A Healthy Church Leads To A Healthy Country

 "Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.  For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.  But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace." James 3:13-18 ESV
   These words were penned around 2,000 years ago, and they still apply today. Human beings, being the way we are, have a tendency toward selfish ambition and pride. But in the church, this goes in disguise. We rarely see the impure motives in our own hearts, but we can see them usually in others.
  This teaching is so good and helpful for us today in the church. None of us is above this kind of temptation, and we really do need to guard against it in our lives. The Bible is very clear about God operating in peace and love, yet we still have this bent toward selfish ambition and pride, but it is just renamed. 
 I need to hear this as well as everyone else does, for it is so easy to fall into a trap. It is so easy to listen to the voice of the Enemy who would like us to believe that we have to 'warn' others about the bad people in our churches, especially church leaders who we disagree with. There are many in Christian leadership who are led by selfish ambition and do not appreciate others who are having effective ministries. We need to be careful if we are serving the Lord with the ministry and place of service He gave us, to not use this as a competition of some sort. 
   I am not going to talk about slander in this blog today, but suffice it to say that selfish ambition leads to slander if it goes unchecked, which can spread like gangrene. The Bible, and especially the book of James, has much to say about slander and its poison. It is a warning to Christians to not use their tongues in such a way.
   God wants His church to be healthy. Our words can bring health and healing or they can bring sickness and death. Wisdom from God is peaceable and open to reason. The church in America can be healthy and our words can make a big difference in that. Also, the Bible has a lot to say about how we are to treat one another. When the church in America is healthy, it will affect other areas in our country, such as government. The key to a healthy nation is a healthy church. And when the church is healthy, then it will be in a place to help other churches in other places. God will truly be glorified when that happens. That's why we need to 'pray for the church and pray for the country'.