Published: March 23, 2023 | Speaker: Chuck Hartman | Series: The Epistle of James - Part 8 | Scripture: James 1:5, 3:13-18
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father we do thank you for this time together in your word and with your people we ask that your Holy Spirit would be and with us in a special way not only illuminating your word to our
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understanding but also binding our hearts together hearts together as your people we do pray for our brother Clint and ask that you would Grant him
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stamina and stamina and a will to fight and also that you would Grant the medical professionals skill and uh they would be able to treat this
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cancer successfully as they did the first time father we do pray that you would open your word to us tonight help us to understand what James has written under
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the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and to understand how to apply that to our lives our lives For Your Glory and for our good we ask in Jesus name amen
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our passage this evening in James 3 has to do with wisdom and it is roughly the middle of our time in James week eight so it seemed like a good idea to revisit
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the I the concept of the hermeneutics of James what type
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what type of book is it it comes to us in the form of a letter in that it has the name of the author and um
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and um the identity of the recipients James a bond servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes who
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are dispersed abroad but that's about where the similarity not only to Paul's letters but to
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ancient letters in general ends that greeting that salutation is about all we have that would indicate that it is an epis an epistle
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the things that it lacks it lacks any personal greetings personal greetings or personal references within the letter you know that Paul's letters often have
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lists of greetings or mentioned within the letter of of Vanessa onasiferous or epaphroditus or maybe
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even something like Alexander who did him great wrong but something really personal that ties the author together with those to whom he's writing and even in Romans this church that Paul did not
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found and had not visited nonetheless he knew people that were there and that personal element is is in there it's not in James in James also in the personal letters
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just like a personal letter you would write to a friend there's some indication of why we're writing the letter maybe as as with First Corinthians and
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second Corinthians Paul had heard from people either through letter or by visitation people from Corinth about things going on there and he's addressing those things that's lacking
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in James as well any any type of clear indication as to why I'm writing this letter uh letter uh so as I said the greeting the salutation
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is about the only indication we have that James would fit under the category of epistle of epistle and so most um most modern Scholars as
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they look at James have have come to recognize that it doesn't really fit in that genre and therefore probably shouldn't be read as if it's a letter
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it fits better in the genre of what is called paranesis
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Greek word a combination word that essentially means essentially means ethical exhortation ethical exhortation so the idea of this book is more on
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than it is on Doctrine or any specific issues that are going on now clearly there are some issues going on but they're not um they're not honed enough to be able to
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say that it's a a particular problem within the congregation it's more a general problem that you can easily see would be present in just about any congregation the problem of rich and
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poor that that the problem of favoritism the problem of sickness you know these different things are just not specific enough to say oh yeah that was that was
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the problem with the churches of galatia or yeah Corinth really had a problem with this the churches of the diaspora they're not even identified in terms of the exact location so most Scholars are
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recognizing that what we're dealing with here is actually a form of wisdom
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and we've talked about this many times over the years and and it Bears repeating because their their arose
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in the latter part of the 19th century in the first half of the 20th century a brand of fundamentalism kind of coming out of dispensationalism
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but also reacting against the liberal uh text criticism and higher criticism coming out of Germany there was a reaction against that
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and you have these mantras um the Bible says what it says and means what it means I don't know book but the Bible the literal interpretation of the Bible
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is is the only way to read the book um but the problem with this is that it resulted in um a lack of appreciation
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that the Bible contains multiple different genre of literature that were never intended to be read as if they were the other
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narratives are not supposed to be read like poetry like poetry prophecy is different than law apocalyptic is strange
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is strange okay but it's it's it's also something that was common outside the Bible in that era that era the graphic very Vivid picture word
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pictures of of Doom or of or a victory that's called the apocalyptic and we see it in Ezekiel we see it in Revelation we see it in Zechariah in various places
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but that's not to be read as if you're reading the Book of Judges okay it's it's it's it's not prophecy for example it's not history written ahead of time that's another popular
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misconception that came out of dispensationalism is that prophecy is history written ahead of time no it's not you know prophecy is is not always forth
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telling prophecy is oftentimes just the word of the Lord the Lord okay and the will of the Lord and so um failure to recognize the genre of what
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you're reading will an evolution inevitably lead to a misinterpretation of what you're reading if the Holy Spirit had intended for it to be one
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style of writing then he would have given it in reformed Egyptian to Joseph Smith then it would have been one book and from beginning to end it sounds the same and and or the
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book of or the Quran for example that's not the Bible the Bible is God's self-disclosure mediated through different men over hundreds of years and in different
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styles okay so we accept that for example with a writer like Shakespeare we know he wrote his comedies he wrote his tragedies he wrote his sonnets and
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we don't read us on it like a tragedy but we don't always we think well that sounds pretty liberal you know you just read the Bible and Bible's clear enough by itself
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by itself um no it's not okay there are parts of the Bible as as Peter admitted that Paul himself wrote things hard to understand and we don't need to consider ourselves
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to be wiser than Peter but also but also we need to recognize that that that the diversity of genre so when we're reading something that we think is a letter but
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boy it doesn't really read like a letter and I don't know who it's to and I don't know why it was written and he doesn't seem to know anybody by name maybe it's not a letter
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maybe it's actually a wisdom book A Book Like Ecclesiastes Like Ecclesiastes or a book like job and there are elements of James that sound a lot like proverbs in fact there
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are elements of James that seem to be taken verbatim from some of the proverbs so I think correctly there's been a recognition that what we
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are dealing with here is is a book that fits more within the genre of wisdom literature than it does any other the lack of specific development of Doctrine
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for example for example is that a problem Luther thought it was okay and the others have you know that that James doesn't develop the doctrine
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of justification salvation sanctification uh like Paul does okay so you know what is he hanging his hat on what what is the foundation of his
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ethical exhortations ethical exhortations um well it's the rest of scripture and and when you recognize that it's wisdom literature you realize well that genre
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usually doesn't lay a foundation because the foundation is typically already laid so the foundation is going to be within the Torah the foundation of James as I pointed out
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the beginning of the the session the foundation of James is heavily from Leviticus 19. Leviticus 19. and we see exhortations in James that Echo if not verbatim at least clearly
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the Holiness code in Leviticus 19. so the foundation's already there and many biblical writers saw no need to relay a foundation that had already been laid and especially wisdom literature
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but if you're looking for Doctrine in a wisdom book wisdom book you're gonna you're gonna have a hard time if you're looking for a logical flow of
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development you're going to have a hard time look at the Song of Solomon for example or even Ecclesiastes is not all that clear in terms of trying to outline it but we live in an age and you'll see
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this in just about every commentary that has been written since 1950. the beginning of every chapter will have an outline an outline it's like we got this outline itis
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we've got to outline everything okay um and as I've said earlier you know I have a little outline that I'm following but I made it clear that I absolutely do not
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think James even had an outline you know that was not an issue in the ancient world and it certainly wasn't an issue in terms of wisdom literature so
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we're dealing with a book that is heavily ethical and and maybe um I won't say disproportionately but a
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very heavy proportion of application versus Doctrine versus Doctrine and again that has caused people to have trouble with James because it doesn't lay out what we consider to be the
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essentials of the faith it just it simply talks about them or talks about how we ought to live
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as if we already knew all the doctrine okay so okay so um several authors the interesting article I came across this past week um by a guy by the name of Gary Holloway
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entitled James as New Testament wisdom literature and he writes
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the Book of James is Loosely organized tying together related ethical teachings by use of repeated terms and familiar proverbs as in the Book of Proverbs it is difficult to find an overarching theme
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in James in James or to divide the book into major sections instead James repeatedly comes back to a few important subjects although most studies proceed verse by
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verse through James another profitable way of understanding the book is to look at it tip topically well I felt really good reading that because that's what we've been doing for
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seven weeks okay but he's right every commentator I have goes verse by verse starting in James 1 verse 1. verse 1. and what's what's ironic is that most of
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them have a lengthy introductory section where they do exactly what we're doing and that is look at things topically
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Holloway lays out uh some of his own he says Holloway suggests seven major topics one wonders if the number seven was subliminally chosen he says patience wisdom the rich and
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poor the tongue prayer sickness and sin faith and works okay that's kind of what we're looking at I mean the themes of James are not that
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hard to find the problem is is that when you try to put them in some type of systematic order it doesn't work because they keep popping up
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in different places and so I I think the way we're approaching it is I think it's correct we're looking at it more as a tapestry
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where these themes are threads that are woven through to paint a picture the picture is the life of a Believer who is walking in pure and undefiled
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religion right walking by faith Yuri like today I suppose it's very preaching as the litmus test for a good church expository preaching is a litmus test
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for a good church I think it should be but I also think that we need to examine what expository means does expository must expository mean verse by verse
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that's how it's often isn't it synonymous basically when you say oh we preach expository well that means you go verse by verse well absolutely if the book lends itself to verse by verse
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but we have to remember we're not told in scripture to preach verse by verse through a book that the benefit of expository preacher preaching and and I
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I'm all for it is it it prevents a preacher from preacher from hammering the same nail every week okay or or basically preaching from the
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newspaper what's the latest I know that the newspaper what's a newspaper uh you know you know preaching the latest hot button issue okay so I think it it was a
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a great blessing of the reformation and zwingley is the one who kind of started it I think he was in Matthew wasn't it Matthew that he started at Great Mister he just started preaching Matthew 1
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verse 1 and then and the people were shocked what's he doing okay there is a tremendous benefit of doing that okay however and and I I there's one of the things in
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seminary that I did agree with there are some books that are not really preachable really preachable they're not edifying to be preached all
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scripture is edifying to be read but and maybe even to be studied but not necessarily preached necessarily preached um sometimes if you go verse by verse through a book
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you lose the forest for the trees you you are you become You Come Away with an incredible knowledge of Michelangelo or Da Vinci's brush
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stroke do you have no idea what the painting is okay because you spend so much time on a word you know this was this was kind of the reformed tradition is you know we really unpack okay well
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that's okay but are you losing sight of what the holy spirit is because you know when when Paul said have my letter read
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doesn't that mean red probably in one reading and probably multiple times okay um now I again you know that that
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doesn't mean we don't study the scripture we don't unpack words this is that we need to be careful that we don't think that we've hit upon the the the true and only method
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or sometimes preaching topically is the right thing to do sometimes preaching a word is the right thing to do so we have to look at the definition what does expository mean well what it
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means is that the content of the sermon comes from the scripture right it's it's exposited from the scriptures exegesis it's not isagesis
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and we don't use the scripture simply as a a launching pad for whatever the preacher wants to say that's expository preaching but I think Holloway is right
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in that and and this is was my conclusion which is why I think he's right okay is that in looking at and preparing for the class and reading and reading and reading and thinking
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I can't outline this I've read the outlines of of half a dozen at least different commentators and each one I thought was very forced
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okay it was it did not it did not flow naturally from the text as some outlines do and and so I think we look at these topics but see that is actually the
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essential characteristic of wisdom literature try to outline job try to understand job
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okay and and in job a number of themes particularly the suffering of the righteous but a number of themes show up again and again only it's a different
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speaker that that's the mechanism that that job uses it it's not necessarily a different topic but now it's build ad or now it's job or in here comes Elijah
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where was he all this time you know it it that's wisdom literature same thing with Ecclesiastes okay so I I think looking at things topically it's it's an encouraging
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endorsement of a thematic approach to the book the book which we've been taking and and hopefully it's it's going to be beneficial Andreas costenberger says
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the purpose of biblical wisdom biblical wisdom sought in the first place to provide guidance for living by profounding rules of moral order
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and in the second place to explore the meaning of life through reflection speculation and debate it includes not only the accumulation of
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knowledge but above all the skill to discern how to apply the principles of Godly wisdom to specific situations now have you often said that um
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wisdom is knowledge applied yeah you've heard that that statement and I think there's a lot of Truth in that but wisdom is definitely
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um a lived out phenomenon no one is wise in their study
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they are wise in their life and that that is what James brings out in chapter three very very powerfully when he asks the question who is wise and understanding among you
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let him show it with good deeds in the meekness of wisdom or the meekness of righteousness okay so wisdom is is not somebody sitting on the top of a mountain in a
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toga that everybody comes to that's knowledge that's knowledge wisdom is something that is lived out in life
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in life and in fact that's where wisdom is truly tested it cannot be measured in a in an isolated environment it can only be measured in interpersonal
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relationships so and that's what James is saying to us in James chapter 3. so revisiting this concept that this is a book of wisdom it is very very similar to another
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wisdom section and that is The Sermon on the Mount the Mount Now The Sermon on the Mount as it's preserved to us because it's highly likely that Jesus
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had a lot more to say that day than what we have written because what we have written could have been said in about 15 or 20 minutes and we know that he spoke with the
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crowds and taught them and that's fine because the Holy Spirit guided what we have but what we have are really little vignettes that each one contains a a wealth of
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wisdom that needs to be unpacked from the rest of scripture so blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth well that's not all that's not it
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that that's that's like a very distilled concentrated truth concentrated truth that the rest of scripture then unpacks and unfolds and illuminates and so if
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you look at um The Sermon on the Mount there's a comparison in your notes on page 133 between the various topics in
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and comparable ones in The Sermon on the Mount now we know that at the time James the Lord's brother was not a believer but we also know that Jesus's mother and
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his siblings did often travel and we're often close by and being that The Sermon on the Mount was in Galilee it's highly likely that James was there
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first of all it's also highly likely that Jesus didn't teach that Sermon Just Once okay that's something that liberal
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Scholars have a problem with that whenever he whenever we read something that's kind of the same but a little bit different well it must have been a different author okay no
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they obviously don't know any preachers like we never saying the same thing twice okay or never preach the same Passage okay Jesus taught
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for three years in various settings and pretty much all the time the time and so and so he must have said these things over and over again and James would have heard it James would have would have heard this
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teaching and remembered it even from his unbelieving days so that when he became a Believer when he became a disciple of his his Earthly half-brother he
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remembered these things that Jesus had interestingly has two sides
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it can be looked at for the individual and it has two sides and it can be looked at looked at from its source and also it has two sides or two sources so looking at it in
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the individual wisdom is presented to us in scripture as something that we should actively
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vigorously pursue vigorously pursue wisdom literature wisdom literature encourages us and exhorts us to do so okay so wisdom is
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an active and vigorous
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starting in verse 1 my son if you receive my words and treasure my commands within you so that you incline your ear to wisdom and apply your heart to understanding yes if you cry out for WIS for
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discernment and lift up your voice for understanding if you seek her as silver and search for her as for Hidden Treasures this is a crescendo you don't just start by listening to
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your dad your dad you know it becomes an active vigorous Pursuit then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God
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so wisdom is presented um oftentimes in Proverbs as a woman and Folly is also presented as a woman
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and the choice is given to the young man to choose the virtuous woman and not the Harlot to choose wisdom and not folly
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and so wisdom is in a sense it's clearly presented to us in scripture as a work as an effort and as a very very vigorous
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one wisdom does not come with age okay oftentimes we confuse ourselves with wine and cheese
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we do not improve with age okay if if there is not proper fermentation and sealing then we become vinegar you know not a delicious vintage
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um and so it's it's just come you know this idea that um you know the proverb said the the gray hairs well you know gray hairs should mean wisdom
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but they don't always and and scripture tells us this is it's not just going to come to you how do you know anybody who has lived enough life to know better
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but but doesn't okay you know so that that thought we just need to get rid of right away because that's not a Biblical approach to wisdom at all
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at all wisdom needs to start when you were a young man my son okay and if it doesn't start there then you're going to be behind the curve the rest of the way
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let's say you start in your 40s well you know if by God's grace that's when you are saved and you don't have much choice in the matter but if in fact you have been in the Lord
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for you know since your teens and you finally decide now that you have children you better get a little wisdom you're going to be behind the curve the whole time I mean it's better to start then than when you're in your 70s
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but that's not what the Proverbs presents us with it's it's the young man who's being told to do make these choices because if you don't you're going to go down a path and
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frankly I think that's the essence of Ecclesiastes is someone who pursued a path the end of which had him so far from God that he could barely see him
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and couldn't see his way back okay so it's like an anti-wisdom not just Folly but an anti-wisdom so we see it as a vigorous Pursuit but
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it's the gift of God and in fact no man can attain it apart from the gift of God okay so it is both an active and
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vigorous Pursuit and it is only attained
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Proverbs 2 continues for the Lord gives wisdom from his mouth came not come knowledge and understanding he stores up sound wisdom for the upright he is a shield to those who walk uprightly he guards the
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paths of justice and preserves the way of his Saints then you will understand righteousness and Justice equity in every good path the Lord gives wisdom
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James says if any man lacks wisdom let him ask him ask okay let him ask who God so you see it's very much like the rest
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of our life in Christ isn't it work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is the Lord who is at work within you both the will and to do according to his will
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his will his pleasure okay it's not either or it's both and so um that's that's the one of the Dual Natures of wisdom as it reflects on the
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individual the other one that is presented to us especially in James but also in Proverbs is the source
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and we'd like to think that it's so obviously Wicked that we can recognize it but it's not
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and it often passes for biblical wisdom and Christian teaching you'll hear it you'll hear it on Christian talk radio you'll hear it in Christian Counseling
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you'll hear it from pulpits it sounds good but it's not biblical it's not based on the scripture it's based on human understanding even
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though biblical wisdom says lean not upon your own understanding we still do so and I'm not saying that all radio
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Christian talk shows and all no it's there though
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wisdom because it's not obviously always obviously wrong obviously wrong okay also because if the world lives according to biblical principles
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they'll tend to do better than the world that doesn't live according to biblical principles he who sows his field shall not lack bread does that only work for Christians
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no it works for everyone right now honor your father and mother so that it might go well with you upon the earth does that only work for Christians no no it's basically you know a society
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in which the elders the parents are honored is usually a healthier better Society than one within not is that a fair statement fair statement because it's what it's wise
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but it goes the other way around too the world is subtle and the prince of this age is the most subtle of God's creatures and so worldly wisdom is not necessarily
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recognizable or at least not easily recognizable Paul says in First Corinthians chapter 2 he says however we speak wisdom among those who are mature yet not the wisdom of
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this age that's what he's talking about here nor of the rulers of this age who are coming to nothing but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery the hidden
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wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our Glory which none of the rulers of this age knew for had they known they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory these things we also speak
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not in Words which man's Wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches comparing spiritual things with spiritual but the natural man does not receive the
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things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness to him nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned so there's that a dichotomy
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between the wisdom of this age and the wisdom that comes from God and James and James is going to allude to this so for
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example when he says you who say tomorrow we will go here or there or trade and make a profit that's the wisdom of this age and he says you fool
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okay the the man who who had a bumper crop and said I'll tear down my Barns and build bigger that's the wisdom of this age this age and that night he's he was told you fool
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your life will be required of you okay there there are those I mean is it wrong then to reinvest profit into your
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business no let's see that see what I'm saying it's not obviously wrong to do that I mean that's certainly wiser than spending it on a yacht or a swimming pool or something like that right
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it's like it boils down to so don't be an idiot because even the sons of this world have this that's right and what is
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I think so that the connection we're not we're not saying that that anything about what they're doing is is wisdom from above from above it's basically like you were saying like the scripture says even the Gentiles do
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that okay so don't be proud don't boast that you have that kind of wisdom that's not the wisdom that we're talking about here and and it is the lack of well in
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James's terms I would say it's the lack of meekness of meekness meekness becomes a centerpiece for James's the manifestation of wisdom
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in James's thought okay which is not something that you're going to hear from the worldly philosophers okay so the other
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the the other side of this dichotomy is this idea of from above
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now the word it's it's one word in the Greek I know thin
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in two significant places in James chapter 1 verse 17 where he says every good and perfect gift comes from above
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is from above coming down from the Father of Lights with whom there is no variation or shining or shifting Shadow and then in chapter 3 in this section we're going to be looking at on wisdom he says but the wisdom from above is
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first pure than Peaceable General reasonable full of mercy and good fruits unwavering and without hypocrisy from above okay
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um from above ties in with it only comes from God From Below
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From Below is the wisdom of this age and it's and it's true that the actual action activity might look exactly the same
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okay Lord Lord did we not cast out demons in your name depart from me you Wicked I've never knew you it looks
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the same the same so which is why I think James says if any of you lack wisdom well one part of wisdom is recognizing wisdom okay in fact it might even be not the
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beginning because that's the fear of the Lord we don't want but the second step is to recognize the difference between these two because they're you know the
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um this one does not come to us in a red outfit with horns and a tail okay it looks good it sounds reasonable
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but it's not right and the only way we can know that as as children of God is to know our father's will to know our father's mind and the only way we can know our
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father's mind is by immersing ourself in his disclosure and that is his word and not just the doctrine but how he handled Sodom and Gomorrah
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how he handled the rebellion of Korah how he handled Moses who struck the rock instead of speaking to us like wow really how he handled job
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okay it's not easy it's a lifetime which is why we're supposed to start young in pursuing wisdom because he has to start young and giving it to
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us if we're going to have any measure worth the church at any point in our lives so wisdom literature and James as an example of it is is
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really a challenge for us first to recognize the difference between the two and then choose one rather than the
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um probably reading back into what Nicodemus says in response how can a man re-enter his okay and and
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that's the only thing I can think of is that they're looking at the whole passage and saying Nicodemus saw it as being born again okay regeneration okay regeneration um and that's not necessarily wrong but
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I think in in expositing that word you would bring out the fact that it literally means from above which Nicodemus should have seen Jesus
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then says are you a teacher of Israel and don't know these things okay no you're not going to go back into your mother's womb that's that which is of the flesh is flesh right
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what we're talking about is one of the spirit and that's a very good reference because we're gonna we're gonna talk about um here in fact immediately where does this wisdom come from we see that it
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comes from above and it's only what God gives us but what is it really materially if we if we can use that word
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what constitutes biblical wisdom within the believer the believer well have you ever noticed how little James has to say about the Holy Spirit
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nothing actually unless you interpret um as some do chapter 4 verse 5 where he says the spirit let me read it
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or do you think that the scripture speaks to no purpose he jealously desires the spirit which he has made to dwell in US and in The New American Standard it's
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um I don't think that's what James is talking about here we've talked about that a few weeks back many many do however they think it's the holy spirit that he calls to dwell in us but that
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would be the only I think reference that James would make to the holy spirit in his letter and that has bothered people and and especially in our
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um day and age there's a tremendous amount of retrograde movement from Biblical Christianity even within supposedly Evangelical
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churches and so we're ever since the again the the late 19th century and the higher criticism coming out of Germany and both in in Great Britain and especially in
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the United States a large segment of evangelicalism has become hypersensitive become hypersensitive to saying everything the right way
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and if you don't say it the right way then all of a sudden our radar goes up and this is not necessarily a bad thing we should be on our toes but we also need to be careful that we don't think the way we say it is
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necessarily the right way because sometimes our denominational framing of a Doctrine becomes a shibboleth and unless you say it that way
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you're already outside not recognizing that the same thing can be said a different way in fact much of the scripture is telling us the same thing in different ways wisdom is
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multifaceted biblical wisdom God is infinitely deep infinitely deep and so we have to be careful but not necessarily reactive
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suspicion is not discernment yeah that's that's a good point and and yet we we do tend suspicion is very knee-jerk uh I'm I'm reading Agatha Christie uh Mysteries to James
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to James um after lunch on Thursdays we read a chapter or two of of a mystery and um it's always the Foreigner
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especially if he's an Italian but only if murder was done with a knife because we Italians didn't know how to use any other instrument but a knife but it's always a foreigner not with Paul row of course he is one all right but with the
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you know with the bumpkins it's always the four suspicion but that's not discernment that's not wisdom in fact that's not even knowledge okay so um
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we read James and we see a certain lack of of Doctrine and and mention of the Holy Spirit and here he is he's talking about works you know in chapter two and faith without works is dead and it's
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like well boy you know maybe he's off base maybe he's he's really into this legalism and this works salvation but then again if we realize that this is
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probably wisdom literature will recognize the similarities between what he says for example in chapter 3 about the fruit of true wisdom
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and Galatians chapter 5 where Paul talks about the Fruit of the Spirit and we'll see that just like in Proverbs when wisdom is personified
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he's essentially interchanging wisdom with the Holy Spirit who is the gift from above and without whom there is no wisdom he
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is the spirit of wisdom okay so again we we recognize that okay he's coming at it a different way but that does not mean that he's wrong or even worse heretical
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um a couple of of notes from a couple of different writers different articles uh one article by um a fellow by the name of Kirk which actually is entitled
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um a hypothesis concerning the interchangeability of wisdom and the Holy Spirit In the book of James so that's a nice long title and he says
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this the trials and the wisdom are both things that come to the Brethren from the outside the outside The Trials come from as a natural result of living in the world
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they give the Matrix out of which Faith may be perfected we talked about that in chapter one chapter one the wisdom comes as a result of asking asking in the spirit of that Faith which
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is already being tested in the furnace of Trials of Trials it will be fairly obvious from this that in order to meet the trials and especially to meet them with joy a man
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needs more than faith he needs a power from outside himself usually referred to in the New Testament in terms of the spirit but here referred to as wisdom
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now that's a summary there's there's more background more background one author says indeed in James wisdom functions as the Holy Spirit does in the rest of the New Testament
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and there are a number of correlations between what James says about wisdom and you know for example Jesus saying if if you who are evil know how to give
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good gifts to your sons your children how much more will your father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask the holy spirit is the greatest gift
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from God from God that is the great gift and and so uh if we were looking at this as strictly a doctrinal work
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doctrinal work yeah we might be troubled by the fact that he doesn't seem to be very trinitarian here trinitarian here but again recognizing the genre and then comparing it you know um Psalm 8 is all about wisdom
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I was with him at the beginning okay who is that that's the Sun it lets Jesus okay so we recognize the
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personification of wisdom in that why do we recognize that because we know that Proverbs is wisdom literature and that's part of that genre well then we come over to James and we think it's
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a straightforward letter that he's writing you know because we don't know that James is Solomon whatever and we find a no that's not the genre at all he's doing exactly the same thing that we're seeing in these other recognized
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wisdom books and keep in mind that within the first century and really the the centuries the two centuries
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surrounding the birth of Christ Not only was apocalyptic a common genre outside the Bible so was wisdom
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so the Ben sirach is a book of wisdom and so you have a number of apocryphal books written at that time that I'm sure James would have read they were very
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popular they weren't Canon but they were still well read and they were wisdom literature so this this genre I I guess that's kind of the difficulty in in reading the Bible
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in a different age we don't have the same genre of literature so for example let's say we read the word mystery
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what we think in terms of what a mystery is today is today something that needs to be solved no it's something that is to be revealed
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something hidden to be revealed not something unknown to be solved it's not a puzzle it's not a riddle it's to be revealed it's to be unpacked
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and so the words that we read in our English we then associate with our experience of that word not realizing that it's completely different than when it
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was actually written and hopefully we accept that the meaning of the word is first and foremost it's meaning when the document was written not its meaning 2 000 years later right
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most of us accept that kind of that's why we don't use the King James anymore right because many of the English words that are in the King James don't mean
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now what they meant them right in fact some of them mean the opposite of what they meant then and what they meant then is what's
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important so and that's why we do study uh the whole scripture so that we can recognize we can hear the Echoes of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes when
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we read James okay we can read we hear the Echoes Leviticus when we read Hebrews okay if we haven't read those other books that we haven't uh built that
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Foundation then we come to the New Testament and we we have no sound chamber the words that we read just bounce off the walls and really the only frame of
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reference that we have for understanding him is our own which is not sufficient okay so okay so um it's very important I think to recognize that personification of wisdom
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is a common feature in wisdom literature and so the holy spirit is to James or the wisdom is to James much like the
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Holy Spirit to Paul
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keep yourself I think it does I do um I think there's just like apocalyptic where you have books like Revelation or Ezekiel that are almost entirely
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apocalyptic then you have sections in Daniel in in uh in Zechariah I think the same is true with wisdom the sermon on the mound is certainly not the gospel
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of Matthew of Matthew it's it's a it's a unique section same thing with the Olivet discourse and I do think that the shorter letters are full of wisdom
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written by men who who have been tested by time by time okay and that's really what we're going to get into now with the actual section of scripture in James 3 13-18
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he presents to us the two wisdoms he says but he starts out who among you is wise and understanding
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he's not looking for a show of hands not even not even me you mean pick me no this is actually a challenge
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because what he's getting at is there there are there are two ways by which wisdom is recognized by others and by ourselves
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he's talking to the ones who are recognizing it themselves who among you he's really saying examine yourself do you think yourself wise and
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understanding now many commentators and and I tend to agree with them link verse 13 back to verse 1. verse 1. where Paul says let not many of you become teachers my brethren knowing that
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as such we shall incur a stricter judgment well what do those among you who consider themselves wise in understanding become
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teachers well in ancient Greece they became philosophers right in Rome they became and so he's saying essentially the same thing now what he's saying is true for
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all believers all believers but what he's saying is in particular true to those who would set themselves up as teachers I've often said that no one runs for
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high political office unless they have a messiah complex messiah complex because you know you hear it every four years oh he has such a messiah complex don't they all I mean listen to them
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vote for me for I will save the world I mean that's a messiah complex folks you don't use the word but you defined it okay well okay well people who put themselves forward
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especially in the church as teachers
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oftentimes all they have is a degree or a certificate of ordination and that's what James is getting at here first of all in verse 1 think twice think twice because that's how many judgments you
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will have two everyone else will have one you'll have two you'll have a judgment for the Deeds Done in your flesh as a Believer and
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then you're teaching you're teaching okay so think twice before becoming a teacher but okay you recognize that
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now think about your claim to wisdom and understanding now obviously I'm talking to myself I wouldn't be standing up here if I
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didn't think I had some wisdom and understanding that would be malpractice wouldn't it I mean you don't want it's it may sound like Pride but it's
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just reality you do you all do it every day at work right you do what you do because you think you know what you're right in a sense you think you have wisdom and
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understanding with the regard to what it is you're doing it's just that what I'm doing and what what Mark is doing is in the household of God
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and so there's a different criteria there's a different test and James says who among you is wise and understanding let him show by his good behavior his
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deeds in the gentleness or meekness I wish they'd knew American Standard had used the word meekness because that's the word it's the same word in Matthew
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5. okay so it's meekness of wisdom and also the word good here is not the common term
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agathas it is a less common one kelos agathos is it speaks of intrinsic goodness something is is good it's just good
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whereas the other word speaks more of something that is lovely in other words one has an inner meaning the other an outward
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now the outward without the inward is the definition of hypocrisy so that's not what James where James is going here but what he's saying is this is not the inner goodness of the heart which only
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God can see but it is the outer visible goodness that men can see again only God knows if that correlation
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is true is true but if there is no outward loveliness then there is no wisdom and understanding at all difficult okay so he's using words here
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that are a little bit unique some of the words that he uses here is the only place in the New Testament in this section and he goes on to describe then in verse 14 through 16 and then 17 through 18.
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these two wisdoms he starts with the worldly and look at how he addresses it but if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart the word selfish ambition is
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one of those hopox meaning the only place the word is found one one use okay now that's in the Bible it's used elsewhere in the Greek
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and and this this is a shocker it's typically used in reference to
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self-seeking because that's almost the essential characteristic of a politician I mean throughout the ages it was no different in Greece and Rome than it is
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now okay it's a it's a um a very dangerous place for a Believer to be is in politics there's a temptation to self-seeking is
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very strong very strong but it's also strong in the pulpit or really any leadership position but some are worse than others because some
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because some by giving by giving vent and and and room to that self-seeking will inevitably do harm to others
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and that's the way it is in the church because those who are self-seeking will sow bitterness jealousy
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within the congregation they will not be able to Rejoice one other Rejoice or mourn with other when others they will rejoice when others
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mourn because they will see that as somehow accruing back to themselves that they're doing better than their brother but they cannot rejoice when another is praised because that detracts from their
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Glory okay that's what he's getting at here so and this is very outward isn't it it's very interpersonal that's why I said wisdom is not on the top of the mountain some some fellow all by himself that we go look for no wisdom
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biblical wisdom is lived out in the life of the community and it's visible and this is how we recognize it there's a negative way of recognizing it
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and then there's a positive way of