Wisdom Contrasted: Part 5 - James 3:16

Wisdom Contrasted: Part 5 - James 3:16
Written by LaRosa Johnson
Friday, 04 April 2008

Over the course of our past two studies, we have looked very intensely at the wisdom of this world by investigating both its motivation and characteristics. Today, we are taking our final look at the wisdom of this world, this time looking at its results, before finishing up with the characteristics of heavenly wisdom. In order to discover the results of worldly wisdom we must go to the Word of God, more specifically James 3:16.

Quote :

James 3:16 (NASB) - For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing.

Again, just like in James 3:15, we have a very short passage of Scripture that is packed full of biblical truth. Our passage begins with James reiterating the jealousy and selfishness that motivate worldly wisdom, and then goes on to say that wherever these kind of motivations exist that is where you will find the results and consequences of worldly wisdom. What are those consequences? We see them in the second half of the verse, which states, "disorder and every evil thing." So, wherever we find worldly wisdom, we can expect to find disorder and a wide variety of evil that comes as a result. Let us now take time to unpack the Scripture and see exactly what James means by "disorder and every evil thing."

First up is "disorder," and this is not a new word for us; we have already had this word twice before in our study (James 1:8; 3:. The Greek word here is akatastasia (Strong's #G181) and has a basic meaning of instability. As we can see in James 1:8 this word is translated as "unstable," whereas in James 3:8 we have it translated as "restless." It is noteworthy to state that the other passages mentioned use the root form of the word (Strong's #G182), while our verse here uses a variation of that root; either way, our definition still remains the same. With worldly wisdom, we can see that we can expect nothing short of instability and chaos. Again, this is nothing that should be a trait of God's people; instead, we are informed from Scripture that God is not the author of such things, but of peace (1 Corinthians 14:33). If we serve a God of peace, then our lives should demonstrate that, as opposed to the opposite, which is disorder and instability. Just looking back at our James references, we see the kind of person that characterizes having worldly wisdom. In James 1:8 we see that a double-minded man is unstable in his ways. Why is that? It's because he is relying on his own worldly wisdom instead of relying upon the wisdom of God, thus having a mind that is indecisive. With James 3:8 we see that the tongue is a restless evil full of poison; again, this is another trait of someone who is operating in worldly wisdom. A person who is unable to control his tongue and allowing it to have free reign is only going to promote further disorder and misconduct.

Not only does disorder come as a result of worldly wisdom, but we also see that it is followed by every evil thing. What is every evil thing? In a way, this is James' way of saying that there is a wide range of evil that can occur as a consequence of worldly wisdom; in other words, James has given us the broadest categorical umbrella possible so that nothing is left untouched by his description. It doesn't matter what you can think up, if it is evil, it most likely came as a result of worldly wisdom being acted upon. The word "evil" here is an interesting one as it can mean "worthless" in the most positive aspect of the word or it can mean vile and contemptible in its worst sense. Both definitions fit well here because worldly wisdom usually leads to something that is completely worthless in nature (especially with eternity in view) or it is despicably wicked and self-serving. In his own way, this is James telling us that nothing good or worthwhile can come from worldly wisdom.

Before we close the book on our study of worldly wisdom, I want us to take a bit of time to compare worldly wisdom with the act of sinning against God. As we have already seen through its motivation, characteristics, and actions, worldly wisdom has nothing positive about it and only leads to instability and wickedness. In its most simplest of terms, worldly wisdom is something that leads us into sin. Let us look at the first two sins and we will understand this very clearly. Starting with Lucifer, he was an angel in heaven until he decided that he wanted to take God's place and began to wage war against Him. So, what is at the root of his sin? First: bitter jealousy; he wanted to be like God. Second: selfish ambition; he waged war against God in order to try and usurp His throne, something that would only serve his own desires. We can see that in his sin, he contained both of the motivations, and then carried it out only to bring evil and chaos into being. We also find that Adam and Eve did the same thing in the Garden when they sinned and damned all of humanity. After being tricked by the serpent, they were led to believe that God was holding something back from them in order to somehow protect himself, and therefore they wanted it (bitter jealousy). From there, they set in their mind to be like God by eating of the fruit, willfully disobeying His commandment (selfish ambition). As a result, all of humanity is in sin and must face the penalty for their sins: death (the result of worldly wisdom).

Just look at what happened as a result of satan's rebellion and the willful disobedience of Adam and Eve; all three allowed themselves to operate in worldly wisdom and we can very clearly see the evil and disorderly results of their sins. If that is not a clear indication of the dangers of worldly wisdom, then I don't know what is. As believers, we should be crushed when we can so clearly see the results of worldly wisdom all around us; in response, our desire should be to walk in holiness and in the heavenly wisdom of God the Father that He allows us to have through His Holy Spirit. There is no reason that we should allow ourselves to walk in worldly wisdom because we should never desire to lie against the truth of God's Word. In our next study we will again focus our attention on heavenly wisdom and its characteristics so that we can know what kind of behavior we should be exhibiting; but before we could do that, it was first necessary to look at the dark side so that we can know what not to do. Until next time, keep your armor on and walk in the light of Christ Jesus! Grace and peace!

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