James 3:13-18
Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. 15 This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. 17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. 18 And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
We talked about these verses in elder meeting this morning. All of our ABFs will be studying them on Sunday.
My one question to the men this morning was simply –
How do these verses guide us as spiritual leaders?
13
We should pray that our people would gain wisdom and understanding.
We need to lead and shepherd in such a way that good conduct is the result/proof/fruit of the meekness of wisdom. In other words, don’t settle for good works but make sure that the good works are gospel-good-works.
14
Be wary of jealousy and selfish ambition in our own hearts. These are perils for every person, particularly for leaders. Where we see jealously and selfish ambition in ourselves we need to repent.
15-16
There will be relational conflicts in church members’ lives when people live according to earthly wisdom. We need to be peacemakers as we confront and rebuke worldly wisdom by teaching and modeling godly wisdom.
17-18
Whenever we find church members who are peaceable and gentle we need to affirm these qualities.
Pray for a harvest of righteousness in the lives of RBC members. Pray that our peoples’ works would be good fruit of the gospel, demonstrating the peace of God (the gospel) in many lives.