Day 345 – Scriptures of Peace

December 12, 2022

James 3:13-18

13 Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.

14 But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.

15 This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.

16 For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.

17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.

Daily Devotion

By Jesse Sanders

I found the six verses that we will be dissecting in today’s devotional, to be highly enlightening. 

James 3:13-18 (NLT) 
13 If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom. 14 But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don’t cover up the truth with boasting and lying. 15 For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. 16 For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind. 17 But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere. 18 And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness.  

If I had to, or was asked to attempt to boil down/ extract the nucleus of what is being said, I think it would look something like this.
  
• True wisdom comes from God.
• God’s wisdom has visible qualities that are manifest in the lives of those whose God’s wisdom sits upon.
  
James 3:17 shows us the qualities that come from God’s wisdom.
“But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere.”

I think it’s safe to say that each and every one of us, somehow in some way desire to and or would like to have the Wisdom that comes from God be made manifest in our lives. If we want to be seen as wise, then we must understand God’s ways as the scripture tells us. We must spend time in His word, studying His laws and commandments. It’s just as important to set aside chunks of the day, in which we make an effort to seek the face of God and enter into His presence through praise and worship of Him.
  
The world sees wisdom as knowledge which is cultivated through the pursuit of understanding and studying the things which humanity deems to be important. Yet God defines wisdom as the ability to understand His ways, as well as walking in the humility and humbleness of spirit that comes from being grounded in God’s word. If we want to be truly wise in the eyes of God, then we must look within ourselves and make the effort to ensure that our actions, behavior and the things we verbalize, are lining up with the qualities that come from God’s wisdom.