Godly Wisdom Leads us to Love Others
Written by Aaron Shafer (Elder of Fellowship Memphis)
13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show is by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. 14 But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. 15 Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual and demonic. 16 For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.
17 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. 18 Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.
In the above verses, we see James discussing two types of wisdom. The first wisdom “earthly wisdom“ as referred to by James is simply what motivates our own efforts and the fruit of those efforts (vs 15).
Our old sinful self subscribes to this “earthly” wisdom, while our new “born again” self is driven by the true wisdom that James describes in verses 13, 17 and 18.
Let’s look at earthly wisdom first.
The old self is driven by “selfish ambition“ that James refers to as “earthly wisdom“ (vs 15). The old self embraces personal efforts and loves to be recognized, praised and celebrated on a regular basis. The old self builds its foundation on accomplishments and performance and eagerly “boasts” (vs 14) of its efforts. At some point, someone else is going to outshine our efforts and surpass us. Or in the case of the religious elite, Jesus fulfilling the law rendered their roles obsolete. When we are surpassed or replaced, the old self goes in to crisis mode, followed by jealously which ultimately can lead to what James refers to as “bitter envy“ (vs 14). Left unchecked, bitter envy can lead to murder as was the case for our Lord Jesus.
Michael Jordan’s life, largely considered to GOAT of professional basketball, provides a cautionary tale of what happens when one builds a life solely on their own efforts. In his 2009 hall of fame induction speech, Mr. Jordan said he spent “many cringe-worthy minutes dragging up old feuds and bitter disputes even though he had already made it to the top” as described in the New Zealand Herald. Why? Success by the old self leads to a pride that is easily threatened by others. Failure to perform by our old selves leads to despair since our performance defines our identity and sense of self-worth. Last but not least, our enemy Satan happily cooperaties with our old self, either heaping praise and growing our pride or attempting to crush us with the weight of our failed efforts. In short, we open ourselves up to the demonic realm when we’re in the driver’s seat (vs 15) and our own efforts define us.
Let’s move on to the good news and look at the wisdom “that comes from heaven“ (vs 17). This wisdom, which I’ll call Godly wisdom, is defined by the qualities of God and the fruit that comes from those qualities (vs 17). God gives us his wisdom through the scriptures and the Holy Spirit that dwells in each of us. As we mature, our tendency to rely on the old self wanes and our dependency on the Holy Spirit increases. We do good works or “deeds“ with “humility“ rather than secretly hoping someone will praise us for all the good we’re doing.
The old self responds to and is motivated by its own needs. As a “new creation” we respond to God’s love for us which then motivates us to love others. We love because God first loved us (1 John 4:19). As followers of Christ, we are simply tools for God, where we experience God’s love flowing through us into the lives of other brothers and sisters. We grow and are nourished by the love, and experience joy by helping others grow in Christ. As we go about loving others, our good life will be shown to others and slowly, our lives, our attitudes, actions and thoughts will reflect the Godly wisdom that “comes from heaven.”
