The right type of wisdom
James 3:17 says, “But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere”.
Let’s break down the words from this verse to help us to understand the wisdom that comes from heaven. I have looked the words up in my kids school dictionary.
- Pure – pure means not mixed with anything else, clean and free from harmful substances, containing nothing sinful.
- Peace-loving – peace is a state of calm and quiet when there is no disturbance, no war.
- Considerate – someone who pays attention to the needs and feelings of others.
- Submissive – behaving in a quiet and obedient way
- Full of Mercy – showing mercy means showing kindness and forgiveness and do not punish someone as severly as you could.
- Full of good fruit – good fruit means when we do good things for others, especially being kind to them
- Impartial – having a view of something which is fair and un-biased.
- Sincere – if you are sincere you say things and do things you really mean, you are honest and genuine.
As we have seen in a previous post, wisdom is about having knowledge and then putting that knowledge in to practice in the right way.
This verse shows that we should use our wisdom in a caring and considerate way that shows shows no favouritsm. If we are doing these things, we will know our wisdom is the wisdom that comes from heaven.
God Bless,
Dave
