The truly wise man does not bludgeon people with the truth. He, is not harsh or brash. He is gentle. Almost every quarter we have college students who find the Lord and then determine to go back home and set their parents straight about the gospel. But we caution them rather to go back and submit to their parents' authority and to be an obedient son or daughter and to walk with the Lord and wait for God to open the door of opportunity for a gentler loving explanation of the change in their life.
People respond to gentle wisdom.
The truly wise man then is obedient to the truth and has a gentle spirit. But jealousy and selfish ambition, on the other hand, are lies told against the truth. This wisdom, James says, is earthly in its limit and scope, i.e., it sees things solely from a worldly standpoint. This is in line with what he says in chapter 2. The demons know the truth but it doesn't change them.