God is good.
We say it all the time, but that sentence means so much more than it may seem to on the service. It does not just mean God does a lot of good things. It means God himself is the source of all good things. Anything that is good came from God in the first place, and anything that is not good did not come from God. If God is good, then everything that comes from God has good results. For example, when we act according to the wisdom that God teaches us, there is peace and righteousness and love.
On the other hand, if everything good has its source in God, then anything that does not come from God will have disastrous effects. When we try to act according to some other idea of wisdom, one that the sinful world taught us, evil only multiplies, and even our own situations get worse.
As Proverbs 14:12 says, “there is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.” We are often drawn to a false kind of wisdom. Avenge yourself against people that offend you! Pursue success even if you have to put others down! Do whatever makes you happy in the moment! Reject authority! Follow your heart! These are key mottos in the false wisdom that the devil teaches us in order to deceive us. This “wisdom” is not from God, and it works toward our destruction.
But when we walk according to God’s ways, there is life everlasting for us, full of all the good things of God. This is what James teaches us in his epistle: learn what the true wisdom of God looks like, and become wise! Treat all with fair justice! Forgive those who wrong you and show them love! Make peace with everyone around you! Love God and love his people with no selfish motives, and obey the Lord’s commandments for righteousness! This is a kind of wisdom that does not come naturally to people living in a sinful world. But it is true wisdom, and has been true since an eternity before the world existed.
God is good. Let us walk according to his goodness.
