Steadfast in Wise Speech, James 3:1-18

James 3 challenges us to reject the double-mindedness that stunts our growth, sabotages our work, and poisons our words, by single-mindedly pursuing the pure wisdom of God from above (3:17). A double-minded, restless, and unstable (1:8, 3:8) woman looks back to the wisdom from below—whose source is the fire of Hell—and allows jealousy and selfish ambition (3:14,16) to flourish in her heart so that she seeks her own glory at the expense of others and sets herself up as God’s judge, grumbling about his gifts and accusing him of evil (1: 13).

But the pure wisdom of God has power to supplant the jealousy and selfish ambition in our hearts with the meekness of wisdom, (3:13) so that we gradually grow up into the steadfast character of our God and Savior. Receiving this wisdom is easier than you might think! We have only to ask (1:5), and the God “who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all” will also graciously give us the wisdom we need to grow in our faith, to be fruitful in our works, and to overflow in a fountain of life-giving words (Romans 8:32).