\u201cWho is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you?\u00a0 Let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom\u201d <\/i>(James 3:13)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Who wants to violate the first characteristic of meekness and write about it?\u00a0 Who wants to appear to be like the one who brags about being humble?\u00a0 Yet meekness and humility are crucial Biblical subjects in which we all fall woefully short.\u00a0 We better at least be thinking about them.<\/p>\n
Every time I read James, I stop at 3:13 and think about \u201cthe meekness of wisdom,\u201d and wonder what that looks like.\u00a0 I think of certain men and women I have known who seemed to display this Christian characteristic but still wonder how they came to it.\u00a0 I could list their names but I know they wouldn\u2019t care if I did or didn\u2019t.\u00a0 Of course, the greatest example of meekness is the Savior Himself.\u00a0 \u201cCome unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.\u00a0 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly of heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.\u00a0 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light\u201d (Matt. 11:28-30).\u00a0 Paul addressed the Corinthian church, \u201cNow I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ\u201d (2 Cor. 10:1).<\/p>\n
Besides the perfect example of Christ, meekness is the subject of one of the Beatitudes, \u201cBlessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth\u201d (Matt. 5:5), a quotation from Psa. 37:11.\u00a0 Meekness is one of the fruits of the Spirit as well as an oft commanded Christian characteristic, \u201cshowing meekness unto all men\u201d (Tit. 3:2); \u201ca meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price\u201d (1 Pet. 3:4).<\/p>\n
James chapter three deals primarily with the tongue and the problem we all have with controlling it.\u00a0 \u201cBut the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison\u201d (vs. 8).\u00a0 He shows our hypocrisy in using our tongue to bless God and then curse men who are made in His image.\u00a0 God isn\u2019t so inconsistent, James says, in His created world.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t have one tree bear two kinds of fruit, nor a fountain produce both fresh water and bitter.\u00a0 But immediately after that comparison He asks who the wise man is who has the meekness of wisdom.<\/p>\n
The human tongue today is anything but meek.\u00a0 We are far beyond an ethos of quietness and gentleness.\u00a0 Maybe there was a time when, following James\u2019 advice, we thought we should be \u201cswift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath\u201d because \u201cthe wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God\u201d (1:19-20).\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure how parents today can raise a meek child.\u00a0 Everything they hear and imitate is forward and brash from the clothes they wear to the frown on their faces to the vulgarity that comes out of their mouths.\u00a0 Can we blame them?\u00a0 Every show they watch, every video game they play, every athlete they imitate, every singer they mimic, every star they idolize, even every commercial that appeals to their little sinful natures, all teach them anything but meekness.<\/p>\n
Do we grow out of this youthful narcissism?\u00a0 Not hardly.\u00a0 This \u201cpost-everything\u201d culture has left civility far behind.\u00a0 One cannot escape the crudeness, the brashness, the immodesty, the lawlessness, the forwardness that is this generation.\u00a0 The portrait of our culture really is the commercial.\u00a0 Whether on TV or online or on your smart phone, the commercial is designed by the brightest, most technologically advanced, most researched people on earth, to sell you something.\u00a0 I call the commercial \u201cthe obvious lie.\u201d\u00a0 Nothing can be that good or that bad.\u00a0 The hamburger in the picture is nothing like the one they serve me at the counter.\u00a0 But the image is everything.\u00a0 \u201cThis is the car you\u2019d like to be seen in\u201d is the unspoken message.\u00a0 Just imagine a commercial designed around meekness of wisdom!\u00a0 \u201cWe know that everyone thinks this is cool but don\u2019t be as stupid as they are.\u201d<\/p>\n
So what does the meekness of wisdom look like?\u00a0 Will we know it when we see it?\u00a0 We won\u2019t see it in popular programs or successful sitcoms.\u00a0 Nor will it be found in popular music, televised sports, political campaigns, or in online advertising.\u00a0 Sadly, it may seldom appear in Christian programing and, if we would all be honest, neither in our own lives and attitudes.\u00a0 The lack of meekness is a direct attribute of our sinful nature, that selfish bent which still resides in us.\u00a0 We know in our heads that real meekness comes from the Spirit of God Who forms the life of Christ in us, but living the fruit of the Spirit is a constant war which goes on within our hearts.<\/p>\n
What meekness is not<\/span><\/p>\n James calls real wisdom \u201cthe wisdom that is from above\u201d (3:17) but says, \u201cif you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.\u00a0 This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.\u00a0 For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work\u201d (3:14-16).\u00a0 \u201cDevilish,\u201d of course, means \u201cdemonic.\u201d\u00a0 There is one devil and he has a host of demons who have complete \u201cdoctrines\u201d (1 Tim. 3:1) on how to seduce believers.\u00a0 Fighting seems to be a big part of their game plan and Peter says that fleshly lusts \u201cwar against the soul\u201d (1 Pet. 2:11).<\/p>\n James, after describing that wisdom which is from above, continues his description of the wisdom from below.\u00a0 \u201cFrom whence come wars and fightings among you?\u00a0 Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?\u00a0 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not because he ask not\u201d (4:1-2).\u00a0 This war is going on in our \u201cmembers.\u201d\u00a0 These are the parts of our unredeemed bodies that are susceptible to the lusts of the flesh.\u00a0 Paul describes this battle that rages within us of yielding our members to righteousness or unrighteousness (Rom. 6:12-17).<\/p>\n James says that we lose our power in prayer when we are losing this battle with the flesh (4:2-3). Peter described how the husband is supposed to dwell with his wife according to knowledge so that his prayers are not hindered with God (1 Pet. 3:7).\u00a0 James called those who succumb to this lower wisdom \u201cadulterers and adulteresses\u201d\u00a0 and says that if such a state makes us want to be friends of the world, it would also make us an \u201cenemy of God\u201d (4:4).\u00a0 Therefore, the lack of true meekness and wisdom is a serious condition that believers must avoid.<\/p>\n What meekness is<\/span><\/p>\n James did not leave us with theory only.\u00a0 He tells us how to live out the meekness found in true wisdom.\u00a0 John Newton, the former slave trader turned pastor, writer, hymnist, who also knew how to sail a vessel, not just to talk about it, said,<\/p>\n The tongue of the truly learned, that can speak a word in season to them that are weary, is not acquired like Greek and Latin by reading great books\u2014but by self-knowledge and soul exercises.\u00a0 To learn navigation by the fireside will never make a man an expert mariner.\u00a0 He must do his business in great waters.\u00a0 And practice will bring him into many situations of which general theory could give him no conception.1<\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n So James also gives us four ways to display the meekness of wisdom in our lives.<\/p>\n 1. Purity<\/span>. The description of the \u201cwisdom from above\u201d (3:17) begins where most lists of godliness begin, with purity and virtue (see 2 Pet. 1:5). This is because our great Example is Jesus Christ Himself Who was a lamb \u201cwithout blemish and without spot\u201d (1 Pet. 1:19), \u201cWho did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth\u201d (1 Pet. 2:22).\u00a0 This spotless lamb mentioned throughout the book of Revelation (though also having \u201cwrath\u201d) is contrasted with the \u201cbeast\u201d who knows no meekness.\u00a0 Where would we be if Jesus had not been as \u201ca lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before his shearers\u201d (Isa. 53:7)?\u00a0 His meekness secured our salvation through His submission to the cross.<\/p>\n In James\u2019 list, \u201cpurity\u201d precedes \u201cpeaceable\u201d and peaceable precedes \u201cgentle.\u201d\u00a0 The reason for envy and strife, is a lack of gentleness, which comes from a lack of peaceableness, which comes from a lack of purity.\u00a0 This meekness of wisdom should look gentle and peaceable, but that look is deceiving if there is not purity underneath.\u00a0 I picture this as a river that flows gently along creating a peaceful\u00a0 atmosphere all around.\u00a0 The psalmist used the picture of the millennial city of God, \u201cThere is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God,\u201d followed by the well-known verse, \u201cbe still and know that I am God\u201d (Psa. 46:4, 10).\u00a0 The hymn writer used this image also,<\/p>\n Like a river glorious is God\u2019s perfect peace,<\/p>\n Over all victorious in its bright increase; (vs 1)<\/p>\n Not a surge of worry, not a shade of care,<\/p>\n Not a blast of hurry touch the spirit there. (vs 2)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The meekness of wisdom is first pure and then peaceable.\u00a0 The fighting and wars that often characterize the believer\u2019s life do not come from this source.\u00a0 They come from the wars within our members and between our brothers and sisters that attack our very souls.<\/p>\n 2. Humility<\/span>. \u201cBut he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. . . Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up\u201d (4:6, 10).\u00a0 Peter has a similar admonition, \u201cHumble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time\u201d (1 Pet. 5:6).\u00a0 The Psalmist wrote, \u201cThe LORD lifteth up the meek\u201d (147:6).\u00a0 John the Baptist knew that in order for Jesus to increase, he himself must decrease (John 3:30).<\/p>\n The Bible records in a parenthesis, \u201c(Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth)\u201d\u00a0 (Num. 12:3).\u00a0 Surely God had exalted and greatly used this humble man.\u00a0 The great missionary Hudson Taylor once said, \u201cGod chose me because I was weak enough.\u00a0 God does not do His great works by large committees.\u00a0 He trains somebody to be quiet enough and little enough and then He uses him.\u201d2<\/sup>\u00a0 The believer is wrong-headed who desires to be great in order to be important among men.\u00a0 History shows that great men only desired to be godly and humble, and then God used them in great ways.\u00a0 Meekness is not a tool but an end in itself.<\/p>\n 3) Control of the tongue<\/span>.\u00a0 This whole section in James began with his lecture about the tongue.\u00a0 A man should not even strive to be a teacher if he cannot control the tongue by which he would make his living (3:1).\u00a0 \u201cFor in many things we offend all.\u00a0 If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body\u201d (3:2).\u00a0 An obvious example of a lack of meek wisdom is the double use of the tongue.\u00a0 \u201cTherewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God\u201d (3:9).\u00a0 Cursing is the sign of a person with limited vocabulary and no wisdom.\u00a0 Such a person cannot control the rest of his body either.\u00a0 A single woman should never marry such a man because this \u201cdouble-minded man is unstable in all his ways\u201d (1:8).\u00a0 \u201cThere is no worse pride than that which claims humility when it does not possess it.\u201d3<\/sup><\/p>\n Peter was very conscious of our ability to defend our faith.\u00a0 The defense of our faith, however, does not come with an uncontrolled tongue.\u00a0 \u201cBut sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear\u201d (1 Pet. 3:15).\u00a0 Paul admonished Timothy that, \u201cThe servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient; in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves\u201d (2 Tim. 2:24-25).<\/p>\n It seems evident that modern man has lost this sense of quiet strength manifested in meekness, especially the meekness of our tongue.\u00a0 Generations ago, Philip Doddridge, wrote, \u201cExamine also, whether you advance in humility.\u00a0 This is a silent, but most excellent grace; and they who are most eminent in it, are dearest to God, and most fit for the communications of his presence to them.\u201d4<\/sup>\u00a0 Are our communications laced with the meekness of wisdom?\u00a0 Or are our words careless and selfish?\u00a0 Meekness controls the tongue.<\/p>\n 4) Following God\u2019s will<\/span>.\u00a0 James ends this section on the meekness of wisdom with a unique soliloquy at the end of chapter four.\u00a0 \u201cGo to now, ye who say, Today or tomorrow we will go to such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain\u201d (4:13).\u00a0 But James interrupts the boast by saying, \u201cFor that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this or that\u201d (4:15).<\/p>\n The will of God is squarely tied to the Word of God and the Word of God requires meekness to accept and follow.\u00a0 James has already said, \u201cTherefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls\u201d (1:21, NKJ).\u00a0 If something is obviously not Biblical then it is definitely not God\u2019s will.\u00a0 The Holy Spirit Who wrote the Word will not, indeed could not, direct you contrary to what He has written.\u00a0 George Mueller\u00a0 once said,<\/p>\n I never remember a period that I ever sincerely and patiently sought to know the will of God by the teaching of the Holy Ghost, through the instrumentality of the Word of God, but I have been always directed rightly.\u00a0 But if honesty of heart and uprightness before God were lacking, or if I did not patiently wait upon God for instruction, or if I preferred the counsel of my fellow men to the declarations of the Word of the living God, I made great mistakes.5<\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n It makes perfect sense that true wisdom, especially the meekness of wisdom, is essentially tied to God\u2019s Word.\u00a0 The omniscient God cannot reveal anything that is not absolutely right and true.\u00a0 If we are thinking in accord with that Word, then our thoughts and words must be true, wise, and meek.\u00a0 This takes meekness because our thoughts may not initially be in accord to His Word and therefore we have to adjust and admit that wisdom is not ours but God\u2019s.<\/p>\n How many of us have made a life-changing decision and then later realized that the decision was not wise?\u00a0 Someone said that we spend half our lives trying to make right decisions and the other half trying to make decisions right.\u00a0 However, admitting to God that we were wrong takes meekness coupled with the right wisdom from God.\u00a0 James calls this the meekness of wisdom because understanding God\u2019s wisdom (and who can know it apart from His Word?) demands conformity to it on our part.\u00a0 It is not our nature to accept our error graciously and therefore it asks of us great meekness.<\/p>\n And so . . .<\/b><\/p>\n Some things take a life-time to accomplish and with many of those one life-time is not enough.\u00a0 Life in the New Jerusalem will be wonderful partly because, \u201cthere shall be no more curse\u201d (Rev. 22:3).\u00a0 The joys of heaven can only be fully appreciated when our old nature is completely gone and corruption has put on incorruption and mortality has put on immortality.\u00a0 When that time comes, in some mysterious way, we will be like Him for we shall see Him as He is (1 John 3:2) and our meekness and humility will be as natural as our new condition.<\/p>\n Until then the commandments of God are our stewardship and the meekness of wisdom our responsibility.\u00a0 The old nature which we possess is contrary to that kind of wisdom and it takes constant struggle on our part to be successful.\u00a0 A.W. Tozer had a good reminder:<\/p>\n If you are too big for a little place, you are too little for a big place. . . Humility pleases God wherever it is found, and the humble man will have God for his friend and helper always.\u00a0 Only the humble man is completely sane, for he is the only one who sees clearly his own size and limitations.6<\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u201cWho is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you?\u00a0 Let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.\u201d<\/p>\n Notes:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cWho is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you?\u00a0 Let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom\u201d (James 3:13) Who wants to violate the first characteristic of meekness and write about it?\u00a0 Who wants to appear to be like the one who brags about being humble?\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7009,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[123],"tags":[167],"class_list":["post-7513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-christian-living-cross-discipleship"],"yoast_head":"\n\n