James says a spring cannot give both fresh water and bitter. If bitter words keep coming out of us, trying harder is not the whole answer. James traces the water to its source, and three verses later he names what is in it.
Our class is in the hardest paragraph James wrote. Nearly every move he makes in it, Jesus made first on the mountain, and the wisdom writers made before either of them.
Continuing a series on Friends history: William Penn wrote No Cross, No Crown in prison, arguing that no crown of glory comes without the daily cross of obedience.
James calls us to lay aside sin, humbly receive the word God has planted in us, and then do it, because the Word was never meant to be information only.
Before David was a king, he was overlooked, mocked, and hunted. The road to being called a man after God's own heart ran straight through rejection, met every time with a righteous response.
When you do not know what to do, James points you to a generous God who gives wisdom freely, and to a wisdom that looks like peace and mercy rather than ambition.