"Who is a wise man and endued
with knowledge among you? let him show out of a good conversation his works
with meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envying
and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This
wisdom descends not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where
envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. 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" (Jas. 3:13-17).

Let us put all these thoughts
together to form the portraits of two men—the truly wise man and the man with
false wisdom. The man who is truly wise is genuinely humble. He estimates
others to be better than himself. He does not put on airs, but does put others
at ease right away. His behavior is not like that of the world around him; it
is otherworldly. He does not live for the body but for the spirit. In words and
deeds he makes you think of the Lord Jesus. His life is pure. Morally and
spiritually he is clean. Then too he is peaceable. He will endure insult and
false accusation but will not fight back or even seek to justify himself. He is
gentle, mild-mannered, and tenderhearted. And he is easy to reason with,
willing to try to see the other person’s viewpoint. He is not vindictive but
always ready to forgive those who have wronged him. Not only so but he
habitually shows kindness to others, especially to those who don’t deserve it.
And he is the same to all; he doesn’t play favorites. The rich receive the same
treatment as the poor; the great are not preferred above the common people.
Finally, he is not a hypocrite. He doesn’t say one thing and mean another. You
will never hear him flatter. He speaks the truth and never wears a mask.

The worldly-wise man is not so.
His heart is filled with envy and strife. In his determination to enrich
himself, he becomes intolerant of every rival or competitor. There is nothing
noble about his behavior; it rises no higher than this earth. He lives to
gratify his natural appetites—just as the animals do. And his methods are
cruel, treacherous, and devilish. Beneath his well-pressed suit is a life of
impurity. His thought life is polluted, his morals debased, his speech unclean.
He is quarrelsome with all who disagree with him or who cross him in any way.
At home, at work, in social life, he is constantly contentious. And he is harsh
and overbearing, rude and crude. People cannot approach him easily; he keeps
them at arm’s length. To reason with him quietly is all but impossible. His
mind is already made up, and his opinions are not subject to change. He is
unforgiving and vindictive. When he catches someone in a fault or error, he
shows no mercy. Rather he unleashes a torrent of abuse, discourtesy, and
meanness. He values people according to the benefit they might be to him. When
he can no longer "use" them, that is, when there is no further hope
of profit from knowing them, he loses interest in them. Finally, he is
two-faced and insincere. You can never be sure of him—either of his words or
actions.

(From Believer’s Bible
Commentary, ©1990 by William MacDonald, published by Thomas Nelson Publishers,
Inc., Nashville, TN, used by permission.)