Wisdom From Above
James 3:13-18
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.
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.
The first question ever asked in human history was about wisdom. "Has God really said?" the serpent asked Eve in the Garden. That question wasn't really about information. It was about authority. Who gets to decide what's wise? Who determines what's best? In that moment, humanity made a choice that we're still making today. We chose our wisdom over God's.
James understood this ancient struggle. When he penned his letter to scattered believers facing real trials, he didn't write abstract theology. He wrote about the practical reality of two competing wisdoms that wage war in our hearts every single day. His words in James 3:13-18 reveal a truth we desperately need to grasp: the wisdom we choose determines the glory we experience. We either move from glory to glory through submission to God's wisdom, or we descend into chaos through grasping for our own.
"Who is wise and understanding among you?" James begins with this piercing question. Notice he doesn't ask what you know. He asks who you are. Real wisdom isn't measured by the information in your head but by the gentleness in your life. The Greek word for gentleness here, prautēs, describes strength under control. It's power that chooses submission. It's capability that chooses restraint. This is the exact opposite of what the serpent offered Eve, and it's the opposite of what our culture calls wisdom today.
We live in a world that glorifies the opposite of gentleness. Get ahead. Fight for your rights. Never let anyone disrespect you. Make sure everyone knows how smart you are. Build your platform. Establish your brand. These messages bombard us daily, and they all flow from the same source, what James calls earthly wisdom. But here's what we need to understand: this earthly wisdom isn't just a different philosophy. It's a completely different kingdom with a completely different king.
James exposes the true nature of earthly wisdom with brutal honesty. If you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, he says, stop boasting about your wisdom. You're lying against the truth. Those are strong words, but James knows something we often forget. Wisdom always reveals itself through its fruit. You can claim to be wise all day long, but if your life is marked by jealousy, competition, and self-promotion, your wisdom comes from below, not above.
The characteristics James lists aren't random. Bitter jealousy and selfish ambition are the twin engines of earthly wisdom. They're what drove Adam and Eve to take the fruit. They saw that the tree was desirable to make one wise, and jealousy was born. Why should God alone have this knowledge? Selfish ambition followed immediately. We'll be like God, knowing good and evil. Every sin since then has flowed from these same poisoned wells.
Think about your own struggles. When conflict erupts in your marriage, what's really behind it? Often it's jealousy (why don't I get the respect they get?) mixed with selfish ambition (I need to win this argument). When tension builds at work, what's the source? Usually it's the same toxic combination. Someone else got the promotion, the recognition, the opportunity you wanted. Your earthly wisdom tells you to fight back, to promote yourself, to make sure everyone knows your worth.
James doesn't mince words about where this wisdom comes from. He gives us three descriptors, each more sobering than the last. First, it's earthly, meaning it's limited to this world's perspective. It can only see what's in front of it. It can't see eternity. It can't see God's bigger picture. It makes decisions based on immediate gain rather than eternal value. This is the wisdom that says take care of number one because this life is all you've got.
Second, it's unspiritual or natural. The Greek word psychikē describes something that's merely human, operating without the Spirit's influence. This is human reasoning at its best, which means it's still fallen. It's still broken. It's still infected with the virus of sin. We can be brilliant by earthly standards and completely foolish by heaven's measure. The Pharisees knew Scripture better than anyone, but they crucified the Author of Scripture because their wisdom was natural, not spiritual.
Third, and most disturbing, earthly wisdom is demonic. James isn't being dramatic. He's being accurate. The same wisdom the serpent offered in the Garden is the wisdom being offered today. It comes from the same source and leads to the same destination. When we choose our wisdom over God's, we're not just making a philosophical choice. We're aligning ourselves with the kingdom of darkness whether we realize it or not.
The proof is in the results. Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, James says, there will be disorder and every vile practice. The Greek word for disorder, akatastasia, describes chaos, instability, confusion. It's the opposite of the peace God intended for creation. Look at our world. Look at our families. Look at our churches. Where you find chaos, you'll find earthly wisdom at the root. Where you find "every vile practice," you'll discover that someone, somewhere, decided they knew better than God.
But James doesn't leave us in despair. He pivots with that beautiful word "but," introducing us to wisdom from above. This wisdom has a completely different character because it has a completely different source. It doesn't originate in human reasoning or cultural consensus. It comes from the throne room of heaven. It flows from the heart of God.
Notice the first characteristic James mentions: pure. Before wisdom from above is anything else, it's pure. The Greek word hagnē means holy, undefiled, unmixed with evil. This is crucial. Heavenly wisdom starts with moral purity, not intellectual prowess. It begins with holiness, not cleverness. This takes us right back to Proverbs 9:10, where we learn that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. True wisdom starts with recognizing who God is and who we aren't. It starts with submission.
After purity comes a beautiful list of qualities that read like a description of Jesus Himself. Peaceable, not contentious. Gentle, not harsh. Open to reason, literally "easily persuaded" in Greek. Think about that. Heavenly wisdom is teachable. It doesn't insist it already knows everything. It's willing to listen, willing to learn, willing to be corrected. This is the opposite of the know-it-all attitude that marked the Pharisees and marks so much of our discourse today.
Heavenly wisdom is full of mercy and good fruits. It doesn't just know truth; it extends grace. It doesn't just have right answers; it produces right actions. It's impartial, showing no favoritism based on status or advantage. It's sincere, without hypocrisy or pretense. Every one of these qualities stands in direct opposition to earthly wisdom's characteristics.
These aren't qualities you can fake. You can pretend to be smart. You can project confidence. You can manufacture an image. But you can't fake gentleness under pressure. You can't pretend mercy when someone's wronged you. You can't maintain false peaceableness when conflict threatens your interests. These qualities only flow from a heart that's been transformed by God's wisdom.
This brings us to the heart of the matter. We face the same choice Adam and Eve faced in the Garden. Will we trust God's wisdom or grasp for our own? Will we submit to His perspective or insist on ours? Will we follow the path of the first Adam or the second Adam, Jesus Christ?
Consider how Jesus demonstrated heavenly wisdom. In Philippians 2, Paul tells us that Jesus, though He was in the form of God, didn't consider equality with God something to be grasped. Instead, He emptied Himself. He became a servant. He humbled Himself to death on a cross. By every measure of earthly wisdom, this was foolishness. The Creator becoming creature? The Infinite becoming infant? The Immortal dying? It makes no earthly sense.
But look at the result. Therefore, Paul continues, God highly exalted Him and gave Him the name above every name. Jesus gained everything by surrendering everything. He achieved ultimate glory through ultimate submission. He showed us that the path to true glory isn't up but down. We don't ascend by grasping; we ascend by releasing. We don't become complete by asserting our wisdom; we become complete by submitting to God's wisdom.
This is what Paul means in 2 Corinthians 3:18 when he writes about being transformed from glory to glory. We don't jump from broken to perfect. We move progressively from one degree of glory to another as we increasingly submit to God's wisdom. Every time we choose gentleness over being right, we move from glory to glory. Every time we extend mercy instead of demanding justice, we advance in glory. Every time we surrender our wisdom for God's, even when it doesn't make earthly sense, we progress toward our true purpose.
James concludes this passage with an agricultural image that would have resonated with his original readers and should resonate with us. A harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. You reap what you sow. If you sow earthly wisdom (jealousy, ambition, competition), you'll reap chaos. If you sow heavenly wisdom (purity, peace, gentleness), you'll reap righteousness.
But notice how this righteousness comes. It's sown in peace, not in striving. It's cultivated by peacemakers, not by warriors. This completely overturns our worldly understanding of how change happens. We think we need to fight for what's right. We need to argue people into truth. We need to force change through strength. God's wisdom says the opposite. Real transformation comes through peaceful sowing, patient cultivation, gentle persuasion.
This doesn't mean we're passive. Making peace requires tremendous strength. Choosing gentleness when you could dominate takes more power than dominating. Extending mercy when you have every right to demand justice requires a strength that only comes from above. This is why James began by talking about gentleness as wisdom's calling card. It's not weakness; it's strength under God's control.
So where does this leave us? We stand at the same crossroads every day. In our marriages, our work, our churches, our interactions, we constantly choose between two wisdoms. When your spouse says something hurtful, earthly wisdom says strike back. Heavenly wisdom says respond with gentleness. When someone else gets the recognition you deserve, earthly wisdom says promote yourself. Heavenly wisdom says rejoice with those who rejoice. When you have the opportunity to get ahead through compromise, earthly wisdom says everyone does it. Heavenly wisdom says purity comes first.
These choices matter more than we realize. Each decision moves us either toward glory or toward chaos. We're either being transformed into Christ's image, moving from glory to glory, or we're descending into the disorder that earthly wisdom always produces. There's no neutral ground. We're always choosing, always moving, always becoming.
The good news is that God doesn't leave us to figure this out on our own. The same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead lives in every believer. He's constantly working to transform us, to move us from glory to glory. Our job isn't to manufacture heavenly wisdom through self-effort. Our job is to submit to the Spirit's work, to choose God's wisdom even when ours seems more logical, to trust that the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom.
This is the path to the completeness we all seek. We won't find it by climbing higher in earthly wisdom's economy. We won't achieve it through competition, self-promotion, or jealous grasping. We'll find it the way Jesus found it, through submission. Through surrender. Through choosing the gentle wisdom from above over the harsh wisdom from below.
The harvest is certain for those who sow in peace. Righteousness will come. Transformation will happen. Glory will increase. Not because we've earned it but because we've submitted to the One who achieved it for us. In the end, we'll discover what Adam and Eve tragically missed: our glory was never meant to come from grasping for God's position but from submitting to God's wisdom. Our completeness was never found in knowing good and evil for ourselves but in trusting the One who defines good and evil.
This is the wisdom that leads from glory to glory. This is the wisdom that brings peace instead of chaos. This is the wisdom that produces a harvest of righteousness. The question James asked at the beginning remains: Who is wise and understanding among you? The answer isn't found in what you know but in how you submit. Not in your intelligence but in your gentleness. Not in winning arguments but in making peace. May we choose wisely. May we choose submission. May we move from glory to glory as we exchange our wisdom for His.
James understood this ancient struggle. When he penned his letter to scattered believers facing real trials, he didn't write abstract theology. He wrote about the practical reality of two competing wisdoms that wage war in our hearts every single day. His words in James 3:13-18 reveal a truth we desperately need to grasp: the wisdom we choose determines the glory we experience. We either move from glory to glory through submission to God's wisdom, or we descend into chaos through grasping for our own.
"Who is wise and understanding among you?" James begins with this piercing question. Notice he doesn't ask what you know. He asks who you are. Real wisdom isn't measured by the information in your head but by the gentleness in your life. The Greek word for gentleness here, prautēs, describes strength under control. It's power that chooses submission. It's capability that chooses restraint. This is the exact opposite of what the serpent offered Eve, and it's the opposite of what our culture calls wisdom today.
We live in a world that glorifies the opposite of gentleness. Get ahead. Fight for your rights. Never let anyone disrespect you. Make sure everyone knows how smart you are. Build your platform. Establish your brand. These messages bombard us daily, and they all flow from the same source, what James calls earthly wisdom. But here's what we need to understand: this earthly wisdom isn't just a different philosophy. It's a completely different kingdom with a completely different king.
James exposes the true nature of earthly wisdom with brutal honesty. If you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, he says, stop boasting about your wisdom. You're lying against the truth. Those are strong words, but James knows something we often forget. Wisdom always reveals itself through its fruit. You can claim to be wise all day long, but if your life is marked by jealousy, competition, and self-promotion, your wisdom comes from below, not above.
The characteristics James lists aren't random. Bitter jealousy and selfish ambition are the twin engines of earthly wisdom. They're what drove Adam and Eve to take the fruit. They saw that the tree was desirable to make one wise, and jealousy was born. Why should God alone have this knowledge? Selfish ambition followed immediately. We'll be like God, knowing good and evil. Every sin since then has flowed from these same poisoned wells.
Think about your own struggles. When conflict erupts in your marriage, what's really behind it? Often it's jealousy (why don't I get the respect they get?) mixed with selfish ambition (I need to win this argument). When tension builds at work, what's the source? Usually it's the same toxic combination. Someone else got the promotion, the recognition, the opportunity you wanted. Your earthly wisdom tells you to fight back, to promote yourself, to make sure everyone knows your worth.
James doesn't mince words about where this wisdom comes from. He gives us three descriptors, each more sobering than the last. First, it's earthly, meaning it's limited to this world's perspective. It can only see what's in front of it. It can't see eternity. It can't see God's bigger picture. It makes decisions based on immediate gain rather than eternal value. This is the wisdom that says take care of number one because this life is all you've got.
Second, it's unspiritual or natural. The Greek word psychikē describes something that's merely human, operating without the Spirit's influence. This is human reasoning at its best, which means it's still fallen. It's still broken. It's still infected with the virus of sin. We can be brilliant by earthly standards and completely foolish by heaven's measure. The Pharisees knew Scripture better than anyone, but they crucified the Author of Scripture because their wisdom was natural, not spiritual.
Third, and most disturbing, earthly wisdom is demonic. James isn't being dramatic. He's being accurate. The same wisdom the serpent offered in the Garden is the wisdom being offered today. It comes from the same source and leads to the same destination. When we choose our wisdom over God's, we're not just making a philosophical choice. We're aligning ourselves with the kingdom of darkness whether we realize it or not.
The proof is in the results. Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, James says, there will be disorder and every vile practice. The Greek word for disorder, akatastasia, describes chaos, instability, confusion. It's the opposite of the peace God intended for creation. Look at our world. Look at our families. Look at our churches. Where you find chaos, you'll find earthly wisdom at the root. Where you find "every vile practice," you'll discover that someone, somewhere, decided they knew better than God.
But James doesn't leave us in despair. He pivots with that beautiful word "but," introducing us to wisdom from above. This wisdom has a completely different character because it has a completely different source. It doesn't originate in human reasoning or cultural consensus. It comes from the throne room of heaven. It flows from the heart of God.
Notice the first characteristic James mentions: pure. Before wisdom from above is anything else, it's pure. The Greek word hagnē means holy, undefiled, unmixed with evil. This is crucial. Heavenly wisdom starts with moral purity, not intellectual prowess. It begins with holiness, not cleverness. This takes us right back to Proverbs 9:10, where we learn that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. True wisdom starts with recognizing who God is and who we aren't. It starts with submission.
After purity comes a beautiful list of qualities that read like a description of Jesus Himself. Peaceable, not contentious. Gentle, not harsh. Open to reason, literally "easily persuaded" in Greek. Think about that. Heavenly wisdom is teachable. It doesn't insist it already knows everything. It's willing to listen, willing to learn, willing to be corrected. This is the opposite of the know-it-all attitude that marked the Pharisees and marks so much of our discourse today.
Heavenly wisdom is full of mercy and good fruits. It doesn't just know truth; it extends grace. It doesn't just have right answers; it produces right actions. It's impartial, showing no favoritism based on status or advantage. It's sincere, without hypocrisy or pretense. Every one of these qualities stands in direct opposition to earthly wisdom's characteristics.
These aren't qualities you can fake. You can pretend to be smart. You can project confidence. You can manufacture an image. But you can't fake gentleness under pressure. You can't pretend mercy when someone's wronged you. You can't maintain false peaceableness when conflict threatens your interests. These qualities only flow from a heart that's been transformed by God's wisdom.
This brings us to the heart of the matter. We face the same choice Adam and Eve faced in the Garden. Will we trust God's wisdom or grasp for our own? Will we submit to His perspective or insist on ours? Will we follow the path of the first Adam or the second Adam, Jesus Christ?
Consider how Jesus demonstrated heavenly wisdom. In Philippians 2, Paul tells us that Jesus, though He was in the form of God, didn't consider equality with God something to be grasped. Instead, He emptied Himself. He became a servant. He humbled Himself to death on a cross. By every measure of earthly wisdom, this was foolishness. The Creator becoming creature? The Infinite becoming infant? The Immortal dying? It makes no earthly sense.
But look at the result. Therefore, Paul continues, God highly exalted Him and gave Him the name above every name. Jesus gained everything by surrendering everything. He achieved ultimate glory through ultimate submission. He showed us that the path to true glory isn't up but down. We don't ascend by grasping; we ascend by releasing. We don't become complete by asserting our wisdom; we become complete by submitting to God's wisdom.
This is what Paul means in 2 Corinthians 3:18 when he writes about being transformed from glory to glory. We don't jump from broken to perfect. We move progressively from one degree of glory to another as we increasingly submit to God's wisdom. Every time we choose gentleness over being right, we move from glory to glory. Every time we extend mercy instead of demanding justice, we advance in glory. Every time we surrender our wisdom for God's, even when it doesn't make earthly sense, we progress toward our true purpose.
James concludes this passage with an agricultural image that would have resonated with his original readers and should resonate with us. A harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. You reap what you sow. If you sow earthly wisdom (jealousy, ambition, competition), you'll reap chaos. If you sow heavenly wisdom (purity, peace, gentleness), you'll reap righteousness.
But notice how this righteousness comes. It's sown in peace, not in striving. It's cultivated by peacemakers, not by warriors. This completely overturns our worldly understanding of how change happens. We think we need to fight for what's right. We need to argue people into truth. We need to force change through strength. God's wisdom says the opposite. Real transformation comes through peaceful sowing, patient cultivation, gentle persuasion.
This doesn't mean we're passive. Making peace requires tremendous strength. Choosing gentleness when you could dominate takes more power than dominating. Extending mercy when you have every right to demand justice requires a strength that only comes from above. This is why James began by talking about gentleness as wisdom's calling card. It's not weakness; it's strength under God's control.
So where does this leave us? We stand at the same crossroads every day. In our marriages, our work, our churches, our interactions, we constantly choose between two wisdoms. When your spouse says something hurtful, earthly wisdom says strike back. Heavenly wisdom says respond with gentleness. When someone else gets the recognition you deserve, earthly wisdom says promote yourself. Heavenly wisdom says rejoice with those who rejoice. When you have the opportunity to get ahead through compromise, earthly wisdom says everyone does it. Heavenly wisdom says purity comes first.
These choices matter more than we realize. Each decision moves us either toward glory or toward chaos. We're either being transformed into Christ's image, moving from glory to glory, or we're descending into the disorder that earthly wisdom always produces. There's no neutral ground. We're always choosing, always moving, always becoming.
The good news is that God doesn't leave us to figure this out on our own. The same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead lives in every believer. He's constantly working to transform us, to move us from glory to glory. Our job isn't to manufacture heavenly wisdom through self-effort. Our job is to submit to the Spirit's work, to choose God's wisdom even when ours seems more logical, to trust that the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom.
This is the path to the completeness we all seek. We won't find it by climbing higher in earthly wisdom's economy. We won't achieve it through competition, self-promotion, or jealous grasping. We'll find it the way Jesus found it, through submission. Through surrender. Through choosing the gentle wisdom from above over the harsh wisdom from below.
The harvest is certain for those who sow in peace. Righteousness will come. Transformation will happen. Glory will increase. Not because we've earned it but because we've submitted to the One who achieved it for us. In the end, we'll discover what Adam and Eve tragically missed: our glory was never meant to come from grasping for God's position but from submitting to God's wisdom. Our completeness was never found in knowing good and evil for ourselves but in trusting the One who defines good and evil.
This is the wisdom that leads from glory to glory. This is the wisdom that brings peace instead of chaos. This is the wisdom that produces a harvest of righteousness. The question James asked at the beginning remains: Who is wise and understanding among you? The answer isn't found in what you know but in how you submit. Not in your intelligence but in your gentleness. Not in winning arguments but in making peace. May we choose wisely. May we choose submission. May we move from glory to glory as we exchange our wisdom for His.
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