“Make wise choices today.” That’s something we get told by parents and teachers as we’re growing up. It’s also something the Bible advocates: “Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who gets understanding, for the gain from her is better than gain from silver and her profit better than gold. She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her” (Proverbs 3:13-15 ESV).

But what do we mean by wisdom?

Too often, I think, we use a worldly version of wisdom, a practical kind of wisdom. We make decisions based on our understanding of how things work in the world, sometimes with selfish motives. From a human point of view, that’s a very sensible thing to do, but it’s not the kind of wisdom Proverbs 3 is talking about.

The problem with earthly wisdom is that it is broken, just as the world and humans in this world are broken. We can see this as we look at society and its flaws. Whatever systems of government or economy we come up with will always work imperfectly, however wisely we create them, because they are created and run by humans, who are inherently flawed and generally selfish. That’s the biggest problem with capitalism, socialism, monarchy, democracy–you name it.

James takes about wisdom, both the earthly version and God’s version:

Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. (James 3:13-18 ESV)

The description here of earthly wisdom is shocking. Demonic? And that’s not just the translation; the NIV, NASB, Holman, and NKJV all use that same word. Selfish wisdom is deplorable.

The description of heavenly wisdom is even more striking, however. I tend to think of wise decisions in terms of doing the right things and making the hard choices, even when they make people unhappy. This probably comes from having to make such decisions as an administrator. I think that is a necessary part of being wise, but the focus in this passage of James is not on that.

The description of the “wisdom from above” does begin with doing righteous things. This wisdom is “first pure.” It has to start there, because this is God’s wisdom. Walking in this wisdom can never mean doing wrong out of convenience or expedience. It must also do what is right.

Yet, too often as Christians we stop there. If we’re going to walk in God’s wisdom, we must pay attention to the rest of the verse.

• peaceable – How often do we confront in ways that cause conflict rather than leading toward conversation that might lend itself to positive progress? It is true that peace-making sometimes has to confront, but it must always do so in ways that lead toward resolution.
• gentle – This goes with the peaceable part. Are we gentle in how we do right? Do we consider the potential pain of others in our decisions? We must not do wrong to seem kind, but we must do right in ways that do not cause unnecessary harm.
• open to reason – This one is interesting. It’s particularly important for humans, because we all are fallible. We are not perfect, so we must be open to listen to reason. That doesn’t mean we change our beliefs just because others disagree, but it does mean that we genuinely listen and engage rationally with those who have other viewpoints. Some versions translate this phrase as submissive, compliant, or willing to yield, so it goes beyond just listening to possibly giving way to another.
• full of mercy – If we walk in God’s wisdom, we must do it with hearts of mercy, not hearts of judgment.
• full of good fruits – Godly wisdom will produce visible good effects in our lives and those of the people around us.
• impartial – This one is more obvious to me than some of the others, but it is a reminder that God’s wisdom is not selfish and does not favor those we have an emotional attachment to or trespass against those we dislike.
• sincere – God’s wisdom doesn’t fake it.

That’s quite a list. It’s the wisdom from above because we can’t possibly do this by ourselves, but we can work toward this ideal by walking with God daily, asking him to help us apply his wisdom in each of the decisions we must make.

What would it look like if every conversation we had, every decision we made, was characterized by this description of the wisdom from above? I can tell you that churches would stop having business meeting fights over the color of the carpet. More importantly, those we interact with would see the difference that walking closely with Christ can make.

 

Photo by Javier Allegue Barros on Unsplash