And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.
Righteous character, right conduct, and its good results grow only where peace is kept and only through people who actively make peace, never through envy and strife. It is the harvest of the wisdom from above, which is pure, peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good works, without favoritism or hypocrisy, while envy, contention, and suspicion bring only confusion and every evil work. Making peace never requires giving up truth, for genuine peace lives together with truth and righteousness and comes from Christ. This sowing is done largely by the tongue, which must be controlled and trained, since careless words of doubt and accusation take root in unbelief, while restrained, gentle speech keeps unity and obedience. Among those of the same faith it calls for tender brotherly love, laying aside striving for supremacy and insistence on one's own way, confessing and healing old wounds, and living in one mind and judgment so the world sees proof that God sent His Son.
Sowing Peace Reaping Righteousness
The fruit of righteousness is righteous character, conduct, and good results, and it is cultivated only in an atmosphere of peace and only by people who make peace. That peaceful setting belongs with the wisdom from above, which is pure, peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, merciful, fruitful, impartial and sincere, and it stands in direct contrast to envy and strife, which bring confusion and every evil work. Outward worship alone does not make service acceptable, but it must be offered sincerely with a humble and contrite heart, in Christlike and peaceable conduct.
The verse uses harvest imagery in which truth and good influence are seeds sown in hearts and minds that spring up to bear fruit unto righteousness, peace, and eternal life. Those entrusted with talents render returns by doing good works that persuade sinners to believe, sowing seeds in everyone they meet so that those in sin and degradation may become pure, holy and sinless. This sowing is to be done in meekness and faith and in peace rather than quarrel, with teaching that makes room in minds for seeds of righteousness. When the words of eternal life are thus sown in the heart, the fruit is a true confession, proving the mind and Spirit of Christ within, seen in humility, heavenly conversation, blameless conduct, and the purifying influence of truth with Christ's character exemplified in life.
Speech is part of this sowing, so the tongue as the unruly member must be brought entirely under control and words and acts carefully trained and restrained rather than left unfettered. Careful, restrained speech and a peaceful spirit are necessary to form Christian character, to live by the commandments, and to stand without fault, and this teaching must be laid to heart and made the rule of character and daily life. Careless words of doubt and accusations against fellow believers can take root in minds and hearts and produce unbelief and apostasy.
This fruit is evidence of genuine piety and transformation, revealing the heart more truly than profession. Genuine piety produces harmony, peace, love, unity, meekness, benevolence, kindness, mercy, purity, gentleness, humility, and a peaceable life worked in the heart by the Spirit, not a stubborn, dictatorial, condemning spirit, proud self-confidence, or insistence on one's own way. A person's actions reveal whether this Christlike character is present, and where the change has not been experienced there must be no rest until the Lord is sought with all the heart as the all-important business of life. The opposite fruit of continual contradiction, strife, envy, and jealousy comes from a heart not in harmony with Christ, while true fruit glorifies God and encourages struggling workers under trying circumstances, unlike wild, false fruit that dishonors, disheartens, divides, establishes robbery, follows perverted ideas, permits unjust things, walks contrary to Christ's will and example, and wars against truth and righteousness through injustice, oppression, and error under a semblance of truth.
For those proclaiming the last solemn message to a dying world, righteousness yields its harvest through peace by peacemakers as the natural outgrowth of the Christian religion, fulfilled by laboring together in unity and peace. Despite different temperaments and dispositions they see eye to eye in all matters of religious belief, speak the same things, have the same judgment, and are one. Heavenly wisdom sought in earnest prayer is sown in peace by peacemakers and brings the sweet spirit of Jesus that draws believers of different languages together and near each other in council.
Heavenly Wisdom Versus Earthly
The fruit belongs to the wisdom from above, which is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Righteous character and conduct grow as a harvest only where people make peace, so that a peaceful, meek life produces good works and turns others toward paths of righteousness. Kind, forgiving conduct, living at peace with others, self-control, gentle dealings, and courteous speech and writing rather than harsh, rash words show this wisdom, while Christ's workers carry out sacred responsibilities rightly by acting in this way. Envy, strife, suspicion, contention, slander, harsh judgment, anger, and a contentious spirit oppose this fruit and instead produce confusion and every evil work. Human science or philosophy cannot establish people in virtue; that work requires divine wisdom and agency.
Wisdom from beneath does not descend from above but is earthly, sensual, and devilish. It is shown in bitter envying and strife, alienation, difference, contention, jealousy, bitterness, dissension, self-sufficiency, pride, vanity, worldly-mindedness, avarice, unkindness, and a critical, censorious, fault-finding spirit. It is further shown in doubts, cavilings, playing upon words, sarcasm, evil feelings, false witness, making light of the message sent from God and the messengers who bring it, ridiculing, misrepresenting, quibbling upon words, vainglory, lying against the truth while claiming advanced spiritual knowledge, and yielding obedience to Satan. Wisdom from above is shown out of good conduct by works done with meekness of wisdom, free from bitter envying, strife, vainglory, confusion, and every evil work. When truth is enthroned in the heart it softens and subdues the soul and sanctifies, elevates, ennobles, and purifies the character. Faith then works by love to purge the soul from every kind of selfishness, and by beholding the self-denial, self-sacrifice, meekness, purity, and holiness of Christ's life disciples become Christlike, one with Christ in spirit and character as Christ is one with the Father, bearing God's testing and pruning to be found worthy to belong to God's family above. Those who have this wisdom are true and faithful, pure and holy, having felt need of atoning blood and sanctifying grace, firm in principle, fearless in duty, and zealous, yet humble and lowly, gentle and tender, patient toward all, ready to forgive, manifesting love for souls, giving unmistakable evidence of having been with Jesus, while those who reveal the opposite spirit are unfit to be tolerated in sacred work. Only by the Lord's help can thoughts and words be brought into subjection to Christ, for the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity that defiles the whole body and sets on fire the course of nature, an unruly evil no one can tame, full of deadly poison. Those who sow in peace keep their minds girded, sober, and hoping to the end for grace at the revelation of Jesus Christ, live in reverent fear under a Father who judges without respect of persons according to every one's work, and have purified their souls by obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, loving one another with a pure heart fervently, and sitting with Christ in heavenly places at all times keeps words from becoming arrows that wound and destroy.
The true work of God stays within the bounds of the Bible by taking Christ's lessons and repeating them over and over, and those who will meet Christ in peace at His coming must now walk before Him in humility, meekness, and lowliness of mind, modestly and circumspectly in harmony with testing truth. Strange doctrines, religious enthusiasm, excitement, noise, confusion, and exercises not prompted by the Holy Spirit fail this test and give God's precious and important work a wrong mold. God puts His rebuke upon anything savoring of the caviling, sarcastic, faultfinding spirit, turning aside from close reproofs, regarding them as idle fables, as was brought to the Minneapolis conference.
The surrounding passage in James 3, especially verses 13-18, is to be read and studied for guidance on representing God's character and seeking wisdom from above. It warns that envy, strife, accusation, evil speaking, bitterness, unjust suspicion, and magnifying small offenses produce confusion and evil, divide people, and harm faith, while people should examine and discipline themselves in the light of the Word instead of watching for faults in others. It calls for speech and actions that build up rather than alienate and divide. Its principles are to love as brethren, do no injustice, and show liberality, tenderness, compassion, and courtesy, which express God's mind and law and must be practiced in right conduct toward God and one another.
Genuine Peace Upholds Truth
The fruit of righteousness grows only where peacemakers sow in peace, and this peaceful, gentle, merciful way of acting can be followed without giving up any principle of truth. Making peace does not require sacrificing truth, for the peaceful way coexists with every principle of truth.
True peace is joined to truth and righteousness and comes from Christ and the Spirit through the wisdom from above, which is pure, peaceable, gentle, merciful, impartial and sincere. It is not a deceptive peace gained by withholding present truth or laying aside the cross. Righteous life bears fruit only when peace is made in that spirit, with peace joined to purity, mercy and sincerity rather than secured by withholding truth.
Genuine heaven-born, heaven-bred charity that cannot be corrupted belongs to this wisdom from above, which is first pure and then peaceable, approachable, fruitful, impartial and sincere, and right living results when peacemakers work in peace. It does not create distrust and evil work, does not blunt the sword of the Spirit so that it does no execution, does not cover evil with false charity, does not call sin holiness and truth or call evil good, and does not say to the sinner peace, peace when there is no peace or that all will be well with him. Instead it hates the sin but loves the sinner, faithfully warns of danger, points to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and seeks to take sin away rather than cloak or hide it. Joined to active goodness and peacemaking, this faithful warning rather than falsely declaring peace where there is none is a resistless power for moving hearts, coming only by living connection and actual contact with the God of love, with God first taking hold of the worker so he can take hold of others.
This peaceable way includes approaching people gently and wisely and adapting methods to reach different people without compromising any principle of truth. Such peaceful, peacemaking work produces righteous fruit and can soften hearts and lead people to Christ and obedience to God's law.
Unity and Fellowship Together
Among those who share the same faith, belong to one family as children of the same heavenly Father, and cherish the same blessed hope of immortality, the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace only by those who make peace through close and tender brotherly love, harmony, and union among varied dispositions. This peacemaking gives the watching world no occasion to reproach faith, exerts a sanctifying, Christlike influence, and bears the strongest witness that God sent His Son to save sinners. It belongs to the wisdom from above, which is first pure, then peaceable, gentle and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Envy, suspicion, faultfinding and evil surmising are wisdom that is earthly, sensual and devilish, bringing confusion and every evil work, weakening spiritual life, causing grievous disaster, and retarding God's cause more than the opposition of the world. It requires placing character and will under Christ's command and in harmony with His character, so believers work together without collision as fruitful trees of righteousness.
Peacemaking means living in this world of sin and strife and variance as a peacemaker, doing all in power to advance the work of God, for the fruit of righteousness is produced only in peace and only through those who make peace. It is shown by good conduct with meekness of wisdom and stands opposite bitter envying and strife, which prove an earthly, sensual, devilish wisdom that produces confusion and every evil work. This requires making personal interests secondary, refusing to rule or seek supremacy or press private ideas against the judgment of the brethren, and laying aside insistence on one's own course, words and reasoning. It requires cherishing active humility and true goodness with a softened and subdued spirit, esteeming others better than self, and living in lowliness, forbearance, forgiveness and love. It requires being of one mind and one judgment under the law of love to God and man, being one as Christ is one with the Father, working with an eye single to the glory of God, and trusting the heavenly Father who knows all things to set things in order.
Heavenly wisdom creates love and unity by a teachable, childlike spirit that is easy to be entreated, surrenders its own way and will, and receives and acts on the counsel of others. It calls for hearty cooperation, encouragement, and lifting and pushing forward the work rather than criticizing the ideas and work of others, fastening on everything objectionable, raising objections, discouraging planners, holding back, and blocking the wheels in meetings of counsel. It calls those bound together in humanity to be helps to one another without being the shadow of any man and without unsafely following one man's mind and judgment, but to think and act as free moral agents gathering light from God to reflect upon others while willingly learning from brethren and gaining wisdom and common sense from men of experience. Great and noble-minded men are teachable while selfish and narrow minds refuse to learn, and it is out of place for servants to be self-sufficient, independent, and unwilling to be taught, with no one man to consider himself authority in all things. Those who argue for their own way, hold their own ideas in self-confidence and self-esteem as unquestionable, and talk as if only their ways are perfect, do not bear this fruit because they are not converted and not divested of self. Full of self-esteem, love of their own ideas and ways, unbelief, Pharisaism, and separation in feeling and sympathy from brethren, their words and ways disgust unbelievers, especially when they press objectionable features of faith with proud boasting, and by their contentious fruits they are known to lack truth woven into life and character, displeasing God, hindering others by example, losing much themselves, and needing transformation of character to receive the overcomer's reward.
Old wounds and feelings of dissatisfaction and disunion must be healed at the start through humble confession and reconciliation to brother and sister rather than brooding over supposed wrongs or vindicating a hasty, harsh course. Conquering pride, clearing the King's highway, removing rubbish and obstruction, and respecting the conviction of the Spirit allow hearts to be softened and mind, spirit, and soul to be healed with the oil of grace. Everlasting consequences depend on the use of the tongue, so those under orders must build up and not tear down, speaking only words under the Holy Spirit that soften and subdue and do not aggravate, dictate to, or discourage fellow workers. Peacemaking means not quarreling and not finding fault, but pressing together in unity in the name of the Lord, which brings blessing all along the way. Quarreling among Christians is a very great sin that lets in darkness and satanic influences, and it requires a converted tongue and a converted voice full of music and gentleness instead of harshness, a gift from God to be prayed for for the whole congregation.
Those who make peace live with one accord, pray often and earnestly for the Holy Spirit, feel their spiritual need, seek help to overcome infirmities, and seek fitness to save others with the love of Christ shed abroad in their hearts. They do not gather to share scandal, expose stains on a brother's character, or keep selfishness, envy, and evil-speaking, because love purifies what is objectionable from the soul, expels selfishness, roots out envy and evil-speaking, and works a radical change where old things pass away and all becomes new. Their lives then bear love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance, learning to control self and avoiding struggles for supremacy and bitter speech. Lack of harmony comes from the root of bitterness, and unless every fiber of it is eradicated many will be defiled, for selfishness and self-sufficiency kill spirituality, leading to harsh treatment of others, and unless converted such can never see the kingdom of heaven. This peacemaking righteousness is the great need in every church today, for unity brings strength, peace, and joy and can help others join, while envy, jealousy, criticism, and contention oppose this peace and bring spiritual and physical harm.
Entertaining suspicions, carrying accusations, condemning others without giving them a chance to explain, secretly spreading suspicion and gathering words of complaint instead of going directly to the one thought to be in error to restore in meekness and love reaps only confusion and destruction and is not from above. Accusing the brethren by questioning and finding fault with everything and every man's teaching and thinking no one is perfect gives the greatest evidence of the faultfinder's own imperfection of character, and those guilty of it must stop criticizing others and criticize themselves severely. A peacemaking spirit is the proof of heavenly wisdom, which is pure, peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good works, impartial and sincere, opposite to vanity, self-admiration, desire to dictate and control, criticism of others, creating suspicion, and putting things in the worst light. Such a faultfinding, perverted outlook comes from a fleshly mind and shows the absence of God's wisdom, and its influence is demoralizing and endangers souls and disqualifies from mission work.
Speech Character and Daily Life
Making peace requires guarding words, actions, and spirit so as not to give offense, bringing the natural temperament into subjection to Christ, learning obedience before seeking to command, giving up striving for supremacy, watching unto prayer and knowing self, and never marring the work by a strong, masterly spirit, letting truth influence the whole life in practice. Righteousness is not produced by dwelling on perplexing things and talking of them and by criticizing others for failing to show love, for that course discourages and kills the precious plant of love in the heart. It is produced by appreciating the warmth of the love Christ represented in His life and manifesting that love to the world, by refusing to dwell on and talk of the mistakes of brethren, by giving attention to precious truths and building character with the solid timbers of truth, and by manifesting exalted truth in faithful performance of duty. True wisdom is shown by meek and peaceable works rather than by bitter envying, strife, gossip and censure, which dishonor God, weaken His people, and bring dearth and feebleness into the church, and making peace requires hiding self in Jesus, obeying the Word and learning the divine will, dying to the world without cowardice or compromise, constantly seeking precious truth and wisdom from above, and replacing gossip with sympathy that strengthens hanging hands and confirms feeble knees. The wisdom from above that sows this fruit is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy, and is free from envy, strife, and hypocrisy.
Peacemakers plant righteousness in peace in homes, churches, and daily relationships, abiding in Christ in meek, loving, self-denying conduct cultivated in a peaceful spirit in contrast to the envy and strife that bring confusion and every evil work. This requires peace among believers and no strife in the household but gentleness and peace in the home, learned at the cross by placing the hand in Christ's hand instead of reaching the world's standard. Churches are to put away what grieves the Spirit and to cultivate peace in heart, family, and congregation. Love for God is expressed through obedience, and love for neighbor keeps one from doing the neighbor harm, so obedience is the fruit of love.
Bearing this fruit requires close self-examination in the light of the Word in order to do the essential work to be done, with heart conversion through genuine repentance toward God and faith toward Christ, being humbled, washed, and cleansed. Selfishness, envy, evil-speaking, ungodliness, deception, and greed must be rooted out, and the heart made gentle, condescending, meek, lowly, and loving toward Jesus and toward souls, with unselfish labor to win them. Bitter envying and strife in the heart is glorying and lying against the truth, belonging to a wisdom that is earthly, sensual, and devilish, where envying and strife bring confusion and every evil work, while only the peaceable spirit of wisdom from above sows righteousness. Compliance with the Word brings acceptance with God, believed by faith apart from feeling, shown by implicit obedience to every requirement of the law and by heeding the warnings of the Spirit, and the harvest is the precious fruits of the Spirit borne to God's glory in rich clusters of good fruit.
As people learn from Christ and grow in grace, Christ's grace leads to kindness and tender compassion toward one another even toward those who do not favor them, words become nourishing, and meekness and transforming grace shape the character that produces this peaceful fruit. The harvest of peace is sown through peaceful conduct, and the good fruits of wisdom from above are impartial and sincere. In dealings between people this calls for impartiality and fairness, dealing justly and not using gifts to God, donations, or other good acts to excuse money gained unjustly or by robbing others.
Ministers Teachers and Mission
In church conflict the fruit of righteousness grows only where peace is made, and ministers are to do that work in the spirit of Christ with wisdom from above that is pure, peaceable, gentle, merciful, impartial and sincere. That wisdom addresses wrongs by faithful warning, rebuking sin and making wrongs right, joining personal care for individuals with public teaching. Peaceable, conciliatory labor, not harsh words, personal attacks or rashness, is what lets righteous character and conduct take root and bear fruit. Those with sacred responsibilities must therefore examine themselves, pray humbly, study Christ's life, and speak truth in love and courtesy.
Where alienation, bitterness, envy and jealousy are met, those in important positions set things in order by tact in dealing with human minds and by wise, well-directed, Christlike labor. Diligent work for eternity, a closer walk with God, refining grace, and the meekness, patience and kindness of Jesus are more effective than authority, exhortation or strong argument. A blameless Christian example exerts a silent influence like a sunbeam in practically holding forth the word of life. A severe, critical, overbearing, domineering spirit with rough dealing, tyranny and sharp dictation is forbidden, because it stirs up strife and the worst passions of the heart and brings great loss to worker and church.
Those called to save souls feel a burden for the people, with selfish interests swallowed up in deep concern for the salvation of souls for whom Christ died. They guard against the first signs of disagreement or harshness, let truth sanctify the heart and remove the causes of strife, and practice biblical principles with meekness. Envy and strife bring confusion and every evil work, while the peaceable wisdom from above produces good fruit shown in works with meekness of wisdom. This is especially the calling of missionaries and Bible teachers.
Truth is to be presented with heavenly wisdom that is pure, gentle, merciful and free from envy and strife, not defended by agitation, harsh criticism, rash words or hasty decisions. Workers speak and write courteously, showing Christian courtesy, tender sympathy, mercy and love rather than harshness, partiality or contempt. Peace is the setting in which righteousness is sown and brought forth, and making peace belongs to carrying out sacred responsibilities rightly.
Teachers of children and youth are to cherish this principle and bring it into character, examining from cause to effect whether the truth of God has taken possession of the soul and whether the wisdom from Jesus Christ is in the life. Practicing the truth at all times and in all places, not only when feeling like it or when circumstances are pleasant, lets Christ shape the character and influence children for spiritual good. Correction is given without haste, anger or harshness, in a peaceful, self-controlled spirit. With difficult pupils this means dealing kindly and gently to correct rather than merely exclude, sowing the peaceful conditions in which righteousness can bear fruit.
Leading men are to practice Christ's teachings and show the peaceful fruit of peaceable conduct rather than a cold, critical, sarcastic spirit. Those who guide and correct others need wisdom, mercy and grace, for wisdom from above produces peace and good fruit and prevents confusion and rebellion.
Ministers and those in responsible places make Christ the pattern, conform life practice to His example, love as brethren, and show works out of good conduct with meekness of wisdom. This is the outcome of wisdom from above, first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy, sown only in peace by peacemakers. It requires heart conversion, true repentance, close heart-searching examination, and earnest humble seeking of the Lord. Then Christian love produces warmth and life, and gospel light spreads beyond home and family to bear fruit on the other side of the wall.
Righteous character, right conduct, and its good results grow only where peace is kept and only through people who actively make peace, never through envy and strife. It is the harvest of the wisdom from above, which is pure, peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good works, without favoritism or hypocrisy, while envy, contention, and suspicion bring only confusion and every evil work. Making peace never requires giving up truth, for genuine peace lives together with truth and righteousness and comes from Christ. This sowing is done largely by the tongue, which must be controlled and trained, since careless words of doubt and accusation take root in unbelief, while restrained, gentle speech keeps unity and obedience. Among those of the same faith it calls for tender brotherly love, laying aside striving for supremacy and insistence on one's own way, confessing and healing old wounds, and living in one mind and judgment so the world sees proof that God sent His Son.
Sowing Peace Reaping Righteousness
The fruit of righteousness is righteous character, conduct, and good results, and it is cultivated only in an atmosphere of peace and only by people who make peace. That peaceful setting belongs with the wisdom from above, which is pure, peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, merciful, fruitful, impartial and sincere, and it stands in direct contrast to envy and strife, which bring confusion and every evil work. Outward worship alone does not make service acceptable, but it must be offered sincerely with a humble and contrite heart, in Christlike and peaceable conduct.
The verse uses harvest imagery in which truth and good influence are seeds sown in hearts and minds that spring up to bear fruit unto righteousness, peace, and eternal life. Those entrusted with talents render returns by doing good works that persuade sinners to believe, sowing seeds in everyone they meet so that those in sin and degradation may become pure, holy and sinless. This sowing is to be done in meekness and faith and in peace rather than quarrel, with teaching that makes room in minds for seeds of righteousness. When the words of eternal life are thus sown in the heart, the fruit is a true confession, proving the mind and Spirit of Christ within, seen in humility, heavenly conversation, blameless conduct, and the purifying influence of truth with Christ's character exemplified in life.
Speech is part of this sowing, so the tongue as the unruly member must be brought entirely under control and words and acts carefully trained and restrained rather than left unfettered. Careful, restrained speech and a peaceful spirit are necessary to form Christian character, to live by the commandments, and to stand without fault, and this teaching must be laid to heart and made the rule of character and daily life. Careless words of doubt and accusations against fellow believers can take root in minds and hearts and produce unbelief and apostasy.
This fruit is evidence of genuine piety and transformation, revealing the heart more truly than profession. Genuine piety produces harmony, peace, love, unity, meekness, benevolence, kindness, mercy, purity, gentleness, humility, and a peaceable life worked in the heart by the Spirit, not a stubborn, dictatorial, condemning spirit, proud self-confidence, or insistence on one's own way. A person's actions reveal whether this Christlike character is present, and where the change has not been experienced there must be no rest until the Lord is sought with all the heart as the all-important business of life. The opposite fruit of continual contradiction, strife, envy, and jealousy comes from a heart not in harmony with Christ, while true fruit glorifies God and encourages struggling workers under trying circumstances, unlike wild, false fruit that dishonors, disheartens, divides, establishes robbery, follows perverted ideas, permits unjust things, walks contrary to Christ's will and example, and wars against truth and righteousness through injustice, oppression, and error under a semblance of truth.
For those proclaiming the last solemn message to a dying world, righteousness yields its harvest through peace by peacemakers as the natural outgrowth of the Christian religion, fulfilled by laboring together in unity and peace. Despite different temperaments and dispositions they see eye to eye in all matters of religious belief, speak the same things, have the same judgment, and are one. Heavenly wisdom sought in earnest prayer is sown in peace by peacemakers and brings the sweet spirit of Jesus that draws believers of different languages together and near each other in council.
Heavenly Wisdom Versus Earthly
The fruit belongs to the wisdom from above, which is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Righteous character and conduct grow as a harvest only where people make peace, so that a peaceful, meek life produces good works and turns others toward paths of righteousness. Kind, forgiving conduct, living at peace with others, self-control, gentle dealings, and courteous speech and writing rather than harsh, rash words show this wisdom, while Christ's workers carry out sacred responsibilities rightly by acting in this way. Envy, strife, suspicion, contention, slander, harsh judgment, anger, and a contentious spirit oppose this fruit and instead produce confusion and every evil work. Human science or philosophy cannot establish people in virtue; that work requires divine wisdom and agency.
Wisdom from beneath does not descend from above but is earthly, sensual, and devilish. It is shown in bitter envying and strife, alienation, difference, contention, jealousy, bitterness, dissension, self-sufficiency, pride, vanity, worldly-mindedness, avarice, unkindness, and a critical, censorious, fault-finding spirit. It is further shown in doubts, cavilings, playing upon words, sarcasm, evil feelings, false witness, making light of the message sent from God and the messengers who bring it, ridiculing, misrepresenting, quibbling upon words, vainglory, lying against the truth while claiming advanced spiritual knowledge, and yielding obedience to Satan. Wisdom from above is shown out of good conduct by works done with meekness of wisdom, free from bitter envying, strife, vainglory, confusion, and every evil work. When truth is enthroned in the heart it softens and subdues the soul and sanctifies, elevates, ennobles, and purifies the character. Faith then works by love to purge the soul from every kind of selfishness, and by beholding the self-denial, self-sacrifice, meekness, purity, and holiness of Christ's life disciples become Christlike, one with Christ in spirit and character as Christ is one with the Father, bearing God's testing and pruning to be found worthy to belong to God's family above. Those who have this wisdom are true and faithful, pure and holy, having felt need of atoning blood and sanctifying grace, firm in principle, fearless in duty, and zealous, yet humble and lowly, gentle and tender, patient toward all, ready to forgive, manifesting love for souls, giving unmistakable evidence of having been with Jesus, while those who reveal the opposite spirit are unfit to be tolerated in sacred work. Only by the Lord's help can thoughts and words be brought into subjection to Christ, for the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity that defiles the whole body and sets on fire the course of nature, an unruly evil no one can tame, full of deadly poison. Those who sow in peace keep their minds girded, sober, and hoping to the end for grace at the revelation of Jesus Christ, live in reverent fear under a Father who judges without respect of persons according to every one's work, and have purified their souls by obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, loving one another with a pure heart fervently, and sitting with Christ in heavenly places at all times keeps words from becoming arrows that wound and destroy.
The true work of God stays within the bounds of the Bible by taking Christ's lessons and repeating them over and over, and those who will meet Christ in peace at His coming must now walk before Him in humility, meekness, and lowliness of mind, modestly and circumspectly in harmony with testing truth. Strange doctrines, religious enthusiasm, excitement, noise, confusion, and exercises not prompted by the Holy Spirit fail this test and give God's precious and important work a wrong mold. God puts His rebuke upon anything savoring of the caviling, sarcastic, faultfinding spirit, turning aside from close reproofs, regarding them as idle fables, as was brought to the Minneapolis conference.
The surrounding passage in James 3, especially verses 13-18, is to be read and studied for guidance on representing God's character and seeking wisdom from above. It warns that envy, strife, accusation, evil speaking, bitterness, unjust suspicion, and magnifying small offenses produce confusion and evil, divide people, and harm faith, while people should examine and discipline themselves in the light of the Word instead of watching for faults in others. It calls for speech and actions that build up rather than alienate and divide. Its principles are to love as brethren, do no injustice, and show liberality, tenderness, compassion, and courtesy, which express God's mind and law and must be practiced in right conduct toward God and one another.
Genuine Peace Upholds Truth
The fruit of righteousness grows only where peacemakers sow in peace, and this peaceful, gentle, merciful way of acting can be followed without giving up any principle of truth. Making peace does not require sacrificing truth, for the peaceful way coexists with every principle of truth.
True peace is joined to truth and righteousness and comes from Christ and the Spirit through the wisdom from above, which is pure, peaceable, gentle, merciful, impartial and sincere. It is not a deceptive peace gained by withholding present truth or laying aside the cross. Righteous life bears fruit only when peace is made in that spirit, with peace joined to purity, mercy and sincerity rather than secured by withholding truth.
Genuine heaven-born, heaven-bred charity that cannot be corrupted belongs to this wisdom from above, which is first pure and then peaceable, approachable, fruitful, impartial and sincere, and right living results when peacemakers work in peace. It does not create distrust and evil work, does not blunt the sword of the Spirit so that it does no execution, does not cover evil with false charity, does not call sin holiness and truth or call evil good, and does not say to the sinner peace, peace when there is no peace or that all will be well with him. Instead it hates the sin but loves the sinner, faithfully warns of danger, points to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and seeks to take sin away rather than cloak or hide it. Joined to active goodness and peacemaking, this faithful warning rather than falsely declaring peace where there is none is a resistless power for moving hearts, coming only by living connection and actual contact with the God of love, with God first taking hold of the worker so he can take hold of others.
This peaceable way includes approaching people gently and wisely and adapting methods to reach different people without compromising any principle of truth. Such peaceful, peacemaking work produces righteous fruit and can soften hearts and lead people to Christ and obedience to God's law.
Unity and Fellowship Together
Among those who share the same faith, belong to one family as children of the same heavenly Father, and cherish the same blessed hope of immortality, the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace only by those who make peace through close and tender brotherly love, harmony, and union among varied dispositions. This peacemaking gives the watching world no occasion to reproach faith, exerts a sanctifying, Christlike influence, and bears the strongest witness that God sent His Son to save sinners. It belongs to the wisdom from above, which is first pure, then peaceable, gentle and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Envy, suspicion, faultfinding and evil surmising are wisdom that is earthly, sensual and devilish, bringing confusion and every evil work, weakening spiritual life, causing grievous disaster, and retarding God's cause more than the opposition of the world. It requires placing character and will under Christ's command and in harmony with His character, so believers work together without collision as fruitful trees of righteousness.
Peacemaking means living in this world of sin and strife and variance as a peacemaker, doing all in power to advance the work of God, for the fruit of righteousness is produced only in peace and only through those who make peace. It is shown by good conduct with meekness of wisdom and stands opposite bitter envying and strife, which prove an earthly, sensual, devilish wisdom that produces confusion and every evil work. This requires making personal interests secondary, refusing to rule or seek supremacy or press private ideas against the judgment of the brethren, and laying aside insistence on one's own course, words and reasoning. It requires cherishing active humility and true goodness with a softened and subdued spirit, esteeming others better than self, and living in lowliness, forbearance, forgiveness and love. It requires being of one mind and one judgment under the law of love to God and man, being one as Christ is one with the Father, working with an eye single to the glory of God, and trusting the heavenly Father who knows all things to set things in order.
Heavenly wisdom creates love and unity by a teachable, childlike spirit that is easy to be entreated, surrenders its own way and will, and receives and acts on the counsel of others. It calls for hearty cooperation, encouragement, and lifting and pushing forward the work rather than criticizing the ideas and work of others, fastening on everything objectionable, raising objections, discouraging planners, holding back, and blocking the wheels in meetings of counsel. It calls those bound together in humanity to be helps to one another without being the shadow of any man and without unsafely following one man's mind and judgment, but to think and act as free moral agents gathering light from God to reflect upon others while willingly learning from brethren and gaining wisdom and common sense from men of experience. Great and noble-minded men are teachable while selfish and narrow minds refuse to learn, and it is out of place for servants to be self-sufficient, independent, and unwilling to be taught, with no one man to consider himself authority in all things. Those who argue for their own way, hold their own ideas in self-confidence and self-esteem as unquestionable, and talk as if only their ways are perfect, do not bear this fruit because they are not converted and not divested of self. Full of self-esteem, love of their own ideas and ways, unbelief, Pharisaism, and separation in feeling and sympathy from brethren, their words and ways disgust unbelievers, especially when they press objectionable features of faith with proud boasting, and by their contentious fruits they are known to lack truth woven into life and character, displeasing God, hindering others by example, losing much themselves, and needing transformation of character to receive the overcomer's reward.
Old wounds and feelings of dissatisfaction and disunion must be healed at the start through humble confession and reconciliation to brother and sister rather than brooding over supposed wrongs or vindicating a hasty, harsh course. Conquering pride, clearing the King's highway, removing rubbish and obstruction, and respecting the conviction of the Spirit allow hearts to be softened and mind, spirit, and soul to be healed with the oil of grace. Everlasting consequences depend on the use of the tongue, so those under orders must build up and not tear down, speaking only words under the Holy Spirit that soften and subdue and do not aggravate, dictate to, or discourage fellow workers. Peacemaking means not quarreling and not finding fault, but pressing together in unity in the name of the Lord, which brings blessing all along the way. Quarreling among Christians is a very great sin that lets in darkness and satanic influences, and it requires a converted tongue and a converted voice full of music and gentleness instead of harshness, a gift from God to be prayed for for the whole congregation.
Those who make peace live with one accord, pray often and earnestly for the Holy Spirit, feel their spiritual need, seek help to overcome infirmities, and seek fitness to save others with the love of Christ shed abroad in their hearts. They do not gather to share scandal, expose stains on a brother's character, or keep selfishness, envy, and evil-speaking, because love purifies what is objectionable from the soul, expels selfishness, roots out envy and evil-speaking, and works a radical change where old things pass away and all becomes new. Their lives then bear love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance, learning to control self and avoiding struggles for supremacy and bitter speech. Lack of harmony comes from the root of bitterness, and unless every fiber of it is eradicated many will be defiled, for selfishness and self-sufficiency kill spirituality, leading to harsh treatment of others, and unless converted such can never see the kingdom of heaven. This peacemaking righteousness is the great need in every church today, for unity brings strength, peace, and joy and can help others join, while envy, jealousy, criticism, and contention oppose this peace and bring spiritual and physical harm.
Entertaining suspicions, carrying accusations, condemning others without giving them a chance to explain, secretly spreading suspicion and gathering words of complaint instead of going directly to the one thought to be in error to restore in meekness and love reaps only confusion and destruction and is not from above. Accusing the brethren by questioning and finding fault with everything and every man's teaching and thinking no one is perfect gives the greatest evidence of the faultfinder's own imperfection of character, and those guilty of it must stop criticizing others and criticize themselves severely. A peacemaking spirit is the proof of heavenly wisdom, which is pure, peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good works, impartial and sincere, opposite to vanity, self-admiration, desire to dictate and control, criticism of others, creating suspicion, and putting things in the worst light. Such a faultfinding, perverted outlook comes from a fleshly mind and shows the absence of God's wisdom, and its influence is demoralizing and endangers souls and disqualifies from mission work.
Speech Character and Daily Life
Making peace requires guarding words, actions, and spirit so as not to give offense, bringing the natural temperament into subjection to Christ, learning obedience before seeking to command, giving up striving for supremacy, watching unto prayer and knowing self, and never marring the work by a strong, masterly spirit, letting truth influence the whole life in practice. Righteousness is not produced by dwelling on perplexing things and talking of them and by criticizing others for failing to show love, for that course discourages and kills the precious plant of love in the heart. It is produced by appreciating the warmth of the love Christ represented in His life and manifesting that love to the world, by refusing to dwell on and talk of the mistakes of brethren, by giving attention to precious truths and building character with the solid timbers of truth, and by manifesting exalted truth in faithful performance of duty. True wisdom is shown by meek and peaceable works rather than by bitter envying, strife, gossip and censure, which dishonor God, weaken His people, and bring dearth and feebleness into the church, and making peace requires hiding self in Jesus, obeying the Word and learning the divine will, dying to the world without cowardice or compromise, constantly seeking precious truth and wisdom from above, and replacing gossip with sympathy that strengthens hanging hands and confirms feeble knees. The wisdom from above that sows this fruit is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy, and is free from envy, strife, and hypocrisy.
Peacemakers plant righteousness in peace in homes, churches, and daily relationships, abiding in Christ in meek, loving, self-denying conduct cultivated in a peaceful spirit in contrast to the envy and strife that bring confusion and every evil work. This requires peace among believers and no strife in the household but gentleness and peace in the home, learned at the cross by placing the hand in Christ's hand instead of reaching the world's standard. Churches are to put away what grieves the Spirit and to cultivate peace in heart, family, and congregation. Love for God is expressed through obedience, and love for neighbor keeps one from doing the neighbor harm, so obedience is the fruit of love.
Bearing this fruit requires close self-examination in the light of the Word in order to do the essential work to be done, with heart conversion through genuine repentance toward God and faith toward Christ, being humbled, washed, and cleansed. Selfishness, envy, evil-speaking, ungodliness, deception, and greed must be rooted out, and the heart made gentle, condescending, meek, lowly, and loving toward Jesus and toward souls, with unselfish labor to win them. Bitter envying and strife in the heart is glorying and lying against the truth, belonging to a wisdom that is earthly, sensual, and devilish, where envying and strife bring confusion and every evil work, while only the peaceable spirit of wisdom from above sows righteousness. Compliance with the Word brings acceptance with God, believed by faith apart from feeling, shown by implicit obedience to every requirement of the law and by heeding the warnings of the Spirit, and the harvest is the precious fruits of the Spirit borne to God's glory in rich clusters of good fruit.
As people learn from Christ and grow in grace, Christ's grace leads to kindness and tender compassion toward one another even toward those who do not favor them, words become nourishing, and meekness and transforming grace shape the character that produces this peaceful fruit. The harvest of peace is sown through peaceful conduct, and the good fruits of wisdom from above are impartial and sincere. In dealings between people this calls for impartiality and fairness, dealing justly and not using gifts to God, donations, or other good acts to excuse money gained unjustly or by robbing others.
Ministers Teachers and Mission
In church conflict the fruit of righteousness grows only where peace is made, and ministers are to do that work in the spirit of Christ with wisdom from above that is pure, peaceable, gentle, merciful, impartial and sincere. That wisdom addresses wrongs by faithful warning, rebuking sin and making wrongs right, joining personal care for individuals with public teaching. Peaceable, conciliatory labor, not harsh words, personal attacks or rashness, is what lets righteous character and conduct take root and bear fruit. Those with sacred responsibilities must therefore examine themselves, pray humbly, study Christ's life, and speak truth in love and courtesy.
Where alienation, bitterness, envy and jealousy are met, those in important positions set things in order by tact in dealing with human minds and by wise, well-directed, Christlike labor. Diligent work for eternity, a closer walk with God, refining grace, and the meekness, patience and kindness of Jesus are more effective than authority, exhortation or strong argument. A blameless Christian example exerts a silent influence like a sunbeam in practically holding forth the word of life. A severe, critical, overbearing, domineering spirit with rough dealing, tyranny and sharp dictation is forbidden, because it stirs up strife and the worst passions of the heart and brings great loss to worker and church.
Those called to save souls feel a burden for the people, with selfish interests swallowed up in deep concern for the salvation of souls for whom Christ died. They guard against the first signs of disagreement or harshness, let truth sanctify the heart and remove the causes of strife, and practice biblical principles with meekness. Envy and strife bring confusion and every evil work, while the peaceable wisdom from above produces good fruit shown in works with meekness of wisdom. This is especially the calling of missionaries and Bible teachers.
Truth is to be presented with heavenly wisdom that is pure, gentle, merciful and free from envy and strife, not defended by agitation, harsh criticism, rash words or hasty decisions. Workers speak and write courteously, showing Christian courtesy, tender sympathy, mercy and love rather than harshness, partiality or contempt. Peace is the setting in which righteousness is sown and brought forth, and making peace belongs to carrying out sacred responsibilities rightly.
Teachers of children and youth are to cherish this principle and bring it into character, examining from cause to effect whether the truth of God has taken possession of the soul and whether the wisdom from Jesus Christ is in the life. Practicing the truth at all times and in all places, not only when feeling like it or when circumstances are pleasant, lets Christ shape the character and influence children for spiritual good. Correction is given without haste, anger or harshness, in a peaceful, self-controlled spirit. With difficult pupils this means dealing kindly and gently to correct rather than merely exclude, sowing the peaceful conditions in which righteousness can bear fruit.
Leading men are to practice Christ's teachings and show the peaceful fruit of peaceable conduct rather than a cold, critical, sarcastic spirit. Those who guide and correct others need wisdom, mercy and grace, for wisdom from above produces peace and good fruit and prevents confusion and rebellion.
Ministers and those in responsible places make Christ the pattern, conform life practice to His example, love as brethren, and show works out of good conduct with meekness of wisdom. This is the outcome of wisdom from above, first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy, sown only in peace by peacemakers. It requires heart conversion, true repentance, close heart-searching examination, and earnest humble seeking of the Lord. Then Christian love produces warmth and life, and gospel light spreads beyond home and family to bear fruit on the other side of the wall.