Disciples are called to have God’s character. We have been looking at what that doesn’t mean. This daily devotional looks at what that does mean.
Nuggets
- Wisdom only comes from God and mirrors His characteristics.
- A disciple of Christ should have God’s compassion.
- God’s love is for all – and so should ours be.
To read devotions in the Redo for Godliness series, click the appropriate button below.
Devotions in The Character of One Who Fears God series
Our goal in our Redo for Godliness is to navigate the Sanctification Road so that we possess the characteristics of God. Having God’s character is how we achieve perfection.
We’re looking at Hannam’s The Happiness of Possessing a Conscience Void of Offence (sic). I liked this sermon because I think this is going to be a different way of looking at character.
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Let's Put It into Context #1
Here is a running list of what we’ve discussed previously.
Let's Put It into Context #2
We’ve talked about the fear of the Lord many times. In the Old Testament, the fear of the Lord means awe, reverence and love, not terror.
Glossary
It changed in the New Testament. Godliness, equated with the Old Testament term fear of the Lord, is reverence in thought, feeling, and conduct that is promoted by walking in His Spirit and obeying God’s laws and commandments to produce a moral likeness of God.
The moral likeness is our character. Our character is our thoughts, feelings, and actions all added together.
In other words, all of us is to be like God.
Heavenly Characteristics
“But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere” (Jas. 3: 17 ESV)
Wisdom only comes from God and mirrors His characteristics.
Hannam wrote, “He hath respect to every part of his duty, toward God and man (James 3:17), and this, not at certain seasons only, but always.”
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We have recently talked a lot about wisdom. James took a slightly different track than we have in the past.
Wisdom is an enlightened acceptance of God’s principles, gained through knowledge, discernment, and good sense, that is put into practice through salvation, increasing our goodness and virtue.
- Discernment means we can evaluate the situation and recognize right from wrong.
- Salvation is the gift of life through the deliverance from condemnation and sin to acceptance and holiness and changes us from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive.
- Sins are actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings.
- Holiness is the transcendent excellence of His nature that includes elements of purity, dedication, and commitment that lead to being set apart. Purity means possessing God’s moral character, having eliminated the stain of sin.
- Spiritual death is the spiritual separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin. The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
- God’s goodness is His holy, pure, and righteous behavior.
- Holy means to be set apart, perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues.
- Pure means not being sinful or having the stain of sin.
- Righteous means we are free from sin because we are following God’s moral laws.
- Virtues are standards of moral excellence.
Lupton said that wisdom is made up of judgment, circumspection, and comprehension that is put into practice in order to accomplish our goals.
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Pure
James said that the wisdom is pure. Pure means not being sinful or having the stain of sin.
What we are striving for is purity. Purity means possessing God’s moral character, having eliminated the stain of sin.
This element of purity differentiates God’s wisdom from worldly wisdom. This higher wisdom is only higher because it is focused on God.
Obtaining God’s wisdom is what building a relationship with Him is all about. We seek the purity so that we are forgiven of our sins.
Peaceable
The product of the pure wisdom is that it is peaceable. Deems expanded on that by saying, “Men that have no false and wicked purposes cannot break the peace.”
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If we are pure, there is no dissension to destroy the peace. If we are sinful, that breeds chaos.
One of Paul’s favorite themes is peace. He knows that the church family should be unified. Unity is an inward, spiritual feeling of harmony found through Christ that manifests itself in outward actions that foster the spread of the gospel.
Open to Reason
We are going to look at reasonableness before we look at gentleness.
I really like how Deems explained how we are reasonable. He wrote, “It is not violent in its maintenance of its own convictions; it is not stubborn, unwilling to hear what may be said on the other side. There are men who deem themselves wise, who storm out what they believe to be the truth. Real wisdom does not so. Where there is a sober conviction of the right, and a firm faith in the final triumph of the right, all that a man has to do is to speak the truth in love.”
There are so many times I just want to get off social media. People storm out with the conviction that they are right. They feel they are compassionate and tolerant.
Until they come across a disciple. Then they turn a shade of mean.
They think their worldly wisdom justifies this behavior.
Deems said not so. Real wisdom doesn’t do that. Saying something in a loud voice — even so the majority of people believe what you say — does not make it right or true wisdom.
Instead, wisdom follows a sober countenance based on faith. Sober is a character trait distinguished by self-control, genuineness, and sound moral judgment.
Glossary
Gentle
Too many people today believe that gentleness is a weakness. Deems disagreed. He felt gentleness was a product of being reasonable.
I can see that. If we are weak, we are going to fighting and scraping to get stronger. Sometimes, we take the climbing the ladder mentality where the ends justify the means.
We would be wrong, but that does not equate gentleness with weakness. The softness of being weak does not lead to gentleness.
It is interesting to see that Deems argued against seeing gentleness as an weakness, while Lupton is arguing that gentleness is not authoritative. Gentleness is not overbearing.
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Deems argues that it is the strong that are reasonable and gentle. It is built on their compassion and attitude of giving.
Full of Mercy and of Good Fruits
“… full of mercy and good fruits …” (Jas. 3: 17 ESV)
A disciple of Christ should have God’s compassion.
Deems wrote, “In a man of true celestial wisdom there is so much sympathy and compassion that it is perpetually bursting out into fruits of goodness, which are so profitable that all men acknowledge them.”
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The mercy is important here. Disciples’ mercy is a characteristic of compassion for the needs of others, especially those who are in distress.
Our mercy is patterned after God’s mercy. God’s mercy is an act of sovereign will that produces an unexpected and undeserved response from God as He responds in love to our needs.
I like how Deems put it. He wrote, “It regards a man for what he is, not for what he has or has not been.”
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Instead, the mercy is a deep feeling of compassion because of the miseries encountered by people. We don’t give them lip service. We truly want to do what we can to improve their situation.
That means we don’t look down on anyone for being in the situations in which they find themselves.
But it is more than the worldview socialism. It isn’t about our physical lot in life.
We have all sinned. Some of us ask forgiveness from Sovereign God for our sins. Some don’t.
That is what is important. God’s priority is always our spiritual condition.
Wisdom with a dash of mercy is not unpacifiable or miserly. It is giving and giving.
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Without Partiality
“… impartial and sincere” (Jas. 3: 17 ESV)
God’s love is for all – and so should ours be.
Thorold’s comments about being impartial and sincere are very applicable to today’s society. He wrote, “The person who is endowed, with this heavenly wisdom is above that narrow and selfish spirit which men who act upon worldly motives are always of, who are inclined to think well of, and to wish and do well to such only as are of the same opinion or party, sect, or persuasion with themselves. No, the truly wise and the good man is a man of more enlarged, a more generous, a more Christian spirit and disposition.”
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Lupton cautioned those who are not impartial and sincere are easily swayed by bright, shiny things. Satan is going to be working overtime to make sure those are thrust into the disciple’s way.
Making the Connections
I can’t say it enough. There is a big difference between earthly wisdom and heavenly wisdom.
Earthly wisdom wants to rely on science to explain how things work. That will also tell us how they were created.
One man relying on the wisdom of another man will not be enough to become friends with God and influence Him.
We are to focus on God and look to His ways. Anything less will call into question where we are spending eternity.
How Do We Apply This?
Lupton acknowledged how difficult it is for even disciples to distinguish between these characteristics of wisdom and what is practiced by disciples today. We need to figure out God’s way and do it.
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Father God. We choose to be like You. We know we have a long way to go to accomplish that goal and that it will take our lifetimes to achieve. We also know that You finish everything You start, so You will complete our transformation. Help us to always look to You. Amen.
What do you think?
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