Wisdom from Above

James 3:13-18

I would love to visit the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center again (SLAC). One can explore the secrets of the universe by studying sub-atomic particles... Go deep in physics.

Texas State was not fortunate in this field. Some years ago the Federal Government decided to sponsor the building of an atomic particle accelerator. Everyone was excited. They started the plan. It would cost billions of dollars. Great scientific project.

Unfortunately, the Congress had second thoughts about the cost of the project. After spending millions of dollars, after building five miles of a slightly curved tunnel, after all that, the project was stopped. The problem is: what do you do with this tunnel? The answer: “A multi-multi-multi-million dollar tunnel built to discover the secrets of the universe will quite likely end up being used as a mushroom farm.” ¹

We were in the Letter of James last week. James wrote this letter to the First Century church knowing that they were facing daily problems. Words and the usage of the tongue was last week’s subject. This week the same letter is talking about knowledge and wisdom. The Texas illustration reveals this fact. We sometimes cannot distinguish knowledge from wisdom. We all can have knowledge, but wisdom is something else!

One of the most sophisticated Biblical scholars, Marcus Borg, explains how he had a new experience with Jesus. He wanted to meet Jesus again like the first time. He talks about his spiritual journey from a simplistic faith to the scholarly biblical faith searching for the truth. He tells how he recovered his first love. He had substituted knowledge for the wisdom that comes from a personal relationship with God.²

Today we live in a world of knowledge. We live in an age called “the Age of Information.” We pay to get knowledge such as schools, universities, media, internet, TV, newspaper, books, you name it.

Nations and governments pay a lot to get knowledge by spying and observing each other. Knowledge is power and people are ready to do anything to get it.

People are on the phones all the times. We thought when we leave our homes, when we are in the church, when we are in a picnic, no one can call us. We were wrong. Cellular phones came and changed our lives. Cellular phones are part of our life. Calling people is so simple and not expensive. You can call and talk and talk and share information, unfortunately sometimes wrong information. You know just 100 years ago, in 1906 a one-minute call from New York to Denver cost $11.00. Can you imagine, how difficult was for humans to attain any knowledge? Now knowledge is available, but are we wiser?

James warns in the beginning of this chapter: “Not many of you should presume to be teachers... We all stumble in many ways” (1-2).

Therefore, whoever is going to be a “teacher”, a knowledgeable person, needs to be careful in what he or she is doing. In verse 13 he continues: “Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life” (13).

James is concerned about people who think they have wisdom. For James, it is clear. If one has wisdom, that person should bear the “fruits of wisdom.” He says one has to show it in their lives. And in verses 13-16 he talks about the fruits of wisdom. Let us make clear one thing. There is nothing wrong to have knowledge. A wise person is the one who knows how to use knowledge in the right way.

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1 Gordon MacDonald, The Life God Blesses, Thomas Nelson Publisher, 1994, Page 171-172.

2 Illustration from eSermon.com