The Wisdom From Heaven (Part 1 of 2)

The Bible makes it clear that true wisdom isn't a product of an advanced education or some kind of super intelligence. So what is it that defines wisdom and how do we recognize it? Today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg details the practical attributes of God-given wisdom. Verse 18, because it's here that we find ourselves in our ongoing series of expositions in the book of James. Now, James chapter 3 and verse 13. Who is wise and understanding among you?

Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual of the devil.

For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure, then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere—peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness. Father, we ask for your help in studying the Bible so that our thinking and our speaking and our hearing and our obeying may be prompted by your Spirit, and that you will free us from every distracting influence and help us so that we might be drawn afresh to your Son, the Lord Jesus, in whose name we pray.

Amen. Well, if you're using an NIV, then you will be helped by the little heading before verse 13, whereby we're told that James is about to introduce his readers to two different kinds of wisdom. The wisdom that he says is false, which is earthly and unspiritual, is just godless, and that wisdom is marked by envy and by selfish ambition, and it in turn goes on to produce disorder and all kinds of evil. We have not yet come to a consideration of such wisdom, instead beginning with the wisdom which is true wisdom—the wisdom that comes down from heaven. And last time, if you were present, you will remember that we set out to establish the source of this wisdom or to discover it, and we found that it is, in verse 17a, the wisdom that comes from heaven or from God. We saw that James had already introduced the subject back in chapter 1, and anyone who was lacking wisdom should simply ask God.

It's the only place to go, because he is the source of all true wisdom. We then said we would look at the nature of this wisdom and then, finally, at the evidence for the wisdom. During the week, as I studied some more, I decided that we would hang our thoughts this morning not on nature and evidence but simply gather them around these two headings, which I think are perhaps more straightforward. We will consider true wisdom defined and then true wisdom displayed. We will discover it as it is described and given definition, and then we will end by looking at the way in which this wisdom finds itself on display.

So, if you have a Bible in front of you, you have the text before you, and you can see what we're doing. The definition of true wisdom is provided for us, not in exhaustive terms here but selectively so. And we have to remind ourselves, in doing this, that, as we've said before, James is a very Old Testament book.

It's a kind of proverbial book. And James, thinking in Old Testament frameworks, is describing wisdom not in terms of intelligence or in terms of logic but rather in practical or moral or ethical terms. And all of that morality and practice and spiritual truth is based, as we saw last time, on a knowledge of God himself. If we get that wrong and we begin to think simply in theoretical terms or in abstract terms, then we will immediately go wrong in our study. And there is, of course, a great importance to intelligence and to logic.

The Bible does not, again, say that at all. And when you read concerning these things, you come across all kinds of interesting illustrations of the same. And one I thought I'd share with you, because I just can't resist having discovered it this week, as I was considering the nature of the distinction between wisdom and logic and intelligence and so on. And I came across this missive or directive from the British Admiralty at the time of the Second World War, and they posted this for those who were under their command in relationship to the storage of warheads. And this is what was posted for the soldiers.

It is necessary for technical reasons that these warheads should be stored with the top at the bottom and the bottom at the top in order that there may be no doubt as to which is the top and which is the bottom for storage purposes, it will be seen that the bottom of each warhead has been labeled with the word top. I've never been in the military, but they tell me that that is fairly representative of military logic. Well, that's not what we're dealing with here. It's something far more significant than that. Nor is it, incidentally, an approach to wisdom, which is a desire for the Buddhists' attempt at personal equilibrium. No, it is none of the above, but it is that endowment of heart and mind which comes from God, given to his children in Jesus, all that is necessary for the conducting of our lives in a way that is true and right and obviously so. James, along with Solomon in Proverbs, seems pretty keen to make sure that we as readers understand that this wisdom is dressed, if you like, in working clothes—that it is a wisdom which is not in the academy, it's not in the library, in some stuffy section with large tomes, but it is a wisdom which is worked out in individual relationships and in the ebb and flow of everyday life. And we do well to keep in mind the well-known verse in Proverbs 10, 10, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

And we won't go back over territory from last time. Let's move directly to look at verse 17 and to the way in which James defines this for us. The wisdom that comes down from heaven is first of all pure. In other words, right at the head of the list, says James, is this question of wisdom's purity. Phillips actually paraphrases it, it is utterly pure.

It is without any kind of flaw at all. And of course, why would we be surprised that this comes first of all since we've already considered its source? For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. So the notion of purity here would be understand by the metallurgist or the chemist or anybody actually having a drink of water. There is all the difference between having a glass of water that is absolutely clear and clean to all intents and purposes, and one that one might pick up that has all kinds of residue floating in it. And we would be tempted to say, No, I would rather have the one that's just the straightforward, clean, unpolluted, uncontaminated water.

I don't want the one with the residue. That's the word that is being used here for wisdom. This wisdom that comes from heaven is uncontaminated by the elements he's already mentioned in verses 14, 15, and 16. You will not find wisdom cozying up to envy and to selfish ambition. You will not find wisdom finding its expression in all kinds of disorder and evil practice.

Why? Because this wisdom is utterly pure. He then goes on, in some senses, to employ adjectives which unpack the nature of pure wisdom. You could say almost that all of these following adjectives explain what he means by the wisdom that is, first of all, pure.

And so we'll look at them in turn, and hopefully in a way that isn't tedious, but I want just to walk down the list along with you, noting them in turn. The wisdom that comes down from heaven is first of all pure, then peaceable. In other words, it is the opposite of contentious. A contentious spirit sits quite happily on the bus next to envy and selfish ambition. But wisdom is not going to sit on the bus with these characters, because wisdom is peaceable. The peaceable nature that is described here is not some kind of acquiescent approach to life which simply says anything for a happy life, but it is rather the wisdom that comes from God, whereby those who are embodying this wisdom become the promoters of peace. When you spend time with them, they are not seeking to be disruptive and argumentative, but they're looking for ways to make things cohere, to make people come together, to enjoy the company of one another as it is possible under God. Because after all, God is introduced to us in the Bible as the God of peace on numerous occasions. Therefore, it stands to reason that God's children would themselves be peace-loving people. Thirdly, that we are to be marked, or wisdom is marked, by consideration.

Consider it. And once again, you see that it is only in relationships that we can test this, whether it is true of our lives. It's quite possible to be considerate as long as you're not spending time with anyone. I suppose you could be inconsiderate in relationship to yourself, but that would be over the top, or it'd be hard to be inconsiderate in a telephone kiosk if such things exist anymore. But it is once you're out in the mainstream of life and dealing with people, not least of all in a local church, that you find out just how considerate you are. And wisdom is considerate.

In other words, it is the description of somebody who is fair and who is generous in their dealings—the kind of individual who doesn't insist always on the fulfillment of the letter of the law but rather recognizes that the spirit of the law is comprehensive and gives people the benefit of the doubt. It is, in essence, the absence or the opposite of quarrelsome. Quarrelsome. Wisdom is not quarrelsome. Wisdom is considerate. Fourthly, wisdom is also submissive.

Submissive. Adams, in one of the commentators, translates this word from Greek, yielding to persuasion. Wisdom yields to persuasion. That doesn't mean that wisdom folds over every time there is an opinion expressed and agrees with everything. No, the picture is much more that of the yielding of a wise son to the instruction of his father or the yielding of a private to his sergeant or to her sergeant. Within the framework of military command, within the order of family life, the wise individual is submissive—in other words, is willing to listen and willing to be persuaded by what is good and what is best.

It is a wonderful characteristic, isn't it? When I was an assistant in Edinburgh all these years ago now, in the mid-'70s, and I would be picked up to go to various meetings at the church by the one who was my boss and my mentor, Derek Prime, I would seize every opportunity on the drive there and on the drive home to ply him with questions and to find out as much as I could, not simply about what was happening but why he approached things in certain ways. And I remember on one occasion, as we were going to a meeting that was going to be marked by a fairly significant discussion where there were divergent views, he said to me, It is very, very important, Alistair, that you understand the distinction between going to a meeting knowing your own mind and going into a meeting with your mind made up. And if you think about that, that is good. Because if our mind is made up, then when others express a view different to our own, we will refuse to be persuaded by it.

We have already made up our minds. But if we know our minds but have not made them up, and someone expresses wisdom and clarity and outlines an approach to things which may be parallel or even largely different to the way in which we've conceived of something, then if we are of a submissive perspective, we will be prepared to yield to them. To yield to them. I think it's in Congress that they use that phraseology, I yield to the honorable member from Ohio. Usually there's nobody there to yield to.

I've seen it on C-SPAN. They're just talking to themselves. But nevertheless, at least the posture is right. I'm not going to hold the floor, and I'm not going to hang onto everything.

I'm going to yield. Of course, don't get carried away with the principle and apply it inaccurately, because a truth that is pressed in the wrong direction very quickly becomes error. Clearly, James would not be approaching every issue with such a deferential dimension. He is very, very clear when he needs to be clear. For example, if you just allow your eyes to look at chapter 4 of chapter 4, you can see that when it comes to matters that are foundational of theological and moral principle, that he would not be considering submissive as yielding on these things.

So he's not Johnny Milktoast. He's very clear. You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred towards God? You need to know that anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. That doesn't sound very submissive. What about people who don't believe that?

James says, I don't care whether they believe it or not. That is what is. That's very important. Also, and fifthly, wisdom is full of mercy. Full of mercy. Mercy, of course, is one of God's essential qualities. If grace, put simply, is that aspect of God's character whereby he gives to us what we don't deserve, mercy is that dimension of God whereby he does not give to us what we do deserve. So, for example, classically, in Lamentations 3, it is because of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed.

They are new every morning. He remains a faithful God. And therefore it also follows that when we have been made by new birth—James 1.18—have been brought to faith in Jesus through the Word of truth, that in becoming a kind of firstfruits, that we would be marked by this mercy also. The mercy of God is an all-embracing mercy. It is a mercy without respect of persons. Indeed, it is then a mercy which cuts across the barriers and boundaries that people are frequently desirous of erecting. You remember this in Jesus dealing with the experts and teachers of the law, with the Pharisees—how in the mind of many of these people, they wanted to know who their neighbors were so that they could be merciful to the ones that were described in those terms, and then that they wouldn't need to be merciful to all of the other ones. You say to yourself, well, that is a strange approach to things.

Well, not as strange as you might think if you think for a moment or two. We may be the kind of people who are tempted to show mercy just to the people that fit our bill or fit the framework of what we regard as acceptable behavior. But the mercy of God is an all-embracing mercy, and it breaks down the barriers that man erects. It's classically reported for us in the parable that Jesus told after one of the teachers of the law came to him and said, You are a wise man. What must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said, Well, you know what's written in the law.

How do you read it? And he said, Well, I know that in the law it says you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And Jesus said, That's entirely correct. You've answered rightly.

Then just go ahead and do this, and you will live. The man should have split at that point, but he didn't. And Luke tells us that the man seeking to justify himself asked Jesus to define neighbor. I wanted to know who my neighbor is.

Well, let me tell you a story. He says, There was this fellow, and he came down the road, and he buzzed off, and another one came down, and he did too. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. So he went to him and bandaged his wounds and poured in oil and wine and set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And on the next day when he departed, he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, Take care of him, and if you spend any more than this, when I come back I will repay you. So which of these three do you think was the neighbor to him who fell among thieves? See what Jesus does? Turns the tables on this chap. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and your neighbor as yourself.

Yeah. Who's my neighbor? Don't worry about who your neighbor is.

Answer this question. Who was the neighbor to the man who was in the predicament? And the lawyer is forced to answer. He who showed mercy to him. Then Jesus said to him, Go and do likewise. Incidentally, and in passing, I'm so thankful for my elementary school education in Glasgow, Scotland, in a secular school with a teacher who made us memorize the Bible before we began the lessons of our day.

And the reason that I was quoting this from the King James Version is because I remember it from the age of ten in elementary school in Scotland. The certain men went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves who stripped him of his raiment and departed, leaving him half dead. Who will show mercy to the half dead of twenty-first century Cleveland culture? Who will show mercy to the battered and the beaten? The merciful. My unwillingness to display mercy to those outside my circle of reference is unavoidably a representation of my own stony heart's inability to grasp the vastness of God's mercy towards me. It is when I am reminded constantly of what I deserve before God and what he has chosen to do in Jesus that I then realize what a wonderful thing mercy is. You're listening to Alistair Begg on Truth for Life and I love the way that Alistair talked about wisdom dressed in working clothes today. It is wisdom that is pure, peaceable, considerate, submissive, and full of mercy. You're listening to Truth for Life.

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Our zip code is 44139. By the way, Seven Reasons to Reconsider Christianity is a great book to give to someone who has not yet put his or her faith in Jesus, particularly those who may be becoming more curious about Christianity. If you request the book along with your donation and you'd like to purchase extra copies, you'll find them in our online store. They are available for purchase at our cost while supplies last. Visit truthforlife.org slash store. I'm Bob Lapine. We hope you enjoy your weekend and that you're able to worship in your local church this weekend and a church where the Bible is central to all that is done. And now that we've learned how to define true wisdom, we hope you'll join us Monday where we'll hear how to display that kind of wisdom. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.