Sowing a Harvest of Righteousness

Christians are supposed to possess the wisdom that is from above and see it mature in their lives. That has been James’ main point in James 3:13–17. Unlike worldly, unspiritual, demonic wisdom, the wisdom from above is “pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere” (vv. 15–17). These are not qualities that we can develop on our own; thankfully, because Christ is our wisdom from God and we have received Him by faith alone, we already possess the heavenly wisdom that James commends (1 Cor. 1:30–31). As we grow to be more like Jesus over the course of our Christian lives, this godly wisdom and all its virtues grow stronger in us as well (2 Peter 3:1–10).

James is a very practical author who is concerned to explain the real-life benefits that attend those who follow his teaching. In today’s passage, he gives us the key benefit that comes when we follow his teaching and seek the wisdom that is from above. Those who pursue such wisdom in peace sow a “harvest of righteousness” (James 3:18).

Here the word “righteousness” does not refer to a right legal standing before God’s bar of justice, which is how Paul frequently uses the term. Instead, James is speaking of the practice of righteousness, to godly thoughts, actions, speech, and intentions. There is some ambiguity in the Greek as to whether the harvest of righteousness that is sown by the peacemakers is a reward that the peacemakers themselves receive or is the production of righteousness in the Christian community. Probably it is the latter. The idea is that those who exercise the kind of godly wisdom that James has described, acting to preserve godly peace, help make the church a realm where all the godly virtues given in James 3:17 can flourish.

Yet we should note that the other possible interpretation of 3:18 does not contradict what we have just said. Peacemakers who seek to follow God’s truth while not creating unnecessary dissension grow in their own personal righteousness. They allow for the whole church to reap a harvest of righteousness and gain a harvest for themselves. John Calvin comments regarding those godly peacemakers: “Those who are wise according to God’s will, are so kind, meek, and merciful, as yet not to cover vices nor favor them; but on the contrary in such a way as to strive to correct them, and yet in a peaceable manner, that is, in moderation, so that union is preserved. . . . Those who wish to be physicians to heal vices ought not to be executioners.”