Who is Wise and Understanding Among You? - a podcast by Rev. W. Reid Hankins

Sermon preached on James 3:13-18 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 04/11/2021 in Novato, CA















Sermon Manuscript







The book of James is often described as New Testament wisdom literature. This is seen with its emphasis on the importance of wisdom. It is also seen in how it deals with various practical topics that the Old Testament wisdom literature also deals with, like last time with the tongue. Here then we come to a passage that speaks a lot about wisdom directly. Our pew Bibles even give it the heading “Wisdom from Above”. That being said, a closer examination will see that this passage is not so much about wisdom per se, but about wisdom as it relates to peacemaking and the folly of the opposite of peacemaking. Yet, this is also typical to wisdom literature – to see the far-reaching moral and spiritual implications of godly wisdom. That is what this passage is doing. While talking so much about wisdom, it is not giving us a wholistic definition of wisdom. It is rather delving into one specific fruit of wisdom at it relates to how a Christian might interact with others, especially in temptation to conflict and quarreling with others. So then, our actual topic for today will focus on these aspects of biblical conflict resolution and peacemaking, but we will do it in the context of wisdom as James would have us to do.







Notice how he starts off getting us to think this way. He starts with a question. Who is wise and understanding among you? That’s a call to self-examination. The Bible holds out this emphasis on the tremendous importance of wisdom. Wisdom is painted as something more than just one commendable character trait among many. Wisdom is so often described as something that characterizes the whole of someone, like in the book of Proverbs the contrasting labels of the wise versus the fool are repeatedly used. So then, here James asks for some self-evaluation. Do you think yourself wise? Notice then what he calls us to do if we think we are so wise. He calls us to show ours wisdom by our conduct. In case you missed this, this is very similar to what he did back in chapter 2:14 with faith. He called us to examine our claim to faith by seeing if we are showing that we have a true faith by how we conduct ourselves. So, James is doing something very similar here now with wisdom. Do you fancy yourself wise? Well, then there should be certain fruit that comes from that wisdom. Here, he doesn’t go into all the fruit that will come from wisdom. He focuses on the fruit as it relates to promoting peace between people.







By the way, it seems clear that he is focusing on such peacemaking because the people he is writing to are struggling with conflicts and quarrelling. He’s touched briefly on that back in chapter 1. He’s hinted to it earlier in this chapter when he spoke about the tongue. Next passage he will directly speak against such quarreling. So he is addressing this teaching on peace between people because it was a real problem they were having. And this is not an unknown problem today either. May the Lord bless our reflection on it today and find the wisdom from above to implement its counsel.







Let us then in our first point about such wise peacemaking consider the wisdom of meekness versus its alternative. This is in verses 13 and 14. There we find the meekness of wisdom being commended to us if we think we are wise. This is saying that it is wise to be meek. It is saying that this is something the true wisdom brings out in our lives, meekness. If we are wise, we would be meek. Being meek is one of the way wisdom promotes peace in a relationship and seeks to dispel conflict.







What does it mean to be meek? It is to be gentle and mild of character.

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