James 1:5-8
“Be A Wise Guy”
This passage is vitally connected with the preceding passage, where James talked about the
troubles of life testing our faith, and how these troubles are necessary in order for God to build
Christ-like character in our lives. Navigating these troubles requires a wisdom greater than our
own. We often say during a time of testing, "I do not know how to handle this!" In other words,
we are saying, "I need wisdom."
If we need wisdom, James says we are to ask God for it. That sounds too simple, doesn't it? But
James says wisdom is ours for the asking. If God is the source of wisdom, how then does He
channel that wisdom to us? I believe there are three channels of wisdom.
The first channel is the Word of God. The Psalmist reminds us, "Thy word is a lamp to my feet,/
And a light to my path" (119:105). For this channel of wisdom to be open to us, we need to be
students of the Word. If we don’t know the Word, it can’t guide us. So we need to be in the
Word of God consistently, otherwise we will be left to our wisdom or that of Ophra or Dr. Phil.
The second channel is the Spirit of God. Paul in writing to the Corinthians said, "And we have
received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has
freely given us" (I C. 2:12). The Holy Spirit is like an inner voice in the life of the Christian. We
have to learn to listen to His quiet leading.
The third channel is the people of God. I've been privileged in my life to know some Christians
with great wisdom and they have been a source of great help to me in my walk with the Lord and
in my ministry. The church needs those with this gift to help guide her as she seeks to be and do
all that God calls her to be and do.
There is an old proverb that goes: “Too soon old, too late smart.” The first part is certainly true.
We are too soon old. I didn’t understand that 40 or 50 years ago, but I do now. Nothing is more
certain than the passage of time. Yesterday we were born, today we live, tomorrow we die. Life
rushes on for all of us.
Someone posted on Facebook a picture of a man with a puzzled look on his face. Underneath
was the caption, “I’m in that awkward period between birth and death.” So totally true. Life
really is an unpredictable and awkward period that fills our days from the time we are born until
the day we die.
A young business man went to an older business man and was seeking advice – he asked, “What
is the secret of success?” The older man replied, “Making wise decisions.” The young man then
asked, “How can I learn to make wise decisions?” The older man replied, “From experience.”
The young man then asked, “How do I get experience?” The older man answered, “From making
dumb decisions.”
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The second part is equally true. We are “too late smart.” Most of us learn the important stuff the
hard way. We take a long time to “wise up” about what matters most. No man on his death bed
ever said, “I wish I had spent more time at work,” but many a man has wished he had spent more
time with his family. We all need to get smarter about the things that matter most.
The line between joy and sorrow is thin indeed. Just one phone call can change everything. One
knock on your door. It’s amazing how life can turn on a dime. Everything can be going well, you
can be rising in your career, your marriage is good, your children and grandchildren are
successful, you are happy in your church, your life may be filled with friends, you may have
money in the bank, and your biopsy turns out to be negative, which means you don’t have
cancer. And then, just like that, your life changes.
The future is uncertain for all of us. And no matter how smart we are, we aren’t as smart as we
think we are. That’s why we all need God’s wisdom. It’s too bad that it often takes a crisis to
wake us up and cry out to God.
James says God gives us wisdom without rebuking us (5b). I like that. We pray in our
desperation, knowing God will not say, “What’s wrong with you? You ought to be stronger than
that. You should handle this better.” He never says, “You again? Why can’t you learn the lesson
the first time?” Praying to God is not like going to the principal’s office. When you are in
trouble, you need a friend, not a judge! Thank God, we have a Friend in high places. He will not
turn us away when we need him most.
Life creates a demand for wisdom. There are going to be times when we do not know
exactly what choice to make or how to think about a given situation. This shortage of wisdom
could be highlighted by many different problems.
• Financial problems
• Family problems
• Relationship problems
• Work problems
Sometimes as we drive down the road of life, we come to a dangerous intersection. Sometimes
we refer to it as a “fork in the road”—those moments where a choice we make or don’t make sets
us on a course that could influence the rest of our journey. Do we stop or go. Turn right or left.
Go ahead or turn back. Perhaps you feel like you are at a dangerous intersection right now in
your life. All you know is you need a wisdom greater than your own.
Life is full of choices and we make decisions every day. A wise man has said, “The decisions
that we make – make us!” How true! As I look back on my own life – the decisions that I have
made have had an immense impact on my life. So have yours. The quality and direction of your
life has been determined by the decisions you have made. Some of them you regret – some of
them you feel good about.
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The fact is – we are all human and we have a great potential to make mistakes. In fact – we all
make mistakes. We wait too long. We pay too much. We say the wrong thing. We open our
mouths and insert our foot. All of us do stupid things. But the wise man learns from the mistakes
he makes.
James then tells us how we are to ask God for wisdom, "But when you ask him, be sure that your
faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of
the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind" (6). Faith is the key to receiving wisdom.
Whenever we talk about faith, we must talk about it in relationship to its object—in this case the
object is God. Faith in God. Christians will often feel that their faith in God is very small. They
really aren't sure they can trust Him to do what He says He will do. Satan is in the business of
sowing seeds of doubt in our hearts and to keep us from trusting God completely.
Many years ago when the actress Helen Hayes cooked her first Thanksgiving turkey, she
announced to her husband, Charles MacArthur and their son, James: "Now I know this is the first
turkey I've ever cooked. If it isn't right, I don't want anybody to say a word. We'll just get up
from the table, without comment, and go to the restaurant for dinner." She then retired to the
kitchen. When she returned to the dining room, bearing the turkey, she found her husband and
son seated at the table—wearing their coats.
Well, our faith in God is often like that. We'll give Him a chance, just in case He comes through,
but we'll make alternate plans in case He doesn't or if we disagree with His direction. How
ridiculous it is that we can go through life trusting the things of the world and yet we can't trust
God to do what He says. There is not a moment of our lives that we do not, consciously or
unconsciously, exercise faith—in a person, an object, or a law. We sit in a chair because we
believe it will bear our weight. We ride in an automobile because we have confidence that it can
take us to our destination. That these objects of our confidence are generally trustworthy is an
unending source of confidence. Remove this confidence and life becomes a nightmare.
For the Christian there exists a greater source of confidence, inexhaustible in its help, comfort,
and blessing. David in Ps. 40:4 says: "Blessed is the man that makes the Lord his trust..." We
trust in an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God, who is loving, kind and gracious. He is far
more trustworthy than a chair or a car. Failure to walk by faith in the light of God's supernatural
being and presence robs us of the wisdom that comes from God by faith.
James also tells us, “Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of
the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind” (6b). We must not “waver.” This word “ means “to
dispute with oneself.” It is a kind of “he loves me, he loves me not” that goes on in the heart. The
word “waver” is not about intellectual doubt; it's about being torn between two choices.
If we lack faith, if we waver, James spells out the consequence in verse 7. “Such people should
not expect to receive anything from the Lord.”
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James returns to the issue of divided loyalties in verse 8: “Their loyalty is divided between God
and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.” The Greek word for “divided”
means “double-souled.” We should pause and think about that. A double-souled person lives in
perpetual ambivalence. He is walking civil war, never able to commit to anything. He flits from
one relationship to another, from one job to another, from one friendship to another, from one
church to another, from one promise to another, never staying in one place long enough to make
anything stick. He’s here today and gone tomorrow. He promises and then makes excuses. He
says, “I’ll call you tomorrow,” and then forgets and apologizes later. Or maybe he never
remembers at all.
We are all a bundle of conflicting desires. We want to serve God, but we have our own plans.
We want to be gracious, but we trample on anyone who gets in our way. We save our money
only to spend it on foolish things. We all understand that it is hypocritical to sing, “Holy , Holy,
Holy” on Sunday and then to curse at someone who makes us angry on Monday. But it happens.
We cannot expect to receive God’s wisdom when our loyalties are divided.
Here is the truth. We all struggle with divided loyalties. There is in all of us the pull that says, “I
can do this myself.” Eve while in the Garden wasn’t some terrible person who had been
conditioned to do wrong. She simply talked herself into the idea that taking a shortcut would
make her smarter or wiser or more beautiful or more fulfilled or happier or less frustrated or
somehow fill the void she felt within.
It’s not like she’s worse than us. She’s just like us and we’re just like her. She lived in paradise
but somehow that wasn’t enough. It never is. We always want something we don’t have. Enter
the serpent and cue the ominous music. It’s the story of the whole human race repeated over and
over again. Ever since Eden, we have struggled with divided loyalties, with high hopes and low
desires fighting against each other.
Having divided loyalties is like a man standing next to a compass while having a magnet in his
pocket. The compass wants to point to magnetic north – that is what it is designed to do – yet
because of the magnet in his pocket the compass is pulled off course. The compass is pulled off
course because it is being pulled in two directions at the same time and ends up someplace in
between – not really pointing at either one.
These divided loyalties makes you unstable. You become confused. You become disoriented. It
produces an unstable lifestyle. Eventually all your ways become unstable.
I love the words of Abraham Lincoln who said, “I have been driven many times to my knees by
the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My wisdom and that of all about me
seemed insufficient for the day.”
Can you identify with those words today? Do you face a problem which has exhausted your best
efforts to solve? Are you looking for answers which seem to evade you? Has your wisdom and
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the wisdom of those around you fallen short? There is hope. The One who is Himself All-wise
delights to give His wisdom to those who ask with a trusting heart. Have you asked God for
wisdom?
We need to ask for wisdom for our marriages. We need to ask for wisdom to parent our children.
We need to ask for wisdom to help us on the job. We need to ask for wisdom to deal with
difficult relationships. We need to ask for wisdom to minister to others.
Goshen, BMMC – 1/31/2016
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