The Essence of Wisdom: Understanding Its Role in Moral Life and Practical Teaching

13 Who among you is wise and learned? Let him show by his good conduct, with the modesty of wisdom, what his deeds are. 14 But if you are cherishing bitter jealousy and rivalry in your hearts, do not pride yourselves on that—and be false to the truth. 15 That is not the wisdom which comes down from above, it is an earthly wisdom, sensuous, devilish; 16 for wherever jealousy and rivalry exist, there disorder reigns and every evil. 17 The wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, forbearing, conciliatory, full of mercy and wholesome fruit, unambiguous, straightforward; 18 and the peacemakers who sow in peace reap righteousness.

[13] ‘In all (modes of) wisdom there is fulfilment of the Law, but to be learned in wickedness is not wisdom’ (Sirach 19:20, 21). The Greek term for learned (which only occurs here in the N.T.) denotes a sage or expert. James is still dealing with teachers or would-be teachers in the church. Wisdom, in the sense already defined (on 1:5), was the badge and banner of this class; like religious belief (2:14), it must attest itself practically, in good conduct among fellow-Christians, and modestly. Words are not enough without deeds, and the deeds of service are not to be done in any spirit of passion or ostentation. The pursuit of opinions for opinion’s sake, the motive of emulation in the study of knowledge, the plague of self-conceit which besets teachers and learned persons both within and without the church, the demoralizing absorption in rhetoric about morals and religion which the deeper spirits of the time, from Paul to Epictetus, denounced, and above all, perhaps, the ambition and intrigues of religious parties and party-leaders—these are the perils before the mind of James in this paragraph.

[14] The modesty (see 1:21) of wisdom is a paradox, till, as Paul told the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 8:1 f.), we understand what true wisdom means. It is out of keeping with the temper of bitter jealousy and rivalry (i.e. party-spirit, selfish ambition, factiousness). Do not pride yourselves on that, on the intensity and harsh zeal which lead to such unscrupulous partisanship, and which are sometimes justified as loyalty to the truth. This is really to be false to the truth (see on 1:18). The Greek verb might mean to ‘lay false claims to (the truth),’ but the other rendering preserves the profound thought that the truth of Christianity cannot be put forward or defended truly except in the Christian spirit; religious people may be extremely provoking, and defeat their own ends by overbearing methods; right views and sound counsels may lose their effect if they are expressed by men who are self-seeking partisans or unscrupulous controversialists. Their so-called wisdom [15] is no divine endowment (1:17) or revelation, but earthly (or, as Paul said, ‘the wisdom of this world’). Sensuous may have the technical sense of Judas 19, or the broader sense of ‘unspiritual’ (as Paul uses it in 1 Corinthians 2:14). Devilish is the climax, as in ver. 6; malignant temper and strife, the restless spirit which disturbs and degrades human life, is from below, utterly hostile to God. Disorder [16] is a favorite term of the Stoics which James, like Paul (e.g. 2 Corinthians 12:20), applies to the squabbles and disturbances of Christians in their fellowship, particularly in connexion with religious discussions and parties (see below, on ver. 18). True knowledge of religious truth is, to begin with, pure, i.e. ethically. The Greek term has no connexion with doctrinal orthodoxy; James never enters into any question about the contents of the creed, he brings out the practical criteria of a genuine religious belief.

[17] Wisdom originally and essentially was the knowledge of duties and dangers in the moral life, as revealed in the law of God, and as this study was directed to practical ends, it involved practical qualities in those who professed to teach it. The bearing of pure here is best seen in the use made of the verb in 4:8 or by Peter in 1 Peter 1:22 f. It suggests a life unsullied because it is inspired and influenced by God above, free from impure motives and methods, especially from aggressiveness and quarrelsomeness. Peaceable is the opposite of self-assertive; any statement or application of religious truth leads to differences of opinion and difficulties in handling other people, where a convinced man is apt to be pugnacious or to insist upon his own way inconsiderately, without being forbearing, i.e. fair and reasonable in meeting opponents, whether they are reasonable or unreasonable. No brusqueness, no pugnacity! Conciliatory (only here in N.T.) is the opposite of stiff and unbending. Manning, wrote Newman, ‘wishes me no ill, but he is determined to bend or to break all opposition. He has an iron will and resolves to have his own way.’ Full of mercy—not of deadly venom (ver. 8)—is elucidated by what was said in 2:8–13. Wholesome fruit recalls (see ver. 13) the truth that genuine Christian wisdom is to be a benefit to other people, furthering their health and strength. The Christian teacher or indeed anyone who is interested in the study and progress of religious truth, requires what T. H. Green called ‘openings into that active life of charity in which Christian faith is most readily realized’; he needs it for his own sake, and others need his insight and aid there. Two negative adjectives end this sevenfold catalogue of qualities. Unambiguous never occurs elsewhere in the N.T.; it means here ‘free from ambiguity or uncertainty,’ referring to the impression it makes upon others; you must know what to make of any statement, instead of being left doubtful about its bearing or meaning. Teaching in fact is not to be equivocal or evasive, but straightforward (literally, free from hypocrisy or pretence). ‘Say what you judge to be best, only say it in a friendly, modest, and straightforward manner’ (Marcus Aurelius, viii. 5), so that people know where they are and where you are in the matter (‘I do not know,’ Newman wrote once to Manning, ‘whether I am on my head or my heels when I have active relations with you’). These two last words rule out this habit of using speech to half reveal and half conceal the mind of the speaker, who has something (as we say) at the back of his mind all the time; any subtle reserve or disingenuous dealing in Christian intercourse is certain to create friction and misunderstanding. Whereas, James means, the qualities he has just been praising make for good feeling and mutual harmony in any community; peace [18] of this kind is the one way of promoting right relations with God (see on 1:20). The final clause which brings this out is remarkable for its double emphasis on peace; teachers who do their work in the spirit which has just been commended, to the exclusion of any selfish ends, are peacemakers, not leaders who stir up strife by their pugnacity and stubbornness and thereby spoil the soil for any real, religious growth (see 1:21). There is a similar phrase in Hebrews 12:11, where an upright life is the same as righteousness here. The only activity which has any outcome in this divine direction is that of men purged from any taint of self-interest or private ambition, which leads to bitter jealousy and rivalry, since they are thinking more of their own reputation and party than of the interests of God. That means the reign of disorder, in which good seed can neither be sown nor ripen. No wholesome fruit or spiritual crop, James is urging, ever comes from quarrelling and controversy; to sow in peace is to instill and apply the truth as the royal law of love, which can only be done in the unselfish spirit of that law or wisdom.

‘But how speak of peace to you,’ James tells his churches, ‘you wrangling, worldly crew? To your knees before God!’ The thunder of this call to repentance rolls through vers. 1–10. The first part is couched in the short, sharp sentences of contemporary ethical treatises (1–6); the second is thrown into the rhythmical style of an O.T. prophet (7–10).

Moffatt, James (n.d.). The General Epistles: James, Peter, and Judas (J. Moffatt, Ed.; pp. 51–56). Harper and Brothers Publishers. (Public Domain)