“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. But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don’t cover up the truth with boasting and lying. For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind.”
It is really regretful that we as Americans are so detached from the process of growing our food. Perhaps if you have done some gardening, you are closer than many of us to really connecting with the idea of planting seeds and reaping a crop. Today’s verses talk about ways we can examine the fruit of our lives to determine if we are following God’s ways or Satan’s. James breaks it down very clearly for us here.
You have two kingdoms: God’s and Satan’s. In God’s kingdom, life, health, peace, abundance, and love grow. In Satan’s kingdom, you find death, disorder, strife, poverty and hate. When you examine aspects of your life or the world around you, you can easily see where God is growing good fruit versus where Satan is destroying you. (And here’s a hint: jealousy, selfishness, boasting, lying, and evil are demonic inventions of Satan.)
James is giving us a huge insider tip here as he lets us know that wisdom = humility = good works = fruit of following God’s ways. Your heart will be crippled and diseased if you believe all the lies in your head that tell you someone else is better than you or that you should just look out for yourself. There are lots of reasons we protect ourselves, especially when we have been hurt in the past. But no matter what your story, you have full access to the wisdom of God and ultimately to a humble attitude that will set you free. Jesus was totally free of all of these evil things because his heart was humble and aligned with God. Imitation of his life is guaranteed to release you from the clutches of a hard and evil heart.