Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. 15 This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. 17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. 18 And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

James 3:14-18

Nobody wants to be a fool. We all want to be considered wise people. What isn’t common sense is understanding what kind of wisdom we have. There is earthly, unspiritual, and demonic wisdom, and then there is wisdom from above.

Which kind characterizes your life?

Earthly wisdom belongs to those people driven by bitter jealousy and selfish ambition. Who may be guilty of this kind of motivation? Anybody may be. The obvious candidates are politicians and business moguls. Their own lust for advancement propels them forward. Many politicians are the epitome of “selfish ambition.” The only thing that matters is getting reelected. Let’s face it, some people characterized by bitter jealousy and selfish ambition succeed quite well in their pursuits.

There is an end result of this wisdom that is not what one wants. James tells us it is “disorder and every vile practice.” Again, I believe we can see this with some clarity in our political world.

Religious leaders and earthly wisdom

Unfortunately, these characteristics are not limited to the world of politics and cut-throat business. Religious leaders can be caught up on these motivations as well. We too often hear the stories of the downfall of mega-church leaders. In some cases, they are the victims of earthly, unspiritual, and demonic wisdom. The flocks that they have led become the victims of the resulting disorder and every vile practice that accompanies earthly wisdom.

There is another wisdom. It is from above. It is not earthly. The characteristics are different, and the ultimate result is hugely different.

The characteristics of wisdom that is from above.

It is first pure. Purity is a characteristic of the heart. A pure heart has no bitter jealousy and selfish ambition.

Wisdom from above is next peaceable. When pursuing your ambitions in life, are you acting peaceably? Ambition can be pursued without it being “selfish ambition.” There are lots of motives behind our ambition, and they aren’t all necessarily bad. Paul exhorts us, “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.”

Wisdom from above is gentle. Am I gentle with others in the pursuit of my ambitions? If not, I might want to examine my heart for wisdom from above.

Wisdom from above is not dogmatic and hard-headed. It is open to reason. People with wisdom from above are good listeners and are not dogmatically attached to their opinions. That doesn’t mean a wise person won’t have strong convictions about things they have considered with diligence. It does mean that they won’t be shaken by listening to another point of view and will honor another person as they debate a position.

An outstanding characteristic of wisdom from above is that it is full of mercy and good fruits. People who are driven by bitter jealousy and selfish ambition are not characterized by mercy and, as we have seen above, don’t produce good fruits. Instead, they are characterized by disorder and every vile practice.

Impartiality is required in a judge. The essence of wisdom is the ability to make good judgments that are impartial. One who is driven by selfish ambition will seldom be impartial in his judgments.

It is possible to be sincerely wrong, but wisdom from above will never be duplicitous. It will always be straightforward and honest about its position. Godly wisdom is always sincere.

Whereas the fruit of earthly wisdom is disorder and every vile practice, the fruit of wisdom from above is a harvest of righteousness. In this case, the kind of righteousness referred to is practical righteousness, not the imputed righteousness that believers receive due to the finished work of Jesus. How we sow seed determines our harvest. If we sow from Godly wisdom, we will receive the harvest of righteous living in the lives of those whom we have served.

The ultimate seed is the seed of the gospel. If we sow it in peace as peacemakers, we reap the wonderful harvest of disciples who live righteous lives.

The gospel and earthly wisdom

I have known Pastors who preached a doctrinally accurate gospel. People believed and received eternal life. However, when accurate doctrine is preached from a heart of selfish ambition or bitter jealousy, the result will not be righteous living by his disciples or converts. His disciples will learn from him the bad attitudes that he has demonstrated and assume it is acceptable since it was demonstrated by the one who discipled them into Christ.

Godly wisdom for every believer

This third chapter of James begins with the warning that not many should become teachers. Why? When a teacher sows the seed of God’s word, if he does not have self-control over his tongue and does not live in Godly wisdom, his students will be offended by his conduct and assume that what is wrong is acceptable since they learned it from their teacher. Since every believer is, to some degree, “discipling” those around him or her, living in wisdom from above is critical. This is true even if you are not a “teacher.”