Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. – James 3:13
We’ve been reading through the book of James – our Epistle readings in September – in Sunday morning Bible Study. And the book of James is a unique book within the New Testament, although I would argue not within the entire bible. The word I’m going to be talking about is genre. What is a genre? In film you would talk about Westerns or Action or Horror. In novels: mystery, fantasy, sci-fi, literary. A genre is a recognizable grouping that usually has the same characters, plot or conventions. Westerns have dry towns, citizens, guns, horses, outlaws, savages and sheriffs. The story is always the sheriff or the man who stands between the citizens and the outlaws or savages. The man who is on the border of each belonging to neither. And the tools are the tools of violence and transportation. Which is why the Western Genre can capture things like Space Westerns. The books of the bible largely fall into recognizable genres. The gospels are ancient biographies. Paul’s works are philosophical essays attached to letters dealing with specific instances of living the philosophy often called casuistry or case history. Acts is a work of ancient history, a narrative of people, places, acts and speeches. Revelation is an apocalypse, a work of unveiling the deep meaning of reality. James may look like one of Paul’s letters, but it’s arguments are not long enough to be essays, nor are its cases real events in a real life (like the Corinthians getting drunk at the Lord’s Supper), but they are generic examples (where do fights come from). James is unique in the New Testament, but if you read it alongside the Old Testament book of Proverbs, I think you find its genre. James is a wisdom book.
And what is the genre of wisdom book? I come up with four key things. 1) Wisdom books are typically written by the mature for the naïve. You could say by the old for the young, but that isn’t universal. Timothy at 20, as the son of Eunice and grandson of Lois, was a third generation Christian from the cradle. Paul was constantly reminding the young Timothy that he was the one mature in the faith compared to many of his older flock. 2) Wisdom books are written for those who believe. This is why Luther didn’t much like James. Wisdom books assume the gospel. They are speaking to the person living a life of sanctification. 3) Wisdom books are descriptive and not prescriptive. Prescriptive would be the 10 Commandments. You must do this. You must not do that. Descriptive describes how things usually work. The mature person has enough store of experience to say “this is how the world usually works.” Does it always work that way? No. Your particular experience may be outside the realm of this wisdom. But, it is always good to ask, “am I really the exception?” They are words a man might live by if he is not so foolish as to think himself special. 4) Wisdom books are meant to be pondered. As no experience is ever really repeated, how does this wisdom apply to me and my situation?
And this is the great weakness of wisdom and also its strength. It is meek. It invites instead of commands. It desires not your compliance, but for you to make it your own. Mom wants the 3 year old’s compliance about not sticking things in the power outlet, but 3 years olds typically need at least one zap to make that wisdom their own. Lady Wisdom desires that you might learn from her by means of words, but more often those words are things remembered after the fact. After we get zapped we might turn to Lady Wisdom for the other nuggets she has.
One nugget buried in the middle of our epistle today (James 3:13-4:10) is about quarrels. James rightly points out quarrels come from our uncontrolled and unmet desires. It is almost Buddhist in its recognition. You suffer because you want. But the wisdom of James is not to kill the want. The wisdom of James is to ask, and to ask rightly. “You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions. (James 4:2-3)” Oh Lord, won’t you buy me, a Mercedes-Benz? Probably not. But why do you want a Benz? What passion is unfulfilled? How better would that passion be turned? Those are the mature questions of wisdom.