Foolishness seems to be the order of the day. When you read the latest headlines, follow social media trends, or listen to the current political conversations, you might as well scribble the word folly over all of them.

But the foolishness around us is really a sad picture of the foolishness within us. In diagnosing our hearts, the Bible is clear that where sin reigns so too does folly, and its way is the path that leads to death. We need wisdom to overcome our foolishness. That is why the gospel is such good news! The great need of our hearts is supplied to us by God. Jesus, on whom the Spirit of wisdom rested, has become to us “the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:30).

What is wisdom? Often we think of wisdom as practical knowledge or good judgment. Biblically, we need to take this further. From a Christian perspective, wisdom is the knowledge of God’s will and understanding how it applies to life. This knowledge and understanding cannot be gained through the things of this world but is found in Jesus Christ, who reveals true wisdom by His Spirit and Word. That is why James calls it the wisdom from above (Jas. 3:17).

As with all good things, this wisdom is counterfeited by a wisdom that is “earthly, unspiritual, demonic.” While this kind of wisdom may appear to be wisdom, the fruit of it is jealousy, self ambition, disorder, and vile practices. If we will be guarded against being duped by this wisdom, we need to know what heavenly wisdom looks like. After all, as Jesus Himself taught: “Wisdom is justified by all her children” (Luke 7:35).

Thankfully, James describes what wisdom from above is, and the first characteristic is purity.

Purity is a word that means innocent or chaste. The word picture the Bible gives us is that of a virgin bride who has not been defiled through immorality: “For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ” (2 Cor. 11:2). That imagery is fitting, since foolishness—the opposite of wisdom—is personified in the Bible by an adulterous prostitute (see Prov. 7:1–27). In contrast to that, wisdom is chaste, clean, and pure.

Interestingly, James emphasizes that purity is the first characteristic of wisdom. This is not a random ordering; there is a purposeful structure. Commentators are generally quick to point out that purity is the thematic center of wisdom. Why? All of the following characteristics named by James—peaceable, gentle, reasonable, merciful, full of good fruits, unwavering, and without hypocrisy—depend on wisdom being pure. As wisdom descends from above and enters a world fraught with foolishness, it must remain unmixed and undefiled by that foolishness. If wisdom is tainted in the slightest by what is earthly, unspiritual, or demonic, then it becomes contaminated. To borrow the metaphor of James, just as a fig tree cannot bear olives or a salt pond yield fresh water, so a contaminated wisdom cannot be peaceable, gentle, reasonable, merciful, or full of good fruits. Purity is the preeminent mark of wisdom.

Wisdom is pure because God Himself is pure. In this context, when we speak of the purity of God it is the same as speaking of His holiness. God is essentially holy, and His holiness is often put forward as His defining characteristic. The Bible expresses this in a number of ways. Moses sang: “Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness?” (Ex. 15:11). It is the threefold ascription of the seraphim before God’s throne: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts” (Isa. 6:3). The Apostle John wrote: “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). This is why throughout the Bible He is called the Holy One, the Holy One of Jacob, and the Holy One of Israel. As Stephen Charnock said: “[He is] set forth by this part of his dignity more than by any other. This is more affixed as an epithet to his name than any other.”

It follows that because God is pure so too is His will. This is an important point we must understand. The moral will of God is not arbitrary or randomly assigned as something that is right. Rather, it is an expression of His nature. The law of God reflects the character of God. That is why the psalmist can sing “the commandment of the Lord is pure” (Ps. 19:8), and Paul can say the law is “holy and righteous and good” (Rom. 7:12). The law is holy and pure because it mirrors the character of the Lawgiver. We can then understand why Jesus—who perfectly fulfilled the will of God—is Himself called pure by the Apostle John (see 1 John 3:3).

Thus heavenly wisdom—the knowledge of God’s will and understanding how it applies to life—is pure. That wisdom shines into the darkness of our foolishness. Like a pure light, it illuminates the unblemished character of God, exposes the defilement of our hearts, brightens the gospel of free grace as it shines in the face of Jesus Christ, opens our eyes to behold marvelous things in His law, and serves as a lamp to guide our feet in the path of life.

Kyle Borg | Winchester, Kan., RPC