Wisdom Without Finding Fault — James 1:5
“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” That is one of those verses that has been quoted on coffee cups, graduation cards, counseling sessions, and Sunday school posters until many people have almost forgotten where it sits. It is not floating loose in the air. It is not a generic religious proverb from a devotional calendar. It is planted in the first chapter of James, and James tells you exactly who he is writing to before he ever tells you anything about wisdom. “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.” That is Israel. That is not the Body of Christ. That is not a Gentile church in Ephesus or Corinth. That is not a Pauline epistle written to saints seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. It is a Jewish epistle, written to the twelve tribes, loaded with kingdom language, prophetic pressure, endurance, testing, temptation, works, judgment, the coming of the Lord, and practical righteousness under trial.
Now that does not mean a Christian in the Church Age cannot learn from James 1:5. Only a Bible butcher would say that. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable.” The book of James is inspired Scripture, and every Bible believer can profit from it. The problem begins when a man refuses to rightly divide it and starts dragging tribulation Jewish doctrine across Paul’s gospel like a muddy boot across a clean floor. James does not teach a lost sinner in the Church Age how to be justified by grace through faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. Paul does that plainly in Romans, Galatians, Ephesians, and Corinthians. James deals with believers under pressure, especially Jewish believers whose faith is being tried in a setting that reaches forward to the time of Jacob’s trouble, when profession will be tested by endurance, obedience, separation from the world, and refusal to bow to the beast’s system.
James 1:5 is therefore a beautiful verse with two great edges on it. Practically, it comforts every believer now who lacks wisdom and needs God’s direction. Doctrinally, it speaks with special force to scattered Israel under pressure, and prophetically it points toward the Jewish remnant in the Tribulation needing divine wisdom when the world is collapsing, religion is deceiving, the beast is rising, riches are corrupting, false brethren are betraying, and the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. God does not tell them, “Figure it out yourself.” He does not say, “You should have known better, so I am done with you.” He says, “Ask.” What a word. Ask of God. Not the rabbi. Not Rome. Not tradition. Not the scholars who correct the Bible while pretending to explain it. Not the world system. Not the rich oppressor. Not the double minded crowd. Ask of God, and the God who gives wisdom gives it liberally and upbraideth not.
Chapter One — The Verse Begins With a Lack, Not a Boast
James says, “If any of you lack wisdom.” That is a strange beginning for religious men because religion loves to pretend it lacks nothing. Laodicea says, “I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing,” and the Lord says she is “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” The first doorway to wisdom is admitting lack. Not lack of intelligence, not lack of religious vocabulary, not lack of degrees, not lack of emotional intensity, but lack of wisdom. A man can have a head full of facts and still not know what to do. A preacher can have commentaries stacked to the ceiling and still not have spiritual sense enough to get out of the rain. A church can have programs, screens, degrees, committees, consultants, and a doctrinal statement copied from somebody else’s website, and still lack wisdom. James does not say, “If any of you lack information.” He says wisdom. Wisdom is God-given