The Devotional
Comment:
Many years have passed but I remember
filling in for a pastor of a church in Ledyard, CT who was recovering from an
illness. One Sunday on our way home a driver in another vehicle pulled in front
of us and nearly caused an accident. I immediately leaped on the opportunity to
react in anger and the words of complaint were not well received. Of course it
was not the other driver who heard the words, these words fell on my wife and
she said; “Jesse! Didn’t you just get through preaching a good message and have
you forgotten it already?” She certainly has a way to deflate the wind in my
sail and if I ignore her, her stricter judgment reaches out and punches me in
the arm. Unfortunate for me, is that I have not learned from these moments in
time. Why just last Friday I was struck again with another strong punch. I
explained to her that it did not hurt, but my round of golf on Monday suffered.
Challenge: James 3:1-18
In the wisdom of this chapter is found the major intention
of the tongue, we stumble over many things in life and at the top of the list
of failures is the tongue. Words once spoken cannot be retrieved. Solomon has a
lot to say about the tongue in his skill in living book we call Proverbs. In
Proverbs 24:28 we read the following. “Do not be a witness against your
neighbor without cause. For would you deceive with your lips? Do not say, “I
will do to him just as he has done to me; I will render to the man according to
his work.” – NKJV
Another version the NIV reads this in verse 29 – “Do not
say, I’ll do to him as he has done to me; I’ll pay that man back for what he
did.” The warning is clear is it not? The desire of the tongue is the
expression of the inner man. Getting even is revenge and revenge is one of the
devil’s major tools. This thought in verse 6 renders the tongue as capable of
defiling the whole body; the church and the individual. The tongue is in a
compartment in the individual body that reveals to the world, iniquity, or
better translated, unrighteousness and this destroys many within the church.
A sin, an inner man behavior that no man can tame, only the
absolute control of the Holy Spirit can and will curb the tongue from a speedy
blast of unrighteousness. We can in one moment – Bless our God and Father, who
has created all of us in His likeness, but running parallel to our blessing is
the invisible trip wire of cursing. The apostle says boldly – My brothers and
sisters, these things ought not to be!
So who is wise and understanding among us, good conduct is a
work of faith, faith in God the Scripture explains, OVERCOMES the world. What
does the apostle John say of this? “For everyone born of God overcomes the
world, this is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is
he who overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.”
Thus if you believe and yet store away in your heart bitterness, envy and
self-seeking revenge we lie against the truth. This wisdom does not come from
God, but it is earthly, sensual and demonic.
The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who are
willing to make peace. Not peace according to the rules of the world around us
but from a wisdom that comes down from God, James 1:2-8. What does this wisdom
look like? It is first PURE, secondly it is PEACEFUL, then GENTLE, then willing
to YEILD, full of MERCY, resulting in good WORKS. Purity, peaceable, gentle, yielding
and merciful, the Spiritual process of the work of faith that God blesses.
No comments:
Post a Comment