The "Wisdom" that Causes Death
James 3:13-18: Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. 14But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. 15Such "wisdom" does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil. 16For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. 17But 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. 18Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.
Bill was certain he's get the promotion. Everyone said he was the right person for the job. So when it was given to one of his closest friends, Bill's pride and his plans for the future were crushed. He struck back by trying to undermine his friend's reputation. When that failed, he thought it wise to draw away sympathetic friends into a dissident group. Bill liked the attention he was receiving, but it wasn't long before his jealousy poisoned those relationships too.
The saddest part of this story is that Bill and his friends are Christians. Hundreds of churches and ministries have been torn apart by pride, envy, and ambition - all disguised as wisdom. James declares that this "wisdom" is from the devil and leads to "disorder and every evil practice." Thankfully, in time Bill became aware of his sin and humbly repented.
Popular wisdom says that in order to succeed you've got to push your way to the top, but this is not GOd's wisdom. God resists the proud and promotes the humble (see 1 Peter 5:5). He's more concerned about our character than about the knowledge we possess or the outward success we make of our lives.*
Food for thought: In what ways have you allowed pride and selfish ambition to undermine your relationships? What steps can you take to correct this?
Going Deeper:
Isaiah 14:12-15: "How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! 13You said in your heart, 'I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. 14I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.' 15But you are brought down to the grave, to the depths of the pit."
1 Corinthians 8:1b-3: "We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. 2The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. 3But the man who loves God is known by God."
Philippians 3:4-14: Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. 2Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. 3For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh - 4though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. 7But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8What is more, I consider everythiing a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ - the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, 11and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. 12Now that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
1 John 2:15-17: Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For everything in the world - the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does - comes not from the Father but from the world. 17The world and it's desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.
*McClung, Floyd Jr. Learning to Love People You Don't Like: YWAM Publishing, 1992.
