James 3:13 says,
“If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom.”
“If you are wise and understand God’s ways”, means that you can be those things. “Prove it…” means shut up and live it. The things that you do and the way you do them prove you understand God’s ways. In verses 17 and 18 James breaks down what this looks like. He says,
“But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere. And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness.”
I looked up the greek word for “peace loving” and in the definition for it, it used the word salutary. Salutary means – (especially with reference to something unwelcome or unpleasant) producing good effects; beneficial; causing improvement of behavior or character. Salutary means you can walk into a bad situation and cause it to be better.
Being gentle, willing to yield (not having to be proved right), having mercy and good deeds, being sincere, having no favoritism. These things equip you to walk into malfunction and draw out function. We are the secret weapon God uses to cause people to taste and see that he is good. We just want to make sure that it’s not a secret to us.
James ends the description of wisdom talking about peacemakers. I have heard it said that peacemaker and peacekeeper are not the same thing. A peacekeeper seeks to keep people “happy,” while a peacemaker creates transformation. Let’s prove that we belong to God by cultivating transformation in our lives and the lives of those around us.