A consecrated tongue comes from a consecrated heart. That is what James has been writing and now he gives us an understanding of the state of our hearts. He uses the word ‘wisdom’ and we need to go to the source of wisdom to understand what James means.
God is always and at all times wise. In fact there is not a moment when He is not all-wise. Wisdom sees everything not only as the whole but every intricate detail of the whole. But it is more than that. For what I have described is knowledge and wisdom is higher than that.
Through what Jesus Christ has done for us, God is taking every detail of our lives, all the circumstances with their twists and turns and is working them for His glory. This is His wisdom. Whatever the circumstance that you are in right now perhaps hard at times to understand is not too far or too difficult that God is not already working His wisdom, fashioning the you from this situation.
So as we look at the wisdom of God we understand that to be wise is to make the right decisions and to have the right attitude behind those decisions, in every detail and moment of our life.
James writes,
“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. But if you harbour bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.” (James 3 v 13-15)
So there is a wisdom from God and a wisdom that isn’t from Him.
There is an earthly wisdom. It is horizontal and it is inward. It views everything through the filter of oneself. It is about my success, my standards, my motives, my attitudes, my methods, me, me, oh and also, me.
There is an unspiritual wisdom. It is not of the Holy Spirit. It focuses only on the soul. The 3 functions of our soul: the will, intellect and our emotions must be directed by our spirit which was created to be in direct contact with God. In the order of God’s kingdom our souls direct our bodies but our spirit (which God constantly moves upon) masters our soul. If the primary focus of my life is my soul (my will, intellect and emotions) then not only will that dominate my body but it will negatively impact my spirit (my contact with God). Jesus reversed soulish living so that it is possible to be restored to the original kingdom order.
There is a demonic wisdom. It seems hard to believe that James is actually only speaking to Christians here. Is it possible that Christians can be driven by a demonic wisdom? James says so.
So how do we know if we are consecrated? It is by what flows out of our lives. What are the decisions and what are the reasons behind those decisions that we are making. And James has a list that we need to think on. That’s for tomorrow. For today let us surrender the wisdom of our hearts and commit them to not be about me; not to be soulish; and not to be about knowledge but lifestyle for even the demons have great understanding of God.
Missions Paul 