The Wisdom from Above Is Unwavering without Hypocrisy
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September 23, 2018 |
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"But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace" (James 3:17-18).
Dr. Jaerock Lee,
Senior Pastor of Manmin Central Church
Chairman, The United Holiness Church of Jesus Christ
Permanent President, The World Christianity Revival Mission Association
Founder & Board Chairman, Global Christian Network
Founder & Board Chairman, World Christian Doctors Network
Founder & Board Chairman, Manmin International Seminary
Founder & Board Chairman, The Alliance Holiness Theological Seminary
Doctorate of Ministry, and Honorary Doctorate of Divinity
His sermons were broadcast by the Far East Broadcasting Company and the Asia Broadcast Station.
He conducted crusades in New York City, Washington D. C., Baltimore, Maryland, Los Angeles, and in Hawaii of the USA; Japan; India; Pakistan; the Philippines; Argentina; Honduras; Peru; Russia; Germany; Kenya; Tanzania; Uganda; the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Jerusalem of Israel; and Estonia.
One day, a woman boarded a train with a book and snack and discovered that her seat was next to a rather tough-looking young man. After the train started off, she was reading her book. Then, she saw the young man eating her snack. She thought, 'He is eating my snack even without asking me! Look at his appearance. I guessed he would be like this.' She tried to show her discomfort, but he did not care and kept eating. She even reached over and took some of the snack to show it was hers, but the man did not care.
When the train was about to arrive, the man cut the remaining piece in half and gave one half to her. He then got off the train without saying thanks or sorry. She was dumbfounded.
She now packed up to leave as well. She was then shocked when she saw the snack she had bought in her bag. It was not the man but she herself that ate the other's snack without asking. As well demonstrated in this case, if we have bias or prejudice, it may cause us to think that something that is not true is true.
Because the woman thought the man looked tough and threatening, she quickly jumped to the conclusion that he took and ate her snack. She did not even check her bag and thought he was a strange person although it was he who was being nice to her! So then, let us always be aware that when we see people and everything with an unwavering heart, we can get closer to the truth.
1. An Unwavering Heart Requires Mercy
With an unwavering heart, you can view everything with steadfast integrity and without partiality. If you are unwavering in everything, you are unchanging, and your attitudes do not change according to other's appearances, financial status, or education.
To achieve this unwavering character we need mercy. Even if we know a lot about the word of God, we cannot put it into practice properly without love and mercy. For example, from the Word of God you've learned you should love even your enemy. But it may not be easy for you to love someone if he does harm to you or if he does something incomprehensible. It is because you may try to adjust his attitude to fit into your own tastes, personality, or self-centered righteousness.
One's image may appear fat in a convex lens, whereas the same person looks thin through a concave lens. What if you determine a person is fat or thin just by seeing the appearance through one of the lenses? You may say, "I just say what I see." But what you say is not the truth of the matter and it can be a lie since you say something different from the truth. Your lie may hurt someone's feeling as well.
It is especially so that to the extent that you lack love and mercy, and you may be caused to waver easily. You may easily judge or condemn others when their words or actions do not agree with yours. If you see them in your bias, you cannot but say something different from the truth about them.
One who has integrity, love, and mercy does not criticize others no matter what they did. It is because he/she wants to embrace them with mercy. While mercy bears good fruits that gives life, wavering distorts the truth in judgment and condemnation and bears evil fruit that takes away life.
It was the case with the Pharisees and scribes at the time of Jesus. They were proud that they were well-versed in the Law and they taught the word of God to people. But they interpreted the Law within their own biased perspectives, and if something was being done by someone differently from their perspectives, they condemned the actuator as a sinner.
When Jesus healed a sick person on the Sabbath, they interpreted the act to be in violation of the Sabbath. The actual meaning of keeping the Sabbath is not to prohibit all kinds of work, but to take spiritual rest.
To heal sick people, preach the gospel, and to revive souls is not labor that seeks one's personal benefit. It is rather something good we have to do on the Sabbath. But the Pharisees and scribes judged Jesus for violating the Sabbath in their 'wavering' hearts. Finally, they came to the conclusion that Jesus was standing against God, which was completely false.
2. Unwavering Leads You to View Everything with Integrity and without Partiality
Many people may not be able to realize that they often bear the fruit of hypocrisy because of their 'wavering' heart. For example, suppose two young brothers had a fight. If you ask the elder brother, "Why did you fight?", then he would say, "My brother hit me first!" Going only by his word, you may think it was the younger brother's fault. But if you ask the younger brother, he might say, "He tried to take away my toy so I hit him!"
If you scold the younger one after only listening to the elder brother, the younger one would feel victimized. And, if the parents tend to love the elder one more or if the younger one is usually the trouble-maker, they may believe the elder one. But wise parents should see everything with integrity of character without partiality.
Besides, some people distort the truth for their own benefit or in their own thoughts. Because of wavering in them, they may lie or act with hypocrisy without even realizing it. For example, suppose you hear that somebody you love has been accused of doing something wrong. You are likely to disagree immediately saying, "The person couldn't have done such a thing!" Or, you may just want to cover up the person's fault saying that there must have been a good reason. However, if that person is somebody you do not like, you may just believe it, even though it is not really true.
You might even think, 'That person made a similar mistake before, and has done it again.' Furthermore, you may even justify your ill-feelings against him saying, "That's why I was never able to like him anyway." Because of the 'wavering character of partiality rather than trying to discern the truth, you just tend to believe even what is evil and pass judgment on the person.
Let me give you another example. Suppose somebody has just passed not recognizing you. He could have been busy, or might have been preoccupied with other thoughts. He could have bad eyesight or just tried to avoid people for the moment. But if you do not have love and mercy toward the person, you are likely to pass judgment on him.
You may think he is very rude or interpret it in another way within your own experience and feelings. To the extent that we lack mercy and love, we will use fleshly thoughts within the context of wavering. Then, we cannot hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, and our eyes will be covered, and we cannot find the truth.
Or, in a situation you have to choose between things, if you are already inclined to what you like, your speech will also incline towards it. So, you may not ask what the will of God really is, but you just ask as to whether you can push ahead with what you would like to do. No matter what kind of advice you hear from others, you just interpret it as you want. There are also some people who say the only things that are beneficial for them. Thus, when you give advice in counseling, you should discern well.
3. To Achieve the Unwavering Heart Void of Partiality
When you have a problem with somebody, you may say that the person is solely the cause of the problem. But if you hear directly from the person, it could be a different story. And by hearing only from one side, you cannot impartially see everything in integrity. Let's now delve into how to achieve the heart of unbiased and unwavering character void of partiality.
1) To incline towards the weak can also be a bias.
Exodus 23:3 says, "Nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his dispute." Here, 'a poor man' refers to all people who are weak and less powerful as well as those who are literally poor. Of course, we should not be partial to the rich or those with power for your own benefit, but you must not be partial to the weak and the poor just because they are weak and poor, and you must not be partial to those whom you are close to. Such partiality makes you hard to give sound judgment.
When a man of strength and a man of weakness fight against each other, people usually think it is more proper to stand up for the weak. They think it is something cowardly and self-seeking if they stand for the strong and the rich. But to discern the truth, we should not incline towards either side. God does not want us to shift to the left or to the right. He wants us to discern what is right and wrong correctly, and to discern with the eyes of love and compassion.
2) Unless we have personally seen or heard something, we should never judge anything just by hearing it from somebody else.
Especially about objects or people that we have prejudice against, it is difficult to discern the truth correctly, even if we have seen and heard something ourselves. Furthermore, if we just carelessly judge others or come to a conclusion just by hearing from somebody or with some speculations, we will be possibly very wrong. It is easy for us to make a wrong judgment if we believe what we hear from somebody without examining everything impartially.
When something very beneficial to you is involved, you are more likely to make a poor judgment. For example, suppose you are investing in a business. If you just invest a great amount of money just on hearsay from somebody, who can you blame if you are swindled out of your money or if you suffer from a great loss? In this case, you must conduct a thorough research of it. You will have to check the information very carefully as to whether your partner is trustworthy and whether the business could really generate revenue, and so on.
In the same manner, when we are careful about what we see, hear, and discern, we can make our hearts more upright and more just.
3) We have to cast off ill-feelings and self-centered motives.
Most people have more lenient standards for those who are close to them or those who treat them well. For example, if somebody who is not very close to us breaks the rules, we say, "He is arrogant. He does not follow the rules and he acts with impropriety." But if your family members or close friends break the rules, you may think they must have had a reason.
Among unbelievers, when their children are beaten up outside, their tempers flare up first before they think about who is right and who is wrong. They do not think about their own children hitting other children, and they just get angry because their own children have been beaten. So, we have a saying, "The children's fight soon becomes the parents' fight."
Or, when people hate someone, they may hate his idea as well. But when they like another person, they are more likely to be flexible about the person's idea. If you have such biased partiality, it often covers your eyes. Thus, you need to check if you have ill-feelings or selfish-motives in your heart when you say or do something.
When you deal with something related to those whom you love or you are close to, you need to be more impartial in words and actions. Moreover, if you are superiors, you must be more cautious because other people may think your actions or words come from your passions and desires although you think you make a good discernment without wavering.
4. The Wisdom Unwavering without Hypocrisy Sees Everything in Goodness and Truth
When you cast off sin and evil and become sanctified, you can discern the heart of people and the context of situations. You can discern their hearts based on truth and do not make judgment with evil, so you can see the truth.
Thus, you need to become sanctified in order to know the will of God without wavering. That is, you must cast away every form of evil such as hatred, anger, jealousy, greed, judgment, condemnation, pride, and arrogance.
When you become sanctified and see, feel, and think of everything in goodness, you can discern without bias. You will not make judgment or condemnation because you think of everything in goodness and based on the truth. Otherwise, you may judge others by your own standards and misunderstand or hurt them.
Jesus said in Matthew 7:5, "You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye." When you lack love, you may see others' speck in biased wavering and hypocrisy although you have a grave sin like the 'log.' Thus, you must quickly cultivate love and mercy in your heart so that you will never pass judgment or condemnation in wavering bias.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, I pray in the name of the Lord that you will cast away sin and evil from the depth of your heart and thereby gain the wisdom to see and discern everything with integrity and impartiality through the eyes of the heart that is clear like crystal and beautiful like the finest gemstone.
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