Functional Faith + Our Thinking | James 3:13-18
If you could ask God for anything and you knew He would answer with yes, what would it be? This happened to Solomon and he asked God for wisdom; what good is it to have all the money in the world or to live a long life if you are a fool? When people ask me how they can pray for me, I always ask for wisdom. Why? Because I’m not that wise. I act and think foolishly. I want to think that I want God’s wisdom, but I don’t often want God’s wisdom; I want God’s knowledge or God’s blessing. I want to know what to do rather than what kind of person I should become. Henry Cloud: Three kinds of people: wise, foolish, and evil. Wise people hear the truth, and it changes them. They desire to change to reality. When light comes, they adjust to the light. They are happy. Foolish people hear the truth but don’t change. They expect reality to change for them. When the light comes, they adjust the light. They get angry. Evil people intend to harm you and want to see you and your mission fail. Hire wise people, handle foolish people, and avoid evil people. God wants us to be wise and is willing to give it. But we will never be truly wise until we see our desperate need for God’s wisdom.
The book of James is wisdom literature in the New Testament (like Proverbs.) The blue-collar scholar James gives biblical, practical wisdom on living the gospel-infected, functional faith life in a fallen world. Earlier, James said (1:5), “If anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask God for it.” James is going back to the theme of wisdom and is connecting our words with wisdom. We need to be wise in what we say and how we live. But how do we know we are wise or fools? James tells us what Godly wisdom is, why we need it, and how to get it.