Edifying By Experience

From James 3 – 13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. 15 This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. 16 For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. 17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. 18 Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

Charles Spurgeon cautions in his sermon "The Blood-Letting" especially on those who want to know every detail of evil's origin and workings but neglect their own salvation: "You trifle with subtleties while you neglect certainties."

James 3 may be offering a similar reorientation. The chapter begins by warning those who would desire to be teachers, seemingly with a desire toward enhancing their own power and prestige similar to those teachers at Ephesus Paul warns against in 1 Timothy 1. No sooner are we clear of untoward ambition toward the title of teacher in James 3 than we are warned of the influence our tongues have for evil, title or no.

What, then, is the solution if the influence we exert with our tongues so often goes wrong? The short chapter doesn't leave us to wonder. James is certain that wisdom and understanding can be demonstrated in something more humble and concrete than rhetorical wizardry. The wise, he refocuses, can show their wisdom by good deeds offered in such a spirit. As we disciple ourselves with such a focus and constantly encounter the still entrenched power of our flesh, our words take on a different character than our erstwhile tendency to urge people to look at us because we have arrived at epiphany.

As we preach to ourselves against the latest evidence of our still extant depravity, we recognize that what wisdom we have is a gift of grace. It is, in James's inspired phrasing, from above. Granting that one understanding we have is not a product of exalted experience, it's dispensation to others takes on a different character, also.

We offer humble confession rather than contrived condescension. Our own admissions are woven in as what teaching we are granted is without hypocrisy. It is, says James, sown in peace as we dropped the seed of God's Word, proven true in us, as we go along life's way. Christ and the power of His Word are certainties from which none of our subtleties can lastingly distract.

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