8 Characteristics of the Truly Wise (James 3:17-18)

Take your Bibles with me and turn to James 3. We are going to read verses 13-18 one more time. James 3:13-18:

”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 intreated, 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. (Jas 3:13-18 KJV)”

I have had a lot of Sunday nights off over the last several weeks, so it seems like we’ve been inching our way through this passage for FOREVER, but we’ve been talking about real wise guys.

Remember: This is a passage about who has real spiritual wisdom and who doesn’t. It’s about whom you should listen to, and it’s not based on what they say; it’s based on who they are and how they say it.

If you remember from several weeks ago, we talked about the evidence, the lifestyle, and the attitude of someone who really has spiritual wisdom. You should be able to look at their life and see a difference—not in the way that they dress or in the way that they talk, but in the way they live and their attitude.

Then a week or so after that, I talked about how this passage gives us two things that never, ever go with God-given wisdom, and they are the two sins of envy and strife—wanting what other people have, and this competitive spirit.

This week, we are going to look at verse 17 and go from negative to positive, talking about what characteristics spiritual wisdom actually has.

This is a unique list. There are lists of Christian character traits in the Bible. We know the “fruits of the Spirit” passage from Galatians. We know the “add to your faith virtue and to virtue knowledge” passage from 2 Peter. This is another one of those lists, and it’s completely different. The wording is completely different, but when you take a step back when we are done, I think you’ll see that this is describing the same thing.

In other words, what James calls “the wisdom that is from above,” Paul calls “the fruit of the Spirit,” and even though the list is different, they are describing the same thing.

So let’s look at verse 17 again:

”But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.”

This verse gives us 8 characteristics of true wisdom. All I’m going to do tonight is go through them one by one. It won’t be a long message.

Let’s pray and we’ll get into this.

So how do you tell someone what has real spiritual wisdom? How do you tell when someone is worth listening? This verse gives us 8 things to look for.

Before I give them to you, let me just say this. Wisdom is incredibly important. Wisdom is the skill to live your life. It is the skill to make good, godly decisions. You don’t have to be smart, but you better be wise. You don’t have to be good-looking, but you better be wise. You don’t have to be rich, but you’d better be wise. More than any other trait, wisdom will help you to live a godly, satisfying life.

Wisdom is so important that one of the things Jesus is called in the Bible is Wisdom. He is Wisdom incarnate, so in a sense, to be wise is to be like Jesus. The more we know Jesus and the more we resemble Him, the wiser we will be.

So what does wisdom look like? James has already told us what it doesn’t look like, but here he gives us 8 things you can see in the lives of truly wise people.

First, it says first pure.. This means that…

1. They live pure and chaste lives.

How are we supposed to be pure?

First, I think this means we should be pure morally.

A person who has true spiritual wisdom isn’t going to be the rooster trying to have the run of the henhouse. He’s going to keep himself morally pure. He’s going to be what Timothy calls the husband of one wife.. That phrase isn’t talking about divorce; it’s talking about faithfulness and chastity.

Someone with real spiritual wisdom is going to be morally pure.

Second, someone with real spiritual wisdom is going to be pure from idolatry and wordiness. Not only will they not be running around morally, they won’t be running around spiritually. They aren’t going to go chasing after the false gods of this world. They are going to follow God and His word.

One more thing, I think this means they will be pure doctrinally. They aren’t going to be teaching a bunch of false doctrine; they are going to do their best to teach the pure truth.

Now this doesn’t mean they will get it 100% right. No one has gotten it 100% right. It just means they are going to try. They are going to care about pure doctrine.

And I find it interesting that James said first pure. You see, James is going to talk a lot about peace and reasonableness, but we don’t have peace and reasonableness at the expense of purity. We have to have grace, but we have to have truth, too.

So number 1: They live pure and chaste lives

Then the verse says then peaceable, so the second thing we look for in people with true spiritual wisdom is…

2. They love peace and try to bring peace wherever they go.

I think at some point, peace became a dirty word for Christians. I don’t know, but maybe it was associated with the hippy movement or something. But peace and being a peacemaker are both things that the scripture speaks about A LOT. Jesus said in the Beatitudes, ”blessed are the peacemakers,” and this chapter ends by saying, ”and the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.”

I don’t think this means “peace at any cost.” We have to be pure. We have to fight for the truth, but I think it does mean that we shouldn’t be people looking for a fight. In fact, if anything, we should be people looking to end fights and to bring people together.

Sometimes I meet or hear of preachers who are very pugilistic. They just want to fight with everyone about everything. They love pointing the finger at other preachers around them and telling everyone how wrong they are. They love being militant. They craft this persona where they are mad at everything and everybody.

I’m thinking of one preacher down in Georgia. He’s softened up quite a bit now, but he used to send around photos bragging about being “the most controversial preacher in America.” These pictures would be of him standing in front of a Confederate flag with a scowl on his face wearing boxing gloves.

I think sometimes as Christians, we have to call wrong wrong, but we shouldn’t be pugilistic. We shouldn’t be any more militant than we absolutely have to be. We should be peaceful in our demeanor, peaceful in our relationships, and peace-making rather than war-making as much as possible.

What does that look like? I think it means we give people the benefit of the doubt. I think it means we forgive little infractions. We try to be people who turn mountains into molehills and not molehills into mountains. I think it means when we do get at odds with others, we take the initiative and go and make it right, even if they were the ones at fault. I think it means being big enough to be small and say, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”

Peaceable.

The next thing it says is gentle, and I think that means…

3. They wouldn’t hurt a fly and do their best not to hurt others with their words and actions.

This is another word that the Bible considers a good thing that we’ve almost made a bad thing.

On the wall in my office, I have one Bible verse, it says:

”And the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient.”. (2 Timothy 2:24)

Remember that “gentleness” and “meekness” are both fruits of the Spirit. Remember that one of the things they said about Jesus is that He wouldn’t even break a bruised reed.

So what does it mean to be gentle? I think it means we try really hard not to hurt people. We try not to hurt people’s feelings. We don’t make bold brash accusations that we know probably aren’t all true. We don’t paint with a broad brush.

Sometimes you have to say something that will hurt to do long-term good, but a gentle person knows not to use a battle axe when a pen knife or a scalpel would suffice.

Let me give you an example. I hate contemporary Christianity and the Church growth movement. It seems to me like these churches will do almost anything to get people in the door, and that they are preaching watered-down messages and using carnality to reach people. I’m as against that as anyone.

But I’ve heard some preachers who are also against it say things like, “They are all headed for hell,” or, “They don’t care about anything but their rock music.” “They don’t even care about the Bible.” “They are a bunch of hellions.”

And here is the problem with that: At some point, one of our young people who grows up hearing stuff like that is going to meet a group of sincere Christians who use worship music I disapprove of and who practice this “come as you are” stuff who are really good Christians because there are a lot of them out there. And they are going to think, “Pastor Hayden called these people hellions. He said they don’t care about the Bible at all. He said all they care about is rock music, but they really love Jesus.” And my bombastic rants actually push people towards what I’m ranting about. I’ve seen that happen.

And here is another problem with that: How in the world am I going to win over people who are into that sort of thing if I’m saying things about them that are mean-spirited and untrue? How many of you have ever had your mind changed by someone making fun of you? Anyone?

You’ve got to be gentle. You’ve got to show people you don’t mean to hurt them. That’s part of spiritual wisdom.

The fourth thing in this list is easy to be entreated..

That phrase is actually two words: A word for “good” and a word for “persuade.” It literally means “good to persuade.” It’s another way to describe someone who can be reasoned with—who can actually listen to an argument and to ideas and think about them.

This means when you find someone with true spiritual wisdom…

4. They can think through an issue and have their beliefs questioned without going off. They can have a reasoned discussion without resorting to personal attacks and name-calling.

Let me tell you what I’ve learned about most people: They don’t like questions. They don’t like any question that casts any doubt into something they hold to be true. When someone says something that is mostly true but not 100% true, and you ask them a question about it, 99% of the time they go on the attack.

The only way we come to a deeper understanding of the truth is to ask questions. That’s how we come to our positions. That’s how we get our doctrine. We ask questions. Then we study out the answers.

If young people are asking questions, that’s a good thing. Even if the questions push us and challenge us a bit, we should welcome that. When they stop asking questions, it means they don’t care anymore, and they’ve stopped thinking about it.

Honestly, I know a lot of people who are very uncomfortable with questions. They just want to tell. They just want to recite a bunch of short quips, but they don’t discuss. They can’t discuss, and when someone asks them a question, they attack.

That’s not a sign of true spiritual wisdom.

5. They care about hurting people.

full of mercy

6. They have the evidence of wisdom all over their lives.

and good fruits

7. They aren’t wishy-washy; you know where they stand.

without partiality

8. They don’t wear a mask or speak out of both sides of their mouth.

without hypocrisy