Wisdom for Work From JamesSample

If I had today’s passage in mind at the time, I likely would have avoided one of the dumbest mistakes I’ve made in the last few years.

I was in a conflict with a brother in Christ when he sent me a lengthy email that (I'm ashamed to admit) annoyed me. I was in the midst of a particularly busy week. And rather than stop and pray and ask God for wisdom, I hit the easy button and fed the email thread to AI, asking it for advice.

The AI understood the facts of the situation perfectly, and (not surprisingly) told me I was in the right and had nothing to repent of beyond what I had already apologized for. But a check in my spirit told me that while the AI was technically correct, it didn’t understand the heart of the matter. Frankly, I didn’t care. I was in a hurry, so I drafted a curt response and sent it to my friend, which blew up our relationship for another six months.

After reflecting on the situation, I realized that I had settled for “earthly, unspiritual” knowledge rather than “wisdom that comes from heaven.” The response my AI encouraged me to write, while factually accurate, was the opposite of “peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.” And my friend and I both paid the price.

You and I are living at a time of unprecedented knowledge that makes the “Information Age” of the 20th Century look like the Stone Age. But knowledge and wisdom are not the same thing. Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put a tomato in a fruit salad. Or, to quote the great preacher Charles Spurgeon, “Wisdom is the right use of knowledge.”

AI tools, courses, books, and consultants can give us very valuable knowledge for our work. But we are fools when we pursue knowledge without wisdom. And true wisdom, as James says, is from God (see James 1:5).

So here’s my charge to you this morning: In whatever challenge you’re facing at work today, seek knowledge, yes. But seek wisdom from God far more aggressively. And be sure to filter all knowledge and wisdom through the lens of what is “pure…peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.” You’ll be glorifying God as you do.