Editor’s note: This article was submitted for publication Fall 2018. This is a late upload.
By: Rev. David Wilson Rogers
The wisdom of James reaches across the ages through the pages of Scripture and speaks to our troubled political times. In the third chapter of his powerful letter, James warns against falling victim to the wrong kind of wisdom. It is Divine guidance that Christians, perhaps now more than ever, need to heed!
James 3:13-18 begins with a question and a challenge. “Who is wise and understanding among you?” Yet, before one is too quick to answer, James follows by stating the truly wise is the one who shows a daily example of living with gentleness born of that wisdom. In contrast, James warns that if wisdom is born of selfish ambition or bitter envy, boasting, and living a life of falsehood, such a life does not manifest the quality of character a Christian needs to embody.
True wisdom—that which both comes from God through the Holy Spirit and is honored by God for those who live in the Spirit, has very distinct and important characteristics. James says it is “first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy.”
Sadly, much of our modern American society is embroiled in a spirit of selfish ambition and envy. In the highest offices of government, the leadership examples put forth have been the complete opposite of the true wisdom God makes available. Incivility, tribal trash-talk, flagrant distortions of truth, and a completely amoral disregard for human dignity has trickled down from Washington D.C., infiltrated social media, permeated partisan news outlets, and dumped its vile hatred on much of American society.
Unfortunately, many Christians have bought into the partisan tribal warfare and share in the disregard for human dignity, peace, justice, and mercy. Christians have encamped themselves among like-minded people with whom they confer and agree on what is right and wrong with the world, then label everyone who is outside as being wrong, stupid, ignorant, or outright subhuman.
On one level, this is nothing new in politics. Christians have disagreed on political issues throughout the entirety of American Democracy. What has changed in the last few years is the intensity of the entrenched disagreement and the outright hatred displayed toward Christians who believe otherwise.
The news is not all bad. Powerful new voices are coming to the forefront. Beautiful and revolutionary change is sweeping the nation as women and men are standing up to demand pure, peaceful, and gentle wisdom in the face of the fear-mongering and crass talking that so many others embrace.
Christianity is, first and foremost, a religion rooted in God’s unending love. The wisdom needed to lead this country must also flow forth along the biblical principles that define God’s love. Christ has no use for braggarts and power-hungry leaders, and neither should the church.
