Harvesting Righteousness: The Fruit of Wisdom

James 3:13 – 18

 

It’s the middle of August, so we’re well into the middle of summer. One definite marker for us who live over in Hilmar and drive on Lander that tells us it’s the heart of summer is having to deal with tomato trucks on the road. They leave such a mess on the road.

 

But tomato harvest does mean that it’s the heart of summer. During that wonderful time that we so fondly remember as the “Rona” lockdown of 2020 (two weeks to flatten the curve, yeah right), I was told by my employer to stay home and work from home. I didn’t complain.

 

It was March of 2020 and with me at home, all day every day, my wife felt that it was the perfect time to build a garden. Which meant, I had to build a garden. But it was good, really. I built five raised beds, two with trellises, and laid out weed cloth and brown mulch to make a nice garden space.

 

We grew tomatoes, bush beans, pole beans, bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, eggplant, yellow squash, zucchini, and countless other fruits and veggies over the years. Sometimes we used transplants, and other times we direct-sowed seeds into the beds, and my wife was very insistent that we label our different crops.

 

Sometimes, those labels blew away or were somehow made to disappear by our dog and cats. Other times the husband was just bad at making sure they stayed placed in the right place. This became a problem when the crops looked alike while growing, like squash and zucchini or pepper.

 

You can’t always tell things apart from the plant, so sometimes you must wait for the fruit they produce to identify what they are. You identify the source by its fruit. This is a truth that has stood since the beginning of creation, and it’s been used as an illustration throughout Scripture.

 

The Gospel’s show us that Jesus used that metaphor numerous times, and we saw James use that same imagery in our passage last week. A tree or a vine can only produce what it’s been created to produce.

Today we’re going to see James talk more about wisdom, specifically we’re going to see James make a distinction between two different sources of wisdom and how to tell them apart. Let’s read God’s Word together: James 3:13 – 18.

 

Wisdom is a major them throughout the letter of James. He first introduced it back at 1:5 as the way to endure trials of various kinds, and he was clear about how to get wisdom, by asking God.

 

The theme of wisdom colors all the discussions within James’ letter. Wisdom is seen in the rich humbling themselves, in understanding that temptation is not from God, in pure religion that looks after orphans and widows, in showing no partiality, in demonstrating faith by works, and in reining in the power of the tongue.

 

But these are all expressions of that wisdom that believers are called to ask God for, to endure trials and to be able to do these things. But James also dealt with self-deception and double mindedness within the church. He dealt with false teachers who by the world’s standards appeared wise. James delves into the two sources of wisdom and how to tell them apart.

 

• Wisdom is proven by attitudes and actions.

 

James begins with the rhetorical question, who is wise and understanding among you? When James introduced wisdom back 1:5 he called on his hearers to ask God for wisdom in faith, and not doubt, because the one who doubts is double-minded.

 

Here he maintains his argument against double mindedness throughout his letter. Anyone can claim to be wise and understanding, to have wisdom and know the things of God. Like with faith, what James has in mind here is a wisdom that isn’t so much about what one thinks or says as it is about what one does.

 

Wisdom then has to do with one’s life. Wisdom gives birth to deeds and a way of life that grows in understanding. That good conduct, good life, that James says shows its works, is characterized by humility. True wisdom answers the question of who is wise and understanding not by words, but by actions.

 

In Matthew 11:19, Jesus responds to the unbelieving crowd that had refused to believe John the Baptist and had refused to accept Jesus by saying, “The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.”

 

Jesus, the Wisdom of God, demonstrated humility and meekness beautifully. He left His seat in heaven to come to earth as a servant, born as a helpless baby. He showed humility throughout His ministry on earth by associating with those deemed less than, especially highlighted when he washed the apostles’ feet. And He humbled Himself in obedience to the point of death on a cross. Jesus was proven by His deeds.

 

The truly wise person doesn’t go around claiming to be wise, he doesn’t have to, true wisdom is seen in how they live. True wisdom is evident in meek conduct. Matt 5:5, “Blessed are the meek”

 

But there is a contrast to true wisdom that is also evident in conduct. The kind of conduct that flows from hearts full of bitter jealousy and selfish ambition is the opposite of the wisdom that comes from God.

 

Bitter jealousy and selfish ambition are quite the opposite of the meekness and humility of wisdom. There’s that evidence of double mindedness. If anyone claims to be wise and understanding yet has those things in their hearts then they don’t have true wisdom because true wisdom is meek and humble.

 

James calls out wisdom without meek and humble action much in the same way he called out faith without action. Faith without works is dead, and wisdom that is seen in the kind of conduct that flows from a heart filled with bitter envy and selfish ambition is not true wisdom.

 

James makes it easy to spot false wisdom when he tells those folks to not boast, and to not deny the truth. Among James’ hearers were those who claimed to be wise and understanding, and they went around boasting about it. Wisdom doesn’t boast, wisdom acts according to God’s will.

 

That boasting of having wisdom is a denial of the truth that they truly don’t have wisdom. That’s what James is getting at. If the heart is full of envy and selfish ambition, it shouldn’t boast that it’s wise because then it’s false to the truth.

• Earthly wisdom produces demonic fruit.

 

James is clear that the kind of wisdom that is characterized by jealousy, selfish ambition, boasting, and falsehood is not from heaven above. Rather, in a descending order that goes from bad to worse James describes source of that wisdom.

 

Contrary to the heavenly source of true wisdom, false wisdom is earthly. This wisdom looks more like the fallen world than it does heaven. It truly bears the stamp of the world because it reflects the attitude of a congregation that looks more like the world around it than the people of God. The earthliness of this wisdom expresses a way of life centered upon the world and physical needs and urges.

 

Adding to that, James calls this wisdom unspiritual in that it is devoid of the Spirit. This wisdom does looks to itself, that selfish ambition, rather than looking to the things of God as guided by the Spirit because the Spirit is absent. The unspiritual nature of this wisdom expresses a way of life centered on the desires of the selfish mind and heart.

 

If those two descriptors of the source of false wisdom weren’t clear enough, James adds a third even more powerful description. This wisdom is demonic he says. James wasn’t saying that there were devils present within the church or that there were demon-possessed people there.

 

Instead, James was bringing to light how human, worldly interests can serve demonic interests. Look at Jesus’ rebuke of Peter in Matthew 16. Peter had just spoken a word of great revelation, that Jesus is the Christ and then right after that Peter rejected Jesus’ prophesy about his own suffering and death. “But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hinderance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man” (Matt 16:23)

 

Peter wasn’t possessed by Satan. Peter’s motive wasn’t even demonic, but it was very human centered which served Satan’s own interests. In the same way James sees this kind of wisdom as serving demonic interests rather than heavenly interests.

 

 

The influence of the demonic realm on the human world is very real. There’s a reason Satan is called the prince of this world.

 

James has toed this line throughout his letter. In 1:20 when believers act out of human anger, they aren’t serving God and as such are opposed to God. In 2:19, faith that merely acknowledges God exists is at the same level as the faith of demons. In 3:7, the power of the tongue is influenced by hellish evil. Later in 4:7, we’ll see James exhort his hearers to resist the devil.

 

All wisdom produces fruit in keeping with its kind, and the earthly, unspiritual, demonic kind produces jealousy and selfish ambition. Where those exist, James says there will be disorder and every vile practice.

 

If you’ve ever seen an organization that is led by someone full of envy and selfish ambition you’ve seen a very unhealthy organization, and often it blows up. How many churches have been split because a leader was driven by his own ambition rather than humbly doing the will of God?

 

False wisdom will be known by its fruit. It will talk a big game, but its words won’t match its action. Men and women will and often do claim to be wise and understanding, but the truth is seen in their actions.

 

• Heavenly wisdom produces righteous fruit.

 

The source of wisdom is known by its fruit. Wisdom that is from above produces fruit that is in keeping with the Spirit. James gives quite the list here. Wisdom from heaven is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.

 

The divine wisdom is like a fountain of goodness, depicting a dynamic development of virtues. When heavenly wisdom is active in the believer’s life, one virtue is liked wonderfully to another. In this list practically everything James had been saying in his letter to this point is summed up.

 

This wisdom is first of all, pure. The pure religion of 1:27 has this wisdom as the source of its purity. Purity as a fruit of heavenly wisdom also recalls Jesus again in Matt 5:8, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” To be pure, believers must separate themselves from the vices of earthly wisdom, and the rest of the list flows from this one.

After being pure, this wisdom is peaceable. Jesus again, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” Matt 5:9.

 

Heavenly wisdom creates peace in direct counteraction to the disorder that wisdom from below creates through selfish ambition and envy.

 

To peace is added gentleness and again, Jesus comes to mind. Matt 11:29, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart.” Whether the believer is a teacher or the one being taught, spreading the knowledge of God ought to be colored with gentleness rather than harshness and anger.

 

Added to gentleness and the others is an openness to reason or a willingness to yield. Yielding is not passive, rather it’s a very active mode of the will. Arrogance and lording authority over others go hand in hand with selfish ambition. The willingness to listen and yield is most certainly a fruit of the wisdom from above.

 

Added to that is the virtue of faith bearing fruit. The wisdom from above is full of mercy, also a beatitude from Jesus (Matt 5:7) and which James has already gone pretty in depth over, and good fruits. Fruits, or works, produced by faith.

 

Added to that is that the wisdom from above is impartial and sincere in the way a person relates to others. Here we come back to the issue of double mindedness. The impartial quality of one’s actions demonstrates a purity or singleness of heart, which is characteristic of a person of integrity whose actions match his or her words.

 

Impartiality coupled with sincerity communicates the way of relating to others that takes away disorder and instability, it takes away double mindedness. All these fruits from heavenly wisdom begin with purity and culminate in unswerving commitment and sincerity.

 

And James returns to the very heart of Jesus’ teachings and His standards for discipleship. Those who make peace, those who do the works of mercy, they sow a harvest of righteousness.

 

Because Jesus has given you access to heavenly wisdom, you are to sow peaceable deeds that will produce a harvest of righteousness.

These acts that make peace are the deeds of mercy, and this harvest is the good fruit that comes from heavenly wisdom.

 

If you’ve ever planted seeds, you know you get the best return on it when you actively plant them in the ground, not by just letting them fall to the ground. Heavenly wisdom is demonstrated in action, just like true faith. It is evidenced by the fruit in your life.

 

The harvest of righteousness that comes from a life of wisdom is quite fruitful. Wisely sowing seeds of peace results in a multiplication of righteous deeds, not just for you as a believer but for the whole church.

 

A church that is led and characterized, not by selfish ambition and envy, but by reconciling actions reaps a harvest of righteousness. The apostle Paul wrote that through Christ God is reconciling the world to Himself, and that He has given us the ministry of reconciliation.

 

Evangelism, caring for the poor, the orphan, the widow, counseling the troubled, showing hospitality to the stranger, providing shelter for the oppressed, and sending gospel missionaries throughout the world are just some of the ways we find our place in the ministry of reconciliation, and it’s how the fruits of wisdom reap a harvest of righteousness.

 

Jesus said in Matt. 6:33, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.” This is what the church, every believer in the church, should be seeking. The kingdom of God and his righteousness. The kingdom of God, God himself is the source of true wisdom.

 

God doesn’t just meet our practical needs, but like James already said in 1:5, God gives us wisdom. Wisdom from above, the wisdom we ask God for to get through trials, is how we’re able to seek His kingdom and His righteousness, and it’s how we’re able to do works of humble wisdom that produce the harvest of righteousness. That’s the fruit of heavenly wisdom.

 

Let’s pray.