Who is wise and knowledgeable among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be arrogant and lie about the truth. This is not wisdom that comes down from above but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
The heading of James 3:1-12 in the NRSVue is “Taming the Tongue,” certainly a worthy endeavor, one most all of us can identify with. That’s followed up in finishing the chapter* with “Two Kinds of Wisdom” (3:13-18). The entire book of James could be thought of as something like a book on wisdom as community in the world in Jesus. The tongue, what we say and what others say, discernment about such is an important part of that and seems especially in need of being taken more seriously today.
But what follows in that chapter about the tongue is what I want to briefly look at now. The wisdom from above versus the wisdom that does not. There’s a world of difference between the two. James is talking about any setting, so we can imagine this in any public sphere (or private, for that matter) as well as in a church setting.
The wisdom from heaven as we might describe it now is marked by civility, a listening ear, sensitivity, humility, willingness to be corrected and learn, willingness to ask questions and not think one has all the answers. It is a grace-filled endeavor. Those on this side would rarely and overall never be perfect (see the beginning of James 3). At the same time though, I think one can come to the place when speaking that does not move from that course, and if ever doing so is quick to apologize or make it right, the exception proving the rule.
On the other hand the wisdom not from heaven is marked by incivility, a critical spirit, insensitivity as in not caring what others think, at least underlying pride which is just as damning as boastfulness. Always knowing better and being in control, unwillingness to be asked questions that might seem to challenge the authority they think they have, always thinking that they have or alone can get the right answer. Of course, how this “wisdom” of a worldly sort plays out will be as different as each of those who practice it, but the general marks are the same.
Few things seem more important today than what the book of James is getting at in James 3. This is a word not just for the other, maybe for those who stand out as examples of unheavenly wisdom. It is also most definitely a word to us all.
*Chapter divisions are not a part of the original text but seem to me to have some value.
Jesus community 