<p>3:13 <i>Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show his works in his good life, in meekness of wisdom</i>- A &quot;wise man&quot; is a synonym for a prophet: &quot;I send unto you prophets, and wise men&quot; (Mt. 23:34), the implication being that these brethren thought that they were prophets (i.e. having the Spirit gift of prophecy) and endued with Heavenly knowledge. This follows on nicely from the albeit indirect accusation in the previous verse (through the Mt. 7 allusion) that they were false prophets. Verse 14 lends support to this: &quot;If you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the Truth&quot;. &quot;Thy word is Truth&quot; (Jn. 17:17), and therefore if they had bitterness in their hearts they were blaspheming against the word which they were inspired to speak. The elders of the early ecclesias (the &quot;presbytery&quot; of 1 Tim. 4:14) probably had the Spirit gifts, especially that of prophecy- i.e. 'forth-telling' inspired words of God to the ecclesia. Our Lord said that many who had the gifts of the Spirit would be condemned at judgment day (Mt. 7:22)- a prophecy hard to apply to anyone other than the Jewish believers and elders of the first century.</p><p>Thus it is possible that James is telling these brethren to validate their spiritual position by humbly showing the word at work in their hearts by their way of life (&quot;a good conversation&quot;), rather than thinking that just because they had the gifts this was proof that they were righteous before God. In this case the &quot;blessing&quot; of God (v.9) which they thought justified all their other words would have been blessing or praying to God using the spirit gifts as described in 1 Cor. 14:16 and Jude 20. The fact their mouths uttered the &quot;sweet&quot; water of the inspired word along with their own brash speaking was therefore especially serious. Because they possessed the gift of prophecy they thought it unnecessary to make the personal effort of applying the word in their hearts to control their thoughts and subsequent words. Examples abound in Hebrews, Corinthians and the Lord's letters in Revelation of those possessing the gifts being unacceptable to God, hence His withdrawal of them. There are similarities between this and our possession of the word of Truth. A true response to the word must always produce humility- any Bible study that does not result in this in some way is pointless.<br />A comparison of verses 13 and 14 shows that &quot;a good conversation&quot; is the same as not having &quot;bitter envying and strife in your hearts&quot;. &quot;Conversation&quot; therefore does not simply mean 'way of life' but rather the thinking that is behind that life. &quot;The former conversation&quot; is &quot;the old man...the deceitful lusts&quot; and is replaced by being &quot;renewed in the spirit of your mind&quot; (Eph. 4:22,23), showing that &quot;conversation&quot; applies to the state of mind. It is because of this that Timothy's &quot;Conversation&quot; was to be comprised of mental attributes like &quot;charity... faith... purity&quot; (of mind), 1 Tim. 4:12.</p><p>As was argued in Chapter 2, &quot;works&quot; are 'shown out' of the state of the mind, and cannot be separated from it. The context being of the tongue, the &quot;works&quot; referred to are probably words, which epitomize all a man's spiritual &quot;works&quot;. Words should therefore be humble (&quot;with meekness of wisdom&quot;), and based on a heart saturated by the word, and this will indicate whether a man is a true prophet. By contrast, proudly speaking inspired words to publicly show off the gift of prophecy, and also gushing out the words of an unregenerated heart, were equally unacceptable. Such a person was not a true prophet in God's sight.</p><p>The idea of &quot;showing out&quot; goes back to 2:18, where James asks this class of believers to show him how it was possible to have faith without works. There he is arguing that they are indivisible, and here in 3:13 he is effectively saying the same- that the works or words are an inevitable reflection of the heart, &quot;the faith&quot;, or &quot;conversation&quot;.</p>