Wisdom Contrasted: Part 4 - James 3:15

Wisdom Contrasted: Part 4 - James 3:15
Written by LaRosa Johnson
Thursday, 03 April 2008

In our previous study, we began our look at worldly wisdom and its components. In verse 14 we learned about the motivation for worldly wisdom's existence, including bitter jealousy and selfish ambition. Much like our adversary was motivated by jealousy and selfishness, so too can we express those same traits in our own lives. As we continue our study, we move on from the worldly wisdom's motivation and begin a study on its characteristics, which we can find in James 3:15. Because of the nature of this particular verse, our time today will be more of a word study so that we can understand why worldly wisdom is characterized by such traits. Let us begin by looking at our passage for today.

Quote :

James 3:15 (NASB) - This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic.

This is a particularly short verse in both length and breadth, but there is still a wealth of truth to be uncovered, considerably so when we begin to look at the full meaning of the latter part of this verse. Before we get ahead of ourselves, though, we must not forget about the first half of the verse, as it too provides a very clear character trait of worldly wisdom. What is this character trait? Just as the verse says, worldly wisdom is not a wisdom that comes from above; in other words, this is not heavenly wisdom that is given by God, His Word, or by His Spirit. As was discussed in verse 14, bitter jealousy, selfish ambition, and arrogance are not to be a part of the believer's life; therefore, if said things are not to be a part of their life, then we can conclude that those things are not from the heavenly places. This does mean that the wisdom has another source of origin, if it is not from God; and this is what the rest of our verse addresses, the source and characteristics of worldly wisdom.

The first thing that we find out about worldly wisdom is that it is "earthly." What does earthly mean? In its most basic sense, without getting too deep, it means that the wisdom is of this world and has its origin here. For most practical purposes, this understanding would do just fine, but let's dig a little deeper and see what we can uncover from the Greek. "Earthly" in the Greek is the word epigeios (Strong's #G1919) and is only used a total of seven times in the entire New Testament. In the New American Standard Bible, it is translated "earthly" four times, while being translated "earthly things" twice, and "earth" only once. It is an adjective and it generally refers to a sense of "belonging to the earth." In our verse, along with Philippians 3:19, the word takes on a negative connotation and speaks of "belonging to the earth" from a perspective of wickedness or sinfulness. In other instances it can take on a more neutral form, such as in John 3:12. There are also references to earthly bodies as found in 1 Corinthians 15:40 and 2 Corinthians 5:1. In our case though, it is indeed the negative rendering, therefore we can characterize worldly wisdom as being sinful and wicked since it belongs to an earthly or fallen realm of knowledge and understanding.

Our next word is "natural" and it takes on much of the same understanding as "earthly" did. For us, we could say that "natural" means that it is something native in origin and commonplace. The Greek word used here is psuchikos (Strong's #G5591) and is translated as natural or worldly-minded, used for a total of six times (with natural being the predominant use of the word). Again, much like "earthly," this is an adjective and it is one that either carries with it a neutral or negative connotation. In its neutral use, it merely refers to the physical, such as the body; this word is most notably used in 1 Corinthians 15:44-46 where Paul is speaking about earthly bodies and contrasting them with resurrection bodies. Earlier in this same letter, Paul uses the same word to speak of those who are of a worldly mindset, calling them natural men in 1 Corinthians 2:14. This is the context in which it is being used in James 3:15 (as well as in Jude 19), where we see that a natural person is one who is lacking any true sense of spirituality or godly influence. Another way to refer to this kind of person would be to call them unspiritual or spiritually blind. So, with that, our next characteristic for worldly wisdom is that it is lacking in spirituality and devoid of godly influence.

Knowing what we know now about worldly wisdom being "earthly" and "natural," our last characteristic seems to fit right in and make perfect sense. Our last word used to describe worldly wisdom is "demonic." This word doesn't need much of a definition, because we know that anything demonic has to deal with the satanic realm of influence and is purely negative and evil. We won't just leave it at that, but we will take a look at the Greek for this word also. Used only here in the New Testament, the Greek word for "demonic" is daimoniodes (Strong's #G1141). This is a rare adjectival form of the word for demon and refers to something being from the devil. With this being the only use of the word in the Bible, we can see that the final characteristic of worldly wisdom is that it is from the devil.

If we were to string these three words together, we would see that their common thread is that they are all sinful, evil, or spiritually lacking in nature. Is that the kind of wisdom that we want to have as believers? Do we really want our wisdom to be characterized as coming from the devil or being wicked? Lord forbid that this be the case in our lives! For all of those who are unregenerate and have not come to know the saving grace of Jesus Christ, this is the only wisdom that they have to go off of, and we can now understand why they make the daily choices that they do. They are influenced by the world's way of thinking which is grounded in sin and wickedness. As believers, we need to put away this wisdom and take on the mind of Christ and walk out our lives in heavenly wisdom, especially now that we know that worldly wisdom is nothing that we want to take part in. We are not done, though, with our look at worldly wisdom, as we need to next focus our attention on the results of worldly wisdom so that we can complete our picture. We will look at that next time; but, until then, keep your armor on and your mind fixed on those things found in Philippians 4:8.

devotion courtesy of Trailblazin Ministries
http://www.trailblazinministries.com/daily-devotions/04-03-2008.php