Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. – James 3:13

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 13, 2014): James 3

Chaerephon, a Greek best known for being a close friend of Socrates, once asked his friend if he was the wisest man in the world. Socrates denied the assertion of his friend and apparently spent some time trying to prove the reverse. So Chaerephon decided to take the question to a higher power and ask it to the Oracle of Delphi, a title given to any priestess who ministered in the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. It was believed that the Oracle of Delphi spoke with the wisdom of the God Apollo, and the wise must recognize the wise. So Chaerephon asked the Oracle the question – Is there anyone who is wiser than Socrates? The answer of the Oracle was that that there was no one who was wiser than Socrates of those who walk among men. When Chaerephon took the news of the Oracle to his friend Socrates, Socrates is rumored to have responded once again to the assertion of his friend by saying that “the only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” If Socrates was wise, then that wisdom was not found in the things that he knew, but rather in the secure knowledge of what he did not know. The quote is a one of a number of seemingly paradoxical teachings of Socrates. How can you be wise if you know nothing?

Yet James would seem to agree with the Greek Philosopher. According to James, part of the essential character of wisdom is humility. No one who goes out and seeks to prove that he is wise, can ever be considered to be truly wise. Any contentiousness or arrogance, or any tendency to consider yourself as a person of high quality, is an infallible sign that you continue to be lacking of an essential part of what it means to be wise. It might be that true wisdom can only be exhibited by people who do not realize that they are indeed wise.

But wisdom is also apparently a deed. In chasing after the wisdom of the Oracle of Delphi, Chaerephon seemed to believe that wisdom was a state of knowing. He found wisdom in the teachings of his friend Socrates, and in the words spoken by the Oracle, but James would seem to understand that wisdom also has something to do with the actions that we take. Whenever we chase after justice for others, whenever we are caring for the rights of the poor, and whenever we carry the concerns of the powerless, then we are about the activity of wisdom.

In a world where political wisdom seems to concentrate on the favors we can do for the powerful, and which lacks any kind of humility as politicians insist on proving that they are wise, maybe we need to listen a little more to the protestations of Socrates – and the assertions of James.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: James 4 & 5