“If you are wise and understand God”s ways, live a life of steady goodness…” James 3:13 (NLT). The English Standard Version states it as a question; “Who is wise and understands among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.” I am amused that it seems so hard to accept that the Wisdom of God is to be treated in a humble, meek or quiet manner. Is it not strange that to think that to do other than good deeds is wisdom? Is it difficult to imagine that God wants us to quietly go about doing good without fanfare or boasting about it?
We are to quietly serve God, not bring prideful attitudes with them. The goodness is to be a “just” and “holy” response to the Grace of God and the reaction to the presence of Christ in our lives.
In the same manner, if we express an unkindness to others who go about doing the works of Christ that we are unable or unwilling to do ourselves with bitterness or jealousy, what good are our works to God? They have no purpose and grant us no merit before Christ. If we would present ourselves ahead of the mission of Christ by seeking attention for our works, that is the only reward we would receive. It is not wisdom that rises ourselves up. it is living a lie before God. Selfishness and jealousy aren’t of Christ, therefore they must come from outside Wisdom. They are lies of contempt of God, motivated by unrighteousness. They come from Satan to destroy our peace with God.
When the selfish things take root, we seek to destroy the body of Christ. We choose to alienate ourselves from the Goodness of God and invite every kind of evil into the body of Christ called the church.
Wisdom comes from the most High God. It is to be feared, that is respected, at all costs because Wisdom is pure! Wisdom is the advocacy of the Holy Spirit. It is the guidance of prudence and the foundation of strength. James 3:17 starts with, “Wisdom that comes from heaven is pure.” Moses told the Children of Israel, “See I have taught you statutes and rule, as the LORD your God commanded me, that you should do them in the land…keep them and do them for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the people…” (Deut. 4:5-6). While God may speak Wisdom to some as the prophets, and to grant wisdom to others like Solomon, true wisdom is the Word of God residing in our hearts. The Law of God, the Good News of Jesus and the writings of the apostles are the Wisdom of God given to man that they might have peace with God.
Obeying God’s law is the first step in receiving Wisdom, loving the law of love that comes from God in the living in wisdom. Without being constantly in the Word, without loving the testimonies of the Law, we will never grow in Wisdom. Just as a tree can’t grow without the nutrients provided by the rain, we can not grow without the Word feeding us daily. We can not increase in wisdom without being fed by God’s Word.
So let us be like Moses who said in Psalm 90. “Teach us to number our days so that we may get a heart of Wisdom.” Let us count each day as wiser in the understanding of our Lord. Let us rise up with a heart of Christ and search the Word for that which makes us wiser than when we went to bed. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom. All who practice it have a good understanding.” (Psalm 111:10) The fear is the respect for what is of God. This awe of God and His Understanding causes us to delve into His mysteries so that we understand that it is Love that motivates God.
One of my favorite Sci Fi writers, Orson Scott Card wrote in his book, Xenocide “Real gods would want to teach you how to be just like them.” That is why we know that Our God is the True God, He wants us to be just like Him. He wants us to have His Wisdom and His Love so that we can be welcomed into the Kingdom of Heaven as equals to His Son, Jesus. The Fear of the Lord is not to be afraid but to be amazed at how He is so real to us that He wants us to be just as He is. Give to God the honor of the first love, that He has for us. Even before we were created, He loved us by name. We are to have that same Spirit of Love so that we will seek to learn all that is pleasing to God for we were created for His pleasure.
Solomon says in Proverbs 2, “Turn your ears to wisdom, and concentrate on understanding.(vs 2) …Search for them as you would for lost money or hidden treasure. Then you will understand what it means to fear the LORD, and you will have knowledge of God. For the Lord grants Wisdom!(vs 4-6a) He grants a treasure of good sense to the Godly…(vs 7).” Wisdom is not for the lazy or the those who walk in the nature of sin. This is because Wisdom is the gift, a Grace of God. Because, as James tells us, Wisdom is peaceful, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy. It is not quarrelsome, but impartial, a good judge of motives and actions. And Wisdom is sincere! Wisdom is not petty or flighty nor does it change its mind with the winds of time. Wisdom is constant and withstands the climates of change remaining the same for the beginning to the end. The Wisdom of God remains just as it was before creation or God would not have been able to be who He is. What is truly wise today was as wisdom to Moses, Solomon, and to Isaiah, who said, “The LORD God gave us the tongue of those who taught that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary.” Isaiah was speaking not of himself but of Christ Jesus. and by the words of Jesus we are sustained. We are given rest who are weary and strength when we are weakened by the World.
Zophar, in his complaint to Job, mocked him for claiming to be pure in the sight of God and righteous enough to say “I am clean!” But then he protested that if God wanted to He would speak to him and tell him the “secrets of Wisdom.” But God did just that for us. he gave us the Word to live by, He gave us the Good News of His Salvation and the teachings of both the prophets and the Law givers and the testimonies of the saints in the early Church.
We have the Wisdom of the Bible! The Word of God tells us how to be wise, it shows us when we are foolish and reckless. When we listen with our minds and our hearts to the lessons given to us by Christ and His lesson of life, we are beginning in Wisdom. When we reject His teachings, we are being foolish and reject God. Isaiah told us, “…The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him – The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of (regard for) the LORD. He will delight in obeying the LORD. He will never judge by appearance, false evidence, or hearsay. He will defend the poor and the exploited….He will be clothed with fairness and truth.”(Isaiah 11:2-5)
And as Christ is the fulfillment of the prophecy, we are to be the fulfillment of Christ.
Jesus told us to, “This will be your opportunity to bear witness. Settle it in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict.” (Luke 21:13-15) In this age of persecution and trials, being wise in the Word of God will defend us. Even if we lose our lives because of the world, we gain Life. No man, no matter how wicked, can destroy that which God has commanded. We have gone through this many times in the past and we will endure it many times more, but the Wisdom of God remains the same and Christ Jesus and the Holy Sprite will forever prevail. We will speak and live in Wisdom by The Grace of God and be sustained by His Love. The Love of the Lord God is to be enjoyed and shared even to those who despise Him.
Paul writes, “Because of Him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us, Wisdom from God.” (1 Cor. 1:30) “Yet among the mature we do not impart wisdom, although it not a wisdom of the age, or the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory.” (1 Cor 2:6-7) “…the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you…(Eph 1:17-18)
Wisdom trains us to “…promote the kind of living that reflects right teaching. (Titus2:1)And we are instructed to turn from godless living and sinful pleasures. We should live in this evil world with self-control, right conduct, and devotion to God, while we look forward to the wonderful event when the glory of our Great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be revealed.” (Titus 2:12-13)
So while we are not to boast, as with the way of self-worship and vanity, we are to walk in the Wisdom of Christ, to live in the Way of the LORD God, and to share in the fruits of the Wisdom of the Most High, that we are to be as much like Him as is possible. We are to live in the promise that God wants us to be just as He is, Wise and understanding in Truth and Grace. The purpose of God giving us Wisdom is that we might live in Peace with Him for eternity.
