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. Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. – James 3v17-18
When I think of the mindset of some of my brethren, and even myself sometimes, a picture of Ian Paisley screaming ‘No surrender!’ on the streets of
There are places when we simply cannot compromise and where there is no room for movement. Biblical doctrine is a place of ‘no surrender’ so that is not what we are talking about here.
Once again we are talking about a mindset. Envy and pride will make us intransient and unworkable. We are going to stick to our opinion and our preferences no matter what. We can think that if we are tough and intractable enough we can possibly bully people around to our point of view. That is simply human reasoning, for God says that His wisdom is:
Pure
Peaceable
Gentle
Willing to yield
Full of mercy
Full of good fruits
Without partiality
Without hypocrisy
Then he goes on to say that the fruit of righteousness is produced not by bullying or strong arming, but it is sown in peace by those who make peace.
Most of my Christian life has been spent in a kind of tough guy Christianity. If there is a disagreement it is settled by standing toe to toe until someone backs down. The guy backing down is rarely convinced or convicted but battered into submission. When that happens any real fruit is squelched and crushed and you end up with a bunch of people who have an appearance of righteousness because they have been cowed into obedience.
How do we produce the fruit of true righteousness instead of just obedience? It is accomplished through God’s wisdom which is described above. The one that stuck out to me today is ‘willing to yield.’ That means that I don’t always have to be right. There are times when I can yield to a preference or opinion. It means in those areas I need not scream ‘No surrender!.’
Are we sowing the fruit of righteousness through fear and intimidation, or are we doing it through the seed of peace as we seek to make peace.
1 comment:
This is one of those 20/20 hindsight passages for me--wishing I'd believed this when my kids were little in particular so I would have shepherded their hearts instead of their actions. I like to look at the wording in different Bible versions too (thank goodness for biblegateway.org). Here's the NKJV: 17But the wisdom that comes from above leads us to be pure, friendly, gentle, sensible, kind, helpful, genuine, and sincere. 18When peacemakers plant seeds of peace, they will harvest justice.
It's a great reminder to me of God's sufficiency because even the wisdom to see my need for these choice comes FROM GOD. And your explanation of this mindset and what it produces (bullies and victims)--so true! God tells us what to do and WHY (my 4-year old self so loves it when He tells me why). When I trust what He says is truth and I am pure, friendly, gentle, sensible, kind, helpful, genuine, and sincere(rather than being the opposite of any of these to force others to conform to my will), THEN I am going to see a harvest--Peace seeds lead to conformity to God's will in thought & deed. And bang on--that God's will is NOT necessarily my preferences! Thanks for the reminder!
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