Tool Beta
Is It Actually in the Bible?
Phrases people quote as Scripture. The real verse, or the honest answer that there is not one.
"Earthly, sensual, devilish" (James 3:15) sounds like James is condemning a kind of wisdom that's sexually indulgent.
'Sensual' in James 3:15 means driven by the natural, unregenerate mind, not sexually charged.
James 3:15, in every translation this tool compares.
James contrasts wisdom "from above" with a counterfeit wisdom that is "earthly, sensual, devilish." The Greek word behind "sensual" is psychikos, from psyche ("soul" or "natural life"): it describes something that belongs purely to unaided human nature and instinct, with no input from God's Spirit. Paul uses the same word in 1 Corinthians 2:14 for "the natural man" who can't receive spiritual truth.
Modern English narrowed "sensual" almost entirely to sexual appetite. That's a real but much smaller slice of what James means: he's describing any wisdom that never rises above merely human, self-interested reasoning, not specifically lust.
