Beyond the Stained Glass

The gospel compels us to not participate in marginalizing the poor and powerless around us. We too were poor and marginalized, trapped in our sin until Jesus rescued us. When we marginalize those around us, we forget what the gospel did for us.

James reminds of the power of prayer when he recounts Elijah's prayer for God to withhold rain from Israel. This is why we should pray for the physically and spiritually sick in the same way.

Most people plan and dream of future things they want to do. When we plan, do we include God's will in those plans or do we plan as if God doesn't exist? When we exclude God from our plans, we sin against him with a prideful disposition that acts as if we are in control of the world in which we exist. We act in ways that suggest we are solely responsible for our successes. James tells us we have knowledge that tells us this is not the case, and that knowledge condemns us.

James contrasts wisdom from God and of our own making. The qualities of each are quite distinct. Our wisdom apart from God’s wisdom is unspiritual and demonic. When we rest in the wisdom from God we display virtues from God. The contrast of the two sources of wisdom are also distinct, wisdom from God provides peace while wisdom of our own making only provides chaos. We are called to cultivate peace as a child of God, therefore we are called to rest in God’s wisdom not our own.

The tongue has awesome power. Speech has the power to destroy or build up. James calls us to rely on the wisdom of God in the use of our tongue in James 3:1-12. We must rely on the power of the gospel to overcome desecrating the image bearers around us with unrighteous speech. Righteous use of the tongue provides a single voice about being a child of God.