Single-mindedness in religion and life

Are you a junkie?

No, I am not talking about the first definition in the dictionary of this. I am not asking you whether or not you are a drug addict. I am asking you whether you are a person who gets an unusual amount of pleasure from something or you have an unusual amount of interest in something.[1] Or if you are a person who has an insatiable (unsatisfiable) craving for something?[2] Or perhaps you are a person who is an enthusiastic follower, fan, or devotee of something or someone?[2]

Is there something that you do or think about almost every spare minute you get? What is the first thing you do or think about when you get up in the morning? What is that thing that makes you happy when you can do it? What is your unsatisfiable craving? Maybe its the MLB or NFL, college basketball or football, the news, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, a certain feed on one of these, a TV series, a book series, a video game, chocolate, candy, golf, a hobby, your children, your spouse, or anything else.

Today, from , would like to show you that there is only one thing that is appropriate and profitable for you to be a junkie about, and that is the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We are to never leave the Gospel. Worthless religion leaves the Gospel, but pure religion never leaves the Gospel. So, I want you to consider whether you are a Gospel junkie or whether you have Gospel amnesia?

Maybe its the MLB or NFL, college basketball or football, the news, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, a certain feed on one of these, a TV series, a book series, a video game, chocolate, candy, golf, a hobby, your children, your spouse, or anything else.

James 1:22–27 ESV

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 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. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 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. If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

Worthless religion leaves the Gospel

The first thing that we see in , is that worthless religion leaves the Gospel. In verses 19-21 James has just exhorted us to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to be angry. We are to produce the righteousness of God in our lives. We are told to put off the evil in our lives, but not to put on something else, but to receive something. We are to receive the word of God which has been implanted in us. Thus, the active work of God has, at our regeneration, put God’s word in our hearts.

But do you feel this way? Do you feel as if God’s word is implanted in you? We end up living with quick speech, slow listening, and quick anger. We look for this implanted word, but we often feel that we can’t find even a tiny seed of it anywhere inside us.

I am going to pose an answer to this troubling question today, and then pose a solution.

Thus, often we become discouraged and despair of any hope of change. We may even feel as if we are hypocrits. Do we actually live what we say we believe? Why is this the case, why does this happen? I am going to pose an answer to this troubling question today, and then pose a solution.

Listen to this, if there is one thing you hear today, I want it to be this: when we leave the Gospel we lose our ability to live out a pure religion.

Worthless religion leaves the Gospel and becomes self-deceived (vss. 22-24)

James gives a command in verse 22 that we must be doers of the word. What does this mean? Quite simply that our life is to be characterized by doing the word of God, or being obedient to it. But this is the rub, isn’t it? We think we are quick to hear the word, but by our actions we show that we are slow to do it, and that we don’t need it except at the time when we hear it.

We trick ourselves into thinking that we care about the word of God when we come to church, listen to podcasts, sermons, read our bible, or read great Christian books. But, within a few hours, of listening, reading, or talking about it, we completely forget what we just heard or said and go on living the same way that we were before. We don’t continue in what we heard, but rather allow it to pass through our ears and then disappear in the recesses of our soul. James tells us that we are deluded, deceived, if we think that listening without acting upon it and be constantly applying and remembering it.

He then tells us how silly it is. We are told in verses 23-24 that someone who hears and doesn’t act is like a person who takes a good look at themselves, their “natural face”, in the mirror and then as soon as they walk away can’t even remember what they look like! This phrase, “natural face” speaks of the face of our existence. What this means is that it is ourselves, who we really are, the true us.

James is telling us that we see the real person that we are. We get a glimpse for a moment in time at who we really are. We see that we are sinful, that we need God, his word, the Gospel. We embrace this truth, but then within a few hours, we forget and continue to live as we are, in our sinfulness. Instead of running to God in the Gospel, and embrace his freedom and rescue, we go right back to who we were. And so, like a person who knows what they really are, but soon forgets, so are we. Silly.

We think that by simply hearing God’s word that we have done enough. Isn’t our salvation in and through Christ alone? What more do we need? We just need to listen to it and trust. But James tells us here that listening isn’t enough. The word of God must be implanted in us. He is telling us that if the Gospel is only something that we hear, and not something that we do, or not something that we are, then we have deluded ourselves through false reasoning. We have convinced ourselves of something that is not true.

When all we do is hear the Gospel, but not practice it, not be consumed by it, we deceive ourselves into thinking that we are doing what we are supposed to do. However, we forget what Jesus said as he was resisting the Devil’s temptation, quoting from Deuteronomy.

Matthew 4:4 NASB95

But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’ ”

Deuteronomy 8:3 ESV

And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

Mathew 4:4

This was a quote from .

It isn’t simply hearing the word of God, but living by it, every word of it. So, if we leave God’s Word, the Gospel, we trick ourselves into thinking that we are practicing true religion, but James tells us we aren’t.

quoted in from .

Worthless religion leaves the Gospel and becomes loose-tongued (v. 26)

If you’ve ever ridden a horse before (that wasn’t a horse trained explicitly for riding), you might remember that first time. I remember the first time I rode a horse, her name was Lady. Lady was a pretty big horse. I was with another person and we were in a field that was about 5 acres. We saddled her up, and I got on, after a little effort. We started at a gentle trot, went around a little, then after some time started a full-out run. When we were nearing a fence, I was sure glad that I had the reigns and there was a bridle in her mouth. She was running (I thought) to close, so I used the reins and the bridle to steer her away from the fence, in order to avoid my leg being smashed. Without this bridle in Lady’s mouth, I would have never been able to control her, and it may have ended in an injury.

James tells us that if we think we are religious, but do not have a bridle on our tongue, to control it, than we have a religion that is worthless. The first thing that we should note is that verse 26 connects us with 1:19, being slow to speak. It is a summary of what we will hear in chapter 3. It shows the emptiness of a piety that does not result in moral purity of speech.

What is James talking about when he says if we think we are “religious”? He is referring to the outward manifestations of religious services. In other words, when we conform to what is expected of us in religion, going to church, giving our offerings, outward prayers, etc, the things we think of duties, but this does not affect our speech, then we are deceiving our own hearts. We believe that we are religious when our external conduct in matters of religion shows us to be conforming to what is expected. But James tells us that we are tricking ourselves into thinking we are something we are not, or have something that we don’t.

In fact, James tells us that this kind of “religion” is worthless. Religion here refers to piety or worship. This is the externals of religious worship. In other words, James is saying that if we cannot control our tongue, then any perceived piety that we have, or worship that we give God is empty or futile.

When we leave the Gospel, forgetting the truth of God’s love towards his creatures, and the length that Christ went to to save them, speaking words of slander, boasting, defilement, hurt, or any other evil speech, we are walking away from the truth of the Gospel. We are forgetting Christ’s love towards his enemies, and that our speech is to be kind and seasoned with salt. You can’t speak however you want as long as you are remaining in the Gospel. The Gospel controls us, helping us to live in light of what Christ has done for us. When we leave the Gospel, our tongues become loose and we speak evil towards one another, devouring one another.

Worthless religion leaves the Gospel and becomes uncompassionate (v. 27)

This is really an argument from the negative. If you look at what pure and undefiled religion is, you will see that it is three things: loving God, loving our neighbor, and keeping from the world’s defilement.

James is telling us that when we forget the Gospel, when we have Gospel amnesia, we become uncompassionate. We deceive ourselves, we deceive our hearts, and we have a corrupted religion that is worthless. It is only in pure and undefiled religion that we can truly care from our heart about the weak, marginalized, and broken. We can care for them without trying to get something out of helping them for us. We aren’t trying to make ourselves feel better, atone for wrongs we have done, clean up our city so our lives are better, get a tax write off, or any thing like this. No, we have genunine love from the heart for others.

The Gospel causes us to be focused upon God and others, and not ourselves. Compassion comes when we are more concerned about another than ourself.

Listen to this, if there is one thing you hear today, I want it to be this: when we leave the Gospel we lose our ability to live out a pure religion. You cannot love God, love others, and keep from corruption unless you constantly and continually remember and become consumed with the Gospel. You must be a Gospel junkie!

Pure religion never leaves the Gospel

The second thing we see in , is that pure and undefiled religion never leaves the Gospel.

After James has spent some time telling us about worthless religion, now he turns his attention to tell us about pure religion. He tells us not only what it is, but how to go about it. At the core of this is that pure religion never leaves the Gospel.

Before we talk about pure religion, let me say a brief word about what pure and undefiled means. The word pure denotes the positive aspect of religion. It is pertaining to being free from moral or spiritual guilt from the heart. It does not simply refer to external conduct, but being free from moral and spiritual pollution. Whereas, undefiled or untainted is the negative synonym of the word ‘pure’. It refers to being without defilement, taint or stain. It presents purity as the absence of what would defile. So not only is it morally and spiritually pure from the heart, but it denotes the complete absence of it. Thus, in the sight of God, true religion is free from all guilt, and is absent of any defilement.

In order to have this, we must have the Gospel. We must love the Gospel, live the Gospel, and give the Gospel.

Pure religion never leaves the Gospel and becomes a Gospel-lover (v. 25, 27a)

In verse 25 we see that the only way to exercise pure religion is to never leave the Gospel. We are told that the one who ‘looks into', really, it would be best to say the one who looks intently or closely into the perfect law, the law of liberty, doing what it says, will be blessed as they do it.

Have you ever seen something on the ground or somewhere else that deserved a closer examination? Perhaps it was a beautiful flower, a mechanical item that was crafted with precision, a beautiful piece of art, or a wonderfully built car. What do you do? You stoop down, look intently at it. You investigate it from all angles, you marvel at its craftsmanship. This is the idea that James it trying to get across as he speaks of the perfect law, the law of liberty.

This phrase refers to the Gospel. He wants us to stoop down, look intently, closely into the Gospel. He wants us to not forget what we see there. We are to be a Gospel-lover.

He wants us to stoop down, look intentely, closely into the Gospel. He wants us to not forget what we see there. We are to be a Gospel-lover.

James uses the phrase perfect law of freedom, or complete or ideal law of freedom. This law of freedom refers to God’s requirements for right conduct, it is the will of God as expressed by and in Christ. It is ultimately the Gospel. But why doesn’t he just come out and say “gospel”?

One exegete answers this question by stating that earlier he referred to the “implanted word” which saves us. Now, he uses law. Why? He is not saying that the gospel requires external observances, but that the ‘law’ is referring to the ‘implanted word’ back in 1:21, and ‘word’ in 1:22. It is called this because it refers to the gospel as the standard of behavior for Christians. Christ is the true giver of the law, and now the law of love is written on our heart (2:1-13). As verse 2:1 says, that we hold faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Thus, we see in a few verses that we are talking about the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the Gospel of what Christ has done for us and in us.[3]

Thus, we see in a few verses that we are talking about the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is called ‘perfect’ because the Gospel is the perfect rule for conduct. The Gospel itself is perfect, and it leads us to true freedom. Which is why he adds ‘law of liberty’. The Gospel is the best and perfect law. It is God’s final revelation. There is nothing past the Gospel. It is transformational and it leads us to become, by the power of the Spirit, like Christ himself. It is a perfecting law, a freeing law. This Gospel is the only thing that can make us free to follow God and allow us to follow God’s plan for loving him and others.

Being a Gospel-lover that acts upon it. Not like the forgetful person, but a doer of the work of the Gospel. This phrase ‘a doer who acts’ or ‘a doer of the work’ refers to the characteristic activity of the one who never leaves the Gospel!!! We must be Gospel junkies in order to live out the Gospel.

You can’t continue or as the ESV says, persevere in that which you do not love. You must love the Gospel, and act it out because of your love for it.

But it would be good for us to understand that it is really not an ‘it’, it is a him! It is the person, work, and life of Jesus Christ. It is God’s redemption of us to make us his sons and daughters. It is loving the God who gives us this message. It is him we love, it is him that we intensely gaze at. We are to be madly in love with our God, consumed by him inordinately (if I can use that term). You see, James shows us this as he describes what pure and undefiled religion is. He says that this is before God the Father. It is one of relationship, one of childhood. We are brought into relationship with him, and pure religion stems from this.

We are then told that as we are doing what it says, living out the Gospel that we love, that we stare intensely at, we will be blessed in that doing. The blessing here is not a general blessing, but a blessing in the actual doing of what we look at so intensely. This is a blessing as we do the perfect law of liberty, as we live out the Gospel. It is a Gospel-doing and a Gospel-blessing.

So we see here the first tablet of the law…because of our new birth, we are brought in as sons and daughters, and brought in to love him with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. We are enabled to love because we have been given new birth. In this new birth, the word has been implanted in us, and this word is the Gospel. We are in love with the Gospel, because we are in love with our God. So, we intensely make it our pride, our joy, the center of our affections.

Rather than waking up first thing in the morning and running to our news, our game, our social media, our coffee, or any other addiction, we run to our true addiction, the Gospel, the God of the Gospel. We make a mad dash to meet our Lord Jesus Christ and gaze into his eyes, into his heart. This and this alone will allow us to be a Gospel-liver.

Pure religion never leaves the Gospel and becomes a Gospel-liver (v. 27b)

So out of our relationship with God then, our love for him, our love for the Gospel that Christ proclaimed, that he was, comes the results. The results our Gospel-living. We love our neighbor as ourself. Our heart and love for God extends outward to our love for those he has created that are in need.

As we were in need, not just in need, we didn’t know we had a need, we were dead. In our helplessness and deadness, the loving breath of God reached in our lives and made us alive by the Spirit, even when we were dead in our trespasses and sins, hostile to him. He gave us new hearts that could respond to him, new hearts that could love him. Helpless, weak, and needy, we were loved by God.

This is Gospel motivation, this helps us to see what we should do when we see orphans (fatherless) and widows in their affliction or distress. We go to see them in order to take care of them, in order to help them. We are not simply having a nice chat with them, but visiting them for the purpose of caring for their needs and being personally involved in their lives. This is caring love. Isn’t this what God did for Adam and Eve? He went to find Adam and Eve in the garden when they were hiding and ashamed. The Gospel was seen in and throughout the rest of Scripture.

Notice that James is not giving a command for you to go out and visit the orphans and widows that need help. No, he is describing a life that loves the Gospel and lives the Gospel. It is a life that understands its own condition. It is one who has looked into the mirror and seen itself. It remembers how it hated God and desired to exalt self. It remembers its deadness and evil. It has a heart that is not deceived. It is softened by the Gospel, it loves the Gospel and consequently lives the Gospel. The life of a Gospel-lover is also a Gospel-liver.

The natural outflow of a grateful person is to love and serve in the same way in which it has been loved and served. When a helpless person has been helped by God in love and compassion at such a cost of the blood of the very Son of God, what does this person want to do? They want to love and serve the helpless, not to earn anything, not to pay anything back, for the price is too high, but simply to express gratitude.

In the movie Count of Monte Cristo,

And so out of gratitude, love to others is lived out, but more than this, love and devotion to God is poured out in the form of a life of loyalty. Thus, the person who never leaves the Gospel becomes a Gospel-giver.

Pure religion never leaves the Gospel and becomes a Gospel-giver(v. 27c)

Finally, James describes the one who never leaves the Gospel as one who keeps himself unstained or unspotted from the world. This one is a Gospel-giver.

You might ask, but isn’t that a Gospel-liver. Well, yes, still a Gospel-liver, but really here a Gospel-giver because they are living out the Gospel of Jesus Christ correctly before a watching world. One might be tempted to say here that they would be irrelevant to the culture if they are keeping themselves from being stained by it.

But this is not the case. God did not design us as people in such a way. God knows that Gospel living reveals one who is from another world. It tells of one who has not capitulated to the systems of the world, to the elemental spirits of this world. It shows an other-worlder. It is not enough to simply do good deeds for others, because anyone can do these out of selfish motives. Good deeds can be faked. But a life that is lived in personal purity and holiness is something that is so out-of-the-ordinary that there is no answer to it. It demands a second look, a second glance.

This other-worldly person is giving the Gospel when they are living the Gospel by loving God, loving others, and keeping themselves from the defilement of the immorality and sensuality of the world.

So then, what do we conclude from all this?

James says that pure and undefiled religion is three things and it stems from three things.

Pure and undefiled religion is love to God, love to mankind, and purity of life. It stems from Gospel-loving, Gospel-living, and Gospel-giving.

The question for you is this? Are you a Gospel junkie. Are you fixated upon the Gospel? Do you love to gaze into the perfect law of liberty, be consumed by it, and ultimately have your life wrapped up in God? Or do you have Gospel amnesia? Do you walk away from seeing who you really are, what God has really done for you, and you go back to loving yourself, avoiding those who need your help, and are consumed with the world.

If you have gospel amnesia, there is a remedy. Look into the Gospel. Look into the pre-incarnate Christ in all his glory. Look at the incarnate Christ, what he gave-up and suffered for you in his life, death and resurrection. Gaze upon the cross. See him in all the agony, suffering for you, being forsaken, suffering the punishment for your sins. Look at the post-ascension Christ in all his glory. See him on his throne in all his majesty and wonder. See him helping and loving you and his people. See him conquering all his and our enemies. Look to Christ coming in judgment to make right all the wrong. See yourself safely under the shadow of his wing. See yourself with him judging angels. Look at post judgment and see yourself living unendingly in glory with your Lord and Savior. This alone can help you remember. Be fixed upon this, look to what Christ has done, is doing, and will do. See him in all his glory and become a Gospel junkie.

[1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/junkie

[2] http://www.dictionary.com/browse/junkie

[3] J. Harold Greenlee, An Exegetical Summary of James (2nd ed.; Dallas, TX: SIL International, 2008), 57.