A harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
James 3:18 (ESV)
What is the harvest of righteousness? Why is it only produced in the making of peace? Why is it worth wholehearted pursuit?
I was brought up in a small town in England and I had little to no contact with or interest in farming. My Dad clearly liked aspects of cultivating nature because for years he had a small plot of land allotted to him to be able to grow vegetables. He took great pleasure in looking after that land and doing the planting and cultivating. He also took a large amount of pleasure in being able to see the fruit of his labours. He knew what he planted, he knew when to plant and he knew what to expect when it reached its ripe stage.
In the completion of his contrasting the wisdom from above to the wisdom from below, James paints a picture. The picture is a harvest. The explanation for the harvest goes back to what was sown and who did the sowing. The concept of sowing and reaping is seen in various areas of scripture. The picture of productivity whether in fruitfulness or the harvest is also spread widely in the Word of God. It is among the most natural things to consider in life. Beauty in nature emerges and flourishes because something was sown and came to fruition.
What James challenges his readers to acknowledge is that if we want to see the right relationships, right interactions and right outcomes that only emerges from the practice of peace-making. The practice of peace-making is sourced in wisdom from above. The outcome of harmonious and flourishing lives only emerges where the pursuit of peace is evident in actions that are full of purity, gentleness, reasonable, merciful, impartial, sincere and full of good works. People commit to that and should expect the kind of outcome that should bring about a heartfelt joy – that comes about because you know what you want and so you’ll get to know how to get it in anticipation and expectation of celebrating it.
I don’t think people, as a whole, intentionally go out of their way to look for misery and negativity. The issue, however, starts with how godly wisdom is pure. What that exposes about us as people is how we’re tarnished and tainted. However noble our motives may be at first, it doesn’t take long for those self-centred tendencies to corrupt the motives and behaviour. Our decision to detach ourselves from godly wisdom means we left it to ourselves to know what’s right and wrong and go with whatever we thought was right in our sight. As it’s left to ourselves, unsurprisingly, we had a very self-centred approach to that, so even when we do talk about lovely values such as impartiality, fairness, gentleness and so on, it doesn’t take long for self to get in the way and eventually drag everything down to such a degree that we’re accustomed to unfairness.
James’ depiction of the harvest of righteousness is inherently based on restoring the attachment to the Creator – the One from above. See how that connection helps us to no longer be so self-absorbed. See how that focus on the Father shows how worthwhile it is to have His heart for others and His pursuit of righteousness to be present throughout all creation. Even as He takes delight in the sun rising and the rain downpour that brings about fruit from the tree, so He takes delight in humanity receiving wisdom from Him to bring about fruitful lives together.
Though we may stumble and fall from time to time, we do have the example of Jesus before us to help us. We do have His time in making peace by going about doing good. We also hear Him speak on the characteristic of children of God being those who are peacemakers. We see Him develop His followers to appreciate His teaching and His example, ready to receive His Spirit to do what He did. We have centuries of role models who followed the examples shown in Scripture. We have those who choose to pursue peace applying the wisdom from above to do so. We are able to do this because we are not alone. We are able to do this because we see the glorious vision of the harvest we expect. We are able to do this because we are not alone and as we continue to lean on the Father and learn from the Son.
In this way we learn to live together, sowing peace.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden
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