Division in the church shatters the heart.
13-16Do you want to be counted wise, to build a reputation for wisdom? Here’s what you do: Live well, live wisely, live humbly. It’s the way you live, not the way you talk, that counts. Mean-spirited ambition isn’t wisdom. Boasting that you are wise isn’t wisdom. Twisting the truth to make yourselves sound wise isn’t wisdom. It’s the furthest thing from wisdom—it’s animal cunning, devilish conniving. Whenever you’re trying to look better than others or get the better of others, things fall apart and everyone ends up at the others’ throats.
17-18Real 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. You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor.
James 3:15-18, The Message
Ayyyyhhhhhh….Yikes! Eugene Peterson, as he does so often, brings James to stick right to our hearts like velcro — there is no way to shake this if we really listen to it.
I don’t know about you, but my pain tolerance for division, especially in churches and fellowships, is low. James also has a low threshold for disunity among Christian brothers and sisters. Here’s what John Stott says about this passage.
“James requires us to affirm that whatever displays a sharp, antagonistic spirit of self-concern (jealousy), whatever leads to or favours party spirit or the creation of parties or the dividing of fellowships (selfish ambition), whatever issues in disorder (restlessness, instability, disturbance in the fellowship), and in meanness in thought, word, and deed (every vile practice) — this is the wisdom which in no way comes down from above.
We need to ask ourselves very seriously whether we believe this or not. We look about us and see fellowships being sundered — sometimes in the name of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of fellowship himself! It does not look as if we really believe James when he says that the spirit which promotes, tolerates and brings about divisions is of the earth (not of heaven), of the natural man (Not the Spirit of God) and of the devil (not of the Lord). We look about us and find Christians being catty and petty, as anxious to keep their end up, and to defend their rights, and so on, as the next man. It does not look as if we believe James when he says that all that is mean lacks heavenly validation. We need to ask ourselves very seriously whether we believe James or not.”
A challenge for us all today: Do I believe James or not? How do I sow discord, disunity, or division in the church, fellowship, group, team, I am a part of?
What would it look like to pursue peace, extend mercy, and grow unity in this place?
