Who Is Wise and Understanding? James 3:13-18

In this sermon, Tim reflects on the complexity of human nature, especially in the context of faith; using the Latin word "simul" (meaning "at the same time") to explore how Christians are simultaneously sinners and saints. Through faith in Jesus, believers are declared saints, holy in God's sight, despite their ongoing battle with sin. This dual reality of being a sinner and a saint creates tension but also provides hope through God's grace, as exemplified by biblical figures like Miriam and Aaron, who despite their sins, were still chosen as God's leaders.

True wisdom, as described by James in the New Testament, comes from God and leads to actions that reflect love, peace, and humility. This divine wisdom does not justify means through ends but calls for pure, peace-loving conduct. Leaders in the church, though sinner-saints themselves, are called to exemplify this wisdom, living lives that reflect God's grace and love. 

This Sunday sermon, based on James 3 verses 13-18, was preached at Grace of God Lutheran Church on September 22, 2024.  This sermon is preached by Pastor Timothy J. Walsh, a member of WELS (Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod). Scripture selections come from the New International Version.

Intro Music "On the Way" by Vlad Gluschenko https://soundcloud.com/vgl9
Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0

Outro Music "Divenire" by Ludovico Einaudi
copyright (℗) by: Ludovico Einaudi (in 2006)              

Transcript

Grace and peace are yours, brothers and sisters; a gift from God above. Amen.

Telling people that I’m a pastor provokes interesting conversations. Recently, someone told me about their struggle dealing with the death of a loved one. There was some estrangement in their relationship. There had been hurt in their relationship. Their loved one had died before all these things could be dealt with.Their loved one had struggled with addictions. At the same time, their loved one had also been a very kind and giving person.

There’s a word - it’s in your service folder - simul. That’s a Latin word. It means, “at the same time.” We use that Latin word in our English word simultaneous, “occurring at the same time.” 

Theologians - Bible teachers - use the phrase “the simul” as a shorthand reference to this truth which the Bible teaches. Christians are simultaneously saints and sinners. That’s originally a Latin phrase, also printed in your folder. Simul justus et peccator. 

Each one of us, every human being, is conceived and born as a sinner, and our lives show this fact. Sometimes we obviously, openly sin. We steal from our employers to feed a drug habit. We abuse those we promised to love. Sometimes our sin is cloaked. We hide greed behind a facade of hard work. We nurse a grudge in our hearts while we smile with our lips. It’s all sin. 

When we are brought to faith - when through God’s Word, the Holy Spirit brings us to trust in Jesus as our Savior - we see the truth that we are sinners. But faith does more than reveal to us our sinfulness. When God brings someone to faith, he then declares that he sees that person as holy, as a saint. The English words saint and holy are the same in Greek. 

A saint is not a special, particularly holy Christian. In a place like Long Island, where the Catholic tradition with its understanding of saints is so firmly established, people often misunderstand this. But the way the Bible uses the word, everyone who believes in Jesus as their Savior is a saint; one of God’s holy people. We see that in this comment from one of Paul’s letters, Colossians one: “God has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight” - another way to translate that, “to present you as a saint in his sight” - “without blemish and free from accusation, if you continue in your faith.” With that last comment about faith, Paul is saying, “To continue believing that Jesus is your Savior is what constitutes being a saint in the eyes of God.”

Here’s where that word simul comes back around. At the same time that we are saints - God’s holy people, blameless in his eyes - we continue to wrestle with sin. We are never free from sin’s threat in this life. 

Some Christian teachers have mocked this as the doctrine of carnal Christianity. They claim that when I, or others, say that Christians are sinners and saints, that we are saying that sin doesn’t matter; that Christians have no control over sin; that we remain essentially the same as we were before God gave us faith and saved us. This is a misunderstanding - a caricature - of this doctrine. The Bible does not teach that Christians have no power over sin. The book of James - from which we read today - has this in chapter one. “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” That is to say, “Don’t just listen to what God says about how we ought to live. Carry it out!” These are not empty words. Christians do live lives which exhibit our faith through our deeds. The doctrine of the simul does not deny that, as some would claim. The doctrine of the simul merely explains why we still see Christians struggle with sin.

We have an example of this in our Old Testament reading. Miriam and Aaron - Moses’ brother and sister - were believers. In fact, they were leaders of God’s people! Aaron was the first chief priest for Israel, chosen by God himself. Miriam was a prophetess whom God inspired to compose the victory song which Israel sang after Pharaoh’s armies drowned in the Red Sea.

But these saints - these believers, these children of God - were still sinners. Sin that still lurked in their hearts - sin lurks in all our hearts - and it led them first to envy and second to open rebellion. God had chosen Moses, their baby brother, to lead the people of Israel. Miriam and Aaron wanted the same status he possessed. So they issued a two-pronged attack on Moses and his leadership. Openly, their complaint was that Moses was not the only one through whom God had spoken. Again, Miriam was a prophetess. Aaron had been given words of blessing directly from God to speak over the people. This was their open complaint. We also read that they attacked him privately for another matter. Moses’ wife, Zipporah, was descended from Noah’s grandson Cush, son of Ham, rather than Noah’s son Shem. Many of Cush’s descendants settled in what we now call Africa, but the Cushite tribe from which Zipporah came lived in the Arabian Peninsula. 

Why did that matter? It didn’t. But people still make foolish, sinful judgments about others on the basis of race, or ethnicity. We are never told that there was anything which Miriam and Aaron found objectionable in Zipporah, other than the simple fact of her differing ethnicity.

Race and ethnicity aren’t the only criteria we use to prejudge others. We look at their car, at how their kids behave in the checkout line, at their tattoos, and we use those cues to mentally rank them above us, below us, wherever we think they fit. But we truly have no clue. 

God does have a clue. God sees all our lives at once, from his perspective as the Creator of all things. He sees more than our outward cues; he sees every action of our lives. He knows us better than we know ourselves. And he loves us. He sent his Son to reveal to us, through his preaching and teaching, the sin that lurks in our hearts, that we might see all the more clearly his grace and mercy toward us in delivering his Son over into the hands of men.

We’re prone to judge people on the basis of a single, momentary snapshot of their lives. As God’s holy people, his saints, our reading from James tells us to flip that. We want to live in such a way that if someone would take a snapshot of our lives, they would see the love of Christ displayed in our actions. Verse thirteen of our reading says, “Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life.” The Greek here has the idea of a life which, at any particular moment, demonstrates love as God defines love.

That point is important. We are vulnerable, in our struggle with sin, to the temptation to redefine love for neighbor as we see fit. James calls this here an “earthly, unspiritual, demonic” pseudo-wisdom. It claims to be the wisdom which God gives in his Word, but is not.

This pseudo-wisdom takes many forms. It’s the temptation to do as the Christian congregation in Corinth did, and to refuse to condemn sin. Their church members were suing one another; they were snubbing one another on the basis of class during the fellowship hour; they were unbothered by sexual sin within the congregation. Such things are still seen in our time. James refers to this as “earthly” “wisdom,” because it has to do with things of this earth.

This pseudo-wisdom also takes the form of Pharisaism. A strictness and rigidity that sees all others as falling short of standards we set for ourselves. A zeal not for the salvation of souls, but for conformity to human traditions and human wisdom. This is the “unspiritual” “wisdom” James speaks of; it makes a claim of spirituality, but it has its origin in men and not in God. Therefore it is “unspiritual,” its origin is from human hearts rather than God’s Spirit.

James also speaks of a “demonic” pseudo-wisdom. This is a catch-all. Satan, the prince of demons, has no particular preferences when it comes to tempting humans. We see this in his interactions with Jesus during his ministry. During the temptation in the wilderness, Satan uses “unspiritual” wisdom as he urges Jesus to throw himself from the temple heights. Later, he is behind Peter’s attempt to dissuade Jesus from the cross. This is “earthly” wisdom. Satan doesn’t care what temptation works, so long as one works. “Demonic” pseudo-wisdom, then, is the philosophy that “the ends justify the means.” 

“No!” James tells us. They don’t. Instead, verse seventeen, “the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure.” The true wisdom which God gives us through his Word knows nothing of justifying our means by hoped-for ends. Instead, true wisdom leads us to evaluate our actions in light of God’s Word. 

I may think that being argumentative is fine, so long as I’m sharing God’s Word with people. But I run smack into such Scriptures as, Romans twelve, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” Likewise First Peter, “Give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have, but do this with gentleness and respect.” The end for which I aim - sharing God’s Word with others - does not justify brash, argumentative conduct. 

But I may also tell myself that in the interest of maintaining peaceful relationships with others, I will hide the fact that I am a Christian. First Peter, which I just cited, speaks against that. Christ himself says in Matthew’s Gospel, “Whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.” My end-goal of maintaining peaceful relationships does not justify refusing to share my faith.

“The wisdom which comes from heaven” - which is the wisdom that God gives us through his Word - is first pure. It has no thought of means justified through ends. Then, James says, the wisdom which comes from above is “peace-loving.” It is a wisdom which doesn’t destroy relationships wantonly. Matthew, the apostle, was called by Christ to leave his life as a tax collector. Matthew knew other tax collectors who were cheats, who stole from the people. He knew sinners of various kinds. The purity of wisdom which he displayed was not in cutting these people off upon his conversion, but in inviting them to meet his Savior Jesus. 

The God-given wisdom which James describes for us here is something God promises to give to all Christians, through his Word. The Holy Spirit works through the Word of God to convict us of sin, to comfort us with the cross of Jesus, and to lead us in life that reflect God’s love. And this is God’s promise as you live such lives: “Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.” 

God calls all his people to live in such a way, but in particular, leaders in the church must exemplify these traits. Our Old Testament and Gospel readings both deal with failures of leaders in the church; Miriam and Aaron, Jesus’ disciples. These people, all chosen directly by God to lead in his church, were sinner-saints. Sin tripped them up at times. 

We installed three men into offices in our own church this morning. Andrew, Barry, and Scott are (I hope you don’t mind me saying, guys) sinners. So am I. To admit this is not to say that you cannot have expectations of us. You can expect us to do the jobs to which we have been appointed in this congregation. If we do not, remove us. That would not be a question of whether or not we are Christians. It is a question of whether or not we have the maturity in the faith, the servant readiness, the humility to carry out our tasks. 

None of us would by nature. Not that I don’t think the world of you three men, to be clear. I think you are gifted and capable men, and I thank God for you. I think such things about our congregation as a whole. Lutheran preachers have a hard time doing this sometimes. We can get focused on inborn, natural human sinfulness to the point that there’s no room in the sermon for recognizing the gifts God gives his people. But in this congregation, God has given many gifts in the form of the people who gather here. We are gifts from God to one another. 

In God’s love and in his wisdom, he gives congregations the gift of qualified leaders. He equips people for service to the body. In a group of sinner-saints, he calls some to leadership. Above all that you expect from us leaders - myself, those three, our other councilmen and all who serve - expect us to remember that we ourselves are sinners, made saints by grace. Amen.