the motivations of false wisdom.
Motivation is always determined in the heart. So the first motivation we see is bitter jealousy. Here the word bitter refers to a sharp, prickly, or pungent thing, and James had just used this word to describe bitter water coming out of a fountain.
And bitter jealousy is all based on being self-centered. It's their own personal ideas and desires that are the standard by which everything is measured. It's all about what they want, gaining advantage and prestige.
It's all about a zeal for self. It's bitter jealousy. The second motivation we see is selfish ambition, which is the Greek word eretria, which means strife, contentiousness, extreme selfishness. It seems that the bad teachers may have been priding themselves in their partisan defense of the truth.
They were teaching in a way that their own, to their own advantage and advancement. And so we need to avoid arguing with others just for the sake of approving we're right or to inflate our ego. These things are involved in this selfish ambition.
So if you have these kinds of self-centeredness in your heart, trying to gain prestige with a bitter attitude, being contentious with others for selfish reasons, it's certainly not something to boast about.
Those who boast about things like this are not living the truth because none of us have anything to boast about. The word boast means to be arrogant. In the Greek world boasting was thought to be a positive thing, this type of boasting.
Boasting and self-glorying were thought to be good if the person had accomplished something really, really great, such as maybe winning a battle or something. But this type of boasting shouldn't have a place in a Christian's life.
The person that acts like this is dominated by self. There's nothing more characteristic of unredeemed men than to be dominated by self. James is saying that if a person's life is dominated by selfish ambition and bitter jealousy and they claim to be saved, they're living a lie.
They're not saved. And false motivation, false wisdom is motivated by selfishness. Notice also in this verse that the person who boasts is false to the truth. I want to read a quote by James Comey, who used to head up the FBI, and I want you to notice how he acknowledges that he's fearful of someone finding out who he really is.
The more authority the person that he talks to has, the scarier it becomes for him that his lies and imperfections will be exposed. I'll read this quote now. Speaking uphill takes courage. It takes overcoming a universal human affliction, the imposter complex.
All of us labor to one degree or another under the belief that if other people really knew us, if they knew us the way we know ourselves, they would think less of us. That's the imposter complex, the fear that by showing ourselves we will be exposed as a flawed person we are.
Speaking candidly to a peer requires us to risk exposure. Speaking uphill to a leader is scarier. Speaking to the top leader of the organization is scarier still. And in a paramilitary organization of many layers like the FBI, dominated for its first half century by a single person, J. Edgar Hoover, the hill is mighty steep.
And it's harder than that because getting the speakers to overcome their imposter complex is only half the answer. The leaders must also overcome their own imposter complex, their fear of being less than perfect.
And I think he portrays well the wisdom from below that's so prevalent. The need to hide for fear of being found out. You know, it seems reasonable, but it's not the, isn't this the subtle wisdom of the world?
Is he not living a lie? He calls, you know, he acknowledges that he's an imposter, you know, that he has an imposter complex. He relies on himself to maintain the lie of how perfect he is. Doesn't want his faults to be discovered.
And the higher the authority he talks to, the more fearful he becomes of being unmasked. When have you ever seen a high official acknowledge a fault? No, they're always evasive and wanting to appear blameless.
The fear of man bringeth a snare. So contrast this with the person living the truth. The person living the truth goes directly to the highest authority in the universe, confesses his faults, and tells him all his heart.
God is the one they fear because God is the highest authority in their life. A person living the truth really acknowledges how imperfect they are, does not rely on themselves to cover up. God always knows who we, already knows who we are.
He sees what we do. Isn't it a wonder of God's character that he's still graceful to us, though he knows who we really are. So we want to live lives of truth. Let's walk around to the other side of this verse and look at it from the other direction.
So let's read the verse again. James 3 14 and the start of 15. 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.
So if a person who has earthly wisdom is living selfishly and boasting and thus living a lie, what would characterize a person who's living out heavenly wisdom? So the person living heavenly wisdom would be living in selflessness.
They'd be living in humility and truth. Why is a person who lives selflessly in humility a person of truth? Any thoughts on that? Why is a person who lives selflessly in humility a person of truth? Yes, exactly.
They understand who they are before God and they live their life in alignment with that. Who are we in God's sight? We're a sinner saved by grace. I'm unworthy of this grace that's been granted me. I'm a wretch and a worm, but God has adopted me as his child.
I esteem others better than myself. That's the attitude we need to have to live a life of truth. This verse lists three characteristics of false wisdom. So verse 15 there, this is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but it's earthly, unspiritual, and demonic.
First notice that it doesn't come down from above. These characteristics don't come from God. And this type of wisdom, the first characteristic we're looking at is earthly. Earthly means it's limited to the present material world.
It refuses to go beyond what can be seen and touched. It rejects that which is spiritual, that which is inspired, that which is heavenly, has no place for spiritual truth, no place for God. This type of wisdom is motivated by pride, selfish ambition, arrogance, self-centeredness, self-interest, and self-aggrandizement, just all focused on self.
It pervades a lot of our society today, and it's especially evident in those who claim to be experts. And so many areas of our society have rejected God and want nothing to do with him. The second characteristic here of the wisdom that's not from above is that it's unspiritual or natural.
False wisdom is sensual, fleshly, and only relates to unredeemed man. They don't accept the things of the spirit of God because these things are foolishness to them. This type of wisdom feeds off the flesh and is, it's in reality foolishness that thinks it's really wise.
And then finally false wisdom is characterized by James as being demonic. And though this wisdom is earthly and natural, it really has its root in Satan, its source is Satan. Ever since the Garden of Eden, Satan contradicts what the Lord says and offers tempting knowledge.
Appealing to men's selfishness, offers a form of wisdom, and men being deluded think they are wise, but it's really Satan's deception that they've believed. So let's have a look at this from the other side as well.
Let's turn this around and look at it the other direction. So if earthliness, unspiritual, and demonic characterize wisdom that's not from above, what would wisdom from above look like? Let's start with earthly.
How would wisdom from above look the opposite of earthly? Heavenly. Yeah. Good. What does that mean? Yes. It would, yeah. Anybody have thoughts on what that means? Mike? Yeah. True. Good. Any other thoughts?
All right. Dan? Mm-hmm. It goes beyond the present world. Acknowledges God and, yeah. So heavenly wisdom seeks to learn from God in humility. Instead of natural or unspiritual, what would wisdom from above be like instead of natural?
Supernatural, right. It's focused on the Word of God, focused on the Spirit of God, wisdom that relies on God and not self. And then instead of being demonic, what would wisdom from above be? Any other thoughts?
Heavenly. Okay. Glorious. Good. Peaceful. Mm-hmm. Wisdom from above is divine. God is the source of heavenly wisdom, and the person would believe what God told him and disregard the lies of Satan. So verse 16, let's have a look at that.
For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder in every vile practice. So notice the word for that begins this verse. It means that the result of envying and evil strife is to have disorder and evil work.
The word disorder here means instability. It's talking about instability associated with, say, anarchy and political uprisings and that type of thing. I think James was particularly talking about this type of turmoil going on inside the church, and this type of instability is really destructive to the church.
The church is no place for political turmoil or anarchy against leadership. So yeah, that's the wisdom that's from below, and it's especially a problem if it's found within the church. In verse 17, James describes wisdom from above.
But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. So the wisdom from above is God's wisdom that he graciously gives to those who trust in his son.
Wisdom from above is described as pure. It means it's free from contamination. The word pure is hagnos in the Greek. It comes from the root word haggis, which is translated as holy. Pure wisdom is holy wisdom.
And in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. This wisdom from above is described as peaceable. And in the Beatitudes, Jesus said, blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God.
Wisdom from above is gentle. The word epikos in the Greek has no English equivalent. It means equitable, fair, moderate, forbearing, courteous, considerate, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.
The translation I have from a Greek professor uses sweetly reasonable to describe this word. And so this concept is much the opposite of self selfishness, very opposite of selfishness. Wisdom from above is open to reason.
It's willing to yield without dispute. It's teachable, compliant, not stubborn, satisfied with less than it's due. Wisdom from above is full of mercy. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
A believer who is full of mercy forgives those who've wronged him and reaches out to help others in whatever ways needed. Wisdom from above is full of good fruits. This is talking about every sort of good work or deed.
The believer is known for doing good. He's known for producing this fruit of the Spirit. Impartial is another characteristic. It's also translated as unwavering. It means not to be imparted or divided, without uncertainty or indecision, without doubtfulness, impartial.
And then as we continue looking at the characteristics of true wisdom from above, sincere, it means without hypocrisy. Jesus often emphasizes this and he mentions it four times in the Sermon on the Mount.
And he was highly critical of hypocrisy he saw in the Pharisees. So sincerity is a important concept. So all these traits describe a person living in the wisdom produced in believers by the Holy Spirit.
See how greatly they contrast with the wisdom of the world. There's not a hint of selfishness in the wisdom from above. James 3 .18, and a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
The harvest of righteousness occurs when the climate is peaceful and a person is living in godly wisdom. Righteousness does not thrive in a climate of earthly selfishness. You know, what is in our heart?
Are we selfish or are we selfless? The whole world may be churning with turmoil and rioting around you, but God can keep you in perfect peace inside because you have the Prince of Peace in your heart.
Do you make peace in gentleness or do you make the strife of selfish ambition? Do you love peace, live in peace, and try to create peaceful conditions around you? Though it doesn't look possible, a harvest of righteousness will be reaped someday, and a life of peace is strong testimony to those around you.
The lost can see the peace that you sow and will long to have that peace. So that's the test of wisdom, and now we'll look at the test of worldly indulgence. Friendship with the world is hostility towards God.
So we looked at division between above and below, and now we're looking at a different division between God and the world. And we especially see this in verse 4 where it says that the friendship of the world is enmity with God.
Genuine Christian living involves separation from the world. So chapter 4 verse 1, from whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence even of your lusts at war and your members. So what causes quarrels and what causes fights among you?
It's that your passions are at war within you. Quarrels, here this word is talking about a prolonged war. The word fights is talking about a battle. And among you, this means that the fighting was going on between members of churches to whom James was writing.
Some of the quarrels were relatively small, but others were huge and going on more than one location. We can infer that since he mentions both battles and wars. If there's unsafe people in the church, strife is the result.
Quarrels and fights is talking about violent personal relationships that show up visibly external to a person. But notice the next part of the verse, that your passions are at war within you. Though they're lost, their conscience, because they're made in God's image, causes guilt and struggling within.
They have a strong desire to do wrong, but it fights against the noble part of them that's made in God's image. And so they have, it's these internal passions that are what's causing them to quarrel and fight.
Once again, we see what is within flowing out as wrongful actions. Fighting and quarrels are pouring out. It's true, it's true to what's in their heart. It reminds us of the verses we covered last week in James, where it was talking about, it said, from the same mouth come blessing and cursing.
My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening, both fresh and saltwater? And then it goes on to list other fruits that can't be borne by a vine, you know, a certain type of vine.
But notice the great contrast between the contentment of a harvest of righteousness sown in peace by those who make peace. And then the contrast is that the violent yearning and struggling war, they got churning guilt and selfish struggles in the world.
So is there is there contentment and harvest of righteousness sown in peace in your heart? Or is there this, this churning violence and struggling and so on going on in your heart? That's the, that's the test that we're seeing from James.
Then verse two, you desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. When it looks like the chance of obtaining whatever it is that they're lusting after, when it, when that chance of obtaining that thing is threatened or not fulfilled, the worldly person then is likely to lash out in anger and frustration.
They might even try to kill to get what they want. We see this, you know, in the Pharisees. They murdered our Savior who unmasked their hypocrisy. From this verse you get a strong feeling of the the discontentment that's in the world.
And they have strong longings but no fulfillment. And it creates the opposite of peace within them. Verse three, you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions.
Many of these unbelievers don't think about asking God for help. They think they can take care of it themselves. Sometimes if they do ask, they're asking for selfish things just to fulfill their own desires.
And the things that they're asking for aren't in the interest of God's glory or God's honor. And then in verse four he goes on to say, you adulterous people, do you not know that the friendship with the world is enmity with God?
Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. James is referring to spiritual adultery here. And the Jews that James was writing to were very familiar with what this meant because the prophets talked about this at great length.
And those who attach themselves to the church without being saved were guilty of spiritual adultery. The word friend, you know, talks about do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?
This world friend, this word friend is philia in the Greek and has to do with a strong emotional type of love. Those who have an intense deep affection for the evil world system are committing spiritual adultery.
Are there things in the world that you have, are there things in the world that you have a strong emotional attachment to? Or is, are your emotions, is the affection of your heart for the Savior? Are you attached to the world such that there's something that you would not cast aside if God called you to do so?
And then verse five, or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the scripture says he yearns jealously over the spirit that he's made to dwell in us? And translators have a difficult time with this verse.
It's likely that it means don't you know that you're living proof of the truth of the scripture which teaches that the natural man has a spirit of envy. James seems to be saying that unbelievers who are in a permanent permanent state of conflict with God are not only his enemies but also they reflect that they reflect that hostility by not trusting or obeying his word.
The lost refused to acknowledge their enmity and separation from God. The lost yearn jealously over things for which they will kill and fight in war. This verse seems to say that they yearn jealously not just over physical things but over spiritual things as well.
James 4 chapters, or James 4 6, but he gives more grace therefore it says God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Notice the word but. Though the lost are in constant conflict with God though they even refuse to acknowledge him he gives more grace but God does not give grace to the proud.
God opposes the proud and the word opposes here means to be in full battle array. So it's dangerous to be proud. God is ready to go to war against you if you if you're proud. Who are the proud? The word proud means to think that you're above others, to be arrogant.
So God is ready to go to battle against those who are arrogant and think they're better than others. And God gives grace to the humble and it's a gift. For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves.
It is the gift of God. It's a gift to receive God's grace. Isaiah 66 2 second part of the verse says but this is the one to whom I will look. He who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.
And then the next three verses we have Ten Commandments. It's a call to salvation for those who claim to be saved but are not. In verse 8 we see the call to cleanse your hands you sinners. Christians are never addressed as you sinners in the Bible so we know that James is addressing those who are living in all this worldly conflict.
And if you've been living a lie there's hope. James holds out hope here for you. James gives the path for you to come to God and you can live in truth. This is the path to go from living a lie of turmoil of the world and the path to the to a harvest of righteousness and a sown in peace.
So we don't have a lot of time so I'm gonna run through these very quickly. These ten things are not a list of things to check off and be saved. They're you know these are not things to do to be saved but they're they're ailments that God requires in response to his sovereignty.
His call, gracious call to salvation. So verse 7, submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you double-minded.
Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. So first we see the call to submit yourselves to God. The word therefore refers back to what came before this.
So in view of the fact that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble, you should submit to God. We cannot be saved if God is fighting against us. We desperately need his grace. Acknowledge that he's above you.
The person who had had been selfish and had and was self-directed needs to drop their own attempts to have their own selfish authority. They need to come under God's authority. And then he calls us calls to resist the devil and obviously if you're gonna be on God's side you need to decide you're gonna change sides.
So resist the devil and then when confirmed with the gospel the devil releases his hold on you and flees. And then we have the call to draw near to God and he'll draw near to you. Salvation brings a desire for a true relationship with God and when we seek God he draws near to us as well.
Cleanse your hands you sinners. It is not in any person's power to cleanse himself spiritually. In Romans 5 8 it says God demonstrated his love for us and that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.
The call to cleanse your hands is a call to turn from outward sins of the hands doing things. Cleanse your hands you sinners. And then it says in purifier your hearts you double-minded. This is a parallel call.
First he calls them you sinners and then he calls them you double-minded. It's parallel parallelism in language and first he calls them to clean up what they're doing with their hands and then he calls on them to purify their thoughts, purify the attitudes of the inward man.
The unbeliever is to turn from both outward sin and from inward sin. And then the description of double-minded is referring to a hypocrite, someone who claims to believe one thing but actually does something else.
He says be wretched. This word means to be broken, to feel miserable. It's the feeling expressed by the tax collector who is unable to lift up his eyes to heaven but was beating on his breast saying be merciful to me a sinner.
This misery has to do with the brokenness over one's sin, the violation of God's law and the fear of judgment. Then he calls on them to mourn. The sinners to mourn over his sin with deep grief and remorse.
The one person who loved us the most died because of our sin. There's no excuses. We've offended God and we've cost him the life of his son whom he loved. There's nothing more emotionally difficult than losing a son.
Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. We no longer have the flippant laughter of the world but weep for what our sins have done. In the Beatitudes Jesus said blessed are you who weep now for you shall laugh.
And then it says humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you. Humble means to make low. James wants us to make ourselves low in a genuine realization of complete unworthiness and complete you know understand that we're lost.
The better we understand who God is the better we understand how sinful and depraved we are and why we should be humble. In the next verse James shifts gears and starts talking about how Christians should behave towards other Christians and we're gonna wrap it up there.
That's it. Let's pray. Father thank you for challenging us with this word this.
Morning. Very practical, very practical material that James has written to us and I pray that you would deliver us from the wisdom of the world that's all around us and the propaganda of the world that bombards us and we're thankful for your spirit within and we're thankful for the wisdom from above that counters all of that and I pray that we would have eyes to see what's going on around us because of our eyes being opened by your grace and your spirits working within us.
So bless all of this to our hearts we pray in Jesus name. Amen.