Wise Is as Wise Does

Many years ago, I was in a long line at the polls waiting to vote. There was a man a few people ahead of me that within minutes I knew everything about because he was telling everyone within a hundred yards everything he thought and had done. He knew exactly who he was. I remember him saying “Ya know, I’m a yeller dog democrat. My daddy said if the Democrats ran a yeller dog, we’d vote for ‘im.” Republicans have the same thing to be sure, so that is not the point. The point is this guy was none too wise. It was obvious. I didn’t know his heart, background, history, or reasoning. I just knew what he said and it wasn’t wise.

Proverbs 12:16 says, “A fool’s wrath is presently known.” How does a fool reveal himself? It is by simply by opening his mouth. A wise person is often revealed by what is not said and a fool is revealed by what is said. At the end of the day, actions are articulate. Being clear in your speech is not a matter of having the right words and talking pretty. It is a matter of having a right heart and being wise. You see, wise is as wise does.

Talking about wisdom, James 3:13 says, “Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.” To be sure, this all comes from the heart. Verse 14 says as much. But he is talking not about what God knows, but what people see. A good question would be, “How practical and effective is your faith and your wisdom?”

Hebrews 2 says that faith without works is dead. To whom is it dead? My faith is not dead to God; He sees it. But what if a guy comes in who is hungry, ill-clothed, and needs help, and I wave him off by saying, “God bless you. Be warmed. Be filled. Then, go on your way”? Do I have faith? Well, not to him; it is dead. If I see a dead squirrel lying on the side of the road, is it really a squirrel? Yes, it is. Is it doing anything?  No. Is your faith real? If there is faith in the Lord Jesus, it is real. God sees it, but is it dead or is it making a difference for other people?

Abraham was clearly justified before God by his faith, but the Bible says he was justified by works. So, to whom was he justified by works? It was before people. Someone says, “I heard Abraham is a man of faith. Do you think it is true?” Another replies, “Of course it is true. He offered his only son before God.” Now God did not ultimately demand Abraham to sacrifice his son, but Abraham thought God was going to and he offered his son. So, my faith is to be a living faith in the sense that it is effective and practical in the way it helps other people.

Untested virtue is not virtue. James 1 talks about how our faith can be tested and how our patience should grow when it does. But at the end of the day wise is as wise does. “Who is a wise man…? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.”

Remember two things. First, such wisdom is characterized by a spirit that is mild, gentle, and humble. Wisdom is not arrogant. Sometimes people can be puffed up because of what they know or how they can speak, but true wisdom comes from the heart. Our words are important. The Bible says that sometimes we can’t get out of our own way because of what we say, but what I reveal by what I say and do, the action of that living faith, should be wisdom that is practical and characterized by an attitude that is mild, gentle, and humble. It is not a pushover, not afraid to take on what is wrong, false, or evil, but it is a gentle, mild, and humble. This is more than disposition. This is from God.

When David was in a dangerous position in the court of Saul, the Bible says David was wise and “behaved himself wisely.” It doesn’t say David thought himself wisely. No, he behaved wisely. That begins in the heart and mind. Wise is as wise does. It is characterized by an attitude that is beyond self and comes from something else. It is characterized by meekness of wisdom and it is given from God.

Verse 14 says, “But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.” Earthly speaks to its limits or scope. It is limited to earth. You may have all kinds of smarts about your 501K, your future plans, and how the world works, but if it doesn’t live beyond today and this planet, it is limited, provincial, earth-bound, and sensual.

This is not talking about something intrinsically evil, but something that is derived from the senses. Have you ever heard someone say, “I don’t see it,” meaning they don’t understand something? In other words, they cannot derive it from their subjective sense of what should be. It is subjective in what they believe is subject to their interpretation of reality. They say, “I feel that.” That is not wrong, but needs to be checked against godly wisdom.

So, wisdom that does not come from God is earthly, bound by the senses that can be deceived. Isaac was deceived by Esau. Genesis 27 tells us that he was nearly blind, and you think, “Of course he could easily be deceived by Esau because he couldn’t see,” but the rest of the passage talks about what he could smell, hear, feel, and taste. Isaac was just as deceived by the senses he had as by the sense he did not have.

So, such wisdom is limited, sensual, and devilish, so-called wisdom that comes from the devil and not God. If I have put my faith in Christ, then I need to have a life saturated by the truth of God from heaven and not the thinking of the devil limited by this earth. This wisdom is given by God. That means I need to notice what I am saying and doing, want what God can give, and then ask for it.

Sometimes I may not know my own heart, but I need to want and notice what I am doing and saying. I need to want something more, something that can come only from heaven. The Bible continues, “But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.”

So, I need to notice what I am doing and saying, want what is from heaven, and ask for what I need. James 1:5 says, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God.” He won’t scold you, but will give you what you need. What about you? Are you wise? I didn’t ask if you were smart, articulate, or right, but do you have a practical savvy for life that knows how to use the truth and knows how to be used by God in the truth? May God give us that today. Notice what you need, want what you need, ask God for what you need. Wise is as wise does. What a wonderful testimony that would be in our world from God through us today.