Who is the wisest person you know?
Notice the question wasn’t, Who is the smartest person you know? Intuitively, we know being smart and being wise are not the same thing. There are plenty of people with a lot of knowledge who no one would call wise.
Our culture is in a wisdom crisis. Almost everyone now has instant access to anything they could ever want to know. That doesn’t make them wise. When I was a kid, my parents bought me an encyclopedia set for Christmas, the worst present I ever received. If I wanted to learn about iguanas, I had to be home, find the right encyclopedia, and know how to spell iguana. Now you can ask ChatGPT to write a haiku about the mating habits of iguanas, and you have one in two seconds. (Especially handy if you like haikus.) But it isn’t clear that this kind of access is improving us. Psychologically, instant access to every domain of human knowledge has produced cognitive overload and a habit of superficial processing. We can’t think deeply about anything because we’re thinking superficially about everything.
The internet can give you knowledge. It cannot make you wise.
Wisdom is sometimes defined as applied knowledge. It isn’t enough to know something; you have to live it.
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting a tomato in a fruit salad.
That’s one definition. The Bible defines wisdom as right living. Think about the wisest person you know. That definition tends to fit them. They’re living right. But how? What does living right actually look like?
The most obvious tell is that their life isn’t in disorder. They aren’t in relational chaos; there is peace in their family and friendships. They aren’t in financial chaos; they haven’t overextended themselves, and they’re cheerfully generous. They aren’t in emotional chaos, they aren’t envious, they don’t carry bitterness, and they don’t harbour unforgiveness. They aren’t in spiritual chaos; they’re anchored. They know who they are in God.
If it’s possible to live right, it’s also possible to live wrong. Even the most truth-subjective person on the planet would agree there are some not-so-great ways to live. None of us wants that. We all want to be wise. We want to be wise with money. Wise with relationships. Wise with our hardest decisions.
Most of us, on honest reflection, can also trace some of our pain back to a lack of wisdom: a foolish business move, a regretted family conversation, a purchase we still feel the sting of, a relationship we should have ended much earlier. So much of life’s hurt is self-inflicted. Not all, but a lot. So, how do we live as wise people?
The book of James in the New Testament was written exactly to this question. It teaches us how to take the faith we have in Jesus and put it into practice. James 3 contrasts two kinds of wisdom: false wisdom and true wisdom: wisdom from this world and wisdom that comes from God.
"Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbour bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such ‘wisdom’ does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.
But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness." (James 3:13–18)
Right out of the gate, James clarifies something important. He doesn’t say, “Who is wise among you? Let him prove it by solving a Rubik’s Cube.” He says wisdom shows up in how someone lives. Not in what they know. In how they live.
Just as you can evaluate a tree by its fruit, you can evaluate a life by how it’s lived.
James gives us three diagnostic words for false wisdom: earthly, unspiritual, demonic.
False wisdom is earthly. It’s about now. It doesn’t consider eternity. Are you living with the end in mind, not sixty years from now, but a thousand years from now? Decisions made now echo into eternity. False wisdom only counts what it can see.
False wisdom is unspiritual. It ignores not just the future, but God in the present. It doesn’t seek to honour Him; it seeks to please our own desires.
False wisdom is demonic. It’s rooted in the lie that God can’t be trusted and that His design for life won’t actually work for you.
Then James shows us the alternative.
“But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.” (James 3:17)
These are the marks of a life lived well.
Pure. True wisdom isn’t motivated by twisted desires; it’s a sincere desire to please God.
Peace-loving. It prioritizes peace with God, peace with others, and peace inside.
Considerate. “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves” (Philippians 2:3).
Submissive. Not full of pride. Walks in humility.
Full of mercy. Gives people what they don’t necessarily deserve. Lived-out wisdom looks like forgiveness toward those who have hurt you.
Sincere. Integrated. Doesn’t say one thing and do another.
If that list describes the life you’d want to live and want to be known for, you’ve already realized something important. James is describing Jesus. Take everything you know about Jesus and lay James’ definition over top. He was and is pure, peace-loving, considerate, submissive to His Father, full of mercy, and sincere.
To live wisely is to live like Jesus. And there’s a reason for that. The New Testament tells us Jesus is wisdom personified, wisdom in the flesh.
“It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God, that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.” (1 Corinthians 1:30)
Which raises the practical question. How does an actual person become wise? Two steps. Just two.
1. Follow Jesus. Everybody follows something: your heart, your money, a vision of earthly success, a particular person whose every word and move you track. The question isn’t will you follow something? It’s what are you going to follow? Following Jesus is the best decision a human being can make.
2. Do what He says. Once you’re following Him, the next step into wisdom is obeying His words: “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock” (Matthew 7:24–25).
Wise people obey Jesus. The result is wisdom, an unshakable life, the good life.
The most awe-inspiring event in the history of the world is the cross. Like the northern lights or extreme generosity, you don’t fight an event like that. You don’t negotiate with it. You don’t argue with it. You receive it with thankfulness. You just say, thank you.
Fear the Lord. Follow Jesus. Obey His words.
That’s wisdom.