The Wisdom of James

The two mothers came to Solomon with a dispute over who was the mother of the baby. It was a dilemma of epic proportions. The story is well known, even by those who have no interest in the Bible. It is just one of those timeless stories. Two young mothers lived together and both had a baby boy within three days of one another. A little while later, one of the babies dies during the night. The mother who lost her child then got the baby of the other mother, put it in her bed, and put her dead infant in the other mother’s bed. (You can’t make this up. Truth is stranger than fiction!)When the mother of the living baby sees what is happening, she seeks justice at the only place she knows. The two women find themselves in front of King Solomon—both claiming the infant child to be hers. Then Solomon does something that forever links him with wisdom. Solomon basically looks at both mothers and says something like this; “Now let me get this straight, so you say the living son is yours and the dead is hers.” Both mothers affirm this. Without missing a beat, Solomon says, “Bring me a sword. Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other.”Before Solomon can raise the sword, the mother of the living child says to give the child to the other woman and by no means harm this child. The mother of the dead child says, yes, that is fair, give us each half a baby. It is in Solomon’s response that he passes into myth and legend for his wisdom. He perceives the mother’s heart in her response to cutting her living child in half and awards to her, her rightful son. At this point Solomon’s fame for wisdom is sealed, as we read in I Kings 3:28, “And all Israel heard of the judgment that the king had rendered, and they stood in awe of the king, because they perceived that the wisdom of God was in him to do justice.”Wisdom in the Bible is a huge thing––one of the hugest things. Proverbs says that to have wisdom in life is better than riches.“Blessed is the one who finds wisdom,and the one who gets understanding.For the gain from her is better than gain from silverand her profit better than gold.She is more precious than jewels,and nothing you can desire can compare with her.”(Proverbs 3:4)You can’t get much clearer than that, can you? So, because there is such a biblical premium on the gaining of wisdom, and because we will be thinking about wisdom for the next couple of months, let’s understand what wisdom is and why it is so important.Wisdom in the Bible is not just knowledge or understanding, nor is it the possession of copious amounts of information. Wisdom in the Bible is the ability to make good decisions in the midst of the complexities of life. So, just because you know a lot of scripture or know a lot of theology doesn’t mean you are wise. Wisdom comes from more than knowledge; it seems to come more from experience than anything else. That is why wisdom is so often linked with older age. The world does not work the way we think it does from a text book; it is infinitely stranger and more complex. For instance, you can read all you want about riding a bicycle. You can attend lectures and watch videos about it. But the only way to really learn to ride a bike is to get on a bike, take off the training wheels and go through the school of hard knocks that comes with trying to stay on.The Bible further says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.” (Proverbs 9:10) Unless there is awe and respect for what God says, wisdom will escape us. And yet James says we are but to ask, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” (James 1:5)And so we shall. For the next couple of months, we are talking about wisdom from the book of James. James is unlike any other book in the New Testament: it is a book about wisdom. It is a book that is written to Jewish Christians who are scattered across the Roman Empire. What they need is wisdom. How do I negotiate living in and loving a place and yet not lose my Christian identity? James is writing to believers not so much to define the Gospel but to rather show how to practically flesh it out. He is taking the Gospel and saying, because Jesus did this for you, this is how you should live.It is interesting to think that the one who writes the “Proverbs of the New Testament” is Jesus’ little brother. What we know of James is that he was a younger brother of Jesus and did not believe in him at all. Paul tells us that, after the resurrection, Jesus appeared to James. This is obviously the turning point in his life. Our author went on to be the leader of the Jerusalem church and was ultimately martyred for his faith in Jesus.So, I hope you will join us as dive into the whole idea of wisdom. Heaven knows, with the complexities of life in the modern world, we need more of it. May God grant this to all of us.