“Such ‘Wisdom’”

When we call someone wise that's generally considered a compliment, a sign of respect. So why did the Apostle James teach that earthly wisdom is evil and results in confusion? Today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg examines the radical difference between heavenly wisdom and earthly wisdom. We're in the third chapter of the book of James, verses 14–16. James is concerned that people will not jump up too quickly and announce themselves as fitting the category of the wise and the understanding.

And it is of imperative importance that the individual that thinks they may qualify for the task of wearing the baseball hat with wisdom on the front should check to make sure that they are not falling foul of things in the area of bitter envy, verse 14, and selfish ambition. It's a very straightforward statement. If you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, then do not, whatever you do, go around boasting that you are wise.

It's very straightforward. Now, it is important to recognize that what James is describing here is something that is radically different from the wisdom that comes down from heaven. In chapter 1, remember, he said that if anyone lacked wisdom, he should ask God, and God would give it to him.

He's a faithful God, and he doesn't change like shifting shadows. And the wisdom that comes from heaven is directly in opposition to that which comes from the earth. Now, it is with this wisdom—and if you have the NIV, you will notice that the translators have put the word wisdom, the second word in the sentence there in verse 15, they've put it in quotes—"Such wisdom does not come down from heaven." This wisdom that refers to itself as wisdom, but which in actual fact is no wisdom at all.

What do we know of it? First of all, concerning its source, he tells us three things. Number one, it is earthly. Number two, it is unspiritual. And number three, it is of the devil.

We'll consider each in turn and briefly. In other words, this wisdom is in direct opposition to the wisdom that comes from heaven. There is a clarity about this that comes out where you find earthly and heavenly used elsewhere in the New Testament—perhaps nowhere clearer than in 2 Corinthians 5, where Paul, in addressing the question of the death of believers, says, If the earthly tent we live in be destroyed, we have a building from God not made with hands, we have a heavenly dwelling. So our earthly dwelling, our body, our frame, the shell of our existence, is from the dust and will return to dust. It is earthly. That which God has prepared for us is heavenly and will not be affected by all the detrimental impact of time and space and gravity and so on. In other words, they are radically different from each other.

Now, it's important that you recognize that it is that same radical difference which is being pointed out here by James's use of these adjectives. This kind of wisdom, he says, finds its origins on the earth rather than in heaven. It is earthbound, it is timebound, and all of the aspirations of earthly wisdom are measured by achievement in the here and now. And even our consideration of spiritual and eternal things from an earthbound perspective skews our understanding of truth as it is revealed to us. In other words, if you use earthly wisdom to think about heavenly wisdom, one's view of heavenly wisdom will be skewed because of the absence of the wisdom necessary to understand the things of God. We are entirely dependent upon God to come and pull back the curtain and reveal himself to us. Secondly, it is unspiritual.

The Greek word is psychikos, from which we get psychology, as it turns out, although we don't want to read too much into that. It just so happens that that is the Word. In other words, this is the kind of thinking that is devoid of the work of God's Spirit. It's devoid of the work of God's Spirit. You don't need to think in terms of God or divinity to give expression to these ideas. It is wisdom which exists on a purely material plane.

Instead of addressing the issues of the soul as of primary importance, it encourages a preoccupation with the body and its pleasures. It's not concerned about spiritual things. And even its expression of spirituality is clearly earthbound when it is not finding its origin in heaven. In an article in The New York Times about a lady, a self-styled prophetess, on a page which goes on to page A20, in describing many things in this, it describes this lady as a powerful trailblazer, and a sociologist at Tulane University, who closely follows what has become known as the neo-Pentecostal movement, says the key to this is that it emphasizes self-improvement and prosperity. Self-improvement and prosperity.

It's completely earthbound. You don't need spiritual things. Because the wisdom of God is what? To those who are perishing.

Foolishness. 1 Corinthians 2. God's wisdom, the natural man says, is tommy rot. And the natural man—1 Corinthians 2.14—does not receive the things of the Spirit because they're foolishness to him. So when you have thirty-five thousand people listening to self-help stories with self-improvement notions, with a sprinkling of Bible verses, you have to be discerning enough to say, either this is a magnificent movement of revival by the Spirit of God, or else it is, what I may suspect, simply that men and women whose hearts fail them because of fear like to be encouraged, like to be told they're doing okay, and definitely want to improve themselves, and so on, and they're prepared to go to just about any length at all in order to be so improved. That is not heavenly wisdom. What kind of self-improvement story would the thief on the cross have benefited from? Well, I think I can improve your circumstances for you.

I don't need my circumstances improved. I'm about to die. I need a Savior for my sin. Earthly, unspiritual, devilish.

Gets worse. James doesn't pull any punches. This worldly wisdom, he says, is ultimately rooted in the spiritual forces of evil. He said in verse 6, back early up in chapter 3, that the tongue is set on fire by hell. In verse 7 of chapter 4, he's going to come to the whole issue of the devil and resisting the devil.

The god of this age, says Paul, is the god who blinds the minds of men and women. And the only safeguard against the blinding of our minds by the evil one, who blinds us and says, you know, you should succumb to temptation, it will be so enjoyable, and nothing will happen to you at all—how are we going to respond to that? You should engage in this. It's really not a problem.

You should enjoy this. It won't offend you or do anything bad to you. How do we respond to that?

The only way we can respond is the way that Jesus responded to the same kind of insinuations, and that is by taking the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, which is the clarifying, uncompromised truth of Scripture. Well, that's the source. Let's go to the characteristics, as described in verse 16a. Where you have what? Number one, envy. Where you have envy. This is the same word that is translated elsewhere in the New Testament as jealousy. And it's often difficult to distinguish between envy and jealousy.

He's already mentioned this, giving it an adjective. Picron, bitter, verse 14. And now he says, If you find that this earthly, unspiritual, devilish perspective on things is to the fore, then you will bump into envy. Envy is essentially to be resentful of the advantages that are enjoyed by other people. To envy is to resent the advantages enjoyed by others. We may simply resent them because they have them, even though we don't want them.

Or we may resent them because they have them, and we actually do want them. Which is, of course, to fall foul of covetousness as well. Jealousy, if you like the close cousin of envy, is usually defined as intolerance of rivalry. So there is a godly jealousy, that God is jealous for his children and wants to protect them and preserve them from every evil influence—the same that a parent would have for their own children and a spouse for their spouse. But in its sinful expressions, jealousy is afraid of someone becoming equal to us or, worse still, superior to us. And to engage in envy is to run counter to heavenly wisdom.

Why? Because it means that we're looking at things from down here. We're looking at things from an earthly perspective, not from a heavenly perspective. When we look at things from a heavenly perspective, we go to the Bible, when we're tempted to envy and to jealousy. And we go, for example, to Paul in the context of 1 Corinthians, where he is addressing some of the chaos there as a result of people making little lines behind various of their favorite preachers.

There's a novel idea, isn't it? And in the course of that, he says to them, verse 7 of chapter 4 of 1 Corinthians, who makes you different from anyone else? What's the answer to that question? Well, you see, from an earthly perspective, you can't answer God, can you? Because you don't know if there is a God, and if there is a God, you don't know who he is, and you don't know if he made you, and you don't know how you got your DNA. You're just a collection of molecules held in suspension. You've really got no answer for that question. Except, I suppose, I made myself different from someone else.

Wrong. Who makes you different from someone else? What do you have that you did not receive? I'm a self-made man. I did it all. That's earthly.

No. Everything you have, including your mental capacities, God gave you. There's nothing you have you didn't receive. If you have an ability to make money, he gave you the ability to make money. If you have a peculiar gift, he gave you the peculiar gift.

And if he gave someone else a similar gift and made them more proficient in the use of that gift, that is because of who he is, not because of who they are. What made you different from anybody else? God, what do you have that you didn't receive?

Nothing. Then here's the question. Why, then, do you boast as though this isn't the case? Do not boast and deny the truth. We tend to envy those with whom we most closely identify, and we tend to envy them in the areas we regard as most significant.

Let's think about that for just a moment, because it is important. We tend to envy those with whom we most closely identify, and we tend to envy them in the areas we value most. For example, if you don't give a rep for gardening, you're not gonna envy somebody who has a most beautiful garden, because you don't want one.

But if you do want one, and you've got two gladioli sticking up out of a bunch of dandelions, then you might have great difficulty driving out of your driveway. No, I just envy people that are like me and do the same things as me and might be doing better than me, and that really can tick me off. If you're a car salesman, you're probably not gonna envy somebody who has seventeen dealerships. But you may envy the person in the next cubicle to you who seems somehow or another always to finish with the figures ahead of you every month. You identify with them.

You care about the same things. And as a result, envy can begin to rob you of relationships and enjoyment. The accompaniment to that, says James, is selfish ambition. What is selfish ambition? Selfish ambition, we might describe in terms of the inclination to use divisive means, unworthy means, for promoting myself. Selfish ambition is the inclination to use unworthy and divisive means to exalt myself. And James says, this kind of wisdom— earthly, unspiritual, devilish wisdom—is the precursor to both of these characteristics.

You will find these things present. Indeed, if you work back the way when you find envy and selfish ambition, if you work your way through the underbrush, you will eventually come to that which is there in glowing technicolor that says, this wisdom is earthly, unspiritual, and devilish. Aristotle, in an earlier era, described this as the narrow partisan zeal of factional greedy politicians.

So you can go back a long way and find that politicians were held in such high regard then as they are now—the sneaking suspicion that perhaps this individual has got a huge ego and fancies this for themselves, despite all they say about the desire to be a public servant. It is not ours to judge motivation or heart. It is ours to use discrimination and discernment to see whether lip and life meet one another in a way that is compatible with godly wisdom. No, it's just as true of pastors as it is of politicians, and it is just as true of people in the pews.

Because each one of us may be constantly seeking to promote our own opinion to establish our own position, and that at the exclusion of others. It is the very antithesis of the servanthood of Jesus. Source, earthly, unspiritual, devilish. Characteristics, envy, and selfish ambition.

Results, too. Number one, disorder. Disorder. Or confusion. If you have the King James Version, confusion.

What James is describing here is a form of anarchy, confused thinking, disruptive decision-making, disharmony, restlessness, unsettledness. If you come in on this in a family, in a business, in a church, then you will be able to trace it back to its source, completely counter to the nature of God. And remember, Paul writes to the Corinthians, after all of his stuff on spiritual gifts, and he says to them, 1 Corinthians 14, God is not a God of disorder but a God of peace.

But a God of peace. So when you find disorder, then you're not dealing in the realm of heavenly wisdom. And this disorder just leads on to all kinds of dreadful stuff. You'll find disorder, he says, and eventually, if it is unchecked, you'll find every evil practice.

Why? Because the umbilical cord has been cut between God and his revelation and God and his people. The people have now begun to think earthly, unspiritual, devilishly. They've tolerated and baptized into orthodoxy the existence of envy and selfish ambition.

They give it other names and tolerate it. As a result of that, disorder ensues. And before you know where you are, all of the beautiful garden is completely overgrown with weeds that, when they were first identified, might have been dealt with. But now it's virtually impossible. Or, to make the metaphor more graphic, the cancer was not dealt with immediately, swiftly, ruthlessly. But instead it was tolerated, it began to spread, the whole body was invaded, and disruption and decay set in. You see how wonderful it is that we have a Bible—that we're able to turn to the Bible, and the Bible speaks with such clarity to things that are of such pressing importance to all of us in relationship to these things.

Let me finish in this way. Let's suppose that we were able to zip back in time and sneak up on the disciple band, just as they were coming out of Jerusalem on their way to Jericho, and unbeknownst to them, they were about to bump into blind Bartimaeus. And as they were sitting, having a cup of water at the well, we went up and sat on the well as well, and we listened to them talk. And as we listened to them talk, we said, Excuse me, you don't happen to be the disciples of Jesus, of Nazareth, do you? And, Oh yes, they said, Yes.

Yes, we are. They said, Oh, I've often wondered what you were like. And then we just sat in silence, and they talked a little more. And the tone was not what you would call encouraging. It didn't sound as though they were all having a really nice time. Indeed, there were little snippets of conversation that sounded like jealousy or rivalry or the potential for embitterment. And so, because of the way we are, we interrupted again, and we said, You know, excuse me, but I'm forced to say that from what I've heard about Jesus of Nazareth, you folks really don't sound like you are his disciples, you don't sound like a united band of followers.

Well, what has happened to you? And then ten heads all turn, and they look at two heads. And the two heads have faces that are beginning to light up, like a traffic light, and stop. Two red faces. And so we say to the two red faces, Who are you? They say, one says, I'm James, the other says, I'm John. Said, Are you responsible for this disruption here and all this envy and the thing that started? Yeah.

What did you do? Well, we asked Jesus if we could sit next to him when he comes into his kingdom. We thought, for all kinds of reasons, that, I mean, he's gonna have to have somebody sitting next to him. So James and I, says John, we thought it would be nice if one could go on the right and the other could go on the left.

And when the ten found out that we'd asked, it just went wild from there. What did Jesus say to you? Well, actually, Mark wrote it down in his gospel. You can read it.

This is what he said. Jesus called them together and said, You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them, and not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. Source, earthly, unspiritual of the devil.

Characteristics, envy, selfish ambition. Results, disorder, and eventually every evil practice. The Bible comes both to warn and to encourage, and always to turn us again to the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom is our only and all of our hope of salvation. Earthly wisdom isn't merely inferior to heavenly wisdom.

It is anchored in evil. We're listening to Alistair Begg on Truth for Life. Today is the last day of our study in the book of James. If you have enjoyed these practical sermons, you can listen again to Alistair's teaching. In fact, you can hear his teaching through the entire book of James. That's 40 sermons.

You'll find them available for free on our mobile app or online at truthforlife.org, or you can purchase the entire four-volume series on a USB for just $5. Go to truthforlife.org and look for a study in James. There's a common misconception that Christian views conflict with science, that you can either believe science or you can believe the Bible. The book Seven Reasons to Reconsider Christianity refutes that claim. In fact, the author explains plainly that the Bible is intellectually and scientifically credible.

He even points out that historical documents affirm many of the Bible's accounts. This is a great book to help you or someone you know ease any doubts you may have about the truth of the Bible. You can request your copy of the book Seven Reasons to Reconsider Christianity when you donate to support Truth for Life today. To give, simply tap the book image you see in the mobile app or visit us online at truthforlife.org slash donate. I'm Bob Lapine. It's always uncomfortable to be confronted by the gravity of our sin. Tomorrow we'll find out why that's absolutely necessary. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the Learning is for Living.