Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
James has just spent about 12 verses talking about the tongue, how dangerous our words can be. Our words can be like a spark that sets an entire forest on fire.
One of the ways that the people he was writing to were misusing their tongues, their speech, was that they were talking all the time about how wise they were. What James basically says here is, stop talking about how wise you are. Why don’t you show me? Do you have a life that actually proves that you have wisdom?
What Wisdom Really Is
You see the word wise here. You see the word wisdom. I need to make sure we understand what wisdom is. Wisdom is not just raw intelligence. Wisdom is not having downloaded a bunch of information and being able to teach or even understand. Wisdom is about application. Wisdom is, can I take the Word of God that I understand, and can I live it out? It is the skill of living life in God’s way.
As James writes here, he says, I’m looking to see that in your life, and we should look to see it in our own lives as well.
Two Proofs of Real Wisdom
Then he gives two proofs. Here’s two proofs, if you’re going to prove it, two proofs of real wisdom. The first is an honorable life, or the ESV says "good conduct." Wisdom is going to show up in living honorably. It’s going to show up in how you speak. It’s going to show up in how you work, how you relate to your family, especially when nobody else is looking. You live an honorable life; that might prove that there’s wisdom.
Second is humility, or the ESV calls it the "meekness of wisdom." You know, meekness is not weakness. It is just strength that is under control. Humility is always under control. In fact, the opposite, in the very next verse, James says, is bitter jealousy and selfish ambition.
Proof, Not the Path
Wisdom, these good works—remember, here we got to think about the place of good works, because Christians get this confused. It is proof of your salvation. It is not the way of salvation. Living God’s way, wisdom, is not the way we get saved. No, it is proof that we have actually been saved. We are not saved by good works. What do we say? We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
You could think of it this way: We are saved by faith alone, but we are saved by a faith that is never alone. In other words, true faith, true belief, is going to show itself. It’s going to prove itself in the way we live, in our good conduct, in our humility, in living an honorable life through our good works.
What Would They Say?
I wonder what the people who are closest to you, who know you better than anyone knows you, would say about you. Would they say that you are wise? Would they say that you are wise because you know a lot, because you’ve got a lot of information, because you can recite a bunch of facts? Or would they say you are wise because of how you live, because of the way you make decisions, the way you speak, and the way you treat them?
