WISDOM - Part III

By Hayley Boud

“Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, By deeds done in humility that comes from wisdom…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 3:13, 17

RECAP:

“Let him show”
The verse says that we should show our wisdom by the actions we do in “humility”. So we don’t have to tell people we are wise, they will discover it by themselves through our good actions. They will see by your wise decisions, by your transformed life, by the words you choose in everyday situations and they will discover you are wise without you having to tell them.

“Good life”
It’s not just the deeds we do that need to be good but our whole life: our character, our personality. A good life is someone who is filled with the Holy Spirit and this is proven by the good fruits they possess, “love, joy, peace, patience, self-control, goodness, gentleness and kindness Do my actions reflect wisdom or foolishness? Does my life reflect the fruit of the Holy Spirit?

“Deeds”
What are our deeds or works? The bible says that faith without works is dead/useless (James 2:20,26). For example, if I’m the leader on Wednesday, I know that if I spend the time reading the Bible, meditating and reflecting on a particular verse and working out exactly what I will say, my works will prove how wise I am because I will lead with confidence and I’ll have something to say that has depth and meaning.

“Wisdom that comes from heaven”
So what is the wisdom that comes from heaven? It is “pure, peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere”. This is the wisdom that comes from heaven.

“Pure”
Wisdom that comes from heaven (not wisdom as the world thinks of wisdom) doesn’t have any impurities: it won’t have any selfish desires or biases and it won’t cause someone to stumble, it won’t be motivated by self-interest or pride, it is humble and clean of sin.

Wisdom from heaven is “Peaceable” which means it brings about peace. It turns a difficult situation into one where people have peace. This is both physical (people are fighting and you help them to forgive) and spiritual (bringing peace between God and others with a gospel message).

“Considerate” or “Gentle”: find good strategies to help those around you, gently cleansing them with a soft sponge rather than attacking them with a harsh scrubbing brush. Find the right words to say at the right time spoken with kindness will achieve far greater results than pointing the finger and rebuking.

“But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children” 1 Thessalonians 2:7

TONIGHT’S MESSAGE:

“Submissive” or “Willing to Yield” or “Reasonable”
Submissive means you give your will to someone else in the same way Jesus said, “not my will but Yours be done” when He prayed to the Father. It means we give complete control to someone else and that is what we decided to do when we became Christians. We decided to give our lives 100% to Christ and therefore, “it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me” Gal 2:20 and we chose to give up everything in order to be a disciple of Christ (luke 14:33).

So wisdom is submitting our whole lives into the hands of Jesus our God and letting Him be in control and letting Him lead us and make the decisions for our lives.

Hebrews 5:7, “In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his submission”.

Christ Himself was listened to by the Father when He prayed because He was submitted to the Father….submitted to the point of death on the cross.

We not only have to be submitted to God but we also have to submit to:

- Authorities = 1 Peter 2:13
- Our husbands = 1 Peter 3:1
- Those who are older = 1 Peter 5:5
- Our parents = 10 commandments
- Each other = Ephesians 5:21
- The Spirit rather than our flesh = Galations 5:16

So to be truly wise in the eyes of God, we have to submit ourselves to the government, to our husbands, to our parents and to our elders. Obviously wisdom also means we will weigh it up against the Word of God and be sure that we are following Christ. If my dad tells me not to say grace, then I will have wisdom and say grace quietly without him hearing. I will submit to his authority while also remembering that Jesus is above everything. If the government says that I can no longer meet here and pray with fellow Christians, I will still meet but if I am caught, I will submit to the punishment. I might try to hire a good human rights lawyer and ask people to pray but I won’t fight the government, I’ll submit.

Reasonable means that we should not be excessive or extreme. Wisdom from heaven has sound judgment. Often Christians are extreme or fanatic. We have Pentecostals on one side and Open Brethren on the other. Some Christians are rigid with rules and others are free with no boundaries at all. It’s not good to be an extremist or radical. We have to be careful as Christians to judge everything and be balanced. We can’t be one sided, we have to know that faith is extremely important and we can only be saved by grace but we also have to know that faith without works is dead. We can’t focus on one and forget the other. We have to know the whole story, the whole Bible and we need the Holy Spirit for that.

We also have to be careful not to judge situations and be highly moral. I lived with four boys in a flatting situation when I moved to Hamilton and none of them were Christians. They were the best flatmates ever but many people told me I was wrong as a Christian to live in the same house as non-christians who were boys. They told me that I have to make sure to not give any appearance of evil, they told me that I would be a bad influence on others by encouraging people to live with their boyfriend/girlfriend, they told me that I would be in a place of temptation and I’d be tempted to sin and one man even told me that I was living in an orgy. I lived in that flat free from temptation and I was able to show non-christians a life that they might never experience without me being there and they also taught me a lot about my life. They kept me on the right track because if I messed up, they would say, “and you say you are a Christian”. So I was very careful not to mess up.

I have a friend who won’t let her child watch any tv or internet. It sounds like a good idea but now that the child is older, she visits my house and sees the tv. She is totally obsessed with it. When she is an adult, I believe it will be a big issue because the tv can teach a person many things. I learn a lot from watching nature programs, Christian tv, the news, and even ordinary movies can teach us. Being excessive is dangerous.

But on the other side, there are parents who are too free with their child and they do whatever they like. This is also a form of extreme and this is also dangerous.

We have to look at situations and make a sound judgment, balancing good against bad and come with a decision that is reasonable. The Christians who judged my flatting situation should have looked carefully, if they had, they would have realised that I was growing stronger as a Christian and my flatmates were receiving the Word of God in action. But there may be times when a person shouldn’t flat in a mixed situation, but that is where we need wisdom from heaven and not our own personal point of view.

Wisdom Part II

By Hayley Boud
“Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, By deeds done in humility that comes from wisdom…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 3:13, 17

RECAP:

“Let him show”
The verse says that we should show our wisdom by the actions we do in “humility”. So we don’t have to tell people we are wise, they will discover it by themselves through our good actions. They will see by your wise decisions, by your transformed life, by the words you choose in everyday situations and they will discover you are wise without you having to tell them.

“Good life”
It’s not just the deeds we do that need to be good but our whole life: our character, our personality. A good life is someone who is filled with the Holy Spirit and this is proven by the good fruits they possess, “love, joy, peace, patience, self-control, goodness, gentleness and kindness Do my actions reflect wisdom or foolishness? Does my life reflect the fruit of the Holy Spirit?

“Deeds”
What are our deeds or works? The bible says that faith without works is dead/useless (James 2:20,26). For example, if I’m the leader on Wednesday, I know that if I spend the time reading the Bible, meditating and reflecting on a particular verse and working out exactly what I will say, my works will prove how wise I am because I will lead with confidence and I’ll have something to say that has depth and meaning.

“Wisdom that comes from heaven”
So what is the wisdom that comes from heaven? It is “pure, peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere”. This is the wisdom that comes from heaven.

TONIGHT’S MESSAGE:

“Pure”
According to the Greek dictionary pure means not selfish or proud, free from defilements or impurities. For example, pure gold is only gold, nothing else, no impurities. What can defile us or what are our impurities....sin....negative thoughts, judgements, selfishness, rudeness.

Mathew 5:8, “Blessed are the pure for they will see God”.

Wisdom that comes from heaven (not wisdom as the world thinks of wisdom) doesn’t have any impurities: it won’t have any selfish desires or biases and it won’t cause someone to stumble, it won’t be motivated by self-interest or pride, it is humble and clean of sin.

For example, my neighbour is having a party and playing loud music, so I go and ask him to turn down the music but am I thinking about myself or the neighbour? If I were going to see my neighbour because I care about him and I want help him in some way..good..but if my motivation is my own desires...not so good.

So if I believe I am wise because I am clever or people have told me I am wise....I have to ask myself, “is this wisdom from the world or from heaven?” and the only way to know that is to ask myself whether my decisions or my heart is pure.

Wisdom from heaven is “Peaceable” which means it brings about peace. Wisdom from man doesn’t always bring peace but sometimes causes fights or jealousy or complaints or anger or revenge. I hear people all the time thinking they are wise with their words of “wisdom” but their words only destroy, they don’t build at all. Most of the time these people create destruction with their words and have no idea what they have done because they are too proud to recognise it. They think they are so clever and they genuinely think they are helping but they are not bringing peace to the situation at all and most of the time they make a situation worse.

e.g. one time I told a friend in confidence about a situation that happened to me in a church prayer group I was going to. I confided in my friend believing it would be kept between me and her. In her ‘wisdom’ she went and talked to the prayer leaders to find out their position. This destroyed any chance of me being able to return to the prayer group as the leaders found I had no discretion and could not keep my mouth quiet and rightfully thought I should have talked to them without disclosing the fact to others. It also destroyed my trust in this friend and I never ever confided in her again. She believed she was wise because she thought she could get to the bottom of the issue and sort it out but she proved she was foolish because revealing someone’s secret is to bring war not peace. We have to ask ourselves in each situation...will my decision to do this help to bring peace or will it just cause more disharmony?

Solomon is a good example – he took the baby and said to the two mothers who were fighting over who the baby belonged to, “I’ll cut it in half so you can have half each”. When one woman said, “no, she can keep the baby, don’t cut it in half”, everybody knew the baby must belong to her as she spoke as a mother would. Everybody was happy with Solomon’s intervention and it brought peace on every side. That’s true wisdom, from God when we are able to bring peace into a situation.

“Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God” Mathew 5:9

We know that the gospel of peace in Ephesians 6:15 is referring to salvation because it brings reconciliation (peace) between us and God, and therefore peacemakers bring peace between God & those around us and between people and each other.

Other versions say “Peace loving”: some people are the opposite of peace loving. Some people love to disturb and bring annoyance wherever they go and they purposefully disturb the peace. I think of Paul Henry on tvnz who some people just hate because of that while others find it entertaining. Of course, it’s good tv but it’s not good in reality to be disturbed and annoyed. As Christians we should try our best not to annoy others and be sensitive to those around us and do our best to keep situations peaceful. If someone is easily annoyed, then don’t do the things that annoy them.

“Considerate” or “Gentle”
“But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children” 1 Thessalonians 2:7

A mum will bathe her baby very gently, washing away the dirt very softly and kindly, she doesn’t scrub hard or the baby might get hurt and she holds the baby carefully in her arms and won’t let the baby fall or drown. That is what a wise person does for others. They hold people in their hands and care for their souls with great care and gentleness. When the person is in a mistake they find the right way to help them, gently and softly so they can be cleansed but not harmed. A wise person never points the finger, “you are this” but talks kindly and through conversation helps the person to discover for themselves.

Eg. a worship leader once told one of the back-up singers to smile more when she sings which went down like a lead balloon. The person felt very discouraged because it was like a finger being pointed at her and it was like she was being told she was not doing a good job. Immediately the back-up singer became defensive, “I did smile”, “no you didn’t”, “yes I did” and it became an argument and then the worship leader said, “even the pastor said you didn’t smile”. Now the pastor is involved...where is wisdom?

A better strategy would have been for the leader to say, “you look so stunning when you smile” and this would have encouraged the back-up singer to smile more. This is a good strategy because when we help someone without pointing the finger...they can much more easily accept and they are cleaned without scrubbing.

Anyway, is it a sin not to smile? Sometimes people pick the wrong battles. They focus on the unimportant and leave what’s really important. If not smiling isn’t a sin...then is it really worth destroying a person’s joy? That back-up singer left the worship team stating that she was too busy but I’m sure if the worship leader had been more wise, the back-up singer would not have left.

Sometimes a wise person doesn’t say anything at all, they might just observe and pray and the person might discover without having to be told. I have seen this happen so many times. I have seen a person in a mistake and I have decided to wait and I won’t say anything until I see them make the mistake more than three times. Usually they fix the problem themselves without me having to say anything.

Proverbs 15:1 (written by the wisest man ever), “A gentle answer turns away wrath but a harsh word stirs up anger”.

I Corinthians 4:21, “what do you prefer? Shall I come to you with a whip or in love with a gentle spirit”.

What would you prefer? Therefore, whatever I would prefer...I should do for others. This takes time and effort because we must first pray and ask God for wisdom and then we have to seek a very good strategy and then we have to remember to take small steps, slowly, slowly lead people to righteousness...not to expect people to change everything all at once.

Being considerate means we shoe concern for others and genuinely care about them, putting ourselves in their shoes and thinking of them first. This is to show true wisdom. If I am not able to put myself in the shoes of others, then I don’t have true wisdom that comes from heaven and if I’m not able to find good strategies to help people to mature in Christ with kindness and gentleness then I don’t have wisdom from God.

Next time we will cover the rest of the verse, “submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere”. For now, just remember that we want wisdom from God which is first of all pure (without sin, pride and selfishness), it is peace-loving (bringing peace between people and God and people and others) & gentle/considerate (caring for other’s souls, cleaning them softly without harsh words or actions).

Wisdom (Part I)

By Hayley Boud

“Who is wise and understanding among you?
Let him show it by his good life,
By deeds done in humility that comes from wisdom…
…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 3:13, 17


“Let him show”
The verse says that we should show our wisdom by the actions we do. We are not supposed to tell people how wise we are or tell people how great we are, or tell people our actions, or tell the number of people I’ve witnessed to today or the number of times I’ve read the bible or how often I pray. We just do the good actions and people will discover for themselves. In fact, most people will find you are proud when you tell them all about your actions or how great you are, but the verse says to do the deeds in “humility”.

That means we do the deeds without expecting recognition or thanks. We just do it for God and for His glory. We don’t expect praise and we can even do it in secret so no one knows it’s me. So it’s our humble actions that show whether we are wise or not. If we are doing good deeds but we are broadcasting them – people won’t consider us wise – just proud. If we speak a lot and try to prove to people we are wise, no one will actually think we are wise – just foolish.

So the way to be wise is to do good deeds n humility. For example, pray for people in quiet (don’t have put on a show), clean the church toilets before anyone arrives, visit the sick, invite people for dinner or lunch, simple good deeds done in secret without broadcasting it and without taking the glory. For example, if you read the bible daily, people will discover it because naturally your conversation and your actions will prove that you read the bible daily. You don’t have to tell people, “I read the bible every day”. They will see by your wise decisions, by your transformed life, by the words you choose in everyday situations that you read the bible and they will discover you are wise without you having to tell them.

“Good life”
It’s not just the deeds we do that need to be good but our whole life: our character, our personality. Eg. a gentle and quiet spirit. A good life is someone who is filled with the Holy Spirit and this is proven by the good fruits they possess, “love, joy, peace, patience, self-control, goodness, gentleness and kindness”. If you believe you are wise, then ask yourself, “am I full of love? Do I love according to 1 Cor 13:4? Do I ever get jealous or do I ever envy others?” If so, then I’m not wise because I don’t possess the fruit of love and therefore I do not prove my wisdom through my good life. Am I patient or do I lose my patience with certain people? When I lose my patience, I prove that I am not wise because my life is not good. Am I kind and gentle or do I sometimes talk rudely? Do I have self-control or do I sometimes offend people with my way of talking? Do I always have joy or do I sometimes lose my joy and become angry or disappointed or discouraged? Do my actions reflect wisdom or foolishness? Does my life reflect the fruit of the Holy Spirit?

“Deeds”
What are our deeds or works? The bible says that faith without works is dead/useless (James 2:20,26). What deeds or works did I do today? Would people consider me wise because of my deeds? For example, there are some very talented musicians at Eastside. If the keyboardist wants to play the keyboard for God, they would practise every day. That would be considered wise. The deeds or work of practising the keyboard pays off when s/he plays in front of the church and they know the correct chords to play, when to play them, the timing etc. This proves wisdom.

For example, if I’m the leader on Wednesday, I know that if I spend the time reading the Bible, meditating and reflecting on a particular verse and working out exactly what I will say, my works will prove how wise I am because I will lead with confidence and I’ll have something to say that has depth and meaning.

This is the same with studying. I remember one guy at Bible College didn’t study for the entire year and when it came time for his exams he though he could just fast and pray. This shows lack of wisdom. We have to work and by working, this will prove our wisdom. That man was completely foolish and it was proven how foolish it was when he failed.

Faith without works is useless...it goes no where.  If my left leg represents faith and my right leg represents works, then if my left leg (faith) makes a step forward and afterwards my right leg (works) makes a step forward...I will move ahead.  But if faith moves one step but the other leg (works) doesn't move and is stuck, then faith can't move either.  I'm stuck until I do some work.  I can't hop on one leg, that will only make me tired and I can't crawl without legs because the Bibles says we have to run the race and you need both legs (faith and works) to run.  We also can't work without faith...trying to hop around on one leg (works) will make you exhausted and you will give up before the race is finished.

The Greek word for deeds is Ergon which means work or performance. Many Christians say that we Christians shouldn’t be performance based but according to this, wisdom is performance based. We have to work in order to be wise. If we want to achieve anything in life, we have to work and by working we will prove our wisdom because no one can ever get anything in life without working. For example, if I want to learn French, I have to put aside a few minutes a day and make a schedule and make an effort. I have to accept to make my brain to work hard and accept to sacrifice time and accept to be humbled along the way as I make mistakes. The way to wisdom is to accept to work hard, accept to sacrifice our time and accept to be humbled as we make mistakes. This is the road to wisdom. It is impossible to be wise without working.

“Wisdom that comes from heaven”
This is God’s wisdom and it is different to the wisdom of this world. Sometimes things make sense to people while they are not wise for God and sometimes God’s wisdom seems foolish to the world. For example, I read a story where a man wanted to build a radio station for a remote area in South America so the message of Christ could be broadcast to those who wouldn’t normally hear it. He prayed and God told him to put the antenna up this particular mountain but people around him said that it would never work, that it was the worst possible place to put it. It would cost hundreds of dollars and if he was wrong, he’d be humiliated but he accepted that God knew better and he built the antenna where God told him. Of course it worked and every person was amazed. Wisdom that comes from heaven is the kind of wisdom that we are after.

“And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power”. I Cor 2:1-5

When we speak we don’t have to find the most eloquent words or the most spiritual words in order to look wise. We can use simple words and let the good deeds demonstrate to them the power of God. It’s our “good life” that will convince people, not our clever arguments. We don’t have to try and prove we are wise by using big words or spiritual words, we just have to show people we are wise by our good life. By the way we respond to them, by our kindness, our patience, our joy, our love, our goodness, our generosity, our peacefulness. These are the things that speak to people and prove we are wise. This is for both Christian and non-Christian. When we prepare a message for others, we don’t have to try and find the most spiritual and difficult message…. Just take a simple verse and share it. When we are praying for others we don’t have to use big words or sound spiritual, just talk to God in a normal way with simple words but as Paul did, with “fear and trembling”.

So what is the wisdom that comes from heaven? It is pure, peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere”. This is the wisdom that comes from heaven. We will discuss this in depth next time I’m the exhorter, we will think more deeply about how to have wisdom that comes from heaven. We will discuss what it means to have wisdom that is first of all pure, what it means to have wisdom that is peace-loving etc.

For tonight, let’s remember that we don’t have to prove we are wise to anyone with our words but by our actions and our good life people will discover on their own that we are wise. Wisdom comes by working hard and we don’t have to be afraid of being performance based. It’s not bad to work hard for God. We must have faith and works together or we will never move forward and if we are always in the same spot, we will prove to the world we do not have wisdom. We are looking for the wisdom that comes from heaven, not man’s wisdom – so let’s not try to find it in the things of the world. Let’s look for God’s wisdom where we know we can find it (the bible, bible studies, in other Christians, in God Himself, at church, in preachings). Let’s not try to prove to others we are wise by using big words but let’s be simple like Paul was and let our message be our actions and our good life.