Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge? — Who is wise, i.e., in the wisdom of God, and learned in that of man? The latter state is of knowledge natural or acquired, the former is Sophia, the highest heavenly wisdom, “the breath of the power of God — the brightness of the everlasting light — more beautiful than the sun, and above all the order of the stars” (Wis. 7:25-29). Just as the devils hold with man the lower kinds of faith, that is belief merely (James 2:19), so do they share in his earthly knowledge. The self-same term as that describing it above is used by the evil spirit who answered the presumptuous sons of Sceva, “Paul I know,” while a different one altogether referred to the Lord Jesus (Acts 19:15).
“Where shall Wisdom be found,
And where is the place of Understanding?”
was the question of Job (Job 28:12). And the LXX, version marks the parallelism in the same Greek words as those used by St. James to distinguish between the two ideas.
Let him shew out of a good conversation — i.e., right conduct. “Conversation” has slipped from its original meaning, which exactly represented the Greek, and is often misapprehended by the English reader. Literally, “turning oneself about,” it changed to “walking to and fro,” and the talking while engaged in these peripatetics, and then to its limited modern use. There is to be general good conduct, and particular proofs of it in kindly works in meekness of wisdom; noble acts of a holy habit.