Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. (James 3:13) Wisdom and understanding don’t really happen without activity. You do something stupid, fall, and hurt yourself and if you gain wisdom, you understand that you shouldn’t do that stupid thing. You might learn the same by watching someone else go through the process, but too often, we take their failure as a challenge. “They did it wrong, we will do it right/better . ” If we are wise, we should show it, not by impressing others with our wisdom, but by doing what is right. Doing something stupid or wrong doesn’t help you or anyone else. Perhaps more importantly, according to James, wi...
All a person’s ways seem pure to them, but motives are weighed by the Lord . (Proverbs 16:2) “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. (Matthew 6:1) Generally, we think that this means all a person’s ways seem purely right or good to them. I suspect that it’s often true. But a person’s ways can also seem purely worthless, evil, hopeless, etc. The point is that our estimation of what we have done and who we are is often so like the story of the size of the fish that got away. We can’t imagine that our perceptions are skewed. This thing we care about is important! And it is, but part of what is important to us is being seen as what we think is good. God sees what we do, and He not only knows what we’re doing but why we do it. If we do things to look good to others or for their praise, and we get that praise, we...