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. – James 3:13 NLT
Last night I mused about “humility in humanity” based on the same verse above. Now, the question of the last year has been “what is wisdom?” Wisdom seems to have so many definitions, so many interpretations, and it seems, a lot of different consequences for not following the “right” wisdom. In the verses following the one above James writes:
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 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. – James 3:17-18 NLT
For myself, this sums it all right up, I really have nothing more to add… but for the sake of “processing” I’ll entertain these two verses for a little bit. The strongest point that stands out to me is “willing to yield to others” – I believe that today our society holds onto “entitlement” more than anything else… “I have a right to…” and “but I’m entitled to…” The second item to jump out… “It is full of mercy and good deeds” – hmm… that whole good deeds thing again… what is this, do we serve a God of works? – nope, because we don’t do that good works simply because “it’s the right thing to do”, we do the good works because we are urged, empowered, and motivated by our hearts to do them. Maybe the secret to wisdom is yielding and humbling ourselves to our fellow humanity in the name of our all loving God so that we might empower the many through Christ’s redemption?