Who Is Wise Among You?

Introduction

Begin reading in James chapter three, James chapter three in verse one. I’m gonna read in verse one through chapter four, verse eleven, a rather lengthy reading this morning, but I want to make sure we set the stage and have a good context for what I want to do, kind of in this middle section in chapter three, thirteen through eighteen. So begin reading in James chapter three in verse one. He says, Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. For we all stumble in many ways, and if any one does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well.

Look at the ships also, though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire. And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird of reptile and sea creature can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind. But no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.

From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth for the same opening, both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water. Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct, let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exists, there will be disorder in every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere, and a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people. Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the scripture says, He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us, but he gives more grace. Therefore it says, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

Submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double minded, be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. It seems fitting in the time we’re in now, as we’re heading into some political issues in our future and our country, to think about this idea, at least it came to my mind, about what is wisdom. You know, what is wisdom look like? And am I wise in the things that I’m doing and the ways that I’m acting, particularly in heated moments or times of stress, maybe in my own life or in this situation, as I just brought up as a nation.

We’re heading toward what is probably a pretty stressful time, particularly between people as they argue and quarrel, sometimes in fine ways and sometimes in ways that are not so good, about issues that relate to our future as a nation. But also, I think about it in terms of God’s people and the way that we interact, and that’s a lot of what James is working on here in this letter. The letter’s a pretty broad letter. It’s not written to a specific congregation, it’s written to those who are dispersed abroad. I think this is to a kind of a general group of people who follow God. And he’s concerned about the way that they’re treating each other, or the potential of how they might treat each other.

The big picture is that there are external forces that are creating problems for them. And that is undeniable. And he does touch on that and he does speak about that, those who oppress them, those who blaspheme the name of God, and those sorts of things. But in the middle of all of that, what he’s actually dealing with primarily in the letter is the internal difficulties, the way they treat each other, the way they interact with each other, the attitudes they have about one another. And so that’s why we have these different sections. For example, some of the ones that we just read about not many should be teachers, and we might think that the focus here is going to be on the truth and how you teach the truth, but actually, it’s interesting that the point he makes toward the end of this section is about the tongue and the way it’s used, and he says there’s hypocrisy.

With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. Well, certainly truth is important, and there’s some things James says in this letter about truth. But it’s interesting to me that the application he makes in this section about those who should not be teachers is the way that they poorly use their tongue sometimes, and how they’ll praise God and talk about how great God is, but then behind the scenes, they are cursing and condemning others who are made in God’s image. They are dragging other people through the dirt and creating problems and division, which is something that he goes on to talk about in the section we’re going to focus on more precisely this morning.

Even in the section that precedes this, when he’s talking about not showing partiality, right? He connects this to what is the most quoted text from the Old Testament in the New in Leviticus 19, you shall love your neighbor as yourself in verse 8 of chapter 2. And he connects this to the idea of showing partiality and not keeping the whole law. You know, you might keep one part of it, but you don’t keep the other. And then this is his conclusion. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. And then there’s this section that I think most of us are probably really familiar with, this discussion about faith and works. You know, that faith without works is dead.

But notice the illustration he uses at the beginning of this. If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, Go in peace, be warmed and filled, without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also, faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. The point here is about how we treat somebody. And neglecting the needs that someone has, meanwhile, making great statements, saying the right things, but then not delivering on what is said. And so James uses that as an example of what it looks like when faith is working without works. Right? There’s an ascent, there’s an idea, but there’s nothing connected to it, and so it’s dead, it’s empty.

And the illustration he uses there is the idea of how someone is treated. At the end of chapter one, pretty strong statement here. If anyone thinks his he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. Two of the things mentioned there relate to how people are treated. You know, if we think our religion is actually worth something, that’s going to translate in how I treat the people around me. And to a large degree, that’s a lot of what James is doing here in verses 13 through 18, which is where we’re going to focus our time, but then connected to that just after is he starts this question where are your where’s your quarrels coming from?

Where is the fighting coming from? It’s from your passions, it’s from the way you treat each other. It’s by not showing grace, the kind of grace that God shows you. And then he just concludes here where I ended do not speak evil against another. And so what I want us to see, and where we’re gonna head this morning in this idea of who is wise, who what is this look like? The people who are wise among us, how do they act? Well, James answers this question right here in the middle of this section, chapter three through four, and we could have read on, and he continues to talk about some of this, and showing what true wisdom looks like, and I think by implication, what wisdom does not look like.

And he asked the question well, who is wise and understanding among you? I don’t know the exact problems that are being dealt with in this letter. All the specific things they’re struggling with. Maybe it is that James is just worried about some of the things that could happen. He does kind of continually mention them grumbling against one another. It comes back up again in chapter 5 and verse 9, in the sense of, you know, be patient, establish your hearts, realize there’s threats on the outside, so let’s not have problems internally. So some of this seems a little bit just like warning. You know, given everything that we’re facing, we should be working together and not against each other. Right? This seems to be the idea of what James is getting at here.

But in this section in chapter three at the end, I find some of what’s said here to be quite interesting about what wisdom looks like. It may not be the sorts of things exactly or wholly that we would think would become what is wise. Right? And there may be elements of this that we would not, if I was making a list, I’m not sure I would have made the same list that James made here or made it in quite the same way. There’s probably certain things I would have been more focused on, maybe because of my background and the things I learned as I grew up, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but I just amazing that James focuses where he does, and that should be a lesson to me and I think to all of us about what he sees to be the emphasis on wisdom in this text.

1. There Is No Such Thing as Earthly Wisdom

Where I want to begin is I think an oversight that I made for many years on this text. so often I had this idea that this is like earthly wisdom versus heavenly wisdom. And so I want to just start out by making this realization, if you haven’t thought about it before, that when we’re asking who is wise, that there is no such thing as earthly wisdom. Now we use that kind of a in a colloquial sort of way to explain things that sort of make sense in life, maybe sort of seem to get you ahead in the business world or whatever. But the way James presents it here is there’s either wisdom from above or foolishness. Those are the options. This is not wisdom from above and wisdom from beneath.

2. What Wisdom Is Not

Wisdom from above or wisdom on earth. That’s not what the text actually says. And the earthly thinking and earthly philosophy is never, ever wise. It’s foolish. Let’s talk about for a minute what wisdom is not. It is not the one who always has an answer. Or is the most confident.

And their confidence could be misplaced. It’s not the one who is the smartest, because they could be arrogant. It’s not the one who sounds the best or speaks in the best way, or is the most convincing or persuasive. They may be full of selfish ambition. It’s not the one who seems to have it all together, never has any problems, always puts on a good face. No, they might be fake and not at all be genuine. It’s not the one who’s zealous. Zealous to find flaws and imperfections in someone else or a group. This is an interesting twist. This person actually might just be jealous. And in the original language, it’s the same word, zealos. The same word zealos is sometimes translated zeal, sometimes it’s translated jealous.

And so what seems to be zeal sometimes, and from a human perspective, we might even think is wise in the way someone’s behaving, actually, could just be founded through jealousy and bitterness. And so, in and of itself, even zeal doesn’t necessarily mean someone is wise. Someone who’s zealously speaks against a group, but really this comes from some kind of bitterness. And we probably all have seen this to some degree. Maybe they’ve had some bad experience at a church or some other sort of organization. And so they’ve took it upon themselves to point out all the problems and all the errors that they see, and they’re very zealous about it. And to some that might seem to be wise, but just being zealous does not mean you’re wise.

Or maybe it’s a zealous attack against a person, but really they’re just jealous. They’re envious. It may come across as bold, but that doesn’t mean it’s wise. So knowing facts, being confident, being intelligent, having a good life, or at least putting on a front of life being good, being zealous, those can all be really good things. Certainly God wants us to be blessed in this life, and there’s things that he talks about even in wisdom literature that says, if you live this way, then good things will happen, kind of on a general scale. So that’s not bad. But these items in and of themselves do not summate what it is to be wise. And James seems to be going out of his way at numerous times within this letter to make this point, and then kind of the center point of that here is in James 3, 13 through 18.

3. Good Conduct Mixed With Meekness

So, what is the foundation of wisdom? I think he makes this pretty clear here in the very beginning. What really matters in terms of what James is talking about here is good conduct that is mixed with meekness. That actually says quite a bit. Now, we’re about to go through some of the ways that he describes this to go in a little bit more detail. But this idea, this kind of overview that he gives toward the beginning, who is wise and understanding among you by his good conduct, let him show his works and the meekness of wisdom. That’s a great overview of what this actually is. You combine good behavior or good conduct with humility, with meekness.

It says the quality of not being overly impressed by a sense of one’s self-importance. It’s pretty good. Maybe this helps us understand some of what I was saying earlier about having all the right answers, right? Or being zealous about some cause or something, and yet maybe in the midst of all of that, we’re a little bit out of perspective about our own importance and how vital we are. I tell you what, preachers struggle with this probably the most.

Cause were so necessary.

If I wasn’t here this morning, one of you would have stepped up and preached. It doesn’t mean I don’t think I’m valuable at all. I certainly do. Hope you think I’m valuable. But it is easy for people in positions of leadership to begin to think they’re a little bit more important than they actually are. And that’s where there is the problem with the lacking of meekness and humility. And so it’s not just the good conduct, that’s great. I mean, saying the right things, doing the right things, living the right way, at least in front of other people. I mean, those things are really good, and hopefully we’re living the right way even when no one’s looking. All of that is really good, but it’s also important to tie that in with the idea of humility or meekness or not getting caught up too much in our own self-importance.

Those work together in a really important way, as James is presenting it here. That it’s not just I know the rules or I know the Bible or I know the information or the details, and I can say that sort of stuff, that’s good. We want to be able to do that. It’s not just that, though, it’s also living in a meek and humble way. Doing the good works that we do not for our own benefit, not so others look at us and see how great we are, or any of those sorts of things, which is there’s irony in all that anyway, but it is doing our good works or demonstrating our good behavior and our wisdom by doing this with the meekness of wisdom, is what James says.

4. First Pure, Then Peaceable

Those who are wise then have some pretty specific characteristics that James wants to spend a little time mentioning here in this text. And I think surrounding all of this, as I pointed out, and we can’t go in depth on, but surrounding all of this, and in the various sections in the book of James, he talks about a lot of these things, about what this looks like. What is the persona of the one who is wise? What is a wise person look like? Well, we’ve already said it’s not just knowledge or understanding. In fact, Paul himself makes this point that knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies, kind of in this context of dealing with people who had come out of paganism and were dealing with maybe some Jewish influence.

And you can kind of get a big head and think, well, I know so much, these people don’t know as much. And so this can lead to arrogance or haughtiness. And Paul’s warning about that in 1 Corinthians chapter 8. So it’s something more than just the knowledge or the information, it’s also the character, the behavior, as James is telling us here. And so the essentials of wisdom are this. He says, first, that you’re pure, that you’re innocent. He’s already mentioned this in chapter one. Keeping yourself unstained from the world is a similar idea. Keep yourself pure, Paul says in 1 Timothy 5, verse 22. These are all the same uses of this word. It’s not the idea of kind of ceremonial cleanness. That’s a different term that’s used in the Old Testament in the Septuagint version.

Catharos, you may be familiar with that term, but it’s more of a moral purity. That’s what this term is about. Innocence in this case, in self seeking or selfish ambition, or jealousy, or bitterness, that these are not the reasons why we’re acting. But we’re actually acting out of proper motivation. For the glory of God, for the growth of his kingdom, for the goodness of others. And so purity is the first part of this. This is kind of interesting. I think sometimes in our world, we think that wisdom, or at least we kind of sort of give some credibility to this idea that to be wise, then you’ve had to go through some things. You know, like maybe you made some bad decisions and you lived a life that wasn’t so good.

And so from that and coming out of that, you’ve learned and you’ve become wise. Well, certainly that can happen. I mean, we can learn some things from the mistakes that we make, but it’s interesting here. James says, first be innocent if you want to be wise. First, be pure. It doesn’t come, being wise doesn’t come from some experience in the world that you need to have. You know, sowing your wild oats or being rebellious. You don’t need that to become wise, because the first step of wisdom is purity, innocence. Now, God being who God is, he is a redeemer, he is a restorer. Many of us have done these types of things. We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Many of us have made decisions that were against the will of God, and we’ve decided to come back from that, and in his power, he has restored us according to his will.

But it is not necessary for wisdom to live some sort of rebellious life to gain insights about the world and what it’s really like, so then we can know that’s that’s earthly thinking. That’s earthly philosophy. What James says is that being innocent, being pure, is the first step. It’s the primary thing for wisdom. And then peaceable. The only other time this word’s used in the New Testament is in Hebrews chapter 12 in verse 11, which is a context that has the idea of discipline. You know, being disciplined by our fathers, learning some control or self-control, and just the reality that’s difficult, right? It’s painful at the moment. In the moment, none of us are saying, we’re so great that I just got punished or disciplined by my parent.

We don’t enjoy that in the moment. But the reality is at the end of that is the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Good things are born out of discipline or doing things that are difficult or hard, and working through that process. And it’s a similar type concept where we’re headed here in James 3, 13, and following. That this kind of it ends up, the conclusion here, which we’ll come back to later, is a harvest of righteousness. And it comes from sowing in peace, being peaceable. He even goes as far as say this is by those who make peace. These are peacemakers. This is the phrase Jesus uses in the Sermon on the Mount. This is not about being a peacekeeper, trying to keep everybody happy. That’s weak.

5. Gentle, Open to Reason, Full of Mercy, Sincere

Being a peacekeeper is weak. You’re just trying to compromise and make sure everybody feels okay. No, a peacemaker does what needs to be done to bring harmony and unity, even if it’s difficult. And that’s what brings the rewards. It reaps the good reward of righteousness in the end. Not trying to sidestep everything and keep everybody happy. That’s not what being peaceable is. And then he says, gentle. So obviously, we have a little list going here of all the things that are involved in what it is to be wise. Gentle is just the idea of being kind, not demanding. We would probably use the word bullying, right? This is not someone who goes around trying to bully everybody to get their way. That’s not wisdom. Right? Arguing in a way that’s kind of like you’re in attack mode.

It’s the sort of thing we see quite often around us, even surrounding events of the day and the political things we deal with. There’s a lot of sort of bullying and that sort of thing. People who aren’t really being gentle. As God’s people, I want us to understand that being wise means we’re not doing that kind of stuff. We’re not out trying to bully people and force them into our way of thinking. But we are the kind of people who are gentle and not just gentle, but also open to reason.

And certainly being gullible is not good. But the concept here, the concept of being easily persuaded or open to reason, is maybe better understood by what the opposite of that would be. We would probably call the opposite of that, opinionated, or unwilling to yield, or unwilling to listen to another perspective. Have you ever been in a discussion with somebody like that?

That you know, no matter what you say, and no matter what evidence you provide, they’re not gonna listen. That’s what this is saying you shouldn’t be. Should be open to reason. Being willing to discuss. And then full of mercy. Not only are you willing to have dialogue and discussion, being open to talk about things, and even being willing to change thinking, right? Like if I come into a conversation and I come into that conversation and realizing I don’t care what that person’s gonna say, I’m not changing my mind, that is not wise. If I’ve already decided what I think and how I feel about something, that is not what wisdom is. I need to be open to reason, and also I need to be a person who’s full of grace, full of mercy.

The word there is alias, which means mercy, but Paul regularly uses that term from the Septuagint and makes it chorus in the New Testament. So they’re very closely related. The idea of mercy and grace kind of go hand in hand. That we are compassionate, that we want what’s best for the other person, even if we disagree with them, even if we’re a little bit at odds with each other and we’re not on the same page, we actually want what’s best. We’re open to reason, we’re willing to talk and have dialogue. We’re not gonna be so opinionated that we won’t listen to anything that they say, or we’re already deciding what we’re gonna say while they’re talking. Done that. Pretty easy to do, isn’t it? You kind of you already know where you want to go, and what that person’s saying isn’t all that important to where you want to go.

It’s bad listening. It’s not being open to reason.

And sometimes in those scenarios, we’ve already decided what that person is and who they are. That they’re not worthy of compassion or mercy or being listened to. That they’re already wrong and they can’t say anything that would make them right. And I want myself and I want everyone else to see that James says that is foolish.

And so when he asks the question, who is wise among you, it’s not people who act like that. It’s not people who are unwilling. I think specifically here, James is dealing with brethren, not willing to listen to their brothers and sisters in Christ. Aren’t willing to show mercy or compassion to them. Maybe even are out to get them or prove that they’re right. James is saying, hey, we have enough to worry about. We have enough problems to deal with. God’s people need to come together and work together and be harmonious. They need to stand together and fight the external threats as a unified force. Under the headship and leadership of Jesus Christ, submitting themselves to God’s people, we need to do if we want to be wise and resisting the devil.

He says, full of mercy and good fruits. So there’s kind of the demonstration of good behavior through meekness. That we’re seeing the fruit of that. Jesus says, you will know them by their fruits. One of the interesting things about us as humans is we’re pretty good at observation, even without trying. I remember one of the things that Brother Bowman told me, this is just, you know, as a preacher and doing your work and you’re preaching in the pulpit, is that people sometimes will have a problem with what you say. And they’ll come to you and they’ll tell you what they think the problem is. And you may decide they’re wrong about that they were incorrect, but ultimately it doesn’t matter. Because there was something about what you did and said they didn’t like.

And they may not know the right way to say it, but what he told me was often what that actually is pride and arrogance. That we sense that so well. Now that applies other places, not just what happens in the pulpit or that sort of thing. But I think you get the idea. If someone is coming across arrogantly or with pride, we sense that. We have we’re pretty attuned. Our radar is up. And we realize this person is saying these kinds of things, right? They’re praising God, they’re blessing God with their mouth, but yet I know over here they’re cursing someone made in his image. They’re looking down with disdain on other people. And sometimes even just the way we talk or the things that we say can reveal that about us, the lack of humility or the lack of meekness.

And so by your fruits, you will be known. We may be able to deceive people for a time. But in the end, many people will figure it out if that’s what we’re doing. So wisdom does not do that sort of thing. Those who are wise, they are, it says in my text, sincere, but the idea there is genuine. They are who they are. They’re not trying to hide who they are or make things look better than they really are. And I’m not saying here we need to go around and tell everybody all the problems that we have. That’s not really the idea, but it is being honest, right? Not pretending that I’ve never made mistakes or never done anything wrong or that I’m above somebody else or that sort of thing.

No. We all are in the same situation. This is the whole point Paul makes in the first part of Romans. It doesn’t matter if you’re Jew or you’re Gentile, if you’re outside of Christ, which at one point we all have been, we’re destined outside of Christ to condemnation. And we desperately need him. And we’ve all been in that situation. And so thinking I’m better than somebody else, that’s crazy. And so not holding up a facade, but actually being genuine about who I am, being honest with my status, and that all of my worthiness and my standing before God comes through Christ Jesus. And with that in mind, being full of mercy, just as God is full of mercy, being open to reason and discussion and dialogue, being gentle with the way I go about it, even when I do need to correct somebody, the Bible talks about how to do that.

In the spirit of gentleness. Galatians 6 and verse 1. Looking to yourself that you may not be tempted. There’s a way that we should go about this. If we are wise, if we are spiritual, if we have understanding, even when there are times when there needs to be some kind of correction, it’ll be done a certain way. In a way that’s gentle and loving and careful and full of compassion, wanting what’s best for that person.

6. Peacemakers Sow in Peace and Reap Righteousness

And what we see then is that the people who act this way, they reap what they sow. Now it happens the other way too. You know, if you sow in peace, you will reap righteousness. That’s the idea that James gives us here at the end of this text. A harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. It kind of is like flipped around and said a little bit different way, but basically, peacemakers sow in peace and they reap righteousness. That’s the idea. So this kind of a broadly speaking sort of thing. If I am a peaceable person, if I’m gentle, all the things that are on that list, and that’s how I act, and that’s how I live, and that’s how I sow, that’s the concept here.

This is the way I’m living my life and doing things, then I’m going to be reaping righteousness, the good things, justice, all of this is going to be a part of my life. And all the things in that other list that are earthly and unspiritual and demonic, jealousy and bitterness and selfish ambition, this is what they reap. Disorder and every vile practice. That’s where they end up. However good they might seem in the moment, or wise from a world’s perspective, or any of that sort of thing, the end result is you sow and you reap. And those two are related. And so if you sow in a way that’s not peaceable, and if you sow in a way that’s not gentle and loving and full of mercy, if this is the way that you sow, then you’re going to reap disorder and division, which is something that God hates.

And so, as God’s people, we need to be committed to what James says here about the way to live and wisdom. Righteousness is shown through a loyalty to God. This is what James does in the letter. Righteousness is shown through a loyalty to God and to one another. Those two things are not at odds. Love the Lord your God with all your strength and love your neighbor as yourself, Jesus says. These two commandments. They hang all the law and the prophets. They go together as one. And just as Jesus was about those ideas, so is James. If I want to be wise, if I want to have understanding, then I’m going to take this concept of my love of God and realize it’s connected to my love of brethren.

Conclusion

John makes the same point in his epistles. If you can’t love your brother, whom you can see, how can you love God whom you don’t seek? Right? Same basic concept or point. And so whether it’s the political front we have before us or whatever other matter that we’re dealing with, it’s important for us to see the connection between the way we treat people and what we claim about our relationship with God. And then to some degree, the end result, what’s going to come from that? And so I guess the question is if I’m going to say, am I wise? If I’m wondering, am I someone who is wise and has understanding? Here’s the question I have to ask myself. Am I surrounded by a harvest of righteousness?

When I look at my life and the things that are going on around me and the people who are in my life and the things that I’m doing and involved in, are these things that are just and good and righteous? Are they peaceable? Do they bring harmony and unity? Are they focused on God’s truth and God’s will? Or are they complete disorder and chaos?

Do I find myself having problems with other people or hurt feelings? Or in arguments. And if so, could lacking wisdom be my problem? Could it be that I haven’t handled things the right way? Do I find myself managing difficult relationships all the time or speaking evil of others and worried that someone else is speaking evil of me? Do I look with disdain on other people and think the worst of them? That’s earthly, spiritual, demonic thinking. And the source of that is based in selfish ambition and jealousy and bitterness. But if I have good relationships, people around me who love me and I love them. And we lift our voices together with one voice to praise God. And we have harmony and unity and understanding and knowledge, but also an aim and goal.

That’s a harvest of righteousness. That’s one of the things I love about Decca Prairie. I’m not at all saying that we’re perfect, but what I see around me here at this place is a harvest of righteousness. There certainly are things that I need to work on, and I know all of you have things you want to work on, and even as a congregation, there’s things that we need to improve. But overall, when I look, I see a harvest of righteousness, and I want it to stay that way. I think that’s what James is working at here, too. He wants to see this sort of thing happening with God’s people. And so the warnings are needed, especially when the external forces sometimes pull us away from what actually really matters.

And so keep this close at heart in the coming weeks and months. That we here are one. We are God’s people. That we want to be wise and people with understanding, with good attitudes, with good behavior, demonstrated through works in the meekness of wisdom. And if we can do that even in trying and difficult times, we certainly will do it when times are good. And we can work together for God’s glory and to his honor. And then one day we’ll be with him forever doing the same. If you want to join that this morning, we’d love to help you do that. Maybe that you’re not part of God’s people. That you see this vision for what James is talking about here, and you look at the world and you see disharmony and chaos and hate and all of that, and you don’t want that.

I can tell you right now, you’re not going to find that by joining the Republican Party. You’re not going to find that by joining the Democratic Party. That’s not where you’re going to find harmony and peace and love and joy. But you can find it here as God’s people, working together for his purpose is uninterested and thinking the way the world thinks. I’m confident of that. That God has a plan to bring his people together and to spread his kingdom for him to rule and reign over the whole world. You can give yourself to him this morning. You can be baptized into Jesus Christ by his authority and his name and begin walking with him. Can we help you do that? Come now as we stand together and sing.