Verse: James 3:17-18
17 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. 18 Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.

Devotion
James has just finished saying that selfish ambition and bitter envy are the wisdom of this world, and they lead to every evil practice. With that as his backdrop he contrasts heavenly wisdom. The wisdom that he is calling all followers of Jesus to live in. Sometimes when I read a list in the Bible, I like to purposefully pause on each word. It’s easy to read them as one whole thought, but sometimes we miss the details. Each word is there for a reason!

Pure: clean, chaste, venerable. Something that is free of impurity, that is worthy of looking up to.

Peace-loving: imagine loving peace. Our words, and the way we interact with people, would betray the fact that we love peace. We would rather have peace than discord. Rather have peace than get our way. Rather have peace than win an argument? What do you think?

Considerate: fair and gentle towards others. Putting other people’s needs and desires before your own.

Submissive: easily obeying (from Thayer’s Greek Lexicon). Wait, what? that’s in the Bible? “Easily persuaded” (from Strong’s Definitions). What really?? How counter-cultural is that?? Just think about this for a moment. How could you apply this to your life?

Full of mercy: full of kindness and good will towards people who are suffering and struggling in life. Full of it! When we are full of mercy, is there room for judgmentalism? Selfishness? Greed?

Full of good fruit: overflowing with the evidence of our faith. According to James this means action and works that show our faith, not just talking about our faith! Not just attending church, but being the church!

Impartial: actually the Greek word here means without wavering. Part of the life of heavenly wisdom is doing all these things consistently!

Sincere: without hypocrisy! Not just doing it to look good and make people think well of you. But doing it from a sincere heart!

Maybe if we live with all of those evident in our lives, we will begin to live as peacemakers. I love that word. Someone who makes peace wherever they go! Is that me? Is that you? Do we bring peace with us into conversations? Into the hearts of people we interact with? Into situations we find ourselves in? Are we peacemakers, or stress makers? Fear makers? Conflict makers?

Today as you ponder these verses ask the Holy Spirit to highlight one that he wants to work into your heart and life!

Prayer
Thank you God that your life is so radically different than the life of this world. I am humbled but excited by the call of God on my life!

Author: Christian Dunn