And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.
Parallel translations
- WEB Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
- BSB Peacemakers who sow in peace reap the fruit of righteousness.
- NKJV Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
- NASB And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
- NLT And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Those who make peace sow in peace and reap a harvest of righteousness. Right living grows out of a peaceable, not a quarrelsome, spirit.
Overview
Concluding the contrast between earthly and heavenly wisdom, James says the genuine righteousness God desires is cultivated by peacemakers, not by the envious and contentious. The agricultural image pictures peaceable people planting and gathering a crop of right standing and right conduct. This anticipates the next chapter's diagnosis of strife and echoes Jesus' blessing on the peacemakers (Matthew 5:9), who reflect the God of peace reconciling sinners through Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Matt 5:9Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
- Hos 10:12Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.
- Phil 1:11Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.
- Isa 32:16–17Then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field.
- Gal 6:8For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
- Prov 11:30The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise.
- Prov 11:18The wicked worketh a deceitful work: but to him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure reward.
- Heb 12:11Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
- John 4:36And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.
- Jas 1:20For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
- Prov 11:28He that trusteth in his riches shall fall; but the righteous shall flourish as a branch.
- Amos 6:12Shall horses run upon the rock? will one plow there with oxen? for ye have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock:
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The wisdom from above and the royal law of love are the life of those who belong to 'our glorious Lord Jesus Christ' — faith in him made visible in works.
How James 3:18 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.