Daily Devotion – September 22, 2021 – Dr. Pat Taylor Ellison
James 3:13 – 4:3, 7-8a
3:13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom.
3:14 But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth.
3:15 Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish.
3:16 For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind.
3:17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy.
3:18 And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.
4:1 Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you?
4:2 You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have, because you do not ask.
4:3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures.
4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
4:8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.
So much in this passage from James warns us that we will be wicked and we will be punished. Yet there is also a beautiful flower right in the middle of it about peace. Let’s concentrate on 3:17-18, below.
3:17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy.
3:18 And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.
I love this description of wisdom that is willing to yield and full of mercy. James goes on to say that those who make peace will reap a harvest of righteousness (right relationship with God). What might it mean to make peace, and not just keep peace? Those who keep the peace mostly just placate others and try not to rock the boat. But those who make peace are the ones who meet their opponent halfway, argue and listen and give and take until they have a mutual understanding of one another. That is making peace, and it is hard work. But for those who do it, they will have a right relationship with God.
In a very important way, this making of peace is what God has been trying to do with us humans from the very beginning. The Bible is a book full of the stories of how God has worked to understand us and we have worked to understand God – our arguments, our listening, our speaking together, and mutual understanding. So when we do that same work of trying to wrestle and listen and speak and understand other human beings, we are doing the kind of work that makes God proud of us. No wonder there is a harvest of righteousness – our relationship with God the Creator is in order when we are doing God’s work of understanding and peace-making.
This week I will try every day to make some peace, not just to keep it.
Gracious God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for showing mercy and love working to understand every person. Every person, including me. Help me to work at doing the same. Amen.
