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Since the Fall in Genesis 3, the type of “wisdom” described by James in James 3:15 has always been accessible and prevalent. The influence of both the prince of the power of the air (Eph. 2:2) over the world’s system and man’s inherent capacity for sin (Rom. 3:23; James 1:13-24) are significant and comprehensive. In the technological age in which we currently live, we also have a multitude of avenues through which this “wisdom” can be accessed and expressed. The believer is effectively assailed from without on all sides and from within by the leanings of their very own “body of death” (Rom. 7:24).

How then, with the odds stacked against us like this, can we grow in and cultivate the wisdom from above?

In Galatians 6:7-8, Paul delivers an incredibly helpful planting/harvesting analogy—especially helpful for Iowans. The Apostle writes, “…for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.” Far from the Christian version of karma, Paul is here simply saying, “Whatever you plant, you will harvest.” Or, said another way (the proper Iowan way), “You can’t plant corn and expect to harvest soybeans.” What we spend our time planting and cultivating, that is what we will reap.

Whether we realize it or not, you and I are planting and cultivating every single day. If you took inventory of a single, normal day out of your week, what would you find? This has been an incredibly convicting question for me to answer in recent years. Would you find those things which plant and cultivate “wisdom” that is earthly, unspiritual, and demonic? Or do the patterns of your life cultivate purity, peace, gentleness, openness to reason, mercy, good fruits, impartiality, and sincerity? It is a hard question to ask, and it gets even harder when it presses us to see areas in which we need to walk in repentance. But, earlier in Galatians 5, God graciously gives us the answer through Paul’s words, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh,” (Gal. 5:16).

Yes, we do have much stacked against us on all sides this week. No, our strength is not enough on its own. But, for those of us in Christ, God has given us His Spirit who “is greater than he who is in the world,” (1 Jn. 4:4). 

May we walk in His ways and by His power to cultivate the wisdom that is from above!