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James 3:13-18 - Wisdom from Above
A key to the right talk is the right thought. The tongue is contained in a cage of teeth and lips, but it still escapes. It is not intelligence that keeps the lock on that cage; it is wisdom—a wisdom that is characterized by humility, grace, and peace.
Up to this point, James had been focusing on human deeds and their sources within the heart. In this section, while retaining that focus on deeds, he introduced insights on the transcendent sources of good and evil from which various deeds emanate. The two chief categories of reference in this entire passage are a friend of God and a friend of the world. Anticipated in the declaration that the evil of the tongue is ignited by the evil of hell (3:6), the chief question to be posed to James’s hearers was, Which wisdom is guiding you, the heavenly (v. 17) or the hellish (v. 15) variety? This third part of the body of James’s epistle alerted them to their interpersonal warring, to the peaceable wisdom among them, and to the source for correcting their warring desires.
Wisdom was an important thing for Jewish people. They realized that it was not enough to have knowledge; wisdom was necessary to be able to use that knowledge correctly. All of us know people who are very intelligent, perhaps almost geniuses, and yet who seemingly are unable to carry out the simplest tasks of life. They can run the biggest projects but they cannot manage their own lives! “The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight” (Prov. 4:7, ESV).
James continued to exhort the people in the assembly who wanted to be teachers of the Word (James 3:1). It is not enough simply to stand before the people and say words; you must have something to say. This is where spiritual wisdom comes in. Knowledge enables us to take things apart, but wisdom enables us to put things together and relate God’s truth to daily life.[1] All of us have heard preachers and teachers who say many good things, but who somehow miss the heart of God’s message and fail to relate truth to everyday life. It is this kind of “knowledge without wisdom” that James is writing about. He is contrasting true wisdom and false wisdom in three different aspects.
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By Matthew TaylorA key to the right talk is the right thought. The tongue is contained in a cage of teeth and lips, but it still escapes. It is not intelligence that keeps the lock on that cage; it is wisdom—a wisdom that is characterized by humility, grace, and peace.
Up to this point, James had been focusing on human deeds and their sources within the heart. In this section, while retaining that focus on deeds, he introduced insights on the transcendent sources of good and evil from which various deeds emanate. The two chief categories of reference in this entire passage are a friend of God and a friend of the world. Anticipated in the declaration that the evil of the tongue is ignited by the evil of hell (3:6), the chief question to be posed to James’s hearers was, Which wisdom is guiding you, the heavenly (v. 17) or the hellish (v. 15) variety? This third part of the body of James’s epistle alerted them to their interpersonal warring, to the peaceable wisdom among them, and to the source for correcting their warring desires.
Wisdom was an important thing for Jewish people. They realized that it was not enough to have knowledge; wisdom was necessary to be able to use that knowledge correctly. All of us know people who are very intelligent, perhaps almost geniuses, and yet who seemingly are unable to carry out the simplest tasks of life. They can run the biggest projects but they cannot manage their own lives! “The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight” (Prov. 4:7, ESV).
James continued to exhort the people in the assembly who wanted to be teachers of the Word (James 3:1). It is not enough simply to stand before the people and say words; you must have something to say. This is where spiritual wisdom comes in. Knowledge enables us to take things apart, but wisdom enables us to put things together and relate God’s truth to daily life.[1] All of us have heard preachers and teachers who say many good things, but who somehow miss the heart of God’s message and fail to relate truth to everyday life. It is this kind of “knowledge without wisdom” that James is writing about. He is contrasting true wisdom and false wisdom in three different aspects.