high spots from a thirty-thousand-foot sampling. There are
plenty of others on the way down. But James’s interpretation
of the root causes behind this rotten fruit sounds fairly
comprehensive. The reason they result in “disorder and every
evil thing” is because they don’t bear any of the earmarks of
those qualities that come down to us from God, from above,
but instead are “earthly, natural, demonic.”
Straight from the devil’s domain.So if we can pull back for a moment from whatever’s
creating distance and disrespect among the people we know
and among the church where we worship, you can bet your
bottom dollar there’s a demonic tint to most of it. He’s got a lot
of chips invested in chipping away at our unity. And while he
can’t turn us into little devils ourselves, he can lure us into
doing things that bear a striking resemblance. Our job as
people who’ve caught on to his schemes is to keep the truth
plastered in large letters where we can’t help but see it and to
pray we’ll be able to sniff out his activity both in ourselves and
in others... because we know it’s doing nothing more than
inserting holes in the line of our peace and unity, slowing our
steady march forward. Together.