Knowingly Surrounded by Grace

James 3:13-4:3New International Version (NIV)

Two Kinds of Wisdom

13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. 14 But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. 15 Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16 For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.

17 But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercyand good fruit, impartial and sincere. 18 Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.

Submit Yourselves to God

4 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

James 4:7-8New International Version (NIV)

7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Much to your disappointment, I’m sure, there will be no glass broken today.  But we will be continuing through the letter of James.  There is so much theological and just plain “how to live and treat one another” advice, encouragement, and Wisdom throughout the entirety of this letter.  The lectionary picks and chooses a little bit but it would benefit us all to dive into the entire book with more detail as a personal or group study.  The excerpt for this week again offers us a lot of Wisdom that transcends time and place.  The verses chosen by the lectionary are split into three distinct sub-headings: two types of Wisdom, friendship with the world and submitting ourselves to God.  Our message today will follow that same path.  

There is knowledge found in being able to differentiate between the two kinds of Wisdom James talks about.  But true Wisdom is the actions that knowledge brings forth.  Verse 13 confusingly sums up everything James is trying to say throughout his letter [paraphrasing] Let those who are wise among you show it by their good life of deeds done in the humility that comes from Wisdom.  WIlliam Barclay comes up with a more english friendly way of saying it: “Is there any among you who wants to be a real sage and a real teacher? Then let them live a life of such beautiful graciousness that they will prove to all that gentleness is enthroned as the controlling power within their heart.”  That is the first kind of Wisdom James explains.  This is the Godly and Spiritual kind of Wisdom. On the other hand, if we allow bitterness and arrogance to creep into our hearts and cloud our knowledge and judgments then we ought to know that it is earthly, unspiritual and demonic.  James tells us, “For where you have envy and self ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.”  In other words, Barclays says the same thing this way, “For if we have fanatical bitterness and are obviously controlled by selfish and personal ambition, then, whatever claims we make in our arrogance, all we do is to be false to the truth which we profess to teach.”  Sounds easy enough, right?  When stated that way, the difference makes perfect sense.  But hold on... It’s not always that clear.  The lines get blurry, the definitions get fuzzy.  What we understand to be a wise decision may turn out to not be so and the same could be said for the opposite.  Bad decisions can turn out to be wise. Not likely, but possible.  So how do we know for sure which kind of wisdom we are using?  

I think the answer to that question is littered through the scriptures of James that we have been discussing the last few weeks.  Our scripture for this morning led off with part of the answer.  I think James is telling us that the proof is in the pudding.  I believe that the truest kind of wisdom is one that is lived, not spoken or written.  Those people who live, not in perfection, but knowingly surrounded by the everlasting grace with an undeniable graciousness about them are those who are wise.  When looked at by the guidelines set forth in James’ letter, there are no lines that are blurred or fuzzy.  And the greatest part of this?  Is the freedom that our God, that our Father, allows us to choose.  We can use this wisdom for personal gain to further the twisted agenda we think we ought to carry on or we can outwardly live in a way that makes our grace undeniable.  That is the choice we are faced with every moment of every day.  If we had the time or energy to break down every decision we make, just for one day, I think we would be amazed at how many of those decisions are made for personal gain.  For example, how many of us don’t slow up at a yellow light?  We hurry through the intersection because our time is too valuable to be wasted sitting there.  Kind of selfish, right?  How many of us correct someone else’s behavior because we fear they may embarrass us? We don’t try to help them through the situation in order to genuinely help.  We help so we can look and feel better about ourselves... What about living that way shows the world we are surrounded by God’s grace?  It don’t.  That is the point James was trying to make then and the point that still resonates today.  Verse 17: “But 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.”  We want to believe that knowing the law ought to be good enough.  If that were the case, we wouldn’t need prisons.  Or to a lesser extent, we wouldn’t need a timeout spot for kids.  I’ve noticed that personally I correct my children’s behavior a lot times out of fear for how others will look at me.  I don’t want my kids acting like fools in public because of the embarrassment it causes me.  I have noticed this about myself and have tried different approaches trying to become more aware of my motivations.  When we start treating people like we are surrounded by God’s grace, when we start treating people like we are forgiven, then they cannot help but to see the beautiful graciousness that surrounds us.  Are we brave enough to show the world the gentleness that is “enthroned as the controlling power within our hearts”? Or will we hide behind our own insecurities and self-promotion for fear of being embarrassed?  In a very blunt way, there is Godly versus earthly wisdom.  

Now that we are better able to tell the difference in wisdom we move on to the sub-heading “friendship with the world.”  This section goes onto to explain some of the motivations behind our actions.  Quite simply, James points to the battles waged by the individual that cause stress in our relationships.  For me, James hits the metaphorical nail on the head.  I would venture to say the same goes for you.  We have a tendency to take the anger, disappointment and discouragement of our own shortcomings out on others.  We don’t look inward before placing blame outward.  The stress we place on our relationships, with God and others, probably comes from within.  It comes from within because we have used the wrong kind of wisdom to get us to that point.  This friendship with the world that James is referring to is also Godly vs earthly.  Barclay says that we again have two options: we can either use the world or be used by it.  For example, this very building can be used for worship and other ministries that further God’s kingdom or it can be used to serve our earthly desires of power, greed, etc.  We can either use this world to bring more people into relationship with God and one another or we can use it to control and manipulate.  It is a lot harder to discriminate and cast down those whom we know and better understand.  That is only possible through some sort of relationship.  God knows you so well, that he thought you were worth fighting for.  What if we took the time to care that much about one another?  If we did, I firmly believe our world would be a much different place.  We can become too friendly with the world by getting caught up in its trappings, ie using earthly wisdom. If our motives are motivated by the love and grace of God and by the actions of sacrifice and mercy of Jesus we will know it.  Scripture tells us, “Ask and you shall receive.”  But that only works if our motives are based on expanding the kingdom of God and sharing the good news of Jesus Christ.  We give little thought to “ask and we shall receive” because we ask and ask and ask while getting nothing.  That is a sign that our motives may not be pure.  We may not be impartial or sincere.  

We can now better tell the difference in wisdom and motivation but there is one last key that will help us in both of those areas: submitting to God.  But what does that mean, really?  Submitting to God is difficult.  It is time consuming.  It means breaking some of the chains that society, and we ourselves, place on us.  Submitting to God means letting go of our worldly desires and replacing them with Godly ones.  It means listening and following the Spirit.  It means a lot of things that we are not really willing to give up.  Submitting to God means making every decision about God instead of us.  Be in the world not of it.  In all of his summary of James, I think Barclay says it best when he said, “...grace has a constant characteristic, a person cannot receive it until they have realized their need of it, and has come to God humbly pleading for help.  Therefore, it must always remain true that God sets himself against the proud and gives lavishly of his grace to the humble.”  God asks a lot from us and we sometimes get caught up in how overwhelming that can be.  We submit to the world based on a fear of disappointment or embarrassment.  God destroys all of that garbage if we submit to Him instead.  The supreme act of sacrifice seen on the cross and the promises kept by God on Easter morning leave no doubt of His mighty power and grace.  And yet we fear the world?  God is bigger than fear.  He wants us drawn close to him through compassion, peace, sincerity, love, and mercy.  God’s proof is in the pudding.  Did Jesus scare the disciples into following him?  The church has used fear to gather souls in the past but I don’t think this was God’s will.  Submitting out of fear is different than submitting out of love.  Do I want my kids to listen to what I say because they fear me?  Or as they become adults do I want them to do what is right because they love others?  Their fear for me will fade because it is not eternal.  Fear dies when we do.  Love endures when we die.  Love is eternal and fear is not.  That, is the difference.  That, is wisdom.  That, is submitting to God.  Amen.