SRT Repost: The Wisdom from Above
Hey friend! I’m inviting you to detour during your next quiet time and read James 3 with me! I wrote this devotional as part of He Reads Truth and She Reads Truth’s James reading plan, and you can find it here or below. I recommend you read James 3:13-18 before diving in, and I pray you feel encouraged that you have access to the wisdom from above!
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When I was younger, I saw the world as extremely black and white. There was right and there was wrong. Naturally, I always wanted to be on the right side of things, so when I acted wrongly, it absolutely crushed me. I’d blame my wrongdoing on anyone else, especially my poor little sister, so I could feel right again. I became a defensive child, pleading my innocence behind time-out’s closed door until the bitter end, even if I had no leg to stand on.
As I grew up though, I realized the world can also look pretty gray. Sometimes, no matter how carefully we choose our words, we don’t know if we said the right thing. Sometimes policies limit our ability to live by faith the way we imagined we would in our secular workplaces. Sometimes kids raised in the church choose to walk away. And innumerable complicated, global problems exist, and they don’t have clear answers.
In our gray world, James 3 reminds me of my younger self and the black and white truths that remain: good versus evil, peace versus disorder, and as James showed us today, the wisdom from above versus the earthly wisdom.
The wisdom from above produces gentleness, mercy, steadfastness, and humility. This wisdom becomes evident in our actions and behaviors as we embody the character of Jesus. It teaches us to “keep in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25) and cultivate peace in our relationships with one another, little sisters included. Peace was and is countercultural, in both James’s day and our own.
Because on the other hand, worldly wisdom is selfish and envious, and James characterized it as “earthly, unspiritual, demonic” (James 3:15). This wisdom produces disorder in our cultures and our minds.
These wisdoms are black and white. They remind us that although our world may appear gray on the surface, there is a spiritual battle between our loving God and evil, spiritual forces. As such, the wisdom from above and the wisdom from the earth oppose each other in every possible way. So we must choose between the two. We must decide which wisdom we will depend on.
And as we choose, we don’t have to wonder if we’re making the right choice. James clarifies which wisdom is good and which is evil. We only need to “belong to Christ Jesus” to put our earthly wisdom to death and hunger for true wisdom (Galatians 5:24).
Today, as brothers and sisters in Christ, let’s choose to depend on our Savior and His wisdom—wisdom that spreads peace instead of disorder and teaches us to sow righteousness in our fallen world.
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If I can be praying for any relationship or situation in particular as you seek Jesus’ wisdom, I would be honored to do so. Leave a comment below or click the let’s connect button at the top right corner of this page!
