The Source of Wisdom

In preparing for a class on the book of James, I was recently struck by James 1:5:

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. (James 1:5)

The front end of this passage is almost rhetorical: “If any of you lacks wisdom . . .” I've never met anyone who would say they have enough wisdom—well, with the exception of a few teenagers! As I've gotten older, I've become increasingly aware not only of my need for wisdom, but of how little I actually have (my wife can attest to this!). It's sort of like a circle that represents your wisdom, expanding outward as you get older. The perimeter, which is the interface between where you have wisdom and don’t have wisdom also grows!

I think we would all say we have a desire to live wisely. We need wisdom for parenting, marriage, finances, and every other facet of our lives. But what jumped out at me about this passage is that wisdom only comes from God, and when he gives it, it is a gift. Not only that, but we are to ask for this gift humbly. 

Charles Spurgeon says of this passage: 

“It does not say, 'Let him buy of God, let him demand of God, let him earn from God.' Oh! No – 'let him ask of God.' It is the beggar's word. The beggar asks an alms. You are to ask as the beggar asks of you in the street, and God will give to you far more liberally than you give to the poor. You must confess that you have no merit of your own." 

I think one reason this passage struck me is that it is so countercultural and so contrary to our sinful instincts. The world tells us—and our sinful nature agrees—that the wisdom we need for living comes through increased knowledge, experience, education, and expertise. In other words, we look to what we can acquire and develop in ourselves—we become the source of wisdom. James tells us instead, no wisdom is from God and we need to ask Him for it in humility and without doubting. 

We have access to the most information in the history of the world. Estimates suggest that the Global DataSphere—the total amount of data created, stored, and consumed around the world—contains between 180 and 240 zettabytes of data. One zettabyte is 10²¹ bytes, where a byte is roughly the data of a single letter character. So, that's enough letters to fill roughly 611 quadrillion 200-page books. That amount of books could cover the entire surface of the earth, 41 books deep! How do I know this? AI told me.

With a few strokes of the keyboard, we can access an almost limitless amount of information to help us solve our most pressing problems. But this pursuit of knowledge as the answer to our need for wisdom is a fool's errand as old as mankind. Job 28 describes mankind's unsuccessful search for wisdom, and then asks:

“But where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding? Man does not know its worth, and it is not found in the land of the living. The deep says, ‘It is not in me,’ and the sea says, ‘It is not with me.’. . . .

 “From where, then, does wisdom come? And where is the place of understanding? It is hidden from the eyes of all living and concealed from the birds of the air. Abaddon and Death say, ‘We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.’ “God understands the way to it, and he knows its place. For he looks to the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens. When he gave to the wind its weight and apportioned the waters by measure, when he made a decree for the rain and a way for the lightning of the thunder, then he saw it and declared it; he established it, and searched it out. And he said to man, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.’” (Job 28:12-14, 20-28)

I’m not saying that knowledge, education, experience, or expertise are in and of themselves bad. They are valuable. But they are insufficient and are no substitute for the actual wisdom we need for our daily lives, and, more specifically, to live our daily lives as sojourners and exiles in this world. 

We need wisdom precisely because we are limited. We don't see the whole picture. We don't know the future. We don't understand all the consequences of our decisions. We don't even fully understand our own hearts, and no amount of knowledge or experience will remedy that and give us the wisdom we need to live rightly before God. It's a gift from God. 

So, beloved, be as the humble beggar and plead for God to give you the gift of wisdom you desperately need. God is a generous giver. As commentator R. Kent Hughes puts it: “God is like a pitcher tilted toward his children, just waiting to pour wisdom over the trial-parched landscape of their lives, if they will but ask.” And as the passage describes, let us ask “in faith”—that is, trusting that God is not only capable but is cheerfully willing to grant our request.