Our New Testament reading this week continues from the letter James wrote to fellow believers, giving practical instructions on Christian living. James starts out today with comparing two types of wisdom. We all need wisdom in our lives if we want to have a good and effective life, but the key is where our wisdom comes from. As James describes, there is heavenly, godly wisdom, and there is earthly wisdom which comes from the devil (vs 13-18). Naturally, most of us would like God’s wisdom, but how can we tell which type of wisdom we are developing in our life? Let’s look at James’s description of each.
James describes the wisdom of this world as filled with envy and self-seeking or selfish ambition (vs 14-16). Envy is desiring to have something that another has. When we don’t have that item we want, especially seeing our neighbor with a brand new one, we become filled with bitterness. The advertising world knows this, playing up and feeding our desires, which leads to a selfish, or worldly ambition, striving to do whatever we can to obtain our desires. This wisdom is self-centered, often causing strife, taking our eyes off of God and onto ourselves and desires. This is not from God, but rather it comes from an unsanctified heart and unredeemed spirit, generated by Satan.
God’s wisdom, on the other hand, will lead to harmony and peace (vs 17-18). James describes this type of wisdom as being pure, peaceful, gentle, merciful, and without partiality. True, godly wisdom is measured by the depth of a person’s character. We identify trees by the fruit it produces. We can evaluate our wisdom by the way we act. The wisdom of the world leads to disorder and chaos, whereas godly wisdom leads to peace and goodness.
James goes on to describe how the wisdom of the world, filled with its unrestrained desires for material goods and lusts, will lead to conflicts, fighting, and war (vs 1-2). Conflicts, quarrels, and disputes result from evil desires battling within us. We fight in order to fulfill those desires. Thwarted desires can even lead to murder. We should submit to God, and receive His help to get rid of our selfish desires, trusting Him to give us what we truly need.
When we have desires in our life, why don’t we bring them to God in prayer, James asks. He says in verse 2 that we do not have because we do not ask. We serve a prayer-answering God. However sometimes we need to take stock of our prayers and our life. Maybe the motives of our heart are wrong (vs 3). We need to get our heart in the right place.
The most common problems in prayer are not asking, asking for the wrong things, and asking for the wrong reasons. Our prayers will become more powerful when we allow God to change our desires so they correspond to His will for us.
The cure for evil desires is humility (vs 4-6). Pride makes us self-centered. To release us from our self-centered desires, we need to humble ourselves before God. All we really need is His approval. If we seek to embrace and follow the world system which is opposed to God and His Word, then we are resistant to and in defiance to Him. We cannot continue with one foot in the world and one with God. The Scripture here says that if we are a friend with this world system, we are thus God’s enemy. Let’s forsake this world, for all it has to give us is only a cheap substitute for what God offers. Let’s seek His wisdom and ways for our life.
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