James series – “The Litmus Test for life”

James 3:13-16

If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom. ¹⁴ But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don’t cover up the truth with boasting and lying. ¹⁵ For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. ¹⁶ For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind.

As we continue in the series “The Litmus Test for Life” James moves from words to wisdom something the church is desperately lacking today. Because wisdom comes from God’s Word and few spend time studying the scriptures. Sadly many Christians are more influenced by the Media than the Master. The real question we should be asking is not just are we in His Word but is His Word in us? Its here in James 3:13 that James reveals two kinds of wisdom. One that is based on the world and the other on God’s Word. We will start with worldly wisdom where we will see what a test failing wisdom looks. Then we will look at wisdom that comes from the Word and see what a test passing wisdom looks like. Why do we need Godly wisdom, because wisdom determines our walk. My pray as we walk through the wisdom test together is that we will trust in the true wisdom that only comes from God’s Word and not a test failing wisdom that comes from the world. 

INTRODUCTION – Vs 13

We all know that there is a big difference between being book-smart and being wise. Knowledge is not wisdom. Wisdom is the proper use of knowledge. Knowledge comes from learning but wisdom comes from the Lord. If you lack knowledge, go to school, but if you lack wisdom, get on your knees. Remember James 1:5 says ”If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you.” We need to be careful that we don’t confuse the knowledge with wisdom. While there is an abundance of knowledge in this world that we all benefit from, there is an atrophy of wisdom. Man may unlock the secrets of the universe, but he does not know what to do with them. Think about the quantum leaps being made in all areas of knowledge, from the medical field to computers. It’s estimated that medical knowledge, for example, doubles every seven years, and scientific knowledge doubles every twenty years. The total written knowledge in the world is said to have doubled between 1450 and 1750, and then to have doubled again between 1750 and 1900. Between 1900 and 1950, human knowledge doubled once more, and then again from 1950 to 1975. Now, it is believed to double every 900 days and shortly it is predicted to double every 72 days. But what are we doing with that knowledge? Now while there is a difference between knowledge and wisdom there are also different kinds of wisdom. James starts by describing two kinds of wisdom, what he calls worldly wisdom and the wisdom from above. That is man’s wisdom and the kind of wisdom that can only come from God. It’s here that we discover a powerful principle, your walk reflects your wisdom. Either you will walk according to the ways of the world or according to God’s Word. Faith in God means interpreting everything through his word, not interpreting his word through everything in the world. Now contrary to what the world says, you don’t have to be smart to pass the wisdom test you have to be surrendered to God’s Word. One of the reasons we often fail the wisdom test is because we worry about what other people will think. This leads to us trying to look wise in the eyes of the world instead of caring about how wise we are in the eyes of God. Many of us live foolish lives because we choose to walk according to the wisdom of the world instead of God’s Word.