But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. 

James 3:17 (NIV) 

There is an old folktale about a king who wanted to give his sons the best education possible. So he instructed his wise men to travel widely and gather and compress all the world’s wisdom into a single book. The task took several years, after which they presented the resulting volume to the king, who handed it to his sons to study. Seeing that his wise men had done such a good job with this assignment the king challenged his sages once again, this time to compress all the wisdom of the world into a single sentence. The wise men heaved a sigh but set about the new task. After much consideration and many months they decided on the sentence: ‘This too shall pass’. On a further whim, the king requested that his wise men condense all the world’s wisdom into a single word.  They deliberated for a whole year, then, finally, offered to the king the one word they agreed on – the single word that summed up all the world’s wisdom was: ‘maybe’. 

However, the New Testament epistle of James reveals that not all wisdom is true wisdom, and the writer provides a sieve by which we can filter out, from all that is presented to us as wisdom, what is true and what is false (James 3:13-18). James asks us to consider whether the knowledge that has come to us as ‘wisdom’ brings due credit to God, and benefits others. Perhaps we believe we are wise ourselves, but if our ‘wisdom’ appears to satisfy our own self-interest, causes us to be boastful or produces envy, then such ‘wisdom’ is not Godly. It is rooted, instead, in this world’s principles and values, which, in turn, arise from out of the dark spiritual reservoir that has flooded the world’s consciousness (vv.14-15). 

Not all are wise, James reminds us, but you can recognise the wise, not so much by listening to what they are saying, but by first looking at their life. Those who are truly wise are marked out by their good conduct and righteous living (v.13). Their wisdom is ‘lived out’ in a life of loving service to others: it is patient through trials (James 1:2-7); is faithful to the word of truth (vv.22-25); produces evidence of such faith (James 2:14-17); controls the tongue to avoid harming others, but uses it, instead, to encourage, comfort, support and edify (James 3:8-10).  

The truly wise individual has all of the above marks of Godly character, yet remains ‘low profile’, with no show of self-confidence or pride. Such a wise individual may not be well educated or able to command society’s respect through wealth and social standing, they may be occupied in a line of work or profession that is regarded with very low esteem, but their wisdom is substantiated by a lived-out experience that is ‘…pure…peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere’ (v.17).  

If we had to sum up the wisdom of God in a four-word sentence, like the wise men in the above folktale, we could do no better than to repeat the Lord’s instruction: “Have faith in God” (Mark 11:22). But God’s wisdom can also be summed up in a one word name: Jesus 

(1 Corinthians 1:24). 

Prayer 
Loving Father, grant us the wisdom to live a life that is pleasing to you, that the love of Jesus, which you have placed within us through your Holy Spirit, can be clearly seen in the things we do and the words we speak, to honour and glorify your name. Amen.