Destructive Mental and Emotional Sins;
James 3:13-16
Verses 13-18 form a paragraph
in the original language and it is a transition from the sins of the tongue,
which was the subject of verses 3-12, to the mental attitude sins that will be
the topic from 4:1ff. We come now to the category of wisdom,
that our speech is going to reflect what is going on inside our soul. It
reflects whether or not there is true wisdom and understanding in the soul,
whether we have doctrine resident in our soul that is the basis for handling
tests, or whether we just have a lot of academic knowledge and human viewpoint
in our soul. So the point of these next six verses is to give us some
understanding of how to evaluate what is really going on in our souls during times
of testing. What James is saying here is that wisdom is to be the source of our
speech, so we can look at our speech as something of a barometer of what is in
our soul.
James
First of all we must
determine what exactly it is that James means by wisdom and understanding. Then
we must ask how we acquire or develop wisdom and/or understanding in the soul. Once
thing is clear from the structure of the question and answer in this verses is that we must first have wisdom and
understanding in the soul before we can have the deeds of the gentleness of
wisdom. We must always change our thinking before we change our actions. The
trouble with most Christianity is they confuse morality with spirituality. They
have confused outside, external behaviour with internal transformation, and
they have fallen into the same trap as the Pharisees, and Jesus told the
Pharisees that they were nothing more than whitewashed sepulchres. The
Christina life is a transformation from the inside out and not from the outside
in.
The first word here is “wisdom”
and it comes from the Greek word SOPHOS [sofoj].
The Greeks had a very pagan or human viewpoint concept of wisdom. This was a
wisdom based on intellectual endeavour, on the basis of either rationalism or
empiricism. It was what we would call academic or intellectual activity. That
is not how the writers of the New Testament utilized the word wisdom. James was
a Jew with all the background of the Septuagint and the writers of the New Testament
knew the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, and so
their understanding of a lot of Greek words had more to do with how the Old Testament
Hebrew understood these concepts than how 5th century BC Greek
understood the concepts. So this is going to relate to the Old Testament word chokmah, the word
found frequently in Proverbs for wisdom. Regarding the Greek word SOPHOS the dictionary
says that this means it is a type of knowledge that pertains to specialized
knowledge resulting in the skill for accomplishing some purpose. It means
someone who is skilful, someone who is an expert in their particular field. In
the Bauer, Arndt and Gingrich lexicon, which is the classic lexicon on Greek
studies, SOPHOS means to be clever, to be skilful, to
be experienced. Therefore it relates to someone who has skill in living the
spiritual life. This is not the academic knowledge type of wisdom that the
Greeks talked about, this is a Hebrew-based concept.
The word chokmah
in the Old Testament is often translated “skill.” It is the word used back in
Exodus when the Spirit of God came upon the goldsmiths and the craftsmen in the
building of the tabernacle. This is a Hebrew concept that is very application
in its orientation.
The reason for stressing
that: What does James emphasize throughout the last half of chapter one and all
of chapter two? Application. Don’t be simply a hearer
in self-delusion but be an applier of the Word. So his concept of wisdom is not
just an accumulation of facts and knowledge but it always drives toward
application. Always remember that before you can apply something you have to
know it. You don’t know what you haven’t taken the time, the energy and the
discipline to learn. Anything in life worth doing is worth doing well. Wisdom
is not just a knowledge of doctrine, it is an understanding of doctrine deep in
the soul that we have called EPIGNOSIS [e)pignwsij] doctrine.
Wisdom in the Bible
1)
The starting point
for all wisdom is humility: awe and respect for God. Humility is basically
authority orientation to God. God in His omniscience prepared a way of
revelation so that complete revelation would be given so that the principles necessary
to handle all of those difficulties would be available to mankind. God is also
omnipotent. This means that God is able to do everything necessary to bring
completion His will and plan. So between our understanding of the omniscience
of God and the omnipotence of God we know that God was able to tell us
everything we need to know to handle every situation. Nothing surprises God and
He has revealed how to handle anything in our life. Then starting point,
though, is authority orientation. Psalm
2)
The source of
wisdom is God and His revelation. Proverbs 2:6 NASB “For the LORD gives
wisdom; From His mouth {come} knowledge and understanding. [7] He stores up
sound wisdom for the upright; {He is} a shield to those who walk in integrity.”
3)
The opposite of
wisdom is foolishness. The Bible only sees two categories. We are either
walking in wisdom or we are walking in foolishness—human or divine viewpoint application
to life. Proverbs 1:7 NASB “The fear of the LORD is the
beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction.” Why do fools despise
wisdom and instruction? No authority orientation, no humility; they think they
have all the answers in life.
4)
Without wisdom
there is no blessing in this life. Proverbs
5)
The acquisition
of wisdom therefore is to be the believer’s highest priority. Nothing in life
is more important because when you die and are absent from the body and face to
face with the Lord the only thing that you are going to take with you into
heaven is the doctrine that you have stored in your soul. Proverbs
6)
Wisdom is
tantamount to EPIGNOSIS doctrine in the soul. It is not merely academic
knowledge of the Bible but it is applicational
doctrine which is learned under the filling ministry of God the Holy Spirit.
7)
Wisdom will eventually
play itself out in the speech of the believer. Transformation comes from the
inside out, so the more you learn if you are learning under the filling
ministry of the Holy Spirit and walking by means of the Spirit then the result
will be the fruit of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit will produce this in your
life. Proverbs
“Who among you is wise and
understanding?” This is the Greek word EPISTEMON [e)pisthmwn], a
basic word for knowledge. It refers to someone who is an expert, someone who
has advanced to the highest level of understanding and skill in his field, and
thus has developed insight, understanding, perception and discernment. So when
we apply this concept to the spiritual life we are indeed talking about someone
who has advance to spiritual maturity, somebody who has taken a tremendous
amount of time, exercised a lot of discipline to be in Bible class and to learn
the Word of God and then principles of Bible doctrine so that they can grow and
advance to spiritual maturity. So James says: “Are you wise? Do you evaluate
yourself? Do you have skill with the spiritual life? Do you understand these things?
Do you apply them on a consistent basis when you encounter tests and trials in
life? Remember the issue is volition. Are you going to be walking by means of
the Spirit or walking by means of the flesh? You make the choice b the power
comes either through the sin nature or from the Holy Spirit. This tells us that
no matter what our vocation may be, no matter what our interests might be, what
our talents or pleasures might be, everyone of us is
to become an expert in the spiritual life.
The mandate then comes up: “Let
him show by his good behavior his deeds in the
gentleness of wisdom.” This to get us to understand what our
responsibilities are as believers. James is assuming that you are going
to want to do this. Writers of Scripture do not assume that you just want to be
saved and then sit on your hands. They, and the Lord Jesus Christ, always
assumed that if you were a believer you would want to advance to spiritual
maturity. How do we get there? The issue in the spiritual life is not your IQ, it is not
your culture; the issue is your relationship to God the Holy Spirit. God the
Father designed an incredible way of learning for every single believer in the church
age, so that no matter who you are, you too can understand all the principles
of Scripture. The Holy Spirit makes the doctrine we hear usable, but He doesn’t
use it for you. That is your volition. When the test comes you have to apply
it. The test is the opportunity to exercise our spiritual muscles and to respond
positively by applying doctrine. That is where application comes in: “let him
show.” This is the Greek word DEIXATO [deicatw],
and aorist active imperative from DEIKNUMI [deiknumi]
which means to demonstrate. It means to show something, to make known
something, to make known the character or significance of something through
visual, auditory, gestural or linguistic means. For
us that means we are going to demonstrate by our lifestyle, i.e. good behaviour—the
Greek word ANASTROPHES [a)nastrofhj] which means your character, your good behaviour,
your lifestyle—by the decisions you make, by the things you say, the things you
do, your works.
That is way down the line,
but what precedes works? The filling of the Holy Spirit, the discipline,
comprehension and understanding of the Word of God, transferred through the
mechanics of the filling of the Holy Spirit into EPIGNOSIS, and then as your soul
is edified and built up by means of doctrine, then you begin to apply. It is
not activity, it is obedience to God and the outworking
of those principles in the soul. James recognises that before you start putting
a lot of people out on the street or on the mission field or teaching Sunday school
or any other kind of Christian service, that first of
all they have to have some knowledge. The development of your priesthood
precedes the development of your ambassadorship. You have to understand what it
mans to have a relationship with God and that learning the Word precedes
applying the Word.
DEIXATO here, translated “show,” is an aorist active
imperative, third person singular. We have seen that James uses the present
active imperative, second person plural to indicate the basic principles of the
spiritual life that apply to everybody. He will give a present active
imperative and then that is usually followed by a series of aorist active
imperatives in the third person singular which give specific mandates for the
fulfilment of the general principle. These specific mandates, then, are to be
priorities. That is the thrust grammatically and syntactically of an aorist
imperative. The basic idea of an aorist imperative is that it is a command in
which the action is viewed as a whole without regard for the internal makeup of
the action. The ingressive means to begin an action with a stress on the
urgency of the action. So urgency indicates priority. He is saying once again,
as he has said throughout this epistle, that application is the priority, but
you can’t apply what you don’t know and you can’t know something until you
learn it and learn it and learn it—discipline in the classroom. So first you
learn doctrine, then you apply doctrine, and this produces works. Deeds or
works is the Greek word ERGA [e)rga] and is tantamount to the fruit of the Spirit. Notice
it is the fruit of the Spirit, not the fruit of your volition, not the fruit of
your own energy; it is the fruit of the Spirit because you have been walking by
means of the Spirit. In Galatians
How is he going to show his
works? “In the gentleness of wisdom.” That is a bad
translation, PRAUTES [prauthj]
does not mean gentleness, it means humility. It is the
same word that is used back in
Galatians