Sep 5 2019 James 3:13- 4:12

Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom.

After yesterday’s reading all about the potential evil of an untamable tongue, this writing continues with a lot of talk about wisdom, and makes the connection that good works come from wisdom from God. This I love.

This highlights for me the difference between social-service-good-works, and God’s-good-works. Good works from God’s wisdom, truly done from God’s wisdom look different, I think. They are so grounded in the humility of the wisdom from God, that the good-deed-doer looks different, because the wisdom from God looks different than altruism, or even empathy.

Wisdom from above, as described later in this passage is pure, peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. Deeds that come from this level of pure wisdom look different. Are different.

We are all human beings, subject to the failings of being mere mortals. Sometimes well-intentioned and nominally God-inspired deeds get corrupted because we are corrupted and imperfect. Sometimes in the effort to be good, we become tainted with hypocrisy, or condescension, or judgment. Sometimes people help others because they want to feel superior. I’ve been at churches where the leader of an outreach ministry said they did their outreach to help the disadvantaged. The implication was that they helped those who weren’t as lucky or privileged as they were. I remember a sense of outrage, and deep sadness. The judgment that makes people feel superior cuts them off from the deep joy of sitting with another child of God, and mutually learning and building each other up.

I’ve also seen people who do good deeds that are absolutely pure, full of mercy, peaceable, and gentle. They serve and love and share with others from a genuine belief that we are all in this together. A few examples.. One woman shared the shoes off her feet for someone without any. One woman brought warm food out to the construction workers outside. One church brought cookies and coffee out to the people protesting outside the church because of the church’s position on marriage equality. One friend brought a gallon of half and half to a homeless breakfast every time, because as she said, “I won’t stand for the powdered whitener. Why should they?”.

Watching people do good deeds from that deep source of God’s pure and gentle wisdom is an absolute joy. It actually makes me tear up a little, every time I see it. To me, it proves there is a purpose, and a source of our deep desire to help and serve.

 This morning, I’m thinking about all of the people I know, respect and admire who do good deeds born of God’s gentle, pure, merciful wisdom. Today, I aim to be ever-more like that.