<p>3:18&nbsp;<i>And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace for those that make peace- There</i> are a number of connections here with the Septuagint of Is. 32:16-20: &quot;Righteousness remain in the fruitful field... the work of righteousness shall be peace... quietness and assurance... blessed are you that sow&quot;. This is clearly a Kingdom passage, yet it is quoted about our present ecclesial experience. This is one of many examples of where spirituality in this life can give us a foretaste of the Kingdom. The wisdom coming from above in v.17 we have shown to have reference to our birth by the word, to become new creatures. Verse 18 has links with two passages which also contain this theme of spiritual re-birth by the word.<br />The mention of being &quot;full of good fruits&quot; in v.17 may be looking back to the list of spiritual fruits in the beatitudes in Mt.5- the poor in spirit, the weeping, the meek, the pure in heart, those hungering after righteousness, the peacemakers etc. comprise all the main spiritual fruits; and are also a fair description of the oppressed, spiritually minded underclass in the ecclesias to whom James is writing. Now v.18 makes a definite connection with Mt. 5:9; &quot;Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God&quot;.</p><p>This would indicate that James read the people mentioned in the beatitudes as being within the ecclesia, and &quot;the peacemakers&quot; being the quiet brother who humbly tries to calm the bitter vying for power between the rich, self opinionated leaders. In this case, James is reminding these leaders of the virtues of those they despised; they sowed the fruit of righteousness because the word developed those fruits in them. By doing so, Mt. 5:9 says, they became the children of God. Thus the word led them to develop the spiritual fruits which made them peacemakers, which made them the children of God. Thus possession of the word does not automatically make us sons of God, but the effect it achieves upon us in giving us the family characteristics of our Father. The other clear connection of v.18 is with Heb. 12:11. Having spoken of the persecution of the Jewish believers being a proof of their sonship to God, &quot;the Father of spirits&quot;, Paul encourages them that this chastening &quot;yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby&quot;. The poor believers in James' ecclesias had also become the spiritual children of God by the word acting on them, making them react to the chastening they were receiving at the hands of the rich brethren by developing peace. Their peaceful sowing of the word, which was the seed sown (Lk. 8:11), was going to lead them to &quot;raise a harvest of righteousness&quot; (N.I.V.) in their own characters. If this line of interpretation is correct, it would appear that the poor, mistreated brethren were humbly responding to the criticisms of them (the cursing of v.9) by quietly quoting the word, in order to try and make peace both between them and the rich brethren, and between the rival factions in the eldership. See notes on 5:7 for more on this. This problem of there being &quot;wars and fightings&quot; amongst this group is continued in 4:1, thus making the chapter division unfortunate.</p>