Pure Wisdom from Above

Not mine, God's. It's a definition, not a declaration about me.

"Sun rays through clouds" by JohnSeb is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

First, a piece of housekeeping. Next weekend is Memorial Day weekend in the United States. Our class agreed to take this long weekend off. There will be no lesson produced on Friday for Sunday, May 25^th. Look at me, getting the word out before Friday so people can prepare. See, I can grow. Now, on with Monday Morning…

Toward the end of the lesson on Sunday in class, we came across this scripture:

¹⁷But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.
¹⁸And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
James 3:17–18 (NASB95)

The scripture was in answer to the question, “Why are we discussing getting wisdom and being humble if our goal is to do good deeds? How are they connected?”

My point from the lesson is that God is in charge, made it all, and because He made it all gets to determine what good and bad are. Because God determines what good and bad are as terms and categories for actions, we don’t get to argue with that. Well, unless you think you can win an argument against God. That didn’t turn out so well for Jonah. However, because God sets the moral standard through His Word in the Bible, which is the only way we have it and must accept that, that’s the standard Christians follow.

When I read the scripture, I drew out verse 17 as a list of attributes to be emulated regarding the doing of good and how it should be done. Whatever good deed or sharing we intend, verse 17 demonstrates how our fruits should manifest from within ourselves and appear to those around us. When I did that, I focused on the word “unwavering.”

The class stopped for a moment, and one of the participants brought up a recent case in the news locally about a woman who is brain dead from an accident but on life support and pregnant. Georgia law, where I live, prevents the doctors from aborting the child, so the family, without being consulted, is required to keep the mother alive until the child can be born. The point with the case is that there are so many nuances coming out of this situation, each one challenges an “unwavering” stance on aborting the child. That is going to be a long, expensive hospital stay for that family who had no say in extending the mother’s life. What if the mother has an advanced directive about being in this situation? How much say does the father have in this or his family? Who advocates for the child? On and on the permutations go, and it only gets more difficult to figure out what to do with each added layer of complexity.

My goal with this morning’s writing is not to argue or debate the context of the case, the many nuances it presents, or even the basic morality of abortion. My point with this writing this morning is to focus on wisdom and unwavering, or unwavering wisdom if you will. But, what does that mean? If we focus on the words used in verse 17, perhaps we have a clue.

“But the wisdom from above…” We first have to acknowledge that wisdom comes from God. If you aren’t willing to join me in that belief, you can stop reading because all of my principles, understanding, and beliefs begin with the idea that God is in charge, smarter than we are, and knows what is right. If we can agree on that, continue. Otherwise, I wish you well in living your life based on whatever source of knowledge seems good, right, and true to you.

³what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.
⁴These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete.
⁵This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.
1 John 1:3–5 (NASB95)

“…is first pure…” If we acknowledge that God made everything, and He is the source of all goodness, then purity is from God as well. That means when God says something is good, it is good. With no wiggle room, when God says something is bad, it also is bad. These aren’t “yeah but” situations. There is no wiggle room or situation God hasn’t thought about. If He says it’s bad, it’s bad. That’s what being pure is. We humans muck things up as we “yeah but” things, trying to find an out so we can have an easy way out of some very complex, complicated situations we don’t want to deal with. The problem is, when one side takes the easy way out, they create the conflict that was trying to be avoided with the other side.

Let me pause for a second here. In class, I stated my point was that I want people to have spent time in God’s Word while the sun shines, meaning before the hard situation; before the complex and difficult decisions spring upon us and have to be decided quickly with little input. The more time we spend considering God’s Word in the tough topics, the more we know about what He says about those hard decisions, the better prepared and armed with wisdom we will be when the time comes to make snap decisions on the fly with little or no input.

Here it is in a nutshell: know what you believe, and why, meaning know what scripture says to back up why you believe what you believe.

If you can’t anchor your belief in scripture, how “pure” is it? If you can’t anchor your principles in God’s Word, how much “wisdom from above” does it contain? If your principles aren’t anchored in His pure wisdom from above, by definition, they are anchored in what the World and Satan believe, and that’s the wrong side to be on.

Now, back to verse 17…

“…then peaceable…” That’s almost self-explanatory. This isn’t the O.K. to argue on the internet or in person. This is a statement that we should remain calm, and continue to believe what we believe, because we’ve spent time in His pure wisdom from above and know why we believe what we believe. Arguing with people on the internet or in person over things we are convinced of by God’s Holy Spirit doesn’t make us smart. It puts us in another category with those intransigent people who won’t change their minds. Yes, we have conviction in an unwavering fashion, but what makes us not a scoffer and a fool is that we know what scripture says, specific scripture chapter and verse that can be found and referenced is what is meant by “we know”.

⁸Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you, Reprove a wise man and he will love you.
⁹Give instruction to a wise man and he will be still wiser, Teach a righteous man and he will increase his learning.
¹⁰The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
Proverbs 9:8–10 (NASB95)

“…gentle…” This goes along with peaceable. When the Holy Spirit moves us to speak, it should be peaceably rather than forcefully. This is the beginning of the communication, in peace. Where that goes from there might change, but I will live in peace with anyone who will live in peace with me. Beyond that, you must follow the path God has laid out for you.

“…reasonable…” This is where we begin to encounter problems with “unwavering, which is coming. We said in class, repeatedly, and will say again, we don’t know everything. God does know everything. We also don’t have the same gifts that other people have. Those two truths coupled together mean other people know things we do not. That’s just a universal fact for all people. It isn’t your truth or my truth. That one is The Truth. Some people know things we do not. When we encounter someone who knows more than we do on a topic, we should be reasonable and willing to take in new information on a subject. Once we get that information, we get to apply our discernment to it, evaluate it from the perspective of what we already know, and then fit it into the total body of our personal knowledge. Then, we can determine how useful, or useless, that new bit of information is. We should be reasonable about this process and accept that we will learn new things from other people. It is how life provides experience and growth to those who survive those encounters.

“…full of mercy…” Oh, this one I need because I am very judgmental. I do not speak for anyone but myself on this one. I need to show more mercy to those I meet than I do. I need to be better at this because I really want and need mercy from God when my time comes, and I won’t get it unless I’m willing to give it to others in this life.

³⁵“But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.
³⁶“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
³⁷“Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned.
³⁸“Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure—pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return.”
Luke 6:35–38 (NASB95)

“…and good fruits…” Good works. Good deeds. Things people see in our lives reflect what God is. We should be thankful, not disgruntled. Our outward appearance is as much a “good fruit” as when we serve at the local food bank, usher at our church, or help little old ladies across the street. Someone is always watching, even when we are alone, because we are never alone. God is with us to the ends of the earth.

¹⁹“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
²⁰teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:19–20 (NASB95)

“…unwavering…” Believe what you believe, but know why you believe what you believe, meaning anchor it in the pure wisdom from above. Read the Bible. Search it for the scripture to back up what you believe, but, and this is the hard part, be prepared to alter what you believe if your research discovers that God doesn’t agree with you. That’s the hard part, and I suspect it is why many people don’t actually read scripture. They already know God doesn’t agree with them, and they think if they just don’t read the words, they’ll have an excuse when the time comes, “Well, I didn’t know.” No. That won’t work. You knew, and God knows you knew, or if you didn’t actually know, you suspected. That’s an earthly, human defense that won’t work with the heavenly spiritual judgment. Get this one in order as soon as you can. It’s between you and God, so figure it out as quickly as you can, because if you don’t, you are in line with the last bit of this verse of scripture.

“…without hypocrisy.” If I walk the line as a Christian, claim that title, and publicly declare I am one of God’s children, I am a hypocrite if I don’t adhere to what He believes. I want the good things that go with the title without the responsibilities, and there are responsibilities. Yes, God so loved all the world, and our belief is all that is required to enter, but there are responsibilities for the Children of God. How is that not a contradiction? Easy. When you claim your personal salvation as entry into Heaven through the blood of Christ, it is on God’s terms, not Man’s terms. How God says things go is how they go in Heaven, so when He says something is bad, it is bad, and when He says something is good, it is good. Period. We don’t get to have our heavenly cake and eat our worldly cake too. The flesh and the spirit are not the same, but are contained in the same vessel, namely, us. It comes down to Joshua’s choice, whom you will follow this day. Make the right choice. God bless and Godspeed.

¹⁴“Now, therefore, fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.
¹⁵“If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Joshua 24:14–15 (NASB95)

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