What Is The Missing Link?

Now on to Wisdom.

 ¹⁷But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. ¹⁸And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.(James 3)

Before I use the Greek and Hebrew to make the terms peace and wisdom more interpretable.  I want to ask you to wonder about what it might mean to make peace?   What would it cost us?

It is an important question in, our overly conflicted, world today.  World peace is far from a reality.  Peace in our own nation seem absent.  Family systems are filled with peace-less-ness. 

So I wonder how it could be that we make peace.  

First Let's take a look at the Hebrew word shalom, this often prayed for sense of peace.  Shalom, carries the meaning of pure, un-compromised, calm.

“In the basic sense, it is not the narrower one of peace, but the wider one of “well-being.”..for health, and for national prosperity, which implies stability…..

"The peace that God gives is all-sufficient. It carries with it a solid blessing.”  

“Peace of the soul…comes through God’s saving work which restores our normal state of being….It is a positive state inseparably connected with joy and faith.” (p.210)

¹ The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. 
²   He makes me lie down in green pastures;
he leads me beside still waters; 
³   he restores my soul.
He leads me in right paths
   for his name’s sake.

That my friends is true peace.

The Greek word for wisdom is Sophia.  Which “…always denotes a quality rather than an activity…not just the skill itself, but the mastery of it,….hence Sophia is an attribute of the gods (God) and their gift to humanity….Some of its common parallels have to do with perception, understanding or skill combined with uprightness and honesty.”  

"It is summed up as wisdom being the practical mastery of life and its situations.”(p. 1056ff)

Sophia is thought to be imparted or learned.  Its  source always comes from  God’s Spirit’s activity acting within the human soul.

Which all brings us to the my question: What it might mean to make peace?

Here is another wonder I have:  If people all over the world pray for peace, then why does it seem so impossible?  

The reason I asked is because I am quite sure that God’s Spirit has not stopped moving among God’s people.  I believe that with all my heart. 

I also am also confident that prayer works.  God does still listen to his people’s honest needs. 

So, where is the missing link here?  

If people indeed pray for peace.  And God still is listening, and active, in this world.  Then why is peace some illusive something that seem so impossible?

Peace, and harmony, on earth is one of God’s goals for his creation.  Right?

Otherwise, why would God have come to earth in Jesus’ skin?

It is true, isn’t it, that at Jesus’ birth the angels sang of this shalom.  Peace and good will.  Right?

Where is the missing link to this most wanted quality?

13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom.

Any thoughts?

13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. ¹⁴But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. ¹⁵Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. ¹⁶For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. ¹⁷But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. ¹⁸And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.(James 3)