Christ, The Wisdom Of God

James is speaking about wisdom and a believer’s longing for spiritual wisdom. Spiritual wisdom is the practical and experiential application of spiritual truth. Every believer seeks to know Christ better and to experience His grace more so as to deal better with the trials and challenges of life, what James calls ‘divers temptations’. Though they differ, person to person, we all feel these trials as members of Christ’s body. When the Holy Spirit quickens a dead sinner He creates spiritual life and initiates a process of spiritual development. 

The purpose of trials

Believers grow in God’s grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour. Trials are used by the Lord to enable and expedite that growth. We grow individually in our own spiritual understanding and collectively we grow together in fellowship and bear one another’s burdens. Trials sharpen our awareness of our spiritual need and stir up our desire to deepen our experience of the Saviour’s close presence and His grace in our lives. Our ‘divers temptations’ teach us our need of more heavenly wisdom. 

Two kinds of wisdom

In this world there are two kinds of wisdom. There is a wisdom which is worldly and natural, and a wisdom that is from heaven and spiritual. There is a wisdom that is ‘earthly, sensual, devilish’ says James. He will speak more of this in chapter three. For now he is speaking of wisdom ‘that is from above’ which is ‘pure, peaceable and gentle’. Only Christ’s church knows this wisdom and only believers appreciate their lack and need of it. Day by day we need more of Christ Himself who is the pure, spiritual wisdom of God in us.

Wisdom personified

We have good reason to personify this wisdom as Christ, and think of Him personally as God’s wisdom in us. The scriptures do this often. God’s revelation of spiritual truth is Christ’s voice to us in the gospel. Paul tells the Corinthians it is Christ ‘who of God is made unto us … wisdom’. In Proverbs the wise man personifies wisdom in a female voice yet he undoubtedly means the Messiah, the divine Wisdom of God revealed on earth. Our Lord Jesus spoke His good news in the gospel and committed it to His apostles and the church.

Wisdom increases

That a believer lacks wisdom is not to say He is totally ignorant of Christ. Every believer knows Christ savingly and all believers afterward seek to deepen their knowledge of their Saviour and Friend. They wish to enlarge their spiritual union and communion with Him whom they love. A believer’s appetite to learn more of Christ is a mark of spiritual life. In the creation of the new man believers lack no good thing. In our growth in grace we shall be denied no good thing. 

Asking God

Our requests for spiritual blessings, of which spiritual wisdom is foremost, are to be made to God; God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. He is God-only-wise in whom all wisdom dwells. James is generous and tells us God will give ‘to all men liberally’. All who ask in faith receive. All who seek will find. The Lord does not upbraid, that is, He will not withhold His goodness for past faults or failures. He gives liberally as only He can, with open hand. 

The primacy of faith

James emphasises faith. Faith is the key to the Lord’s storehouse of blessing. We are to ask in faith, believing in God and trusting His promise to supply our need. We are to ask in faith, believing that whatever is asked, according to the will of God, for His glory and His people’s good, will be granted by divine wisdom in God’s own time and way. Doubters and double-minded men need not apply. James employs the picture of waves at sea being blown by the wind to describe an unstable man. This use of imagery from nature is a characteristic of James’ writing as we shall see and is reminiscent of the Lord’s own use of parables. 

Faith in practice

In tomorrow’s service we shall endeavour to make some practical applications of these lessons for the encouragement of our hearts in times of trial. God’s children are brought into trials by God’s love and carried through them by Christ’s wisdom. Our trials on earth are a means to the end of greater trust and dependence on Christ. It is for this reason that we can rejoice in divers temptations despite their bitterness. Our ability to see this is spiritual wisdom.

Amen.