2. Hearing and Practicing the Word

James 1:18-27

He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created. My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it--he will be blessed in what he does. If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

The theme of this passage centers on God's living Word:

• Being born through the Word (1:18)

• Preferring the Word to moral filth (1:19-21)

• Letting the Word save us (1:21)

• Listening to and practicing the Word (1:22-25)

• Experiencing the freedom of the Word (1:25)

• Living out the Word's teaching in practical ways (1:26-27)

James' readers equated listening to the Word taught in church with living out its implications in their everyday life. We can see this in self-righteous church-goers, but can we see it in ourselves?  In some cases, yes, if we are honest. Perhaps these passages will help:

Being Born through the Word (1:18)

"He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created." (1:18)

Though many Bible translations group verse 18 with the previous passage, I think it introduces and leads into James' teaching on the Word, and probably belongs with 1:19-27.

The phrase "word of truth" appears five times in the English Bible:

"Do not snatch the word of truth from my mouth, for I have put my hope in your laws." (Psalm 119:43)

 "And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit...." (Ephesians 1:13)

"... the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel...." (Colossians 1:5)

"Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth." (2 Timothy 2:15)

The fifth time it appears is in our passage:

"He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created." (1:18)

First, this passage tell us that we did not appear by chance, but he chose (boulomai) to beget us.

Second, we read that the means of our begetting was "the word of truth."

How does a person become spiritually alive?

Jesus had discussed this matter with Nicodemus

 "You must be born again," Jesus insisted (John 3:7).

In our era, the religious experience of the new birth is made fun of

But Jesus is serious. "Flesh gives birth to flesh, but Spirit gives birth to spirit."

All of us were born physically, "of the flesh," but not all have been born spiritually

this is a requirement to enjoy the kingdom of God (John 3:3). 

How does it work?  The Word begets faith which begets spiritual life.

            "Faith comes from hearing and hearing from the word of God (Romans 10:17)

 We see the element of faith, too, in the passage from last Sunday’s sermon on salvation by grace:

 "For it is by grace you have been saved, though faith -- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God -- not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." (Ephesians 2:8-10)

Paul makes it very clear that the work is all God's, that we are "his workmanship,"

 that this is "not from yourselves, it is the gift of God."

So do we even have a part in salvation, or is it all God's work?  I conclude that we have only God to thank for our salvation, but that our faith in God is paramount.

Paul says we are reconciled to God and presented holy "if you continue in your faith" (Colossians 1:23).

Third, the purpose of this spiritual birth: "to be a kind of firstfruits of all he has created" (1:18).

The word translated "firstfruits" is Greek aparche, a "sacrificial term,

'first-fruits' of any kind (including animals, both domesticated and wild),

which were holy and were consecrated before the rest could be put to secular use."

For examples, see Exodus 22:29; Leviticus 2:12-16; Numbers 18:12; Deuteronomy 18:4; 2

Chronicles 31:5; Nehemiah 10:35-39.

Firstfruits were the first of the harvest, the first of the crop that was holy and was offered to God at the beginning of the harvest.

Was he speaking chronologically, as if he and his generation were the firstfruits?

Was the rest of the harvest, all Christians up until now?

I believe it means we should be God's portion and treasure, and a more peculiar property to him, as the first-fruits were; and that we should become holy to the Lord, as the first-fruits were consecrated to him

"The word of truth" begets new life today if we will just teach what it says!

Q 1.     In what sense are we given spiritual birth by the "word of truth"?

Q 2      What does spiritual life have to do with the Word?

Preferring the Word to Moral Filth (1:19-21)

 My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you."

 Anger will destroy us

 Now James turns to the substitutes for the word:

Man's angry, self-righteous words, and

Moral filth and evil that would capture our minds and hearts.

 We all struggle with anger. Some have it under better outward control than others .

But anger can pollute us with bitterness, even if we do not lash out openly.

James warns, "Man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires" (1:20).

Can we be angry for God?

 Eph 4:26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:

Be certain our anger is not moral outrage or righteous indignation, do not operate in anger

Anger is to arouse us to action. That’s why it’s there.

But once aroused, we must slow down and listen to God

"My dear brothers...." Affectionately

I am still trying to learn not to interrupt my wife when I am angry.

 "Quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to become angry." I've needed that advice. Do you?.

"Get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent" (1:21)

KJV  version: "Lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness”

Have you ever marveled at the evil around you? There's evil everywhere! Put it aside.

We are to replace this moral evil with "the word planted in you," "the engrafted word"

that is able to save your souls.

What does it mean that God has given you a "Word-implant"?

He has put his thoughts and words deep within you. He has made them part of you.

Not only has given us a hunger for his Word, he has given us the tender plant to grow within.

Every year a nursery purchases hundreds of tree seedlings and plants them in pots. They tend and water them, nurturing them until they become strong and can put down their roots in the soil. The plants are tender and very susceptible to heat and drought until they become established.

Letting the Word Save Us (1:21)

"Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you." (1:21)

Yes, we can block God’s words. We can stop our ears by our moral compromise and pride. James says we are to put these all away, and "with humility" accept this word planted deep within us.

Peter thinks of it as "imperishable seed:"

"For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God." (1 Peter 1:23)

We can so easily let the clamor and glamour of the world drown out the Word.

For Elijah, God was not in the whirlwind, nor in the fire, but "a still, small voice" 1 Kings 19:12;

Are we humble enough to hear it? Are we quiet enough to hear it?

Man's words, are not worth much with regard to spiritual things.

It is God's Word that begets us (1:18), God's Word that indwells us (1:21).

 We would do well to humbly receive it and so save our souls.

We must choose between the filth around us or God's Word. By choosing God's Word, we choose Life.

"He has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires" (2 Peter 1:4).

Listening to and Practicing the Word (1:22)

But now James introduces a serious problem for many professed Christians,

"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says"

We know what is right. But it is quite possible to confuse knowing the truth with doing it.

Some of the Pharisees in Jesus' day were like that they made an outward show of their observance.

But Jesus blasted them as hypocrites:

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self indulgence Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. " (Matthew 23:25-26)

Before we criticize the Pharisees, look at ourselves. We may have half a dozen Bibles in your home, , but unless you practice God's commands, we kid ourselves.

Example, God's Word teaches us, "Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger" (1:19).

Do you practice this?   Would your family say you practice this?

Knowing this verse is not enough. Knowing without practicing is self-deceiving.

Q1. Why are we so easily fooled into thinking that listening to Bible teaching means that we are living out righteous lives?

Q2. What is the nature of the self-deception?

Forgetting What the Mirror Shows (1:23-24)

"Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who

looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and

immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the

perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has

heard, but doing it--he will be blessed in what he does." (1:23-25)

Listening without doing, he says, is like looking at yourself in the mirror and then immediately forgetting what you look like. God's Word is a mirror for the soul that can show us what we really are.

Experiencing the Freedom of the Word (1:25)

"But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it -- he will be blessed in what he does." (1:25)

Twice in James' Letter we find the phrase "the perfect law that gives freedom" (1:25)

"the law that gives freedom" (2:12).

 It is a strange phrase for a Jew who was called "James the Just"

            because he kept the Jewish Law.

What did he mean by it? How does the Law bring liberty?

James led the Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15 to conclude that keeping the ceremonial law, such as circumcision, was not obligatory for Gentile believers (Acts 15:19-21).

This decision over-ruled the position of some Christian Pharisees:

"The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to obey the law of Moses" (Acts 15:5). So the "perfect law" is not the Mosaic Law.

Rather this perfect law is what James calls the "Royal Law" in 2:8, that is

"Love your neighbor as yourself" (quoting Leviticus 19:18).

 It is perfect, one of the two great commandments proclaimed by King Jesus:

 "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you" (John 15:12).

It is the perfect law and the liberating law. And it fulfills the prophecy of Jeremiah that says:

"The time is coming," declares the Lord, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel

and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them," declares the Lord. "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the Lord. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.  I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest," declares the Lord.

"For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more." (Jeremiah 31:31-34)

James exhorts us to look intently into this perfect law of liberty (1:25) and so never forget

who God is, and who we are, and how he wants us to love and live.

Q1. What is this "perfect law" that James mentions?

Q2. How would you define it?

Q3. How does it relate to the "royal law" (2:8)?

Q4. In what sense does it bring liberty?

Living Out the Word's Teaching in Practical Ways (1:26-27)

"If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his

tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. Religion that God our

Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their

distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." (1:26-27)

This perfect, liberating law of love, then, governs what James considers pure religion.

James is asserting that if we would consider ourselves authentic worshippers of God, then we must live out this liberating law of love in our everyday lives.

James mentions three tests of pure religion:

1. A tongue that is kept under control (1:26)

2. Looking after orphans and widows (1:27a), and

3. Keeping oneself from being polluted by the world (1:27b).

We'll look further at the tamed tongue, since James expounds on it at greater length in chapter 3.

It’s interesting that he selects caring for orphans and widows as one of the tests of true religion.

The reason? Maybe that orphans and widows have no power or money to benefit us. Therefore, when we care for their needs it is a truly unselfish act, and one surely motivated by love.

Do we see caring for the poor and needy as too demeaning? Too dirty for our refined sensibilities?

Then we may be in danger, James says, of being selfish rather than loving.

Instead of the Word changing your heart, other forces control you.

Again and again in Scripture we see that God cares for the poor. An example:

"Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer. For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing. And you are to love those who are aliens, for you yourselves were aliens in Egypt." Deut10:16

If God defends the cause of the orphan and widow and gives them food and clothing, who are we to be too pure to aid those who are poor?

We may be so concerned someone is trying to take advantage of us, we end up not helping

Would you rather be "taken" by the poor a few times and be generous in your heart?

Or protect ourselves from ever being deceived, but have a stingy and unloving heart?

The passage in Deuteronomy also indicates that God loves the alien. But what it does mean is that we are to love those who are sojourning in our country just as God loves them.

       Our first question should be not "Do they have a green card?" but, "Do they have enough to eat?"

This is the sign of a person whose religion is "pure and faultless."

How does our practice measure up to the Perfect Law?

Q1. Why does James make taming the tongue and caring for the poor the prime tests of pure religion?

Q2. Why not the quality of our quiet time or worship?

Spiritual Pollution (1:27b)

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: ... to keep oneself

from being polluted by the world." (1:27b)

The final characteristic of pure religion is "keeping oneself from being polluted by the

world."

The Greek word translated "polluted" (NIV) or "spotted" (KJV) is Greek aspilos, "spotless"

James says keeping from being stained by world's standards and pollutions is part of true religion.

Character is what we do when no one is looking.

If we let spots from the world set in our hearts, they can become permanent stains on our character.

We must watch our hearts lest they become stained with cynicism, bitterness and unforgiveness.

 "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life"(Proverbs 4:23).

There is a sense in Scripture where we are to cleanse ourselves.

"Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners,

and purify your hearts, you double-minded" (4:8).

"These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb" (Revelation 7:14).

Christians are to take sin seriously and approach it with repentance and sorrow, but we are powerless to cleanse ourselves. So we must humbly confess our sins to the One who has promised to both:

 "forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9).

Hearing the Living Word and Doing It

James is challenging because he doesn't ask us what we believe about Jesus.

He asks us what we are doing because we have encountered him.

He doesn't allow us to hide behind our church-going and Bible reading, our "hearing" of the Word.

He calls us to be doers of the Word, as well.