Godly Wisdom
Tom Shrader contrasts two types of wisdom in James 3:13-18: earthly wisdom characterized by bitter jealousy and selfish ambition that leads to disorder, versus godly wisdom from above that begins with purity and produces peace, gentleness, and good fruit. He emphasizes that true wisdom is not about knowledge but about how we live, calling believers to examine their lives for evidence of supernatural wisdom rather than natural, demonic thinking.
“Everyone in their life has something that when they do it, it makes them sad and it makes them mad and it makes them feel stupid when they do it.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: James (2011)
Recorded: 2011
Duration: 49 min
Themes: wisdom, jealousy, peace, gentleness, purity, selfish ambition, disorder, good fruit, struggling with jealousy, seeking godly wisdom, dealing with selfish motives, new believer, mentor, pastor, navigating conflict, young adult
Scripture: James 3:13-18, James 1:22, James 1:26, Ephesians 2, Romans 12, 1 John 4:1-6
Theological Themes: godly wisdom, earthly wisdom, spiritual maturity, sanctification, biblical wisdom, supernatural wisdom, spiritual discernment, practical theology
Full Transcript
And one of the things that right now is going on at all four campuses is that the guy up front is saying, open your books to the book of James. So that's what we're going to do. We're in the book of James. We'll be in here until I think about the 10th of April, and that leads us up to Easter. Then after Easter, we're working on a study, and I'm excited, it'll be new for me. We're working on our study, and I think we're going in the Old Testament, I'm not going to tell you yet.
Context of James
I want to remind you, because we always go context, context, context, that's always so important. James is the half-brother of Jesus, identifies himself as a bondservant, and he's writing to the 12 tribes who are dispersed. So he's writing to these churches. We get the sense that he starts by dealing with the ever-present problem for them.
There are the 12 tribes dispersed, so they're probably dispersed primarily for a variety of reasons, probably number one, because of persecution. So those 12 tribes are dispersed, so he says, consider it all joy when you encounter various trials, knowing that testing of your faith produces endurance. Then he goes on, he unpacks that a little bit, we'll come back to some of it today.
The Key Issue: Self-Deception
The key verse in the book of James is James chapter 1, verse 22: "Prove yourselves to be doers of the word, not merely hearers who delude themselves." So apparently, and he comes back, and you'll see it again, down in verse 26, "if anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet he doesn't bridle his own tongue, he deceives his own heart." Deludes himself, deceives himself. So apparently the church was filled with people who were self-deceived.
They were hearers. So they love stuff like this. They love to be in a service where somebody's speaking. Let's put it in our context. They'd love a small group. They would love a Bible study. They would love to read and go online and do word searches. They would love that. They love to take the word in, but apparently there was a problem. They were taking the word in, but it wasn't making any change in their life.
So he says, prove yourself to be not just a hearer of the word, but a doer. He's not saying this, be a doer, not a hearer. He's saying you do both. We grind this point, and it really is, it's consistent through the end here of chapter three, because that's what we're going to look at today, and really through at least the first half of chapter five.
Faith Should Be Visible
The idea is, I should be able to see your faith. If you say Jesus is Lord, then it should produce in you a different life. You should be a different husband. You should be a different wife. If you're single, you date differently. You even look at the people that you plan on dating differently. You have a different set of criteria and judgment for who you'll date and how you'll date and why you'll date. You are a different type of employee, a different type of employer. It goes on and on and on.
So these were people who heard the word, but they didn't want to do it.
The Power of the Tongue
Last week, God was really good because I got to go to a place that didn't know me and teach about the tongue. It was perfect. I didn't have to do that here, where they go, ah. So it's funny, because last week, I have a whole system of how I work, but the last part of it is Sunday morning. I usually get here between 5:30 and 6, and I put the end of this together. It's not that I haven't thought about it or read or studied, but that's when I bring it together.
So last week, it's on the tongue. Tim Vaughn walked through and goes, boy, this will be a hard lesson. You probably don't have any examples out of your own life on criticism, cynicism. And I said, well, here's one right now. But it was a consistent flow of people. Then Justin and I had a great conversation, because then Justin came in there and he said, I hate these lessons, because they're all stories and application. And I said, I love these lessons.
So it was great for me to be there and talk about the tongue. The premise is this: if you don't control the tongue, what you have is somebody who's got a heart that hasn't been changed. So if we stay in chapter one, "if anybody thinks himself religious, but he can't control his tongue, he deceives himself."
Out of this tongue is the power of life and death. So he, James, uses the illustration of a fire, and you can take a fire and with it you can warm a house, you can cook a meal, very constructive, or a little spark that set aflame. Last week I was saying, so let's just say you're smoking a cigarette up in the forest and you throw it out. Then it occurred to me, you probably wouldn't smoke a cigarette exactly like this. So it's something that you throw, and there's a spark that lights, and now the whole forest is on fire. Constructive, destructive. That's the power of the tongue.
Moving to Wisdom from Above
So he said, there's a barometer, I'm going to know how you're doing. We're going to look today at verse 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18. My heading says, wisdom from above. I don't know if that's, I guess that's part of it, but you're going to see here this idea of wisdom.
Now I'm going to read this, and I want to break it apart for you. As we look at it, I want to make some comments. My reason for doing this is really simple. I'm continually trying to say, there's some parts of scripture that are just really hard. Even like verse 18 today, that's just a tough verse. So you'll notice when we get there, I'll move over it pretty quickly. So it's just a tough verse, it's got a couple of possible meanings, we pull it together, do the best we can with it. Some of this is really hard. But a lot of this stuff should not intimidate you. So I'm going to read through it, but I'm going to stop along the way.
To read this as though you're reading it for the first time. I want you to just make observations. My whole point here is to say, you can read the word. This happens to be a particularly easy passage that lends itself to really simple dissecting. But you can read this stuff and get a lot out of it without any sort of other material. Especially as you get into the New Testament. And especially in something like James that's so filled with just application points. So I'll stop along the way, and I'm not going to get very far.
James begins with a question. Who among you is wise in understanding? And then He answers it. Let Him show by His good behavior His deeds in gentleness of wisdom. So the one who is wise and the one who has understanding is the one who has good behavior and has deeds that support it.
The Great Contrast
Verse 14. Now you look at the word "but," and He's going to give you either a conclusion, more likely now, a contrast. So here's a contrast. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, don't be arrogant and so lie against the truth. So He gave you just a quick, here's wisdom, here's what it looks like, here's a contrast. And He's challenging. And remember, He's challenging these people continually.
If you have jealousy, if you have selfish ambition, listen, that's not the wisdom we're talking about. The wisdom that has jealousy and ambition with it, verse 15, is not from above. But it is three things. So see how I can begin to see this? It's earthly, it's of the earth, it's thinking typically human, and it's natural, it's just following human instincts, and it's demonic.
So one of the great lies is that we're all God's kids. We're all of our Father, the one true God, and that's not true. Paul tells us in Ephesians 2 that prior to coming to Christ, we are children of wrath. We are sons of disobedience. So He said, if you see, here's the tipping point, we'll come back now. If I see jealousy and selfish ambition, then I need to know that what's driving my thought process is earthly, natural, demonic. This wisdom is not from above, it's earthly, natural, demonic.
The Fruit of Earthly Wisdom
Verse 16, where there's jealousy and selfish ambition exist, so He's saying earthly wisdom is that, where they exist, here's how you're going to know. There's disorder, disarray, and there's every evil thing, there's all sorts of evil things.
Here's another contrast now, but the wisdom from above, so just stop, again, just as though you're reading it for the first time, He's talked about the wisdom from above, and for sake here of clarity, let's talk about wisdom that's earthly, and now He's going to contrast it. So you have earthly wisdom, wisdom from above, you have natural wisdom, supernatural wisdom, you have wisdom that's demonic, thought process by wisdom we mean here, and wisdom that's godly.
Characteristics of Godly Wisdom
What is supernatural wisdom from above that's godly is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of good mercy, full of mercy, good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. Verse 18, and the seed of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
So there you go. There's James coming at you and He's talking about wisdom. He's making a contrast, a distinction here between knowledge and wisdom. We're not talking about knowledge. We're not talking about information. A ton of it. We're not talking about what you know or how much you know. That number and quantity should be increasing all the time. More and more information around us. We are continually learning.
Jerry Smith did a devotional in our pastor and staff meeting this week on being a lifelong learner and the importance of learning. God put us here to learn. He educated us. There's information. He wants us to learn. But here James is not talking about knowledge. He's talking about wisdom.
Wisdom Defined
Here you go. What we do with the knowledge? And again my definition of wisdom is just the ability to connect the dots. It's to see the forest and the trees. It's to see life as God sees it from His perspective. It's not to look with a world material view, but with God's view of the world.
So He's talking about this idea of wisdom and He contrasts it. Really simple. So He says you're either earthly or it's from above. It's either natural or supernatural. It's either demonic or godly. Now we could ask at this point which one would you want? And you would say, I would hope, the one from above that's supernatural and godly.
But that's not what we're going to do. We're not going to ask you which one you want. We're going to ask you which one do you have. I assume everybody's going to get the right answer. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about which one do you have. Well how would I know? You're going to look at the fruit. You're going to look at your life.
The Message Paraphrase
Let me read you these verses from a paraphrase of the message and we'll pull it apart. Do you want to be counted wise and to build a reputation for wisdom? Here's what you do. It's verse 13. Live well, live wisely, live humbly. It's the way you live, not the way you talk that counts.
Mean spirited ambition isn't wisdom. Boasting that you are wise isn't wisdom. Twisting the truth to make yourself sound wise isn't wisdom. It's the furthest thing from wisdom. It's animal, cunning, devilish, and conniving. Whenever you're trying to look better than others or to get the better of others, things fall apart and everyone ends up at others throats.
Verse 17 again from the paraphrase. Real wisdom, God's wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It's gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings. Not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced. You can develop a healthy robust community that lives right with God and enjoys its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other and treating each other with dignity and honor.
Now we know James is talking to the church, so the application
We can spread it out to other areas, but He's saying at least in the body we ought to see this. So let's go back and break it apart.
He says if you have this wisdom that's from below, this earthly natural, you're going to see bitter—the word means sharp, prickly, pungent. You're going to see this jealousy and you're going to see selfish ambition.
The Nature of Jealousy
When we talk about jealousy, jealousy is a terrible thing. All this flows from pride and next week we get into a whole long description and discussion on pride. But jealousy is basically two things. One you think of all the time, the other you might not.
One is this: I want what you have. You have something, I'm jealous. You have something, I want it. There's another side to jealousy, I think it's a darker side. It's jealousy that says you have something I don't have, I don't want it, I just don't want you to have it. Now that's really dark.
So I'm in an office, I'm in a real estate office, it's not just that I want to make a deal, I don't want you to make a deal. The next best thing to me making a deal is seeing you lose one. See there's that dark—this is how dark we are. You don't need to say amen, you don't need to shake your head because I know it's true. It's not only I want what you have, that's part of it, you have something that I don't want, I just don't like the fact you got it.
Selfish Ambition and Its Fruits
So it's this bitter jealousy and it's selfish ambition. He makes a distinction here. There's an ambition and again next week we'll talk about it. There's an ambition I think that's positive. I think Paul was a very ambitious person. But this is the ambition that says I just want this for myself. It's a selfish ambition.
So when I have this bitter jealousy and this selfish ambition, I have strife and contentiousness, I'm going to have battles, I'm going to have quarrels. He said here's the key to this whole thing. What you're doing is really professing to know Christ but you're boasting and you're self-centered and you're arrogant and you're denying the truth of what you say. You say this is what you are but you aren't.
Earthly, Natural, and Demonic Wisdom
Here's what you need to know. When you're acting with selfish ambition and you're acting with bitter jealousy, you're acting in a way that's earthly and natural and demonic. So it's earthly. It's of the world. It's the way the world is. It's natural. It's of the flesh. It's who we are. It's demonic. It's not Christ-like. It's Satan-like. It's besetting sin, pride.
So I think earthly. I think like the world thinks. I have a worldview. I think like everybody else. No difference. I see things all the same. Natural. So here you go.
A Natural Illustration
Somebody, when I was walking around and talking to people, people were asking me, how's Susan doing? Here's the two questions I get now all the time. How's Susan doing? How's the new grandbaby? So let me give you a Lucy report. Lucy's drinking about an ounce more at each feeding now. So that doesn't sound like much but Lucy's gaining now about a half a pound a week. Two more pounds and she'll be up with me. But she's gaining about a half a pound a week.
You can see, I hadn't seen her for about 10 days and she came in and she was in her car seat and I said to Haley, she's really growing. You can really see her growing. So now she can kind of look around. She's starting to just cool a little bit. She's about six weeks. So in about another six weeks, right now she smiles but it's just gas. I know that.
So about another six weeks she can kind of look at you. She's got that vision that's about two, two and a half feet. She'll be able to look at you. She'll start to smile. She'll start to kick around. This is when they start to move and that's their exercise. Those little legs will be chunking and those legs will be moving. Then pretty soon she'll be able to get herself over on her stomach and she'll be like a turtle. She'll be in trouble at that point. You got to move her around and then she'll be able to pull herself up. She'll be crawling a little bit and pretty soon she'll start to walk.
Then in there she'll start to make these grunting sounds and these noises and then all of a sudden she'll speak. Here's what she'll say. First two words: No, mine. Those will be her first two words. She may throw a mom or dad in there just to make sure college is paid for. But overall, no, mine. Don't go in there. No. Sit down. No. I'll have something, she'll say, mine.
They all did it. Got five grandkids, two kids, all this. Everyone did the same thing. What about me? What about me? What about me?
The World's Message
I saw an ad yesterday. I saw the ad and I thought, boy, I got to get that in there tomorrow. But the ad said, the punchline of the ad was, it's all about you. It was TV 12, Channel 12. This is Channel 12's ad. Tell me is this earthly, natural, and demonic? Their tagline is, it's all about you. Have it your way. That's what the world screams. We're here to serve you. It's you. It's you.
So you grow up in that environment. That appeals to your insides because that's how we're wired. It's all about you. Me. Mine. So it's earthly. It's natural. It's demonic. We come into the world of our father, the devil.
Disorder and Chaos
Verse 16, he kind of expands on this. He says, where there's jealousy and selfish ambition, there's all sorts of disorder. There's this idea—I read a great biography on, really it was actually a story of Nike, Phil Knight was obviously the main character, but they talked about the different athletes and they talked about trying to sign different guys and Shaq wasn't a Nike guy, he was a Reebok guy, but McEnroe was a Nike guy.
McEnroe has a great line in here, in the book. McEnroe said this: people love success but they hate successful
people. It's that idea of selfishness, it's that idea of tearing people down, it's a value system that's all upside down.
So I saw this week, now I don't follow this, I just, it popped up on my news items, imagine this is news, Justin Bieber. He was on Ellen, and he cut his hair on there, and they put the hair in a bag, and Ellen put it for charity, put it online, and at eBay his locks sold this week for $42,000. I'll cut my arm off for $1.98. I don't even know what I'd shave for 42 grand, but just about anything. It's that star-struck idea, and then it won't be long before they try to slam this guy and put him down. So that's how the world thinks.
We have this, I read the other day, among the 14 top industrial nations, the United States ranks 13th in math, but first in self-esteem. So we don't know what two plus two is, but we're happy about it. Something's wrong.
The Wisdom From Above
Let's get to verse 17. So there's that contrast. Verse 17, but the wisdom from above, so it's not the earthly, natural, demonic wisdom, it's the supernatural, godly wisdom.
I'm going to read this sentence, and something jumps off at you. "But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy." Now what did you notice as you read that? The word "but" tells us, always be looking for those, but, and, therefore, because, those kinds of things. But tucked in here, you see a little sequencing. It seems as though James is saying, there's an order here, an appropriate order, that at the core of this wisdom from above, is first and foremost, purity.
It's the same idea as the word holy. It's the idea that it's free from contamination. So if you are that follower of Christ, who is thinking in a godly, supernatural way, the characteristic we should see in your life, is that you are pure.
Understanding Purity
Now that's a word that we've taken and abused. So we talk about trying to get a sound system, so we have pure sound, pure gold. Can't relate to those, but I can relate to this. Pure chocolate.
You hear it in golf. I haven't played much golf, but the last, my place in town is my favorite place to play. And the 17th hole is a long par 4. It's the number one handicap hole on the course. And your second shot is uphill. So uphill green, sloped against you, but this is a hard green. It's hard. If you hit it up there, it's hard to hold it. And so I hit, I remember, I hit 205 yards to the pin. It's uphill. It's a 5 iron for the average person, not me. I had to hit a 3 wood.
And my friend is there, and we're talking, and we're just, we're playing real slow, just the two of us, talking a lot. And so I hit it, I stood up, very comfortable, very relaxed, very mellow. I just got all set up, just disappear, you just feel it. Just feel everything. Like a harmonic conversion, right there at that point. I just stood up, I felt it, and I said, I was playing with my friend, I said, "Scotty, I just feel so good over this ball." Then I just took it, and I hit it, and when it left the club, it just took off, and I said, "That's as good as I can hit it. That is a great shot. I hit it pure." That's exactly what I said. So we use the word that way. I want to, by the way, I hit it like two feet. It was an incredible shot.
Four Elements of Purity
I'm going to give you four elements of purity in our life. Thought, habit, motive, and the Word of God.
Purity of thought. So when we're thinking as somebody pure, it begins in our mind. Transformed heart, informed mind. Don't conform to this world, be transformed by the renewing of your mind. So we'll give it in the whole way we approach life. And purity, and I'll just go ahead and say it, for a lot of us, we think purity of thought, we think in a sexual way. Now I won't even try to figure out girls, but for guys, this is just a big deal.
So when Jimmy Carter was president, which pretty soon we're going to be calling the good old days. When Jimmy Carter was president, he had a thing called the misery index, where he combined inflation and unemployment. And Jimmy was able to get that up to 32. I have something called the lust index for guys. And it's in direct proportion to fashion of the day and the temperature outside.
And so right now, I just, I went online to look this morning, it's only 85 at the end of the week. So you're living in Phoenix, and it's 85, we went to a spring training game the other day. And you could see it already. And I'm sorry to be this honest about it, but you see girls all over, they're out in the sun, they're wearing this scoop neck stuff, the shorts that are, I don't know, for a girl, shorts are hard to buy, because if they were modest, none of these, that's not very attractive. But if you get them too short, that's not very attractive. It's just hard for a girl to wear shorts.
The Challenge of Pure Thinking
So you got all these shorts. For a guy that's very tough. So I'm at the spring training game with Braden and Yale and Tyler, and I'm there with my grandkids, and yet you have these girls all around you. You can't let your mind go there, guys.
And girls, I don't know what it is. Some of it's material. I'll tell you a great show that reveals thought process. House Hunters. So they'll walk into this room. This drives me nuts. They'll walk into this room and they'll go, "Oh, look at these countertops. I always wanted granite." You're 20. You're lucky to have anything. You shouldn't be buying a house, probably. You're the reason the economy's upside down. Granite. They want granite. And then they'll say, "Oh, look at the appliances. I wanted stainless steel."
Clearly you've never had to clean these things. And I'm telling you, you just watch House Hunters. You sit around and you watch these design shows all day, and unless it's design on a dime, it's the equivalent of a guy going out and looking at girls. You just look at this stuff all day. I want, I want, I want. It's purity of thought. You can't let your mind wander. You've got to control your mind. You know what your life is. You know where your weaknesses are. It starts in your mind.
Purity of Habit
Here's the second thing: purity of habit. It's the people, the places you go, the people you hang with. I'm teaching in Tucson, so you don't know this guy, so don't waste your time trying to figure it out.
So he comes up after the service and he says, "I want to tell you something. I haven't told anybody," because I'm a safe bet. Number one, I'm from out of town. Number two, I don't gossip. So he said, "I want to tell you something. I've had a series of one-night homosexual encounters."
And I said, "Okay." I said, "Let me finish here, and then we'll talk." So I said, "Tell me about them. I don't need to know all the details about them, but how does it happen?" And he took me through them. And after like 10 minutes or 15 minutes, every one of them started at the same bar.
Now, this is going to end up, you're feeling really cocky right now, but we're going to shove this in your face here in a second. Because you're saying, "Oh, if I was talking to the guy, I would tell him, what? Don't go to the bar." So I said to him, "You know, I'm not trained in this, but I don't think I'd go to the bar."
And he said to me, "Tom, you don't think I know that? I'm driving over there saying I shouldn't go there. I'm parking the car saying I shouldn't be here. I buy my first drink saying this is wrong. I see the guy across the room, and we start to talk, and I know it's not right."
Here you go. Because you beat the snot out of him in that illustration early on, didn't you? Yes, you did. You were ready to tee this guy up and blast him right out of there, weren't you?
Here's the deal. Everybody in their life has something that when they do it, it makes them sad and it makes them mad and it makes them feel stupid when they do it. You do. You turn on that computer. You're waiting for it to boot up. And while you're waiting for it to boot up you're going, "I shouldn't be doing this. Shouldn't be going here. No, I'm not supposed to go here." And I click it. And it gives me a chance. It says, "Do you really want to go into this thing?" It says on the front, "Do you really want to go into this?"
Or you have that response. You just see it. You're teeing it up. You're driving home. You're mad about something. Everybody in their life has something that makes them sad, mad and feel stupid when they do it. It's that purity of habit.
Purity of Motive
Let me give you the third one: purity of motive. It's doing the right thing for the right reason. We have all sorts of illustrations, but none better than the Pharisees.
So in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says to these guys, look at it. He's talking to His disciples. "See those guys over there? Don't give like they give. Don't pray like they pray. Don't fast like they fast." Now look at what He says. He doesn't say, "Don't pray, fast or give." He just says that when you do it, don't do it like they do it. Because they do it with the wrong motive, with the wrong reason.
So you're going to be sitting here right now today, and you're going to be here for totally wrong reason. It may be a deliberate thing. It may be a scam you're running. A lot of guys, here you go, when they start to date girls, the girls will say, "Do you want to go to church?" And you'll go to church. And you're right now dating. And you're here with this girl. And you know in your brain, once you get this girl, you're done with church.
No, you're in church. That's a good thing. I hope God just beats the snot out of you while you're here. Rips your heart out. Changes your life. I hope He does. But you're here the whole time going, "This can't go much longer, can it? Forty-one more minutes." That's how long it's going. I can tell you. Got to time it down to the last minute.
Purity of God's Word
Purity of thought. Purity of motive. Purity of God's Word. See, there has to be some sort of a baseline here. We believe this is the Word of God. Don't add to it, don't take away from it.
Add to it or take away are easy to spot. They'll say, "Hey, you've got the Bible, but you need another book. Or you need us to interpret it for you." Figure it out from there. That's a little tougher. They don't teach the whole counsel of God. But there's a great discussion. We need to understand that the Bible is the Word of God. And if God says it, that settles it.
There is a man who's really brilliant. He's far smarter than I am in just about everything except this. His name, he's dead now, his name was, still is, I guess, Thomas Jefferson. So here's what Jefferson did, because he's thoughtful. So he knew there had to be a God, and he knew that if there was a God, He likely communicated with us, and he came face-to-face with the power of the divine, and then he came with the Bible.
So here's what Thomas Jefferson did. And you can go to Barnes & Noble today, or Borders, or you can go on Amazon online, and I'd recommend this, save the cash, just Google Jefferson Bible, and it'll all be in there. You can print it out. Here's what Thomas Jefferson did. He took the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and he took out two things. He didn't have the courage to say one. But he took out anything that was supernatural, because he didn't believe in the supernatural because he's so smart. And he took out stuff he didn't like.
So at the end, the Jefferson Bible, like I said, you can go buy it. And obviously, this guy spent a lot of time on this deal. It would have been a lot easier with a Mac, because he could have cut and pasted his way right through this thing, but it didn't happen. Let me read you...
The Jefferson Bible
The beginning of the Jefferson Bible, and then the close. The beginning, chapter 1, verse 1, begins this way. "Now it came to pass in those days that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled." It's a census. "The enrollment was the first which was made when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be enrolled, everyone to his own town. Joseph also went up to Galilee out of the city of Nazareth into Judea, into the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because it was the house and lineage of David. To be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, being then with child." So then it goes to the birth.
What's missing here? Nothing about the virgin birth, which is the core element of the Christian faith. Right at the core, one of our essentials. Nothing about the virgin birth, nothing about the angels appearing to Joseph, none of that.
Here's how it ends. Here's the last one, two, three, four verses. "Then they took the body of Jesus and wound it in linens, cloths, and spices as the manner of the Jews in burial. And there in the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new sepulcher wherein was never a man yet laid. And they laid Jesus there and rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulcher and departed." That's the end.
Smart dude, this Jefferson guy. Dumber as a brick when it comes to theological things. Here you go. Here's the Jefferson Bible. You got any hope in this? And I don't mean this, this sounds so crazy. You might as well read Gandhi. And it's now titled the Jefferson Bible or the Life and Morals of Jesus.
Jesus didn't come just to be a great teacher. He came to die for your sin and rise from the dead. And when you take that out of the Bible, you've got just a bunch of blah, blah, blah going on. If we live by those Jefferson Bibles, we're going to have a better life, better country, better world. We're going to hell, but better.
The Peaceable Nature of Divine Wisdom
So the wisdom from above is first pure, and then now this starts a cascade. And then it's peaceable. I have peace with God, so I begin to have the peace of God. Jesus said, the night before He died, "My peace I give you, my peace I leave with you, not peace as the world gives."
Because the world says, here's peace. Make sure that you have a lot of gold and a hybrid vehicle. Make sure that you've got everything taken care of. Nothing can get away from you. Be happy, healthy. Jesus says, that's not really peace. That isn't even real. That's not life. Peace is in the midst of that turmoil.
That's why Paul says, you'll have a peace that passes all understanding. Because you're going to be in the midst of turmoil. They're going to look at you and go, how can that be? How can you live like that? Because you have the Spirit of God in you. I'm going to give you this Spirit. Not that life will be smooth and easy.
And then relationally, Paul says in Romans 12, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with one another. So he seems to anticipate that there's going to be moments of conflict and moments of difficulty, and you may do everything you can possibly do and still not be able to live at peace with one another, but do as much as you can.
Gentleness and Being Reasonable
So if I'm thinking in a supernatural way, there will be purity, and then peace, and then gentleness. It's strength under control. It's courtesy, consideration, moderation.
And then, it's somebody who is reasonable. It means teachable, compliant, not stubborn. I use the word coachable. So I talked to somebody who had been to Tempe last week, and had heard Vince teach, and was commenting Vince and Ricardo. I can go down the list of guys who are under 30, well, when they first started here, were really in their mid to late 20s, but let's say 30, under 32, including Justin, by the way.
I can go through these guys that are under 32, and you've got Paul Artino and Justin, and Justin Marshall, and Tyler, and Brian Berger, and Ricardo, and Vince, Matt Dresbach. This goes on, and on, and on. And they were saying, you know what's amazing is we have so many gifted people. And I said, no, what's amazing is we have so many coachable young men.
Because typically, if you're young and gifted, you're cocky. And so you finish a message, and somebody comes up to you and says, "Boy, that was incredible. I could listen to you every week. We don't need Tom. We don't need Justin. You're all we need." Oh, no. Really? I mean, that's how that goes. That's how you're young. And you know, they're just blowing smoke at you. Coachable.
The Difference Between Questions and Arguments
So I had a guy last week, and he's grinding question, after question, after question. And I said, "Listen, pal, you don't want a dialogue. You just want to be a pain. You're not looking for answers. You've talked to a thousand people about all these things. You just want to come in here." And he said, "I'm trying to figure out if I belong here." I said, "We don't want you here. I don't want you here. I don't want you in some small group or some meeting because you're factious. Go somewhere else. We're not looking for people like that."
"You mean you don't want people who ask questions?" We love people who ask questions, who want to learn, but we don't want you combative, argumentative. People who just want to debate? No thanks.
Full of Mercy
It's reasonable, and then it's full of mercy. Evidence of saving faith in a transformed life is not only you forgive people, but you have a heart and a compassion for them. Now, I wrote under this, it's tender, sympathetic compassion.
Mercy, I'm convinced, very few people are born with this. It comes from life experience. Because you always think you're the exception to what happens to you. I'll give you a stupid illustration. I used to hear about food poisoning, food poisoning. I'm 32 years old. "Food, oh, I'm so sick." "Why are you sick?" "Food poisoning." I've eaten off the floor of some of the dirtiest bars in the country. I never got sick. Food poisoning. And then
I went to Oregon. I ate some sandwiches with mayonnaise. They'd been left outside. I got sick, and then got on a plane for a three-hour flight back home. They said, you can unfasten your seatbelt, and I went to the restroom and sat until they said, we're preparing for our final landing. And I sat in the toilet the whole time.
Now somebody says, food poisoning. I say, hey, you want to talk food poisoning? I can talk food poisoning to you. Chronic pain. I tell Susan all the time, and I've said this for 20 years. I wish I could invent something, almost like a jumper cable, that I could hook it to my finger and hers, and I could literally feel her pain. Because it would make it so much easier, because you say, I have a migraine. I have a headache. I'm really hurting. I have headaches all the time. Suck it up, let's go. See that? Compassion's born out of this, of really being able to climb in that other person's skin.
The Characteristics of Godly Wisdom
It's full of mercy, and the result of that, it's full of good fruits. There's evidence of it. There's good works. It's unwavering. It's not divided. It's not parted. It's not uncertain. It's not indecisive. It's not inconsistent. It doesn't vacillate. It's not doubtful.
If you go back to chapter one, it's the very thing when James was talking about wisdom in chapter one. He said, if any of you lacks wisdom, ask, God gives of it, but if you ask, let Him act in faith without doubting, not being double-minded. So I'm going in the midst of this, whatever it is. You pick, now rather than me give you an illustration, you think of one, something in your life where you want to see God work. You need wisdom. You need insight, okay?
In the midst of that, you ask Him now. The faith is not that He will do what you think He should do. The faith is that He can do whatever He wants to do. Your believing Him does not obligate Him to do anything. I'm going to throw this out here right now, and I know how trite this sounds, but I'll give you the last, and it always works out. It just always does.
I mean, most of the things that you were cranking up the prayer chain for a year ago, you don't even remember what they are today. And if you need a verse for that, we'll give you one. And God causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.
Without Hypocrisy
It's reasonable, and it's without hypocrisy. That's one thing everybody hates. Everybody hates a hypocrite, somebody who pretends to be something they aren't. And then we get this, and they're not very easy to spot. Give me a great example. Judas.
So the boys are moving along with Jesus. They don't have a lot of dough. They've got to give it to somebody that they trust, and the guy that they make the treasurer of the place is Judas. There's a scene at the Last Supper that stuns me when I think about it. Jesus is there, it's a somber moment, and He said, one of you is going to betray me.
Now, knowing what we know, we kind of feel like there's 11 pairs of eyes that would go, Judas. But that's not what happened. They said, it's not me, it's not me, it's not me, it's not me, it's not me. They've been with this guy for three years in the most intimate environment, and yet he pretended to be something he wasn't.
Heart Change vs. Head Knowledge
Now, you may be here now. I am pretending. Maybe you were raised in this environment, so that's what expected of you. I think of my kids. One of the concerns I had growing up is that they were raised, I think, in such a great home, and certainly in terms of faith, they saw a great role model, for sure, in their mom.
My fear was they'd grow up and go through the actions. Who made you? God made me. They're like a little, you pull the string and they can spit every answer out. By the time that they were seven years old, they knew more than a lot of the people who were teaching them. My fear was they'd know it all, but not have a heart change.
Maybe that's you. Maybe you've been at this thing a long time, but your heart's never been changed. How would I know if your heart was changed? Here you go. You would first be pure, and then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, you wouldn't be a hypocrite.
The Result: Righteous Living
The result is, verse 18, let me read it to you again from the message. You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoys its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor. The seed whose fruit is righteousness, the idea of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. Pretty soon, the fruit of that whole peace around us is sown in righteousness. We see it. We begin to see the fruit.
It doesn't mean even in our life that there won't be moments that there will be a sense of faction, there'll be disharmony, we'll mistreat each other, we'll be mistreated, but it's how do you respond to that? What's your heart? You know your motives. Are you one of those? I want what you have. You have it, I don't want it, but I don't want you to have it. Are you ambitious? And again, next we're going to talk about ambition, but are you ambitious simply because you want it for you? It's all about you?
And the person who has this wisdom that's not natural but supernatural is going, it's not about me, it's about you. It begins with purity of thought and motive, habit, and the purity of God's word. And then, because that's in place, you'll see peace and gentleness and good fruit all around you.
The Spirit's Power
Now, there should be a sense in this moment and place and time where you go, I can't do that. And the reality is, yeah, I can't. But you have the Spirit of the living God in you who can accomplish that.
One of the great moments, Susan didn't get to church again today, and it's been a while for her now. But she will tell you the two things she misses more than anything are the ability to worship together. And I know some of you see that almost as a necessary evil, which is too bad. But the ability to sing
Father, thank you for the truth that we find in Your word. God, I pray that we would be people who would think and act in a way that would not be earthly and natural and demonic, but would be supernatural. That God, we would first be pure, and then the fruit of that present in our life. God, will You do that great work? We know we can't, but You can. So we submit to You, pray to You in Christ's name, amen.