In the Meekness of Wisdom

[Christsfreeservant]

“Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the 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, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, 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.” (James 3:13-18 ESV)​

There are two kinds of wisdom being spoken of here. One is the wisdom that is earthly, unspiritual and demonic. And the other is godly, pure, peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial, and sincere. But I can’t help but see a third kind of wisdom that is good, but not godly, for even non-Christians can make wise choices and good decisions which are not necessarily directly from God but are not of the devil. And some non-Christians make wiser decisions than do some who profess faith in Jesus.

But here the subject matter is godly wisdom versus worldly and ungodly wisdom which we might argue is not wisdom at all, but is unwise. For it is not wise to have selfish ambition which thinks only of self and of “what’s in it for me?” It is not wise to have bitter jealousy against others who may have done things we could not do but we wished we could have done. For it is not their fault if they have certain gifts or talents or possessions that we do not have. And we should not be those who covet what others have, either.

So, as those who profess faith in Jesus Christ we are to be those who put into practice the kind of wisdom that comes from God, not of the flesh nor of the world. And in doing so, one of the things we need to be careful about is not making judgments about others who are different from us, judging them by our own selves. For God didn’t make us all the same. He didn’t gift us all the same. We should all be living godly and holy lives, but we must be careful that we don’t assume that everyone else operates like we do.

And let me give you an example of that from my own life. Back in the early 1980’s, when I was much younger, the church gathering I attended had Wednesday evening Bible study and prayer time. This was a mixed group, and men and women alike could participate in the discussion. Questions were asked in the group, and when called upon, we could answer the questions according to what we understood to be what the passage of Scripture was teaching. And sometimes I participated in those discussions.

But later on I was accused by the elders of the church of having this ungodly wisdom and that I needed to repent of it. And it had nothing to do with the content of what I was sharing, but it had to do with my hunger and desire to serve the Lord Jesus with my life. That was odd to them, and so they assumed I wanted to serve the Lord “to be seen of men,” just because that was their motivation. I guess they had never met anyone who wanted to serve the Lord out of a pure heart out of a love response to the Lord Jesus.

So, why am I sharing this? Well, for one, this is one case where this passage of Scripture was being used out of context to accuse a follower of Christ of something she did not do and based upon their own personal prejudices. So, in reality, they were being the ones who were unwise in their dealings with me, for they didn’t even inquire of me as to my passion for the Lord, but they just presumed that I was just like them. And they were not exercising godly wisdom at all, for they were judging me by their own selves.

So, if we are going to exercise godly wisdom then we need to make sure that the wisdom we think we have is based in God and in his word and not in our own fleshly way of thinking and reasoning and via personal prejudices. For that is ungodly wisdom, which is not wise. And I am not claiming that we are always going to get this perfectly, for we are all clay in the Potter’s hands being molded into his likeness, so we are all works in progress. But we should do our best to make sure our wisdom is that which comes from God.

So, who is wise and understanding among us? Let us, by our good conduct, show our works in the meekness of wisdom. And how do we do that? We do that by following the leading of the Lord in our lives, by doing what he says to do, by going where he sends us, and by saying what he gives us to say, regardless of how we are treated in return. Following the Lord and doing what he says are more important to us than being liked and well received by other humans, because he will have us speaking the truth of his word.

And if we are speaking the truth, and not the lies which many are speaking today, we are not going to be well-liked and well-received by the majority. And if we are living morally pure lives for the glory and praise of God, and if we are not blending in with the culture, and if we are not compromising our faith and practice in order to “fit in” with the world, then we are not going to fit in with those who are worldly in their practices. And we will be judged falsely and misunderstood because we are different from the world.

But that is what it means to be holy, to be separate (unlike, different) from the world because we are being conformed by God to the likeness of character of Jesus Christ, which is where we all should be. For God has called all of us to be holy as he is holy. And we are all called out of the world and to no longer be conformed to the patterns of this sinful world. So it should not surprise us if we are misjudged and rejected because we are being led by the Spirit and not by the flesh. This does not make us perfect, though, but we should all be walking in obedience to our Lord, not in sin.

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 2:6-8; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-21; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:5-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10]

Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer

Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897
Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897

Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,
This is my constant longing and prayer;
Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,
Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,
Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,
Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,
Seeking the wandering sinner to find.

O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,
Holy and harmless, patient and brave;
Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,
Willing to suffer others to save.

O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,
Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;
Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,
Fit me for life and Heaven above.

Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,
Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;
Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

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