Good Wisdom and Bad Wisdom

Scott's message on the book of James ended really where I want to pick it up. So if you're already open to the book of James, chapter 1, go ahead and turn back to it right now. And I thought he was going to read this part of it, but he did not. Certainly, verse 4, he was talking about patience. In verse 5, James goes on to say that if any lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally, without reproach, and it will be given to him. James then focuses here on this verse, goes from patience to wisdom. Wisdom is one of those qualities that I think we all yearn for, hope for, and when we are shown to not have it because of something we've done that was unwise, or been a part of something that did not show wisdom, we yearn for it. We may be finding ourselves going back to this one verse where James says, if you lack wisdom, ask for it, and God will give it to you. It sounds simple, but how difficult is it really to get wisdom? Well, I think all of us would say, and we should understand, that indeed we may spend a lifetime getting the wisdom that the Bible describes. I am reminded, as perhaps James was when he wrote this verse of the story back in 1 Kings chapter 3, where King Solomon, newly anointed as the king of Israel to succeeding his father, David, found himself in a place called Gilboa, and he had a dream. I'm going to just relate the story to you. We don't need to turn there, but he had a dream at night, and God came to him in the dream, talked to him, and it's an interesting story. Solomon had the whole experience within the dream. God talked to him, and he talked to God, and then he woke up. But it was all within a dream, and God said, whatever you want, ask.

Solomon said, look, I'm new to the job. I didn't really go to school for this, or I didn't have enough training for it. Now I'm an over-your-people. I'm your great people. I'm following in my father's footsteps, and I don't even know how to go in and go out. I don't have enough sense to come in out of a rain. I'm paraphrasing. That's what my mom used to tell me. I think she was paraphrasing something out of 1 Kings chapter 3. Whenever I'd do something really ironry and stupid, my mom would say, you don't have a sense of coming in out of a rain. At that particular moment, I didn't. I didn't admit that I did. Solomon said, I don't have to come in and go out. So he said, get me understanding. He really was asking for wisdom to rule your people. And in the dream, God says, because you didn't ask for gold or power or wealth, I'm going to give you what you asked for. I'll give you wisdom so that you will be the wisest of all, but I'm also going to give you what you didn't ask for. I will give you the wealth and the power. And he did. You know the story of Solomon. But it was the case with Solomon asked for wisdom, and God gave it to him. And perhaps that's what James had in mind when he wrote this in verse 4. If you lack wisdom, and you come to a crossroads or you come to a situation where you just don't have the wisdom to go forward, ask God for it, and God who gives it liberally will give it. Not any more difficult than that. And James lays it out pretty marifactly. But he doesn't end here. He goes on, and he gives us some instruction within this book about wisdom that I think we could spend a few minutes with here this afternoon, and go through, to help us dig a little deeper into the type of wisdom that we really need to be able to discern, indeed, that there are different types of wisdom, and there are some you want to avoid, while there are some that you want to cultivate, or qualities that will help us to get to the wisdom of God. The wisdom that James is really talking about requires certain qualities, and a discernment on our part to tell the difference between good wisdom and bad wisdom. There's good wisdom, and there's bad wisdom. It's like there's good and evil. Remember the story of the two trees, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the tree of life. God said to Israel, I set before you this day two ways, life and death. Choose, therefore, life. There's always kind of a choice of two, when you look at, really, what God lays before us at any given time and in His plan.

And in this case of wisdom, James talks about two different types of wisdom. And we have the obligation to understand the difference, and if we want the wisdom of God, we want to choose the right type. So it's important to know exactly what that is. Well, James gives that to us.

In chapter 3, he starts to talk about something that, again, we're all familiar with, and that is the untamable tongue. If you look at the heading of chapter 3 in my New King James Bible, probably the same as yours, James spends chapter 3 talking about the untamable tongue and how it is so difficult to rule and to guard our tongue to keep from saying things that are hurtful, that stir up strife. He talks about the tongue is a small thing in verse 5, but it sets on fire the course of nature.

It defiles the whole body in verse 6. Verse 8, he says, no man can tame the tongue. That's really encouraging, isn't it? You read something like that. No man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil full of deadly poison. With it we bless God, our Father, and with it we curse men. So he talks about the problem of the tongue, and that leads into a discussion about wisdom, because so often when we find ourselves doing things or getting into problems or getting into trials or some of the difficulties that we have, very often, it's created because somebody couldn't control their tongue.

Someone says something to offend. Someone says something that is a lie. Someone says something that is hurtful. Someone just says something that is unwise at a given time, or a chain of events that flow from that. Very often start with the tongue. And so he comes down to verse 13 of James 3. And he says, who is wise and understanding among you? As he transitions here and carries this thought of the tongue and our words into this subject of wisdom that he's already introduced back in chapter 1 of something that if we lack, we can ask, and God will give it to us.

Who is wise and understanding among you? A rhetorical question. Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. The meekness of wisdom. You'll know that person who is wise by good conduct and works that are done in the meekness of wisdom. So here he's now going to transition into a discussion that will end the chapter through verse 18 on two types of wisdom.

So that's what we're going to be talking about here today in my sermon, which will focus basically right here in the book of James and help us to go through the two types of wisdom that he talks about that we're going to spend more time on the wisdom that we need to be developing. James gives us some very, very practical insight and understanding in this.

But he gets into it by talking about our conduct and our works and a meekness of wisdom. A meekness. So, you know, automatically you're beginning to think of words that flow out of the sermon on the Mount less than are the meek. They shall inherit the earth, Jesus said. We're going to run into a few more words that come out of the sermon on the Mount, but again, they all work together to accomplish the same thing.

Now, in verse 14, he says this, But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth, bitter envy and self-seeking. This then he describes in verse 15 as wisdom. Look at it. Verse 15, he says, this wisdom, and he's referring back to verse 14, of bitter envy, self-seeking in your hearts. Who would have ever thought envy and self-seeking or self-ambition would be wisdom? But he says this wisdom, so it is wisdom, but he said it does not descend from above, meaning from God, but is earthly. It's of the earth, it is of the physical, it is of the mankind, it is of people, it is of a physical realm, sensual, and look out, it is even demonic, meaning that there is a root to it, and that is in the demonic world, the evil, the realm of evil, satanic.

But it has its manifestation in the works of physical works, such as envy and self-seeking, things that are earthly. Verse 16, for where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. And so, James here is describing a wisdom. So we've read through verse 16, and we're just going to focus there for a minute, because he's defined this in verse 15 as a form of wisdom. As I said to repeat again, James, in these verses through verse 18, is contrasting two types of wisdom.

Two ways, two types. A wisdom that is from below, or earthly, as opposed to a wisdom that is from above. If you look in verse 17, a wisdom that is from above. And then he goes on to list that. So we'll reserve that for a few minutes. I'll come back to that. Because he lists about eight different virtues or points of that type of wisdom from above.

So we have a contrast of a wisdom from above, meaning from God, as opposed to a wisdom from below, or that doesn't come from above. It is of the earth. It is of human nature. It is of works of the flesh. Think back to Galatians chapter 5 that defines not only works of the Spirit, but the works of the flesh. And you'll find similarities there. We won't go back and work through all of those, but they tie into this as well. He said that we're talking about bitter envy, self-seeking envy, and selfish ambitions in your hearts. And so all of these are the antithesis of the other type of wisdom that he talks about, and that really represent the character of God. In verse 14, this bitter envy is really another way to put that, another translation we'll talk about it. It's a jealousy. It is a bitter jealousy, an envy, where we are desirous. We want something that we can't have. We envy what someone else has. We find ourselves at odds with someone else out of jealousy or envy and a strife that comes out. Jealousy is part of our human nature that we've all had flings with. Sometimes when you read the Bible, you find that God is described as a jealous God. Several times in the Old Testament, he describes himself as very jealous for Israel. When Israel went off to serve other gods, God says, I am jealous for you. In other words, he wants that worship, as he alone can only require of a human being. God wants that worship, and he gets jealous when it's not given to him. Just like we get jealous if somebody doesn't like us, doesn't love us, doesn't give to us the same way or the same things that they may give to someone else. Joseph's brothers were jealous of his coat given to him by his father, as well as the affection that his father had for Joseph that they did not have. And that led to the story of Joseph being sold into slavery. But it was out of jealousy and that envy and bitterness there. Bring this up, because jealousy is something better left to God. I've never seen any human situation where we master jealousy in a perfect way. Only God can do that. And so that's better left to God. Let God be jealous, as he says he is. You and I better avoid that type of feelings and attitude and leave the jealousy factor to God because that doesn't fit us.

He talks about, as well here, a self-seeking in their hearts. In other translations we put that as a selfish ambition. A self-willed, selfish ambition that, again, is wrong. It is described here that causes boasting and lying against the truth and is earthly of the physical works. The English Standard Version Bible study book comments on this. It has a very interesting comment about selfish ambition. Or what we're looking at here is this self-seeking in our hearts. It says that selfish ambition, again, quoting from the English Standard Version Study Bible, selfish ambition is a divisive willingness to split the group in order to achieve personal power and prestige. A selfish ambition to split the group in order to achieve personal power and prestige. Another way of saying it is a rivalry, which is one of the works of the flesh in Galatians 5.20. Rivalries that he talks about. Have you ever been in a group that has been split? Church aside! When I was a kid, we had our neighborhood game. It was our game. We were rough and tumble. We were packed of kids. We all lived in a very small, contained block within our small town. We were all the same age, basically the same schools. We played football in the streets, played basketball on each other's driveways, and ran around. We got the idea one time to form a little club. Games will have a little club. It was called the Viking Club. I don't know how we came up with the word Viking, but it was the Viking Club. We got the idea that we would raise money and have a party. The party would be all the candy we could buy. All the penny candy we could buy, plus all the Pepsi's or Coke's that we could buy as well.

To raise the money, we got the idea of having a little neighborhood newspaper. So we started a little newspaper. We had news in it. What Mrs. Lewis was baking that day. The score of a little neighborhood pickup basketball game that was held on Tuesday afternoon after school. We would create this little newspaper. We would find industrials. My journalism career started at a very early age. One of the boys in the group, his name was Kirk Buxton, would type it up.

He was the best typist. He had a typewriter. This was in the days before copies. So what he did was he would type it up with about four or five sheets of carbon paper. The paper all stacked in there. Remember how we used to make copies in those days? He would type out the news in the newsletter. He would basically do about five copies at a time. He would do this all three or four different times until he had 15-20 copies.

Then we would go door to door in the neighborhood and we would sell them for two or three cents apiece. We also collected bottles and two cents of bottle for refunds. In those days, we were green back then. We didn't know we were green. We just went down the railroad track and went through the neighborhoods.

Found a pot bottle and that was two cents. That was another one of our fundraisers. We were quite industrious. But we'd do that several months in those little projects and we'd save up in our treasury. Then we'd come to, we'd set a date and we were going to have our party. That was going to be the big thing. Well, something would happen. We'd get into an argument. We'd get into a rivalry. Guess who got kicked out of the club? Me. I remember two years running. I got kicked out of the club because of a rivalry that would get going.

I remember two years in a row missing the party. Which meant I missed out on all the pin of candy and the pop. I'd be frightened and fuming and I'd be mad for about an old three days, which would be one of the things to get over. Then we'd all come back together. We were friends again. We forget. Only as kids can do at that age. I remember that happening twice.

I think probably after the third year either I got wise and didn't take part in it or the whole enterprise just kind of wiggled around on it, perhaps. Rivalries split us. I didn't remember what it was over. But it probably got down to who's going to get the most share of the goodies. And with one or two out, well, it was more for the rest of the group. And we had some interesting personalities that you have working among seven, eight, nine-year-old kids at that age.

And those things start early, is my point. Selfish ambition and rivalries can split up a group. As small as a little neighborhood gang or something bigger. A church. An association. An office. A family. Because of rivalries. We were at this funeral yesterday and it was our oldest son's, Chris's, family.

And the mother died. There was a will, but two daughters, small family, and a few items to give the other. Well, you've been through that, with the family dividing up what's left from the last apparent dime or whatever. And Debbie had a few words with one of the daughters, one of the ladies yesterday, and gave a few words of wisdom that don't let a rivalry come up over some physical thing that is going to split your family, which is small enough as it is.

And she had a few words of wisdom that we hope over the next few days will take root in their choices that they have to make, their discussions. Because you see those things, and if we've been through that phase of life, you understand how rivalries can get up. And someone's selfish ambition for a sewing machine, a cookbook, or something that was moms or dads can be so small, but yet so big, that it can literally split families and cause rivalries. Again, it's a lack of wisdom. And when this verse here is described here this way, and it comes down to a selfish ambition, is a divisive willingness to split the group in order to achieve personal power and prestige.

We all should take notes, no matter at what level, whether it's a neighborhood group, a family, or yes, even the church, a church, a larger association or grouping of people, you will find these elements at work. At young ages, middle ages, older ages. And you will see that.

James is giving us wisdom. He's giving us an illustration, and he's saying, you will see that type of wisdom at work in those groups. And what he is saying is, it is a form of wisdom. Is that the type of wisdom we want? Is that the type of wisdom you want to develop? Brethren, there are people who are wise at dividing people and dividing relationships. I've seen it at work all my life, from age 9 forward. I could tell you the names of those in my little neighborhood gang who were the instigators of the vision.

I won't even go there because that would be another subject to get into. But I remember the person very well who would be the instigator of it. This person had the wisdom to know how to lay in a little thought or to pit people against one another within that small group. I've seen it in the church over the years as well. There is a wisdom of people who know how to pit people against each other or to divide off into groups or to keep issues alive through selfish ambition, through bitter envy, through jealousy, the various things that are described here.

And that is a wisdom. But James says it is a wisdom that is earthly, sensual, and demonic. Meaning that it has its roots in a different world than the one we want to be in. And the choice is, the wisdom comes in us discerning it and seeing it at work, even in ourselves or in someone that we may look to, look up to.

It could be a parent. It could be another family member. It could be a talented individual at work. It could be a minister. I've seen ministers of God, or ministers within the church of God, let's put it that way, who have that type of wisdom and have enough ambition to know how to use it and to allow it to be used to divide the group of people. I've seen it at work many, many times over my 37 years in the ministry of the church.

Now, the key, as James is bringing us out to us, is to learn to discern it, to learn to see it. But then we have a choice. Do we want to follow it? Do we want to emulate it? Or do we want to stay as far away from it as we possibly can, recognizing that it is not wisdom of God?

It is wisdom. I keep emphasizing that. It is a wisdom. That's what James is telling us. But it is a wisdom that is of this earth and has its roots and a spirit world that is the antithesis of what God wants us to have. It results in disorder and a Satan-driven conflict that divides and creates friction.

Little wonder that as you go on into chapter 4 of James, what does he say there in verse 1? Where do wars come from among you? In other words, where does strife and fighting come from? He goes on to talk about that. It's interesting that he goes into that after he talks about these two forms of wisdom.

So, that is not what we want. Enough of that. I hope that that illustrates what James is talking about and where we may see it. In verse 17, though, he says, The wisdom that is from above is first pure. Now he gets into a description of the wisdom from above, meaning from God, from a different realm. So, he's contrasting it, but he's giving us a choice. And this is where we have to be able to discern this type of wisdom and then want to achieve that and have that and demonstrate it in our own life. This is the type of wisdom you want to ask for. You want wisdom? Go for this type of wisdom. Don't go for the corporate wisdom. Don't go for the earthly wisdom, the sensual demonic wisdom. Go for this wisdom that is from above, that is from God, that represents the fruits of God's Spirit. And begins with the word pure. Pure. A wisdom from above. When you look at this, you begin to be reminded again, as I said earlier, of the Sermon on the Mount. Blessed are the pure in heart, Christ said in Matthew 5. They will see God. That's what he said there in Matthew 5. The pure in heart will see God. Interesting that James leads with that. Because this word translated pure in this verse comes from a Greek word, as the Greeks used it.

This person who would have this type of purity is pure enough to approach the gods in the Greek form of the usage. We would use a different word out from the Bible, because we would say this type of purity produces a holiness. A holiness of one who is then able to see God, or to approach God, or to be in his presence. This type of wisdom is one that allows us to see and understand the mind of God, that can control our thoughts and be in a sense without God, without any God. No hypocrisy, no subtlety, no deceit, a purity. A purity of heart, a purity of mind.

That's the first word. James is going to give us about eight words of wisdom here that define this type of wisdom. And he says that the first is that it is pure. Secondly, he says it is peaceable. This wisdom from above us is peaceable, or loves peace.

He says talking about the right relationships between human beings, between man and man, and certainly between man and God. True wisdom is going to produce solid, right relationships. It's the opposite of an attitude that is contentious and loves to stir up trouble.

I don't think any of us here, I can't think of any of you that I'm looking at here this afternoon, that loves contention, or conflict. How many of you like love conflict? Raise your hands. If you love conflict, the light is raising their hands. They're all being honest. You'd rather have peace. Peace at home, peace in your life, peace of mind, peaceful relationships. Peace in the church, true. Nobody likes conflict. My stomach knots up when conflict comes in whatever form it may be. You have to deal with something unpleasant. You have to deal with a situation that's not quite the way it should be. You have to go to your brother. You have to go to that person. I will tell you over the years in ministry, I have learned, don't go looking for problems. I learned years on...you can be a type of minister that may go looking for problems. That's not good. And I learned long ago, don't be that type of person. There will be problems, enough of them, that will come to you. You don't have to go looking for them. As you do your job, as you interact with people, as you gain their confidence and their trust, they'll open up, they'll pick up the phone, they'll send you an email now, they'll pat you on the shoulder and want to talk. Those of you who will come, and then, or they'll come in ways that you'll have to deal with them, but years and years ago, I stopped looking for problems or thinking that if I didn't have problems, I wasn't doing my job or anything like that, because I would much rather have peace than I think all of us would. But this is the type of wisdom. This is not peace at any cost. This is not the Neville Chamberlain type of peace that is willing to give away to Subatian land or Czechoslovakia to a Hitler, and return for a paper pledge of peace, and a pledge that's worth nothing more than a paper that it's on, as that one was. Remember the story from history, some of you will, of Chamberlain coming back from a meeting in Munich, Germany with Hitler, and waving a piece of paper that he said had the feuer signature on it, and saying, we have peace in our time. Well, we didn't have peace. It was worthless. And the onslaught came very quickly afterwards. And the appeasement became a byword for right there next to the name of Neville Chamberlain, Prime Minister of Britain at that time.

When you appease someone or a situation without removing the cause of the conflict, the source of the conflict, the problems that are there dealing with them, you may just be kicking the can down the road. You may be just shoving something under the table. That's another form of wisdom that gets into leadership and right actions that sometimes have to deal directly with issues, people, situations that will not be changed otherwise for the sake of peace.

Sometimes tough decisions have to be made. You cannot appease a bully, a tyrant, or a situation that must be dealt with according to certain protocols, policies, procedures, scriptures.

That is the case you have to deal with. And sometimes tough decisions have to be made to get to peace.

But the Bible lays out guidelines on how to do that and how to identify those things.

But that too is a form of wisdom, how to enact the various steps to get to that point.

But if it is achieved, then you can have good relationships between people that achieve that. And that takes a form of wisdom as well.

He goes on in verse 17 and he says that the next word he uses is gentle. This wisdom above is gentle.

That is another Greek word.

Barclay's commentary says that that is an untranslatable word from the Greek.

It can also mean considerate, a gentleness that is also considerate.

But the way Barclay describes it, he says that it is described as a that which is beyond the law, or beyond written law.

And he's quoting Aristotle. Again, out of the Greek in this particular word, as it is used, it is describing a gentleness that is beyond the written law, or that which steps in to correct things when the law itself becomes unjust.

And speaking of human law, not God's law, but sometimes human laws, human policies, can be unjust.

But a court, tribunal, or a judge will have to make a decision based on the law, or the policy, or the procedure, if it comes down into an association, or a company, or whatever it may be.

And sometimes it may be a badly written policy, badly written procedure, or a bad law, and that's why governments all the time will amend the laws and amend the policies and statutes, because sometimes they don't produce the right result.

And if you apply the letter of a particular policy or procedure, you can create another problem that is not wise. That's what James is using here, a word of gentleness that knows when to make a decision that may not be exactly according to the policy or, again, the human law, because we're not talking about God's law, but when to forgive and not apply the strict letter in a situation.

When the letter may say to condemn, to judge the parents, it may say, on this case because of what I discern, what my gut tells me, I'm going to waive this and make allowance.

Wise parents sometimes may have to do that when their policy, their guideline within the family, is a bit too strict.

Circumstances point it up, and they come to the point where they make the decision, okay, I was wrong, or I made this decision or this statement or policy hastily without thinking it through, and to carry it on is going to create further problems. There needs to be a certain gentleness applied.

It's tempering justice with mercy, is really what it's talking about. Learning to discern when to do that.

And that is a gentleness, a wise gentleness that you come to in the realm of human relations that often get then out of shape because of statements that are made, because of infractions of just plain human relationships and decency, or maybe even policies and procedures, as it might be within the workplace or wherever.

And you have a hearing and you make a determination, and yes, there was an infraction, yes, there was something said that was wrong.

You may find yourself as the one who is either the judge or the determiner or the offender, the one who's offended.

Finding that you're at a crossroads where you can either be gentle and apply mercy rather than demand the letter be applied.

You may find that there was a situation where you could demand your rights according to the letter and stand on your rights.

You've been wrong. You've been maligned. You were treated harshly, too harshly, unjustly.

You can stand on your rights and demand this and push for this or agitate for that rather than adopt a wiser position that James is talking about of gentleness, where you don't apply the letter and you back away for the good of the relationship, for the good of the group, and you exercise mercy and judgment as a form of judgment there.

That is a form of wisdom.

Let us move on. The next word that he uses is willing to yield.

Willing to yield, which kind of follows on from this, is a submissiveness.

You will submit in a situation. You will submit in a relationship.

You will avoid stubbornness. You're willing to listen to reason. You want to listen to someone's appeal to you, to the angels of your better nature, as Lincoln put it.

And someone appeals to that. Lincoln's second inaugural address is one of those classics. If you've never read it, you should read it. You should read it on a regular basis.

He makes it that way he uses this line because he's really talking to you. He's reaching out to Lincoln in that second inaugural in March of 1865, just a few weeks before he was shot.

He was really speaking to his southern brothers.

And it was appealing that at that time when Northam won the war, Lee was on the run, and he surrendered yet.

And he basically says, look, it's in our hands to bind up the wounds and to make peace.

And he goes into this very long and eloquent statement, and he says, basically, we need to listen to the better angels of our nature.

Which is really kind of given voice here by James.

A gentleness and a submissiveness where we would be willing to submit to one another.

And Lincoln was appealing to his southern brothers and even to the north to basically, it's time to lay down the arms, bind up the wounds that have divided us bitterly for four years, and move on together as a united nation in one country.

And he says, to you my fellow brothers, that I appeal to the better angels of our nature.

I'm paraphrasing it, but I was listening to it, you know, that.

I have a recording on my computer. James Garner was reciting it in some play, and I can't do it as well as James Garner did with his voice, those of you that remember that actor.

But he was reading that part of the second inaugural, and it's really a wonderful thought that is given voice here by James, where we will be willing to consider another argument, even, and yield if it can be done in good conscience without a compromising principle.

Not being so stubborn that we cannot yield to someone, and even if we might have a right-of-way.

You know, you can go on through an intersection where you have a right-of-way, and someone else is already coming in and encroaching on.

You can go right on through, can't you? Or you can yield, even if, though, you have the right-of-way and avoid a fenderman.

Would we all rather avoid a fender bender, and yeah, we get a bit out of shape, and we might say something or feel like, I had the right-of-way? Yeah, I did.

But if someone else is either not paying attention, or being too stubborn, or they're in too big a hurry, and they barge on through, if you've ever been in a wreck, start having to deal with the policeman, the insurance company, and the aftermath, which drags on, and maybe even the other way.

Even going to court, it's better to yield, even though you have the right-of-way.

And just pulling the brakes. Let them go on through. Maybe they have a quicker reason for them to do that than for you, you going through, and there's no accident, a little bit of a bent ego or whatever it might be.

Sometimes it's better to yield, even if you have the right-of-way. That's what James is saying here when he talks about being willing to yield.

He goes on and he says, full of mercy. Full of mercy. Extending help to someone in a practical sense. It's big merciful. We can all relate to that.

What James is talking about here is more than pity. It's more than just an emotion of mercy. It's pity with action. It's really another way of saying faith with works.

Where you give mercy in a situation, and you're extending really a helping hand to someone in need, and you're willing to do it even if their problem is self-inflicted.

Many times if you come across a situation where a person needs mercy because of their mistake, in judgment, the mistake of actions, the mistake of their words.

They need to be pity. They need to be helped out of the ditch. Clean the mud off. Wipe their nose. They need to be put back on their perch. Lights turn back on. The heat turns back on. A few bags of groceries in the cupboard.

Even if their plight, their problem, is because of their lack of wisdom, you sometimes may be called on and given an opportunity to pity their situation, but we have to go beyond that.

And we have to help someone, we want to give mercy to help someone even if their problems are of their own doing, justified and self-inflicted.

But that's wisdom. That is wisdom. Because that may be what it takes to help that person learn the lesson.

That may be what it takes to bind that person a little bit closer to the church, to God, to the group.

And when they are on the receiving end of mercy.

Good fruits without partiality.

Undelite and partial.

That is a wisdom that knows with a certainty right from wrong, takes a stand, doesn't keep an open mind on matters that are clear. Knows right from wrong, good from evil. Knows there is a God who has laws, who has standards and absolutes, upon which life is to be based.

We're undivided. There is a wisdom then that can look at life, look at a situation, look at a lifestyle, look at a culture, and say, it's wrong, it's evil, this is sin, because there is a God.

It can pick up the, well we don't pick up too much of a date on the newspaper anymore, so we read a blog.

Or we read a piece off of Facebook or Twitter or some other social media about what the latest name-only brain-dead Hollywood starlet has done.

It's landed in rehab, court, and in jail.

And you realize that is evil, that is immoral, that is wrong. Your mind is undivided on that. You can make a judgment, which is a bad word today, because it's a society of making a judgment.

Oh, don't judge. Who are you to judge? Who am I to judge? I'm not judging.

How many times, how many ways do we hear all of that? Nobody wants to in our culture. We exalt stupidity, immorality, sin, because there is not a belief that there is a God.

God is dead, or the idea is that there is no God, and that is what fuels that type of celebrity.

And Culp's starlet status, and our world today, whether it's a man or a woman or athlete or whatever it is, those are our modern items.

Because we don't believe that there is a God, and that becomes attractive, that way of life, that lifestyle, because we're divided.

James is saying the wisdom from above is with good fruits and without partiality. It's undivided.

There are clear standards, laws, commandments, that are of God, that are immutable, unchangeable, eternal, spiritual.

And they are binding, they are in effect, they are commandments, and they come from God, and they apply to everyone.

And if you live by them, you will be blessed. If you break them, they will break you.

It takes wisdom to discern that, and it takes wisdom to live by that.

That, too, is part of the wisdom that comes from above, that James is talking about here.

He talks about without hypocrisy. That is a sincerity, an approach that there's no posing, there's no pretense, there's no deception, just a complete, honest, what you see is what you get, type of person, or approach to life.

It doesn't play a part to a different end. That type of sincerity is what he's describing here, that is wise as well, that is without hypocrisy.

Then in verse 18 he says, the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

This is the result of living by these words of wisdom.

You create an atmosphere, a seed deck, a place where there is peace.

And fruits of righteousness can be sown in that culture of peace embodied by these words, these ways, these attitudes.

As people strive to make peace, live within peace, live according to the peace that comes from above, you create an atmosphere where peace will be achieved.

And a stable peace, not, again, an appeasement, not a cheap peace.

You know, when Christ said, bless the peace makers, back in Matthew 5 and the Sermon on the Mount, to be a peacemaker, to be one who takes verse 17 and 18 and makes the decision to recognize those attributes of peace and wisdom, to do that, takes guts, takes work.

And sometimes it will create, even in the process, conflict, because not everybody's lined up properly. Not everybody's on the same page, much less in the same paragraph or the same sentence of the paragraph.

And not everybody's understanding that. We can take this group right here today, and if we could kind of plug a meter into each of us, and, you know, show on some type of a digital readout where we were on a scale of 1 to 10 of these qualities of wisdom from above, we would have a scale of 1 to 10. It would read out. Some of us would be embarrassed.

And that would be any group that we could survey, because we are at various stages of spiritual development and emotional maturity and spiritual growth.

And, as one person would try to apply some of these, somebody else in the group's not. They're not ready to. Not even able to recognize it. Or might even take advantage of it, because they're on the wisdom that is from below.

But they don't know it.

And so, again, that's why I say, working at being a peacemaker, sometimes is very difficult work, and you will find yourself even shortchanged. You will find yourself in the midst of conflict trying to make peace. You might even be burned out and say, it doesn't work, or I'm backing out, or I'm out of here.

Other teachings kick in to keep us to endure and stay the course. James gives us two contrasting viewpoints on wisdom here. A wisdom from below that is sensual, physical, and has its roots in the spirit world of Satan and his demons.

It stirs up disorder, strife, conflict, division, and splits.

All in the name of wisdom. And it takes wisdom to do that.

But it takes a godly wisdom, a godly people, to discern the wisdom that is from above.

And then to make that choice, and then to work toward that end. Which, and where do we find ourselves in that? Where do you find yourself in that?

When you ask for wisdom, you should ask for wisdom.

I ask for on a regular basis in my job, that I might have the wisdom to walk among the people of God as a minister, as a council member, to make wise decisions. To make the right judgment decision.

Because you never know what you're going to be called upon.

A phone call will come in, or you'll get into a conversation, or a situation will come up.

Ask for it. But when you ask for it, know the difference between these two that James goes on to give us the benefit of.

Be able to discern the wisdom that is from below. And avoid it.

Or call for what it is. And be striving to have the qualities of the wisdom that is from above.

What he gives us. They end out in our life.

If we can have that, then we can truly have the result, you know, a group of wise people, and the fruits of that wisdom, peace.