At the climax of his sermon in Deuteronomy 1-4, Moses urges the children of Israel to follow the teachings from God that they have received through him. "Keep them and do them," Moses says, "For that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples" (Dt 4:6).
Following God's way of wisdom is a major theme in the epistle of James. James identifies some main characteristics of that wisdom in James 3:13-18. He states that "the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere (vv 17-18).
Living in God's way is not easy. As James points out, "we all stumble in many ways" (v. 1). What we value and how we're progressing in our spiritual walk are reflected in our speech. James observes, "And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body" (v. 2).
In a sermon at Church of the Messiah on October 31, 2026, Kyle Kettering decried a popular trend to overemphasize the sinfulness of Christians and underemphasize the Christian quest to pursue holiness. The pursuit of holiness, a major emphasis of James and other New Testament writers, does not diminish Jesus' saving work, Kyle said. Rather, it highlights his power.
Kyle recommended Matthew Kelly's book, The Forgotten Way: The Saint James Master Plan for help with harnessing "the power of the tongue" as taught in James 3.
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