James

Two Kinds of Wisdom

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Two Kinds of Wisdom

Genre: Sermon

Lesson: 10 of 16

Track: #28

Year:

Dictation Name: RR328O28

[Rushdoony] Let us worship God. The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon Him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of them that fear Him, He also will hear their cry and save them. Oh Thou that hearest prayer, unto Thee shall all flesh come. Let us pray.

Almighty God our heavenly Father we give thanks unto Thee that Thou who art ever near to us are still mindful of us, for Thou knowest our weakness, our sinfulness, our neglect of Thee and of Thy word. We thank Thee for Thy mercy, we thank Thee our Father that day after day we can come into Thy presence with no confidence in ourselves and our virtues, but all confidence in Thee and in Thy grace and mercy; how great Thou art oh Lord, and we praise Thee. In Christ’s name, amen.

Our scripture lesson is from James the third chapter verses thirteen through eighteen. James 3:13-18 “Two Kinds of Wisdom.” “13 Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. 14 But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. 15 This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. 16 For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. 17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. 18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.”

As we have seen what James has to say in this chapter and earlier is not just about the tongue and gossip. What he is dealing with is the tongue as a revelation of our nature. How we speak, what say reveals our being, this is therefore a fundamental; speech is revelational. In the first verse of this chapter James began this section by speaking of masters or teachers in the Christian synagogue. In verse 13 he again speaks to the leaders, but like the rest of his letter it is also counsel for all Christians.

James Hope Moulton commented on this text, and I quote “Who is enlightened among you and a man of knowledge, let him exhibit the fruits of it by a noble life, with a humility that true enlightenment brings. We must be careful that meekness in popular usage has lost its nobility. The Greek word describes a strong man’s self-discipline, and a wise man’s humility. One who is strong, and knows it, is not jealous of rivals or frenzied for partisanship for a cause that God will prosper.” In a fallen world even words tend to depreciate in meaning and meekness, which in its origin means controlled or harnessed strength, has come to imply mousiness. A wise man, who to his wisdom adds knowledge, will demonstrate what he is; not only by his words but also by his works. Men reveal themselves by their words and by their works, the meekness of wisdom means that they are aware of their strength in God. As Moulton noted they know that in the Lord their victory is certain, they do not face the hostilities, oppositions, and frustrations of this world alone, nor in isolation in meekness. It is an aspect of wisdom to know that God is always with us.

The contentious member or leader will be a frustrated man with bitter envying and strife in his heart. R. C. H. Lenski rendered verse fourteen in these words “But if you have bitter zeal and selfishness in your heart do not be boasting and lying against the truth.” A false zeal will not be joyful but rather bitter. Zeal in of itself is not a mark of truth, nor grace. There are two kinds of wisdom, first there is the wisdom that comes from God. The Bibles wisdom literature, books like Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes, and so on, indicates how practical Godly wisdom is; whereas humanistic wisdom is abstract and unrelated to everyday life. Proverbs 8:36 is a telling and illustrative statement of Godly wisdom. Then second man’s wisdom, world wisdom, or humanistic wisdom can be any number of things; scientific, economic, political, and so on and on. But it is separate from morality because it is in essence separate from God and it sees this as its practicality and virtue. We must remember that in our day it is regarded as wisdom to separate morality from life, to treat it as something that is added to life by religious crackpots.

James in verse 15 says in Lenski’s translation “This wisdom is not one coming down from above but is earthly, sensual, demoniacal, for where there is zeal and selfishness there is disturbance and every bad thing.” This is necessarily so, for where envying and strife is, verse 16 tells us, there is confuses and every evil work. This is an eschatological statement. Eschatology is the doctrine of last things, the end of the world, the judgment, and so on. But eschatology of necessity is also the doctrine of first things, because it tells you what your goal is, it tells us – verse 16 – that evil in all its forms is self-defeating. The man who truly believes in the triune God knows that he is called to victory, and he will work with patience and confidence.

As against this humanistic wisdom Godly wisdom is first pure, then peaceable, gentle and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Again, this and verse 18 are eschatological. The consequence is a false wisdom is destructive and suicidal whereas Godly wisdom leads to the benefits of a triumph certainty and victory. Whether we like it or not the wisdom we cultivate can reveal itself in all our being. The blessed meek, or God’s nobility, know their calling is to victory, and they move in that grace and confidence

Verse 18 says “and the fruit of righteousness is sown in the peace of them that make peace.” The assurance of victory marks the wise; their radical dedication to God’s righteousness or justice marks them and the peace they communicate in all their being. We fail to appreciate the extent to which our faith shapes us. I knew an intelligent and talented woman some years ago who was totally without a Christian faith; and she say as she looked around the country only a growing disaster in American life, she saw it coming in every area of activity and thinking and she had no hope for the future. Although she was a talented musician she ceased playing either her piano or her organ because they were joyful instruments, she said, and one should not be joyful in a dying culture. She died miserably and alone, she was difficult and painful to be near.

At the same time another women of confident faith drew people to herself because her serenity was so contagious; except for a few people none were aware of the horrors and grief’s she had experienced. She exemplified Psalm 84 verses 5-7, one of the loveliest passages in scripture. The text speaks of someone who goes through the valley of baca, a desert place, no water, only a scorching, burning sun, and they make it a well. An area with pools of refreshing water, as though a sudden storm had struck the desert, watered it, and filled every depression with water. Such people, the Psalmist says; create their own climate by their faith, they pass through the valley of baca and make it a well, or it can be rendered a spring of living water. A magnificent description, there are people like that; people whose life overflows with grace.

Language is a central part of the human climate, it surrounds us daily, even if we are entirely alone our innermost thoughts are in language, and we thereby create a good or a bad climate to live in; we are our own climate when we are alone and part of the climate when we are with others. We must recognize the importance then of language and of thinking; thinking is in language. You think in terms of a language; if someone is foreign born there is a point in their life where the transition is made from their native tongue to English in their thinking. Language is the environment of our mind and of our lives. Language thus is not only a privilege; which on earth is restricted to mankind, but it is also basic to self communication. When you’re talking to yourself, thinking, you’re thinking in terms of language. We are in constant self-communion with our own souls, and we determine the nature of that self-communion. We either refresh our being and heal ourselves, or we pollute ourselves. We can poison ourselves with our thoughts, or we can bless ourselves by relying on, and often by reciting to ourselves, the word of God. We then manifest wisdom from on high. Of course we can choose to poison ourselves by thoughts which are bitter, and which isolate us from God as well as from man.

It is the wisdom of James to confront us with the great and grave importance of language and speech. This is why James is so importance, he does not say “watch your language” he tells us the roots of our everyday speaking; they come from the springs of our heart. Let us pray.

Our Father we give thanks unto Thee for Thy word, we thank Thee that from early days through the first century Thou didst use Thy servants to set down things from Thee that all the days of our life we may be guided by Thy wisdom, Thy words. Give us grace to study Thy word, to hear and to obey and to know that out of the heart man speaketh. Give us grace to speak from Thee, in Christ’s name, amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson?

As you can see from what we have thus far dealt with James is concerned with getting at the heart of things, and that’s why it is so important that we understand what James has to say. When he is dealing with faith he gets to the essence of the matter and tells us that faith without works is dead. When he deals with speech he avoids the trivializing of language that is so commonplace and insists that it is very important because it reveals what we are to others. As we continue we shall see how much further James carries this entire matter of the origin of human action, of human speech because he begins in the next chapter with verse one, “from whence comes wars and fighting among you, come they not hence even of your own lusts that war in your members?” So again he is tracing the springs of human action to their origin. This is why James perhaps is neglected, it is to telling and also why it is so important.

Yes?

[Audience member] I once did a study on hearing and speaking in the book of Proverbs, and I was amazed how much the book that was tied to wisdom.

[Rushdoony] I couldn’t hear that.

[Audience member] I once did a study on hearing and speaking in Proverbs and its connection to wisdom and there was just a great portion of the book was over, saying this over and over again.

[Rushdoony] Yes, Proverbs is wisdom literature and therefore it has that intense practicality, and as I indicated what James gives us is a continuance of the wisdom literature of the Old Testament, summing it up as it were. It is interesting that Biblical wisdom is not popular now days; we want abstract wisdom rather than the very practical and concrete kind of wisdom that the Bible exemplifies.

Any other questions or comments? If not let us conclude with prayer.

Our Father we thank Thee that Thy word reveals not only the things that are of Thee, but it reveals us to ourselves. Enable us oh Lord to hear and receive Thy revelation, to keep guard over our tongue and our heart, to know that we are ever accountable for every idle word that we speak. Oh Lord our God we thank Thee for the practicality of Thy word. And now go in peace God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost bless you and keep you guide and protect you this day and always, amen.