James 3:13-18
James is going to continue his discussion regarding those who desire to be teachers. Previously, James made the point that just because someone desires to be a teacher they should not presume to be one. Being a teacher is not about how much you know but about how much you love the people you are teaching. The highest I.Q., the most advanced degree, and the largest memory mean nothing if you are not living as God expects a teacher of His to live.
James gave some examples of different things from nature that cannot do what is contrary to their created purpose. That is how human beings are supposed to be as well. The biggest example of that is in how we use our tongues. It was given to us to praise God but often we use it to curse other people who are made in the image of God. Knowing the difference requires wisdom and understanding and that is where James turns to beginning in verse 13.
Who among you is wise and understanding? Stop here and ponder this question. What does it mean to be wise and understanding? Let’s start with wise. What does it mean to be wise? At the core of this word is the idea of being skillful. Here is an example of the word being used in that context. In 1 Cor 3:10 the “skilled” master worker is the wise master worker. The same word that James uses here for wise is the word Paul uses for skilled. The definition then for “wise” is: “pertaining to specialized knowledge resulting in the skill for accomplishing some purpose.” (Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996), 334.) Wisdom is a skill and therefore it is not given for the sake of being wise, something must be done with this wisdom.
The purpose of wisdom is understanding. What does it mean to have understanding? The KJV misses the point here (endued with knowledge). The point of wisdom is not to be endued with knowledge as if knowledge is the ultimate goal. What does it mean to have understanding? What is it we are supposed to understand? The NLT helps us to answer this. “If you are wise and understand God’s ways…”
The only thing that is really important to understand is God’s ways, the way God wants us to act. That is what the rest of verse 13 makes clear. When James puts these two words together, wise and understanding, he is talking about knowing the truth and applying that truth the way God expects us to apply it. Wisdom knows what is good and knows how to use that good. Wisdom is then ultimately not about how much you know but about how you conduct your life.
In verse 14 James begins here with the word “but” and we know when someone says something good and follows it up with “but” there is the bad side coming next. The person James is speaking about here is someone who is jealous of others, that is what the word “envy” really speaks about, but it is not just someone who is jealous of others but is bitter or hostile towards others in their jealousy. It is one thing to be privately jealous of others (I am not saying it is okay) but it is something else to be actively hostile towards them because of that jealousy. The reason someone would be like this is because they are selfishly ambitious. They want to lift themselves up above others. If this is how someone is going to be then James wants them to stop pretending they are followers of Christ. If you claim to be a follower of Jesus and then you act like this you are denying the truth, and the truth is you are unspiritual and demonic.
Verses 15 and 16 are more examples of James telling it like it is. If that is your form of wisdom, James wants you to know that it is not from above but is a very earthly wisdom and it is unspiritual and demonic. It goes right back to what James said earlier about even the demons believe Jesus is God but it doesn’t change their actions. Envy, or jealousy, and selfish ambition only, always lead to disorder and evil practices.
In verse 17 James again comes back with “but” but this time since we are already talking about something bad, we expect something good. “But” the wisdom that comes from above, the wisdom that comes from God, is first pure, then peace-loving, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without pretense. That is a lot of words to discuss. Quite the contrast from the opposite which is simply disorder and evil.
“Pure” speaks of faultlessness which should not be surprising since it comes from God. That which comes from God cannot contain fault. Specifically, it is speaking of that which has no moral defect or blemish. It is perfect. It is fitting that James says this is first. Everything else must flow out of this.
Second, this wisdom is peace-loving. Wisdom loves peace. Peace is the opposite of conflict. I could probably spend an entire lesson on what this means but let me just point out that it means lack of conflict with others but also within yourself. If the wisdom you think you have leads to an internal conflict or internal anxiety you might want to reexamine. Here is what I mean. If you are conflicted because Jesus says to love everyone and your “wisdom” says God hates something they are doing and therefore you are supposed to hate it as well, so you struggle with loving them then you need to reexamine your so-called “wisdom.”
Before we move on with this list, do these first two remind you of anything else in the Bible? Look at what Jesus said during the Sermon on the Mount in Matt 5:8-9.
The rest of James’ list follows on from these two. Gentle speaks of being lenient or gracious towards others. Compliant here is an interesting word choice in the CSB. I think here the KJV is better if you understand what the word used means. Easy to be intreated is speaking of being able to persuade others. It is much easier to persuade someone of the truth you speak if you do so in a gentle and loving way. Skipping to the end of this verse we see “unwavering and without pretense” in the CSB. Again, I’m not sure about the word choice in the CSB. The KJV says “without partiality and without hypocrisy” which are better but the without partiality is still missing the point. What James says here is that we should be non-prejudicial in how we treat people. James has already spoken about this extensively. The last term literally means unhypocritically. We must not act as hypocrites and treat some better than others.
V 18 – Righteousness means being in a right relationship. To be in this right relationship with God only happens because God declares us to be in the relationship. We cannot work our way into it but once we are in the relationship it must dictate how we respond. The key is peace which is the opposite of anger. James previously said that human anger does not accomplish the righteousness of God. He is reiterating that point here in a positive way.
The fruit of righteousness, the fruit of being in a right relationship with God, is sown in peace by those who practice peace. There is no room for people who desire to be in a right relationship with God to live lives of anger and conflict. Just as the fruit of the spirit is singular so is the fruit of righteousness. As followers of Christ, we must exhibit all the characteristics in verse 17. We do not get to pick and choose which we want for which situation.