James 3:13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom.

Controlled

Wisdom comes from the understanding that God gives you the knowledge to use. The key is to have a relationship with God and draw from His power. Good conduct means presenting yourself with a good attitude. When you are out in the world working out of the overflow of love poured into you from the Lord, this is how you should show yourself.

Meekness is pictured by a horse being bridled. This is how the horse is controlled. Are you using your power to effect change for God in this way? Good works are an outgrowth of the grace shown to us through the knowledge of saving grace. This is the evidence of our faith. We covered this point in a previous study. We are not saved by these works, but they are evidence of our saving grace.

Truth of the matter

James 3:14 But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. Envy is the green-eyed monster that expresses itself as covetousness. It turns bitter when we keep seeing the possession that someone else has that we want over and over again. In truth, it is not the thing that we want but the perceived blessing that we think the other person has been blessed with that we desire. Why not us? I am better than them. This is the dark truth. We are placing ourselves above the person with the thing.

This is a basic desire we see in children when they are put together in a play area. One child picks up a toy, and no matter how many other toys there are, the second child snatches it from the first child’s hand. We should not boast that we are not like this in our flesh. We are. If we can’t acknowledge that the flesh has this kind of strong pull, then we are liars.

James 3:15 This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. If we take an honest look at our motives, we see the handprints of sin when we are not under the influence of the Holy Spirit. Our main problem is that we are at war with the flesh that is our covering while we are on this earth. These desires are directly from the flesh and are demonic in nature. This is why Lucifer was kicked out of heaven; it is based on pride.

The Foundation

Luke 6:48 “He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock.” The importance of the foundation in our lives is the difference between being a saint and being cast into darkness. Jesus is the foundation that allows us to not be shaken through the pull of our flesh. What have you done with the call Jesus calls you to?