James 3 - “You Will Cite Your Sources”

¹³ If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by

an honorable life,

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good works with the humility that comes from wisdom.
¹⁴ But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart,

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cover up the truth with boasting and lying.
¹⁵ For jealousy and selfishness are

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God’s kind of wisdom.
Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic.

¹⁷ 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.
NIV ¹⁷ But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. 18 Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.

v13 - Doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom.
Not ‘FOR’ salvation, but ‘FROM’ salvation.

Christ is Wisdom

1 Cor. 1.30 God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our

God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin.

Humility? How much, where, and when? I must have the same attitude as Jesus
Phil. 2
³ Don’t be

; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. ⁴ Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.
⁵ You must have the

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attitude that Christ Jesus had.

“What do you have to say for yourself?”

Titus 2.8 Teach the truth so that your teaching

be criticized. Then those who oppose us will be ashamed and have nothing bad to say about us.

Scrutiny - Our weakness invites it, Satan’s nudges enhance it.
2 Tim. 3 ¹² Yes, and

who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. ¹³ But evil people and impostors will flourish. They will deceive others and will themselves be deceived.

V14 If you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don’t cover up the truth with boasting and lying.

Here’s something to consider: If I’m boasting and covering up with lies, that’s an indicator that there’s bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in my heart.

As James would say, Brothers and sisters it should not be like this. The love of Jesus in your life does not have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition for you.

Jealousy comes from ‘there’s not enough’, and specifically ‘for me’. It’s the idea of a zero sum game. —RM

Selfish Ambition does not come from love. So it is neither created BY or FOR love. Selfish Ambition seeks to fill in the broken places of my heart with fading, temporary, broken things. And all those things cut and wound all the way down.

How do we cover up the truth with boasting and lying?
Titus 3
⁹ Do not get involved in

discussions about spiritual pedigrees or in quarrels and fights about obedience to Jewish laws. These things are useless and a

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of time. ¹⁰ If people are causing divisions among you, give a first and second warning. After that, have nothing more to do with them. ¹¹ For people like that have turned away from the truth, and their

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sins condemn them.

Matthew 12
³⁵ A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. ³⁶ And I tell you this, you must give an account on judgment day for

idle word you speak. 37 The words you say will either acquit you or

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you.”

Romans 10.10
For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your

that you are saved.

We’re always ‘openly declaring’ our faith. Faithful in little is faithful in much - if I’m counting on me, you’ll hear an awful lot about be. If I’m counting on Jesus - who should you hear an awful lot about FROM me?

3 John 1 (NIV)
⁹ I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be

, will not welcome us. ¹⁰ So when I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, spreading malicious nonsense about us. Not satisfied with that, he even

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to welcome other believers. He also

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those who want to do so and puts them out of the church.

¹¹ Dear friend, do not imitate what is

but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God.

1 John 4
¹³ And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us.
¹⁴ Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.
¹⁵ All who declare that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. ¹⁶ We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love.
God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.
¹⁷ And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world.
¹⁸ Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear.
If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love.

James 3 - If the fruit of good deeds is evident, you’re citing your source: Jesus
¹⁷ 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. ¹⁸ And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness.

EXTRAS:

David Guzik - Taming the Tongue

Chuck Swindoll - The Wise, The Unwise and The Otherwise

Alistair Begg - The Power and Danger of the Tongue