Passage for Reflection: James 3:17-18
There is no shortage of worldly wisdom. Scroll through any social media platform and you’ll see person after person claiming expertise on a wide variety of topics. Open e-mails and other more formal professional correspondence and you’ll find an alphabet soup of degrees and certifications alongside the sender’s name. Walk into a public library and you’ll be greeted by books as far as your eyes can see. Wisdom is everywhere.
James contrasts this abundant wisdom with a rarer sort: God’s wisdom. A modern paraphrase of James 3:17 reads, “Real wisdom, God’s wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced” (The Message).
Let’s try to reimagine wisdom using this Scripture as our rubric. It’s more about living in relationship and less about acquiring knowledge. It’s about who we are and how we live out our identity day by day. It’s about living an authentic, holy, and friendly life.
And, just to be sure we are clear, v.18 tells us that this wisdom is holistic and requires hard work. It means seeing everyone as a child of God. It requires us to go out of our way to love our neighbor. And, it invites us to be peacemakers.
Wisdom comes in many forms. I wonder if you’ll live your life in such a way that others will recognize you as an example of Godly wisdom.
This post was originally published in the Lectionary for Life Series for the Center for Congregational Ethics on April 30, 2024.