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James 3:13-18
Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.
New International Version (NIV)
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True or false: sometimes Christians have to use the world’s methods to accomplish God’s purposes. What do you think? Is it true that to deal with mean people we just need to learn to be more mean? Fight fire with fire? Christian principles look good on paper, but pragmatically, do they work?
James says that salt and fresh water don’t flow from the same spring. How could we praise our Lord and Father and then curse the human beings who are made in his likeness? Worldly wisdom may look like hitting somebody hard so that they can’t hit back. Come one up on them before they come one up on you. I have heard these things all my life. If we all practice “eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth,” pretty soon we will all be blind and toothless.
James’s big brother Jesus pointed to a different wisdom. James explains that God’s wisdom is characterized by humility. We do not envy those who do well using godless means. For Christians the end does not justify the means. Machiavelli’s ways are not Jesus’s ways. Accomplishing God’s work using godless methods ultimately implodes.
There is a better way: God’s wisdom is pure, peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. But will it work? Yes! It produces a harvest of righteousness for those peacemakers who sow in peace. Good friends of mine have answered God’s call to be peace-makers at home and abroad. The seeds they are planting are coming to life and changing hearts on multiple continents.
Someone will surely call us idealistic. That is not the way the world works. I know. But it is the way that God works. And he will rule the world in peace. G. K. Chesterton was right when he said, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried.” Will it really work? Let’s try it and see.
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Pray with me:
Prince of Peace, who came to the world to be our peace, we confess we have sometimes squandered your gift. Frustrated and impatient, we quickly abandon the peace-loving, peace-making wisdom from above. Lord, give us the grace to plant a seed of peace today in some relationship with someone whom we foolishly thought an enemy. Water it with your love and grace. Let it bear the fruit of righteousness. Set us straight, Lord, so that we may join you in your good work in your world. In Jesus’ name we pray and live. Amen.
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Join us in memorizing the Word. Scripture for this week:
Matthew 5:17-18
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.
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| Our 2020 Every Day with Jesus readings will follow the Foundations New Testament reading plan. Copies of the reading plan are available at Tallowood Baptist Church, or download your copy at REPLICATE.ORG
We would love for you to join us as we read the New Testament through this year, five chapters a week. In addition I will continue my long-standing practice of reading one Psalm a day through the year. Use Robby Gallaty’s H. E. A. R. plan to study each chapter (also found at REPLICATE.ORG). Highlight verses which speak to you, explain what they mean in your own words in a journal, apply them to your own life, then respond by doing what God tells you to do.
Joyfully,
Duane
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