The Truly Wise

“But the wisdom  that is from above is first pure,  then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without  partiality and without hypocrisy.”  James 3:17 (NKJV)

Our society values knowledge. The same can’t be said about its feelings about wisdom because it seems to think that  wisdom resides in people with academic  degrees or in philosophers or perhaps in television pundits.  But God sees differently. Our focus text is a panorama  of virtues that define wisdom, and it’s evident  that you and I can be wise.

Today the kind of wisdom that Christ promotes seems like a tall order, even for us Christians,  but as we see from the text, wisdom is God-given.  This wisdom is associated with  a wise heart. I read a story sometime ago  that illustrates this well.  A teacher and one of his young students were out for a walk. They came to a field where a peasant was bent over at work.  By the edge of the road  was a pair of worn sandals. The young boy suggested playfully to the teacher that they hide the sandals and stand closeby hidden to see what the old man would do when he found that his sandals were gone. The teacher had a different idea. “Let’s put a silver coin in each sandal for him and surprise him when he puts on the sandals.”  The boy didn’t like the idea but went along with his teacher’s suggestion. What a shock it was  for the poor man  when he came and slipped on his sandals! He looked at the coins and fell on his knees and thanked God for the wonderful provision that he so desperately needed. The young boy was duly impressed. That teacher was a wise man, don’t you think?  He was  full of mercy and good fruit.

Today we can  have the wisdom to make  wise choices, to be able to tell the difference between right and wrong,  to keep  from calling  evil good and good evil (Isaiah 5:21, 22).  Wisdom from God gives us that kind of discernment.  In  our interactions with others—our  family,  our friends and  coworkers—we have ample opportunities to demonstrate wisdom.  If we don’t quite measure up, we have encouragement  from the apostle James once again:  “If any man lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all liberally and it will be given” (James 1:5).  That’s the true source of wisdom. Let’s ask for it  today.

Always,

Judith