James 3:13 “Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.”
To be “wise” is to be able to sort through distress and confusion and strife and make good decisions and behave properly. To be “endued with knowledge” is to have sufficient facts with which to make good decisions, even in the very midst of distress and strife and confusion. “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego” were “wise” and “endued with knowledge”; they were falsely accused, convicted, and condemned to die in the fiery furnace; yet, they had “knowledge”, they knew their God and what He was “able” to do! They knew that, one way or the other, “God” was going to “deliver” them; for they declared, “If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.” (Daniel 3:17). Their answer to the “king” reflects faith in “God” and peace and joy in whatever God’s will is. By their wisdom and “endued … knowledge”, concerning the truths of “God”, even if it was not God’s will to “delivered” them from death, they knew that they would certainly be “delivered” from the power of the “king” into the blessed presence of “God”. With their God-given wisdom and “endued … knowledge” they sorted through their present distress and strife and confusion and confidently told the “king”, “we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.” (Daniel 3:17-18). Like these men of faith, even in the midst of our present distress and strife and confusion, let us peacefully and calmly avoid the ungodly “bitter envying and strife” (James 3:14) that presently plagues our Country, and look to our Lord and “shew out of a good conversation” our “works” (the things we do and say) “with meekness of wisdom”.