James 1:19-27; Pure Religion

Introduction

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There was a once famous hymn, Old Time Religion.

Give me that old time religion, It's good enough for me.

1 It was good for Paul and Silas, It's good enough for me.

2 It was good for the Hebrew children, It's good enough for me. 3 It was good for our mothers, It's good enough for me. 4 Makes me love ev'rybody, It's good enough for me.

Some people want that old time religion that just makes sense to them. Its what grandma and grandpa had. Its those lazy Sundays with lunch at the grandparents house.

Some people want what Charles Spurgeon called New Religion. A religion that changes with the times. It affirms you and what you want.

Some people reject religion all together. Unbelievers that want nothing to do with spirituality or religion. There are also Christians that don’t want anything to do with religion. Jefferson Bethke famously told the world “Why I Hate Religion But Love Jesus.” People see religion as antithetical to a relationship with Jesus. But that is not how James sees pure religion. Just like faith, which he will talk about in chapter 2, there is a living faith and a dead faith which is not faith at all. Likewise, there can be a dead religion or a living religion that is pure and undefiled.

Need

As Biblical Christians, we do want a religion that is old. We want a religion that is historic and rooted in the very best of church history. A religion that uses the best creeds, confessions, catechism, and councils.

We want a religion that can address the issues of today and not just yesterday. We also want religion that creates a deeper relationship with God, not a death to our relationship. And the only way we can do that is that we need pure and undefiled religion that is rooted in God’s unchanging Word.

Referent

James 1:19-27

Organization

We are going to follow the lead of James. Our section (vs. 19) begins with James’ favorite way to start a new section. James generally starts a new section of his “lermen” with some phrase that includes “brothers”.

Slow to Anger (vs. 19-21)

Quick to Hear (vs. 22-25)

Slow to Speak (vs. 26)

Sermon in a sentence:

I will reject worldliness and receive the Word.

Slow to Anger (vs. 19-21)

vs. 19-20

James is using wisdom language to convey general truths. He is not saying that anger never accomplishes God’s righteousness. He is contrasting the fickleness and emotions of man with the holiness and righteousness of God.

The reason we are going to be slow to anger, quick to hear, and slow to speak is because we want God’s righteousness manifesting in our lives. We could also say because we don’t want false religion but a pure religion that is making us into the image of Christ.

vs. 21

James tells us to put away this filth. In this context, he’s not speaking merely abstractly, but he is talking about anger as filth.

Have you ever been dressed and ready to go to church when you see a spill or a mess you need to clean up. If your anything like me, you will inevitably get some mark or dirt on yourself in the process of cleaning it up. James is telling us that anger is like that mess or filth. The more you mess with anger the more you interact with it, the more likely you are going to be stained and marked by it. It is going to get all over you and people will be able to spot it a mile away. Even when you done cleaning up the mess, those marks and stains are still on you. People can see that you have an anger problem even when you are not in that moment any longer.

2. He says that the first part is rejecting this world. The second part is receiving God’s Word.

I said this our first week in James, we ought to listen to good preaching. We ought to listen to good prayers. We ought to listen to good theologically rich music. We ought to receive God’s Word when it comes to us. This is a key marker in a Christian’s life. Do they naturally receive God’s Word or recoil at it?

There have been a few times that a member has come up to me and said they can tell that the Holy Spirit is working in them. This person can tell because they would have never listened to what I was saying on the role of men and women before they were a Christian. And saints I want to ask you all, can you say that your immediate reaction to God’s Word is one of resistance or one of reception?

3. We can do these things because God has done something to us on the inside.

Philippians 2:13 ESV

13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

This language is used of the promises of the New Covenant

Jeremiah 31:31–33 ESV

31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. 33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Quick to Hear (vs. 22-25)

James is speaking like a Hebrew. He is using the concept of hearing as obeying.

Shema is the Hebrew word of that can mean “Hear, “Listen”, or “Obey”

English is like this too. If you tell your child to do something and they don’t do it, you might say something like, why didn’t you listen to me? The problem was not their ears. No the problem was their hands.

2. The person that is a hearer only is deceiving themselves.

James uses the example of a mirror. The man carefully examines himself in the mirror. This would have been difficult in the first century. Mirrors were not glass but flattened metal that was polished. First century homes were not built with the best lighting. A person that wanted to really benefit from a mirror would have to go outside and situate the mirror so that they could really benefit from it.

There are often people like this in churches all across America. They get up early, go show, shave, put on some nice clothes, make sure they look good so they can go to church. They sit in church. They look at the upcoming events in the bulletin. They pay attention to the announcements. They sing the songs. They put some money in the plate. They listen to the sermon and even take notes. And the rest of the week they have not made one change to their life.

We have people that go through all the trouble of coming to church just to do nothing at all. They are deceived. It would be better for their soul that they not come then they come and leave thinking they are in the kingdom.

Saints, with all love and care, I implore you to examine yourselves. What are you doing with the Word of God that is being preached to you?

When we make an announcement asking for help, do you immediately say “Yeah, I’m not doing that.”

How do interact with a sermon after its preached? We have family discussion questions in our bulletin for a reason. Do you use those questions?

Psalm 1:1–3 ESV

1 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; 2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.

Slow to Speak (vs. 26)

James is illustrating his point that he made back in 19.

Like he will do throughout his “lermon” he is going to come back to this idea later. In Chapter 3 he is going to come back to the tongue.

“If anyone thinks he is religious” seems to indicate James is speaking to a practice of religious hypocrisy.

In the immediate context, the problem is not that these Christians are making crude jokes, cussing, bullying, etc. The immediate context appears to be aimed at those that think they can say something religious.

James 3:1–2 ESV

1 Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. 2 For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body.

James once again uses the same bridle right after saying not everyone should be teachers.

I think James is talking about people in local congregations that are fluent in Christianese.

He know all the right words to say. They can even have some good theology if they are teachers. But they are deceiving themselves because they can speak well.

Maybe you know all the theological words and all the Christian jargon, that doesn’t matter if it hasn’t changed you. Your head knowledge is quite useless.

I do also want to exhort us to watch what we speak in general. In general, speak less! In general, be careful with what we say. Do not allow your need to be right or whatever the case may be to keep you always talking. Learn to be ok at being quiet.

Conclusion

vs. 27

James perfectly wraps up this section with such a in your face way of speaking. True and undefiled religion requires me to care for the weakest. Those that can’t do anything for me. Not for the glory or the recognition of those around me. NO! Pure religion before the Lord is to be unstained, (not conforming to the world) but also

Application

How can you have pure and undefined religion? 1. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Anything else will be based upon your righteousness before a perfectly holy God. This will never be pure enough for the perfection of God.

2. Serve the Lord in the local church. Maybe you need to join the church. Maybe you need to be baptized. I remember a coworker who had some real problems with her former church’s closed communion. But she was living with her girlfriend and going to a different church. Was that pure and undefined religion? Or was that a religion that she wanted to fit her?

Maybe you need to serve. We have the food pantry, the quilters, nursery, ushers, monthly means, events at the church.