Brilliant and Dumb
Throughout my life I've come in contact with quite a few "brilliant" people. Some, young, some middle-aged, and some older people. I've noticed a phenomena with some of these folks - often times the smarter they are, the more infantile they are in their social skills. I've also noticed that many people who are good at reading, math, or science have absolutely no common sense whatsoever. So it doesn't surprise me when I read about the two kinds of wisdom that James refers to in these verses. It would appear that the types of wisdom, i.e., earthly wisdom, represented by envy and selfish ambition, and spiritual wisdom, represented by good deeds and humility, are mutually exclusive. It's impossible to act in humility if you are driven by selfish ambition. It's not a true good deed if the motivation in is envy. James makes it abundantly clear as to the character and quality of both spiritual and earthly wisdom. Both types of wisdom are can be known by the type of results that are produced. Earthly wisdom's product is disorder; spiritual wisdom's product is good fruit.
