Day 7: James 3:13–18 - How Wonderful, Fearful and Awesome is our God

"Wonder is the beginning of wisdom, being as it were, the road to the search of truth." - Thomas Aquinas

Wonder, fear and awe live in the same neighborhood of ideas and emotions - God created us to experience them.  It is what begins our journey and guides our way.  Wonder and awe is what resonates in us when the beauty of truth is unveiled.  Fear is what grips us when eternal truth is exposed against our finite selves.  Wisdom is knowing this.  Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.  When the Holy Spirit guides un into truth, He is also pointing to Jesus.  When you are gazing at truth, you are gazing at Christ...wonder, fear and awe is what resonates to say it is so.

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight." - Proverbs 9:10

When wonder, fear and awe no longer accompanies our journey, we are no longer wise - we're guided by foolish fancy and worldly whim. Without sugar coating it, James says that if you harbor bitter jealousy and selfish ambition, you deceive yourself to the truth.  When foolish fancy (bitter jealousy) becomes your pursuit (selfish ambition), you no longer abide in truth - you no longer abide in Christ - you are no longer wise.  Taking inventory and knowing the true value of what you have will keep us from wanting to dig for treasure in empty fields elsewhere.  This is simple wisdom.  To pursue wisdom is to pursue the God of wonder.

“Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." - 2 Corinthians 4:6

Posted by Henry Jung on 6/8/2016

Comments

Chasing wisdom really is a battle of perspectives. We are battling to keep Christ central in how we live and think on things. If we build on the foundation of Christ's supreme value and his immeasurable grace, how we approach and handle relationships and stewarding of things will indeed be wise.

Many people think wisdom and knowledge are interchangeable. But even demons have knowledge of God, but we would never consider them wise in their rebellion against the Triune God.

Chris Moon on 6/8/2016 at 10:43 PM

Verse 17 says wisdom is "first of all pure." (NIV). Above everything else, it is pure before being all the other stuff ("peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere), all very good things. I view this as a good check list if you want to verify that something is wisdom from God. There are times where I believe my thoughts are sound and truth, but then, after reading this, I realize that my thoughts were selfish and justifying only to me. God sends wisdom that guides us with a bigger perspective with the hopes that it will produce good fruit instead of "foolish fancy."

Diana Lim on 6/9/2016 at 8:45 AM

Obtaining wisdom only makes sense in the context of knowing God (Proverbs 9:10). The Creator Himself would know best the path of wisdom in living within the world He designed; to think otherwise is pointless. Letting go of what thought was wise and worthy in our own eyes and looking upward to who really matters and counts the most -- if only I could find myself lost in that state as much as possible. Wisdom keeps us humble and meek (v. 13), because in wisdom we know our place and we know what counts (Christ/kingdom of God) and what doesn't (temporal desires).

John Kim on 6/9/2016 at 5:54 PM