Wisdom True and False
Two essential qualities
When speaking to those "among you" (v. 13), James means "among my brethren" (Jas. 3:12), including all who claim to be followers of Christ. Continuing a theme that appears early in chapter one, he again exhorts them to seek wisdom. What is wisdom? As he uses the term, it is the kind of knowledge that enables good moral judgment. We all need it, but we all face the same barrier to attaining it. The barrier is, we think we are wise already (Prov. 21:2). We all without exception attach a great deal of weight to our own opinions and a great deal of doubt to everyone else’s. But as we will see here in James 3, there is a true wisdom and a false wisdom. Before you boast in your wisdom, you had better test what kind it is.
At the outset of discussing true wisdom, James gives its two essential qualities (v. 13). First, it is productive of "good conversation" full of "works." Back when the KJV was translated, the word conversation had a very different meaning than it has today. Today it means "talk," but then it referred to a man’s way of conducting himself in society.1 For "conversation" we could substitute "manner of life" and come much closer to what James intends. He is saying that anyone observing the life of a wise man will see nothing but goodness, especially in the form of good deeds. Yes, the man will use good words, tending to instruct, comfort, and encourage, but even more he will make the effort to help others, though it requires a sacrifice of time and energy. For the sake of assisting the poor or God’s work, he will be willing to part with money he had intended to use for pleasing himself. He will be willing to break out of his own routines and give time to visiting the needy. Indeed, he will be willing to roll up his sleeves and undertake whatever useful work needs to be done. Thus, James is returning here to one of his major themes—that to qualify as a good person does not depend just on what you say. It also depends on what you do.
Paul serves as our example. After his ship wrecked on the Island of Malta, he was willing to join others in gathering sticks for the fire (Acts 28:3). This leader of gentile Christianity was not too important to get his hands dirty.
The second essential quality of true wisdom is meekness. The wisdom that is earthly, sensual, and devilish (v. 15) consists of knowledge that puffs up a man, making him prideful. It is therefore an incomplete knowledge, because it lacks a realistic knowledge of self. A man really knows nothing if he thinks he is something. True wisdom begins in the heart with an understanding that self is nothing before God. If a man wishes to be wise, he must accept that he is a wretched sinner, unworthy to receive any of the good things that God has created. Instead, he deserves only to suffer God’s wrath in an eternal hell. This kind of self-knowledge yields a healthy fear of God, which is the foundation of true wisdom (Prov. 9:10).
Because true wisdom is meek, it is not pushy. It is not always seeking to expose the stupidity of others (Prov. 12:23; 17:27–28; 29:11). Of course, to teach is not being pushy if we have a responsibility to teach. Nor is it ever inappropriate to answer questions or furnish information in reply to someone who is seeking truth. But we do not try to force our wisdom on others. What did Jesus do? When challenged by His enemies, He frequently chose to evade the question rather than get into an unprofitable dispute, or he even chose to keep silent (Matt. 21:23–27).
False wisdom
Now turning to discuss false wisdom, James says that it creates "bitter envying and strife," both deeply rooted in the heart (v. 14). From the context, we understand that he is looking especially at relationships within a church. The word "envying" suggests a pronounced resentment toward others, giving rise to hard words or even to a prolonged war. The word "strife" is similar, although it focuses more on methods than on feelings. It refers to political in-fighting that uses unscrupulous methods to gain an advantage. Both envying and strife arise when someone takes such pride in his own opinions that he is willing to assert them at the expense of hurting others. He insists that he is right, paints anyone who disagrees as an enemy, attacks all enemies not only with harsh words but also with maneuverings to make them look bad, and finally tears apart the body of Christ.
James warns against two evil results in particular: glorying and lying against the truth. The first, glorying, refers to embracing and promoting a party line that is actually a distortion or violation of the truth. The second, lying, speaks of forsaking the truth deliberately, just for the sake of prevailing over others. Both are serious sins because they are the hallmark of God’s chief enemy, Satan. Not only is he the father of lies (John 8:44), but also, like these church members that James is rebuking, he especially gravitates to lies that make him look good.
The Satanic source
Next, James makes explicit the Satanic character of false wisdom (v. 15). It comes not from above. Thus, it is unlike all the good gifts descending from our generous heavenly Father (Jas 1:17), among them true wisdom (Jas. 1:5). Rather, false wisdom comes from three sources that James characterizes as "earthly, sensual, devilish." His wording is the Biblical foundation of an idea familiar to Christians down through history—the idea summarizing the sources of evil as three in number: the world, the flesh, and the devil.
But notice that James’s wording is more precise. He tells us exactly what is dangerous in the world. It is anything earthly as opposed to heavenly. In other words, it is anything in the world that comes not from the benevolent hand of the Creator above, but from the polluting touch of Satan below. James also tells us exactly what is dangerous in the flesh. It is the sensual appetites that, in their relentless drive to gain satisfaction, overmaster good moral judgment. These appetites include all the desires of body, soul, and spirit that can lead us to disregard the law of God. Finally, James expands upon the threat coming from the devil. It is not the devil alone who endangers the soul. It is also his host of fellow rebels against God, the army of demons under his control, for the word "devilish" could be translated "demonic."2
Fractured churches
The fruit of false wisdom is nothing good, either for the man who has it or for the life of the church (v. 16). It produces "envying" and "strife," the exact same manifestations of false wisdom given in verse 14, and from these come "confusion and every evil work." "Confusion" suggests the sorry fate of all efforts to continue God’s work in an atmosphere of strife. Bickering and feuding waste everyone’s energy and derail all attempts to win the lost and edify the saints. United effort guided by the leaders dissolves into factions with self-seeking agendas. The church as a whole suffers a loss of laborers for every good cause, as well as a decline in both attendance and giving. A spirit of brother helping brother gives way to nasty indifference. The last result is "every evil work." James may be thinking of what generally happens in the last stages of conflict among members of a local church. All who belong to a combative group go on the attack mode, seeking to take control and force out their adversaries.
From this kind of fighting comes one of two results, both of which I have seen in my experience. The contentious brethren may win. In such a church, torn apart by warring factions and reduced to a remnant who managed to squeeze out everybody else, there is no testimony of God's love and thus no meaningful work of the gospel. The church is dead.
The other result is when the fractious brethren abandon the church, leaving it under the control of the true saints who had war thrust upon them when they desired peace. In such a church, gospel ministry survives, although on a reduced scale through loss of people and financial support. The second result is preferable to the first, but both represent a triumph for evil forces seeking to oppose God’s work.
A church’s top priority must be to stop any conflict before it gets started. Disagreements and misunderstandings and personal slights must be handled immediately in a Biblical fashion, lest they fester below the surface and finally erupt in damaging conflict.
Self-Test
2. Am I too assertive with my own opinions?
You need not always keep them to yourself. It is not out of place to share them in pleasant conversation with friends and family. But do you foist them on people who would rather not hear them? Or even when speaking to a sympathetic audience, do you sometimes keep pushing your opinions to the point of needless argument?
Nothing we are presenting here should be construed as an objection to legitimate preaching, teaching, or witnessing. Still, in witnessing to the lost, you must seek divine wisdom on how much to say. If you encounter hostility, the best course is to back down and go away. Jesus strongly counseled us never to cast our pearls before swine, lest they become enraged and attack us (Matt. 7:6). To unnecessarily put ourselves at risk of persecution serves no good purpose.
When people write to my website just to argue with me, I usually do not reply. Thoughtful critiques seeking truth or comments intended to help me make improvments are one thing. Rigid opposition to a truly Biblical perspective is another, and I feel that life is too short to spend it debating issues with people who are firmly entrenched in such thinking. In matters of philosophy or religion, the only people worth engaging in discussion are those truly willing to learn something new.
How can you tell whether this willingness lies in a person’s heart? You must be careful not to confuse a willingness to learn with a willingness to talk. Many talkative people, eager to fill your ears with a stream of words, have self-seeking motives. When you knock on doors while canvassing a neighborhood, you can expect a variety of outcomes. Most who answer will be unfriendly or indifferent to the gospel. Yet even among these, some will see you as a good target for their pent-up feelings. Two cases are most common.
- A person full of self-pity arising from failure or tragedy may pour out his feelings upon you in the hope that you will show concern, perhaps even love. But he does not really want any feedback suggesting that he needs to make changes in his lifestyle. He views the gospel as irrelevant or even as offensive. The best course in dealing with someone who only wants emotional support is indeed to show concern and love, but at the same time to insist that all solutions to life’s problems lie in submission to God’s will. You should state the gospel, describe Jesus as the great problem solver, and then, if the person seems deaf to the gospel, graciously terminate the conversation.
- Not infrequently in witnessing, you will meet someone with a grudge against God because of adversities he has suffered, or against religion because of the hypocrisy of some people professing to be religious, or against Bible believers because he sees them as barriers to social progress. He may not be overtly hostile. On the contrary, he may view the witnessing believer as someone he can recruit to his side. Never enter into discussion with such a person. Cut off the conversation as quickly as possible. Why? By attacking God and the work of God he is committing sin. You dare not encourage him to continue. It is best both for his protection and yours—his from sin and yours from the temptation to doubt God—to disengage yourself from all his ranting. Unless the Holy Spirit clearly leads you to give a response challenging his unbelief, go away nicely, but go away. Of course, you may give him a tract or other Christian literature. Also, you may leave information about your church or about websites that present a Christian worldview. At a later moment in his life, he may find this information very helpful.
3. If I find myself in disagreement with another person, do I make false or exaggerated statements to enhance my position? Or am I scrupulously truthful?
For someone locked in a heated exchange, the goal quickly shifts from defending truth to becoming the winner, and the easiest way to win may be by taking shortcuts bypassing truth. Remember, though, that to win an argument is one thing; to be right is another. In many arguments I have heard over the years, both sides have been dead wrong. The winner achieved nothing except to plague the world with more nonsense.
4. When I win a disagreement, does it make me feel good, even if the other person feels bad?
If you are controlled by love, you will find arguing very unpleasant, and you will avoid it. But often we cannot avoid disagreements. To proceed correctly in some task may require a choice among different opinions. But the right atmosphere for making the choice should be friendly discussion, and afterward, if your opinion prevails, you should not feel smug like a victor, but you should hurry to show respect for everyone else involved in the decision-making process and to soothe the feelings of anyone who might feel set aside like a loser.
5. Do I ever support those responsible for factional debates within the church?
There is a place for defending the fundamental truths of our faith. But most of the strife within churches boils down to competition for power. Strife is usually a sign that the motivation governing interaction between the brethren is not love, but selfish ambition.
1. What proportion of my godliness consists of deeds rather than words?
You should speak words honoring to the Lord, but if you truly wish to honor Him, you should also make sacrifices of time and money to help others.