Wisdom: James 3

Mike spoke at Wild Branch 3/2/13, on the topic of Godly wisdom vs worldly wisdom. I think I’m still unpacking it. God has often brought my attention to Proverbs 1:7 “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” Worldly wisdom is grounded in knowledge, but we really don’t have perspective to interpret our knowledge. So as with most things in a relationship-based Christianity, it all returns to our willingness to walk in intimacy with God. Walking in wisdom is walking in faith. There is an element of mystery. We simply don’t have a formula for making a right decision apart from our ability to hear God. We can, however, spot the difference between worldly wisdom and the wisdom of God. James 3:15-17 gives a list. “This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. Human wisdom is never devoid of personal gain. That is our default perspective. Wisdom from above is pure (unmixed), it is peaceful (to facilitate drawing close to each other), gentle (sympathetic), reasonable (simple to comprehend), merciful, and it bears good fruits. God’s wisdom can seem counter-intuitive but it doesn’t waffle back and forth and it doesn’t pretend to be something its not. There’s a difference between something hidden in mystery for us to search out and something hidden in deceit so that we won’t go looking for it. This is why, I think, God always reminds me about Prov. 1:7. Wisdom is something God longs to cascade onto me, in abundance, without ceasing, but I do have to get over myself to embrace it. All this stuff in my life that I’m so concerned with, it isn’t about me. On days I’m really smart, I realize that it’s not even my life to preserve. My life was forfeit from day one. I’m here because of mercy and grace. I don’t have anything that wasn’t given to me by God, and there’s nothing expected of me that I’m not first empowered to do. There’s an invitation from God before each one of us. It’s an invitation to adventure and mystery. Wisdom isn’t about what you say, or having the right answers. It’s a lifestyle. What we need is eyes to see and ears to hear and to get that, we start by getting over ourselves. For more inspiration try the book "On Becoming a Man: Training the Spiritual Warrior Within" http://goo.gl/3dPAm while it's still free on kindle today.