PREPARING THE WAY: “Wisdom from Above”
James 3:13-4:10
September 22, 2024
This particular section of James reads like an old-fashioned, fist-pounding sermon.
James offers a strong call to conversion, a call to repentance,
a call away from ways of the world and towards the ways of God.
Most of us would prefer not having to choose between the ways of God and the ways of the world.
Truth be told, we cannot fully choose. We live and breathe and serve “in this world”.
The question is whether we can fight the temptations to be “of this world.”
James accused those early Christian congregations of being “double-minded” and “adulterers”,
hearkening back to the prophetic traditions of old, calling for faithfulness to God alone.
In our text for today, James claims that we cannot both be friends with God and friends of the world.
Then James offers an appropriate response.
James claims that a movement towards humility and purity will help Christians walk more faithfully
in the paths in which we should go. (Johnson, p. 209)
Hear the Word of God from James 3:13-4:10
Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works
are done with gentleness born of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts,
do not be boastful and false to the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from above,
but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. For where there is envy and selfish ambition,
there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. But the wisdom from above is first pure,
then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits,
without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy.
And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.
Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from?
Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you?
You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder.
And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts.
You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly,
in order to spend what you get on your pleasures. Adulterers!
Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?
Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
Or do you suppose that it is for nothing that the scripture says,
‘God yearns jealously for the spirit that he has made to dwell in us’? But he gives all the more grace;
therefore it says, ‘God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.
Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection.
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
James describes two opposing views of reality – wisdom from below and wisdom from above,
friendship with the world and friendship with God.
Wisdom from below is based on selfish desire and envy.
Wisdom from below views the world as a closed system of limited resources.
Earthly wisdom claims that human life must be a constant struggle,
a constant competition over scarce and limited resources,
a competition that ultimately leads to violence, murder, and warfare.
The conflicts and disputes we witness come from cravings within.
A friend of the world will do anything to anyone to fulfill their inner cravings.
A friend of the world will do anything to gain more possessions than their neighbors.
Unethical practices, slander, and even murder come from the friends of the world,
those who live with arrogance and pride, not willing to submit to anyone or anything.
In sharp contrast, a friend of God lives a life marked by humility and purity,
a life of cooperation and peace.
Since all of life is divine gift, the focus of life is gratitude for the abundance God has given.
A friend of God is willing to give up anything to be faithful to God,
because their security is not based on procuring more possessions or on winning against others.
Wisdom from above, friendship with God, views the world as an abundant, open system
of plenteous resources from a God who gives generously and ungrudgingly to all.
Fourth century theologian Saint Augustine was one of the earliest to write extensively
on dualism in the life of faith.
In his book, The City of God, Augustine describes the human predicament –
we live with one foot firmly planted in this world and the other foot in the realm of God.
We are citizens of two cities, he claims, and these two cities compete daily for our loyalty.
Though we live in the realm of one city, the city of the world,
our loyalty and thoughts are to be derived from the other city, the city of God.
Like a man from Tucker, Georgia living in Amsterdam, for example –
we may spend our days in a “foreign country”, surrounded by “foreign influences”,
but our ways of thinking, our habits, our loyalties should come from our true spiritual home.
French philosopher, Jacques Ellul, wrote a call to arms for Christians,
encouraging Christians to recommit themselves to living “in but not of the world”.
In his book, The Presence of the Kingdom, Jacques Ellul proclaims:
If we as Christians, as citizens of the city of God, who must live our daily lives in the city of the world,
are not being revolutionary, then we are not being faithful to our calling.
If our manner of life does not stand out as different from commonly accepted worldly values,
with quite different priorities and different loyalties, then evidently we are not following Jesus Christ.
We cannot help but live in this world. We are born and raised into this world of sin and faithlessness.
But this is still God’s world, a world in need of redemption,
and the only successful way to be “in but not of the world”, Ellul claims,
is to give the features of modern civilization “the slip,” he says,
“to learn to live on the edge of society, not simply rejecting it,
but passing all of it through the sieve of God’s judgment.” (Ellul, p.46)
To be a faithful citizen of the city of God means that we break our loyalty to the city of the world.
“What matters”, claims Ellul, “is whether Christians will dare to risk everything
in order to fulfill their function in the world.” (Ellul, p. 47)
Ellul’s call to Christians is to be those who are willing to stand in the gap,
those who recognize that they live in this world, but who, by their way of life,
offer a glimpse of the hope and peacefulness and joy of another world,
the world to come, the kin-dom of God.
Jesus Christ came to stand in the gap for us; Jesus provided us access to the Father.
Jesus, with one foot in the earthly city and the other in heavenly city,
so challenged the ways of the earthly city that its inhabitants rose up and killed him.
The first duty of the Christian, says Ellul, is the duty of awareness.
The first step of deepening the Christian life is to gain clear understanding
of the values of the world in which we live.
Life in the city of the world is based on envy and selfish ambition.
Socrates said that envy is an “ulcer of the soul.” Envy eats away at our spiritual health.
Aristotle called envy a “certain sorrow”, sorrow because envy identifies “having” with “being”.
When one’s identity is derived from what they acquire or possess,
then they believe that to have less than another is to be less, to be less worthy, to be less important.
Thus, envy inevitably leads to a sense of loss and sorrow. (Johnson, p. 211)
When we live by the values of the city of the world, we live with a view of scarcity.
We view the world as a closed system of limited resources.
Thus, we are constantly in competition with each other.
We come to believe that if you have more, then you are more.
And we believe that if you have less, then you are less.
Friends of the world believe that if you can get rid of the competition,
then you will be more and you will reduce your risk of becoming less.
The envy so prevalent in the city of the world quickly becomes aligned with hatred, malice and ill will.
There are no boundaries to the cravings of those whose life is lived in envy.
They will go to great lengths to kill the competition, sometimes quite literally, in order to get ahead.
Because their worth is tied up in what they possess,
even a sacrificial gift to the church, for example, or a large payment of taxes to the government
will be problematic to them, because they believe that they will be worth less as a human being
when their financial net worth is reduced, even by a relatively small amount.
The message of the city of the world is “To have more is to be more…and to have less is to be less.”
Today’s world of advertising is an extremely powerful mechanism promoting this idea.
Advertising supports the message that “to be” means “to have.”
Advertising aims at generating that “certain sorrow” of which Aristotle spoke.
Advertising generates not only a “certain sorrow” when someone has something that you do not,
but it is also generates the strong desire to do anything, to sacrifice anything,
to acquire that which is sought. (Johnson, p.213)
How many families face financial ruin because they believe the message
that to have more means that you are more?
We do well to remember that Jesus said that the last shall be first and the first shall be last.
Our worldly presumptions are challenged when we hear Jesus’ words:
“Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Matthew 5)
We are to be reminded that we belong first to God,
that there are serious errors in the ways of the world,
and that there are new possibilities for life and health when we live life in God’s kin-dom.
We are not created to live with a spirit of envy.
We are not created to engage in all sorts of disputes and conflicts.
We are not created to live in “adultery”, living a double life,
trying to be loyal both to God and to the ways of the world.
We are created to live in peace.
We are created to bring glory to our Creator.
We are created to enjoy God and enjoy life in God’s presence, both now and forever.
Those who find their lives in the city of the world will lose them,
but those who lose their lives in the city of the world, for the sake of the city of God, will find them.
Ben Campbell Johnson, one of my seminary professors, wrote a little book entitled Living before God.
He emphasized in the book that we have no choice about the fact of “being before God”.
But we do have a choice about our posture in God’s presence.
How do we posture ourselves before Almighty God?
Do we posture ourselves as faithful, humble servants?
Or do we posture ourselves as defiant citizens of the city of the world, with our backs turned to God,
acting as if God does not hear the things we say or witness the things we do?
Is our posture that of a faithful follower of Jesus Christ,
offering all that we are and have to a faithful and loving God?
Or is our posture that of an unfaithful spouse who tries to have it both ways,
who tries to hold on to the security and stability of our spiritual home
while running around after the selfish desires of the city of the world?
In the city of the world, where there is envy and selfish ambition,
there will always be disorder and wickedness and chaos of every kind.
The ways of the city of the world are unspiritual and devilish, James claims.
But the ways of the city of God are pure, peaceable, gentle, willing to yield,
full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy.
We are citizens of two cities…that we cannot avoid.
The question is: to which city will we give our utmost devotion?
James’ strong call to conversion, his call to repentance,
is a call away from ways of the world and towards the ways of God.
And James offers us an appropriate response:
Draw near to God, and the Lord will draw near to you.
Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord will lift you up.
Amen.
Rev. Dr. Todd Speed
Decatur Presbyterian Church
Decatur, Georgia
Sources:
Ellul, Jacques. The Presence of the Kingdom. Helmers and Howard, 1989.
Gench, Francis Taylor. James and the Integrity of Faith. Horizons Bible Study, PCUSA, 1992-93.
Johnson, Luke T. The New Interpreter’s Bible, ed. by Leander Keck et. al.,Volume XII, Abingdon, 1998.
