Day 153, Year 1

The Wisdom from God Produces Much Good Fruit

“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.” (James 3:17 NKJV)

I would like to highlight the devotionals on wisdom and understanding with the above verse. When God’s wisdom accompanies understanding, she first brings purity to us believers. When our hearts are pure, we can then receive more of His wisdom and power. His wisdom and understanding are meant to eliminate our foolishness, crookedness, or perversity so that our hearts and spirits can be cleansed. The last item mentioned in today’s verse is hypocrisy. Indeed, the crooked tend to be hypocritical in many ways. But when God’s cleansing stream comes to us, we no longer need to pretend in any way. We desperately need to understand how to eliminate the roots of internal crookedness in people.

Today’s verse lists seven or eight effects of wisdom, with mercy being the fifth. Indeed, God’s wisdom enables us to understand the heart of the Lord Jesus. His work toward the human heart is mainly mercy, especially toward victims and the little ones. But note that it is not a mercy devoid of God’s justice. His mercy drives Him to help the victims and the lowlies, and to punish the deliberate perpetrators and those who cause the little ones to stumble. Similarly, when we are moved by God’s mercy, we grasp His mind and perspective, and are usually motivated to take appropriate action, such as intercession with urgency.

In my opinion, “peaceable” and “without partiality” mentioned in today’s verse are closely related. Anyone who wants to reconcile with God should pursue a state of peace with Him. This status allows us to view everything without partiality. In other words, we should have peace with the Father God through Jesus’ redemption so that we could receive His perspective and thus be free from prejudice. But from the viewpoint of unbelief, the views of Jesus or believers are often seen as subjective, prejudiced, and even radical.

As mentioned previously, wisdom and knowledge empower people. This power often motivates us to do good and might be related to gentleness and a willingness to yield. Born of wisdom, this gentleness and willingness to yield are first an obedience to God. Combined with the Lord’s compassion and peace, it could then produce abundant good spiritual fruits. This is because receiving His mercy through the willingness to yield to God is the center of today’s verse. Hence, wisdom in the Old Testament is seen as the fountain of life, which actually points to the full life in the Lord Jesus—the gift that believers need to pursue and receive.

Reflection questions:

1) Do your heart and spirit have God’s purity? If you lack it, how would you rely on the Lord to be purified?

2) Which one do you currently need the most—God’s heart, perspective, or actions? (Please take some time to pray for your needs!)