Wisdom from Above and Below

Text: James 3:13–18 Series: Living the Word: Faith in Action (James) Date: July 5, 2026 Speaker: Ed Rangel Location: Waupaca Church of Christ Bible Version: NASB 1995 Sermon Type: Expository

Learning Objectives

By the end of this sermon, the hearer should be able to:

1. Identify the traits of earthly wisdom and heavenly wisdom in James 3:15–17.
2. Explain why earthly wisdom produces disorder and heavenly wisdom produces peace.
3. Examine personal conflict to determine which wisdom is guiding the heart.
4. Commit to practicing gentleness, mercy, and peace in one specific relationship this week.

Thesis

Two wisdoms produce two outcomes: earthly wisdom brings disorder, but heavenly wisdom bears the fruit of righteousness in peace.

Every conflict has roots. James is not merely asking what came out of your mouth. He is asking what kind of wisdom was feeding the root system underneath it. Earthly wisdom grows bitter fruit because it comes from below. Heavenly wisdom bears righteous fruit because it comes from above. James has already said a fountain cannot produce both salt and fresh water. Now he applies that same test to wisdom. If a life keeps producing strife, jealousy, and disorder, James says we should stop blaming the circumstances and examine the source.

Hook

1. Every fight you have ever been in started long before the first word was spoken.
2. It started underground.
3. Two people can say the same sentence — one leaves peace, the other leaves wreckage.
4. The words are never the real issue. The root is.
5. James hands us a test that cuts past what we say and gets down to what is feeding us.
6. Before you ask who was right in your last argument, James asks something harder: what kind of wisdom was growing in the dark?

Introduction

1. James 3:13 opens with a challenge: "Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the spirit of wisdom."
2. It is a test, not a compliment.
3. The test is not what you claim — it is what your life produces.
4. James identifies two kinds of wisdom available to every human heart.
5. One comes from below — from the earth, from merely human instinct, from the aims of the evil one.
6. The other comes from above — from God, the Father of lights.
7. These two wisdoms do not produce the same fruit.
8. The fruit makes the source undeniable.
9. The question James leaves the congregation to answer is this: when conflict exposes your heart, which wisdom is ruling you?

I. Earthly Wisdom Reveals a Corrupt Source (James 3:14–16)

James has just tested wisdom the way he tested speech: "Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh" (James 3:11–12). A source only produces what is native to it. Fresh water does not flow from a bitter spring, and a fig tree does not bear olives. James now applies that same law of nature to wisdom itself: a heart ruled by wisdom from below cannot produce the fruit of wisdom from above.

"But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing" (James 3:14–16).

A. James names three descriptors for earthly wisdom — and each one moves deeper.

1. Earthly (epigeios) — focused on the temporal, the visible, the here-and-now.
   1. This wisdom calculates for advantage in the present without reference to God.
   2. It is not necessarily unintelligent; it is simply grounded in what is below.
2. Natural (psychikos) — merely human, unspiritual, governed by natural appetite rather than the wisdom of God.
   1. The natural person applies full human capacity to the question of what serves him best.
   2. There is no submission to the Spirit of God in this calculus.
3. Demonic (daimoniōdēs) — reflecting the character and aims of the evil one: division, pride, deceit, and destruction.
   1. James is not saying every person with earthly wisdom is under direct demonic control.
   2. He is saying the direction and fruit of this wisdom aligns with what the enemy produces: disorder.

B. The fruit confirms the source.

1. James 3:14 names the engine: "bitter jealousy and selfish ambition."
   1. Bitter jealousy (zēlos) is a fierce, resentful desire for what another holds.
   2. Selfish ambition (eritheia) is self-promotion that does not mind the cost to others.
2. The result is "disorder and every evil thing" (James 3:16).
   1. Akatastasia — instability, tumult, confusion — is the fruit in the community.
   2. Where earthly wisdom rules a heart, it does not stay contained. It spreads into the home, the workplace, the congregation.
3. Not every conflict in the church is really about the issue on the table. James teaches us to look underneath the argument and ask what kind of wisdom is driving the heart.

C. Paul names the same fruit under different vocabulary.

1. "Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God" (Galatians 5:19–21).
   1. Strife, jealousy, dissensions, and factions are Paul's list; bitter jealousy, selfish ambition, and disorder are James's list. Two different vocabularies name the same root producing the same wreckage.
   2. Two apostles, writing to two different congregations, diagnose the identical disease: a heart operating on wisdom that did not come from above.
2. Paul's warning is severe: those who practice these things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
   1. This is not a minor character flaw to be managed. It is a pattern that reveals a heart estranged from God.
   2. James and Paul agree: the fruit is not neutral information. It is a verdict on the source.

II. Heavenly Wisdom Reveals a Pure Source (James 3:17)

"But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy" (James 3:17).

A. The first mark of heavenly wisdom is its origin: "from above" (anōthen).

1. James has already said every good thing comes from above (James 1:17). Here he shows that true wisdom does too.
   1. The Father of lights is the source.
   2. Heavenly wisdom cannot be manufactured by human effort; it must be received and sought from God.
2. Its first and defining characteristic is purity (hagnē) — unmixed with selfish motive, undefiled by personal advantage.
   1. A person operating in heavenly wisdom is not calculating how the outcome benefits him.
   2. He is asking what is true, what is gentle, what makes for peace.

B. James gives a full portrait of this wisdom — all seven marks visible.

1. Pure — unmixed with selfish motive.
2. Peaceable — seeking reconciliation rather than victory.
3. Gentle — reasonable, forbearing, not harsh.
4. Open to reason — teachable and willing to yield where truth allows.
5. Full of mercy and good fruits — compassionate in action, not in theory.
6. Unwavering — steady, undivided, not shifting according to selfish advantage.
7. Without hypocrisy — sincere, not pretending peace while feeding selfish ambition underneath.
   1. These seven are not a personality profile. They are spiritual fruits produced by wisdom that comes from God.
   2. You can test which wisdom is operating by running through this list during a conflict: are you peaceable, gentle, open to reason, merciful, unwavering, sincere?

C. James has already shown that this wisdom must be requested, not manufactured.

1. "But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him" (James 1:5).
   1. The same James who describes wisdom's seven marks has already told this congregation how to obtain it: ask.
   2. Heavenly wisdom is not a skill mastered by effort. It is a gift received in faith.
2. This wisdom is grounded in the unchanging character of its Giver.
   1. "Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow" (James 1:17).
   2. The Father does not shift with circumstance the way earthly wisdom shifts with advantage. His gifts, including this wisdom, are as stable as He is.

D. Paul's fruit of the Spirit confirms the same portrait from a different angle.

1. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law" (Galatians 5:22–23).
   1. Peace and gentleness appear in both lists. James and Paul are describing the same Spirit-produced character, not two competing standards.
   2. Neither list is a performance to imitate. Both are fruit — the natural yield of a life connected to God, not a mask worn over an unchanged heart.

III. Righteousness Grows Where Peace Is Sown (James 3:18)

A. The harvest principle closes the argument.

1. "The seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace" (James 3:18).
   1. Righteousness (dikaiosynē) — the right ordering of conduct before God — does not grow in the soil of bitterness and selfish ambition.
   2. It grows in peace, sown by people who are actively making peace.
2. Peacemaking is not passivity.
   1. The word eirēnopoiois describes active peace-producers — people who enter conflict with the wisdom from above to bear peaceable fruit.
   2. Silence in the face of wrong is not heavenly wisdom; speaking truth in gentleness and mercy is.

B. The fruit of the wisdom you follow is visible to everyone around you.

1. A life producing jealousy, bitterness, disorder, and strife has a corrupt source.
2. A life producing peace, gentleness, mercy, and sincerity gives visible evidence that the wisdom it is following is from above.
   1. The church's unity and peace are a powerful testimony against a chaotic, self-centered world.
   2. Not because we are perfect, but because the wisdom we seek comes from the One who is.

C. The rest of Scripture confirms that peace is where wisdom has always led.

1. Jesus pronounces a blessing on exactly this kind of life.
   1. "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God" (Matthew 5:9).
   2. The peacemaker of James 3:18 and the son of God in Matthew 5:9 are the same person described from two directions — one by his fruit, one by his standing before the Father.
2. The Old Testament said this first.
   1. "Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace" (Proverbs 3:17).
   2. What James calls wisdom from above, Solomon already described centuries earlier: wisdom's own paths are peace. The testimony is not new. It is the consistent verdict of the whole canon.

Application

For the individual: In the next disagreement you face, ask this before you answer — what kind of wisdom is about to speak through me? If the answer is jealousy, ambition, pride, or the need to win, stop. That wisdom is not from above. Choose the wisdom that is pure, peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy, unwavering, and without hypocrisy. It will not always win the argument. It will always bear righteous fruit.

For the church: When conflict arises in a congregation, the temptation is to evaluate it at the surface — who is right, who started it, who should yield. James asks a harder question: what kind of wisdom is ruling the hearts in this room? A congregation that learns to ask that question before it asks who wins will produce a kind of peace the world has no explanation for.

For parents and the next generation: Children learn how to handle conflict by watching adults handle it. If they see anger, bitterness, selfish ambition, and the need to win modeled at home, they will carry that wisdom into adulthood. But if they see parents and elders choosing the peaceable, gentle, reasonable path — even when it costs something — they are being taught that heavenly wisdom is real and available. Show them what it looks like to stop, examine the source, and choose the fruit from above.

Conclusion

1. Two wisdoms. Two sources. Two fruits.
2. Earthly wisdom rises from below — from selfish ambition, bitter jealousy, and the character of the enemy.
3. It produces disorder and every evil thing.
4. Heavenly wisdom comes from the Father of lights.
5. It is pure, peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy, unwavering, and without hypocrisy.
6. It produces the fruit of righteousness in peace.
7. The question is not whether you are wise.
8. The question is which wisdom is ruling you.
9. When conflict exposes your heart, you will find out.
10. Reject the wisdom that destroys. Receive the wisdom from above. Sow peace, and let righteousness grow.

Invitation

If your life has been marked by the disorder that earthly wisdom produces — strife you keep starting, bitterness you keep feeding, ambition that keeps stepping on others — James says the problem is the source. You need more than better conflict skills. You need to be made right with God. The wisdom from above begins by submitting to the Lord from above. Hear the word. Believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Repent of your sins. Confess His name. Be baptized for the remission of your sins. Then rise to walk in the wisdom that comes from God.

If you are a Christian whose heart has been running on earthly wisdom and you know it — come forward and let these elders pray with you. Ask God for the wisdom He gives generously to all who ask in faith (James 1:5).

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