Reading your Bible for today January 26

January 26: James 3:13-18

KJV Key Verse: James 3:17
17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

Devotion:
How would you describe wisdom? Most people would say it is having more knowledge about a subject than others. Whilst that in itself is true, I think wisdom is a whole lot more than just knowing more than others. What happens to us when we learn something new? We want to be able to show others we know something new; but how we go about that makes a huge difference to our standing with others.

We could boast about it to others by telling them some of what we know so we can show that we are better than them in some way. If someone boasts about some knowledge to us, then we would envy that person's knowledge. In both of these instances, strife is being build up between two or more people.

What happens when we think we know what has to be done? Particularly when we think we know and someone else, who clearly does not know comes along and guesses the right answer to the problem? Our first reaction may well be to try and bring that person down. We know they have come up with the truth, but they have no idea if it is or not. In this case we would be trying to distort the truth in some way to make ourselves come out on top again.

You do not have to look too far around you to see the effects of a little “wisdom” in people’s lives. You do not have to look far before you too can see just how bad some people can make things just because they know a little more than others. How can this be called wisdom? Wisdom, as described in these verses, is the ability to have knowledge about something and to be able to use that knowledge in a way where it teaches others without causing strife. That way of using knowledge will ensure that peace is maintained. That ‘wisdom’ will be keen to teach, keen to promote itself in such a way as to maintain the student’s reputation!

Points to Ponder:
Do you respect teachers?

Do you try to teach with wisdom, justice and fairness?

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