The Gentle Wisdom From Above

 

“Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.” James 3:13 – 18.

 

Paul writes to Titus that we are “to be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration for all men” (Titus 3:2). He tells the Philippians that their “gentle spirit should be known to all men” (Phil. 4:5). Paul teaches us in Galatians 5:23 that gentleness is contained in the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

 

When I look back over my life, there are times that it is as if I was looking at another person, rather than myself. As a member of my small group said to another man who was reflecting on his life, “Well, you aren’t the person now that you were then, and you won’t be the person tomorrow that you are today.” While, by the grace of Christ that is true of me, I nevertheless deeply regret the pain I have caused others. I don’t write this out of a need for catharsis, I try to avoid catharsis in my writing because I fear self-indulgence; I write it so that you might have some sense of my heart.

 

One of the ways I hurt people in the past was through harshness and vitriol and sarcasm. Another way I hurt others was through a lack of respect for authority – both duly constituted authority and moral and ethical authority. Therefore, I write as a man who knows the deep poison that harshness, vitriol and sarcasm inject into the soul, and how it contaminates those who come into contact with it. I also write as a man who knows the damage that disrespect for authority causes in the souls of men and women and young people.

 

For this reason, the Holy Spirit has used the above passage in James to convict me of sin many a time. Christ has used this passage to transform me a little more into His image. The Father has spoken to me of this passage as He reminds me that I am his son, and not a child of the world – system.

 

This is also the reason that it pains me deeply when I see my brothers and sisters in Christ surrender themselves to the vitriolic and disrespectful world of American politics – because I know what the poison does to our souls, I know how it distracts us from Christ, and I know how it makes us other than who we are called to be in Jesus Christ. It is as if people I know who are normally loving and caring and thoughtful, take on different personalities, different personas, when engaged in political thinking.

 

People I know who would normally be quick to respond to a person in need, no matter their skin color, no matter their political affiliation, no matter their religious background (or lack thereof) – when engaging in the political world become different people and rather than seeing “others” outside their sphere of life as simply men and women and children, objectify them and make them the objects of derision and harshness.

 

It is like the way some people drive – when people drive thoughtlessly does that mean they are like that at work, at home, with friends? Sometimes the answer is probably “yes,” but certainly at other times the answer is “no.”

 

Where does this anger and harshness come from? According to James it does not come “from above,” as much as we might want to justify it. And yet we call ourselves Christians.

 

When someone is in political office that certain Christians don’t agree with, the disrespect they show is sinful and Satanic – these professing Christian don’t understand the clear teaching of the Bible that we are to respect those in authority, nor do they understand that Satan is the father of rebellion. I know what it is to have that poison in my soul, I know what I’m writing about.

 

And what do we teach our children and grandchildren when we engage in this behavior and thinking? We are not teaching the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ.

 

As James points out in James 3:9 – 10 regarding our tongue, “With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way.”

 

And yet we justify our anger, our vitriol, our fear mongering…when our Lord Jesus says, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be call sons of God.” Is not the Cross the very emblem of peace – making? Can we not see the contradiction between our lives and our professed faith? Can’t we see the damage to our witness?

 

Every time in my life that I have deliberately sinned in an egregious fashion (if I may speak this way), it has been because I thought I was the exception to the Biblical rule, it has been because I justified myself and rationalized away my sin and iniquity.

 

As the Scriptures make clear, we conquer evil by our suffering witness for Jesus Christ. We overcome by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of our testimony of Jesus Christ, and by not loving our lives, even unto death. This is how we worship God, encourage one another, and witness to the world. This can be a hard thing. It is a hard thing for me, perhaps it is a hard thing for you; yet is it necessary that I die to myself in Christ so that I might live in Christ – and more importantly, that Christ might live in me and through me to a world that is mired in sin and death.

 

If we are indeed a kingly priesthood (1 Peter 2:4 – 10) and the dwelling place of God (Ephesians 2:19 – 22), then we ought to be seeking the good of all humanity, praying for them, loving them, serving, them, denying ourselves for them, and speaking peace to them through Jesus Christ. We are to be the children of the Great King and not of this world nor of any of the powers of this present age.

 

Are our lives transcending the chaos of the world…including the political chaos? Are we showing our generation a better Way?

 

Is the world witnessing the “gentle wisdom from above” in our lives?