The Heart Reveals The Man
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Wooden cross on the pulpit.
A couple years ago I was in Budapest I was just down for my stay there. Having a frustrating time. I got hungry and went into a restaurant. I notice everyone at the restaurant was still seated. So I asked the waitress do I serve my self. She said they don’t serve me here. She told me I couldn’t eat here. So I got one of my friends and asked him to go in and would they serve him. And they rolled out the red carpet for him. So I became very upset and was starting to get upset with all asian people.
So the next day I recieved a message and it was a Pastor who wanted me to speak at the Budapest church. So I went and it was all Chinese people.
I spoke and they where very welcoming and wanted to take pictures of me etc. etc.
But as you can see how easy was it for me to get angry at an entire race 2.0 billion people because of a very small population.
The heart is deceitful
21 Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
This is clothing imagery, James is saying , Take off the old close strip off all filthiness, take off the filthy clothes the moral impurities. The shame take off.
Take off the pre-Christian lifestyle and put on the new man.
Lay aside all filthiness- moral impurities. All shame .
Moral filth and shame continues with the
Take off the old clothes.
Jesus told Lazarus take off the grave clothes.
John 11:44 “44 And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Loose him, and let him go.””
2 For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes,
Speaks about the clothes of a poor person.
God is telling us to put on spiritual attire.
Eze 16
The prodigal son he’s living with the swine eating those little pods which swine eat. He’s filthy beyond filthy beyond filthy. And he came up with the idea that if I go back to my fathers house I can at least be a servant. He goes back home his father seem him afar off and ran towards him fell on his neck and kissed him.
Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet.
The Father reclothed the son
3 Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the Angel.
4 Then He answered and spoke to those who stood before Him, saying, “Take away the filthy garments from him.” And to him He said, “See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes.”
In order for Joshua to be clothed with new rich robes. First his old clothes had to be taken away.
At the cross the old clothes where taken away and through the resurrection God gave us the new clothes.
“ Christian obedience is never fully habitual. It requires a daily “putting on Christ” for its realization.”
“What God calls believers to put off, however, they must put off. Otherwise the contradiction to God’s righteousness produces an anger-filled human being.”
overflow of wickedness
Overflow of wickedness isn’t just an abundance amount of sin in our lives.
But when you overcome one sin theres another sin that is waiting to rise up. Knock off one sin another will rise up .
What does it mean to receive the word?
James makes the argument to receive the word is to do it.
22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror;
24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.
25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.
James isn’t dismissing being hearer of the word. Without being a hearer we wouldn’t know what it means to be a doer. Without hearing first there is nothing to do.
But its about being a good hearer.
The good hearer welcomes the word immediately so that it cannot be snatched away by Satan. The good hearer welcomes it deeply so that it is not withered by persecution. The good hearer welcomes it exclusively so that other concerns do not strangle it.
David E. Garland
In v. 23, the “hearer only” looks at “his face”; in v. 25, the “doer” looks at “the perfect law that gives freedom.”
James is saying hearing Gods word should lead to doing.
Don’t just practice what you preach but preach what you practice.
The reflection isn’t you. It looks like you. Same shapes same appearance . But the reflection merely portrays the real you.
Maybe we look in a mirror and we think the reflection is us. But its not.
To my fellow men a heart of love; to my friends a heart of loyalty; to my God a heart of flame; to myself a heart of steel.
Augustine of Hippo
23 Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.
Who you are is in your heart.
19 As in water face reflects face, So a man’s heart reveals the man.
20 Hell and Destruction are never full; So the eyes of man are never satisfied.
This is the appetite of death.
The fact that you can exhaust ever option and still not satisfied is incredible
Solomons possessions in Proverbs
one’s inner self reflected in the face of a companion.
Your friends can reveal who you really are.