James 1:19-27 The Testing of Faith, pt.3

Speech and Faith (v.19-20)

James 1:19 ESV

Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;

James 1:20 ESV

for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

Spirit & Word in Faith (v.21-25)

James 1:21 (ESV)

Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

Meekness: humble teachability; readiness to submit

The posture of my heart: shape me, change me, do whatever you may!

The opposite is to be suspicious, or to pick and choose, or a self assurance that you can read it without God’s help.

Before we are born again, Our hearts are full of over things.

How do you ruin Thanksgiving dinner? Eat a whole loaf of bread and eat all kinds of candy. Then when you sit down for the feast, the sight of food will make you want to vomit.

Our lives are packed with social media, money, anxiety, riches of this world, longings for everything…we are rarely empty people, there is just no place for God’s Word in us. It is not planted in us, so the Bible is unable to fit in our lives. There is no hunger for God’s Word because our lives are packed with everything else.

God causes us to be born again and brings us forth by the word of truth. The Holy Spirit moves through the Word and invades and takes over our hearts. God makes a place, and often it is very hard as he removes earthly things and gives us heavenly pursuits.

If you have zero longings for spiritual reality, you’re probably not born again. Zero longings for knowing and being with God over a long period of time is a sign of not being born of God.

God’s Word takes root in us. The Lord causes this new birth to happen by the word of truth.

You may have heard the word of truth for all of your life, but the Lord causes new birth to happen when the Bible goes from very little significance, little to no desire and no pleasure in reading the Bible, but now things are changing. God’s Word gets implanted and stays in our lives; it grows and roots, but it first saves our souls.

Your soul is hell-bound or God-bound. The implanted Word is what is able to save your soul. That should really cause you to realize that your soul is hanging in the balance. We are born again by Spirit and Word.

The Spirit Gives life (john 6:63) and through the word of truth (James 1:18).

So then, How do I continue to receive the implanted word if we already have it? It’s like oxygen.

The Word is at work in us to further our desire for it.

Receiving the implanted word is like breathing in oxygen. Oxygen gives you life. When you breathe, you get more oxygen. It is in us…if it weren’t, we’d be death. We receive more every time we breathe. The receiving of it shows us that we’re alive. We breathe it in. A dead person does not need oxygen. They are just fine as is without it.

No one declares that they have oxygen and then proceeds to hold their breath all day. The implanted word of God (our salvation) and receiving the word of God every day (the Scriptures) is what shows our being alive in Christ.

You may say ”I don’t need to read my Bible. I was saved before! I’ve got the word in my heart!” This person is like the same who says “I don’t need to breathe”. If you’re getting along fine without spiritual oxygen, you’re probably dead.

James 1:18 ESV

Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

John 6:63 ESV

It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

James 1:22 ESV

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

James 1:23 ESV

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.

James 1:24 ESV

For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.

James 1:25 ESV

But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

Faith as Lifestyle (v.26-27)

These two verses start to pair works with faith. What we believe is portrayed in how we live.