Hearing and Doing: Be Doers of the Word
Notes
Transcript
The perfect law of freedom
The perfect law of freedom
If I were to say to you, that I know a way of living,
that guarantees you peace and harmony
- would you want to hear what that way, is?
And, imagine that what I had to offer you was so compelling,
that you believed it;
would you change your life, if that was necessary, to achieve this peace?
Well, loved ones - here, in powerful summary, is the way:
4 Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me.
5 I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me.
6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned.
7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you.
8 My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples.
9 “As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Remain in my love.
We are to “remain” in Jesus!
That is to say: We are to “walk the way Jesus walked!” ~~
6 The one who says he remains in him should walk just as he walked.
In the letter to the Colossians, Paul writes, ~~
6 So then, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to walk in him,
He, too, had found the way ...
Well, now you know the way ...
Then why are we so slow to really do what Jesus did - walking in Jesus’ footsteps?
James, it seems, understood this of himself … and of his fellow walkers through life.
He had come to understand that we do often hear the way
but, for some reason, we don’t really rush to change our posture, our gait
to do what is needed to walk the way Jesus did!
Well then, here are a few exercises, he says:
19 My dear brothers and sisters, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger,
3 conditions, we might say, that needs correcting!
Listen, he says, you need to learn to listen!
(Listen Linda …)
James, I think, understood something of that, when he wrote this letter!
As he grew up, he would have had ample opportunity to listen to Jesus,
but like any brother
he only came to see the value of Jesus teachings,
after He died … and rose again,
showing who He really was: The Son of God!
(Now, you would listen, won’t you, if the Son of God said:
“Follow me … walk like I walk, and you will have peace!”
And when he writes: James 1:21
21 Therefore, ridding yourselves of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent, humbly receive the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
… could he be thinking,” if only I had stopped to listen to Jesus’ teachings, earlier …”
Or, perhaps, “if only the whole world would stop thinking they have the answer, and listen … just listen, for a change, what Jesus has to say ...”
Perhaps, as he looks around him, listens to the news ...
he recalls what Jesus said, of how it would be in this life: ~
10 Then many will fall away, betray one another, and hate one another.
11 Many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.
12 Because lawlessness will multiply, the love of many will grow cold.
13 But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
And now he realises … that, clearly, is not the way! ~~
20 for human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness.
And as he thinks about it, he might ask:
Why is the world so angry?
In the lack of true morality and real discipleship;
the unwillingness to DO as Jesus did, and commanded us to do, too!
James had come to understand that,
as he saw Jesus on the Cross (crucified by an angry mob)
Jesus dead; (the product of sin)
and Jesus resurrected! (The redemption and our hope!)
And so now he writes ...
Therefor … !!!
There is that word again: Therefor …
Where-for?
Therefor!
~~
21 Therefore, ridding yourselves of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent, humbly receive the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
Humbly receive this word of freedom, of peace, of love!
Listen, quickly, urgently!
And it is urgent!
“Look around you, he says:
Have you noticed how angry the world is?
What is the source of all of this anger?
We need look no further than the Bible record… and our own inclinations:
Jealousy! ~~
4 And Abel also presented an offering—some of the firstborn of his flock and their fat portions. The Lord had regard for Abel and his offering,
5 but he did not have regard for Cain and his offering. Cain was furious, and he looked despondent.
(Please fill in your own story, here)
Or the Older Brother in the story of the prodigal son ~~
28 “Then he became angry and didn’t want to go in. So his father came out and pleaded with him.
Do you kniow someone like that, friends?
What about pride - that great source for anger!
Pride:
1 Jonah was greatly displeased and became furious.
He, even he! thought he knew better than God, and wanted the Niniveans, to be smitten from the face of the earth!
And what about the Truth!
15 The officials were angry at Jeremiah and beat him and placed him in jail in the house of Jonathan the scribe, for it had been made into a prison.
For speaking God’s truth to them!
A truth that singed their eyebrows of self-righteousness!
No!
We are to be “slow” to anger!
The things which mark our anger, is moral filth! And that is a hard saying, I know, but it is true, nevertheless!
James will show us that it is!
Don’t you know, James says:
20 for human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness.
Loved ones, let’s rid ourselves of all moral filth (a strong word, no doubt, to decent church folk like ourselves)!
But filth, non the less, like hatred, jealousy, covetousness, lies, murder, the stuff that goes against the word of God!
Rather, live lives that will see you enter the rest in Christ!
Verse 21B! … humbly receive the implanted word!
21 Therefore, ridding yourselves of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent, humbly receive the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
2. And then be slow to speak:
Notice how “words” is the anchor point in this passage!
It is words that we hear - words of truth, which we should be quick to hear,
(verse 19. Everyone should be quick to listen …)
… but we aren’t!
Often we dismiss the well-meaning words of others,
or deny them because they make us feel uncomfortable in God’s presence!
all the time missing that they may be
the “implanted word, which is able to save the soul.” (Verse 21b).
It is words that we speak, in hurtful haste,
which we should avoid - like the plague! They bring death!
And they are wounding words
like the words we use for people of colour or race other than our own;
or thoughtless, hurtful words
that a husband speaks to his wife;
a mother to a child failing in her expectations!
Think before you talk, is what James is saying!
Be slow to speak!
Anger is born initially from a thought; and then it is given life in words!
22 But I tell you, everyone who is angry with his brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Whoever insults his brother or sister, will be subject to the court. Whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be subject to hellfire.
See that? Anger leads to insult, leads to death!
Does that sound familiar?
It is because we spoke about it last Sunday!
14 But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desire.
15 Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death.
Pray for pause, B&S: Let us stop to think before we talk!
3 Lord, set up a guard for my mouth; keep watch at the door of my lips.
4 Do not let my heart turn to any evil thing or perform wicked acts with evildoers. Do not let me feast on their delicacies.
And while we pause, to think, let us be primed to think, biblically!
Like Christians!
About the way of the Word, Jesus!
The "implanted word” (verse 21b)!
That word which will bring life ...
has already brought life!
Because you are born again, aren’t you?
You are a Christian!
Wanting to walk the way Jesus did!
The only reason you want to, is because you have already received the implanted word
and now you understand it!
Because that Word, is indeed in each one of us who believes!
It is that Word, God’s word/words, that also makes us want to call out sin, when it stalks our children, our spouses, our friends ... our selves!
And it doesn’t help to hear this Word, but then denying God’s wisdom
and living the way of the world’s words, the world’s wisdom!
22 But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
3. Be doers of the word
See that?
Having heard, and guided by the Spirit, we become the careful thinking ones!
and being thinking ones,
guided by the Spirit, we will become the “doing” ones!
And keep on being the doing ones ...
Not only as long as it suits us!
James explains, It is like someone looking into a mirror, who smiles appreciatively, even admiring their own image, but who is so fixed on that image in the mirror
that they never get to know the real person!
Like the fairy tale:
“Mirror, mirror on the wall,
who is the fairest of us all?”
23 Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like someone looking at his own face in a mirror.
And standing there, blind to ones wrinkles and warts,
denying one’s scheming as you try to stay young, forever,
lying about our vanity and pride … James sets the scene:
24 For he looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of person he was.
Not so the man who looks into an altogether other kind of mirror: JESUS!
The mirror of the implanted word!
B&S, have how often do you look into that mirror?
Jesus is a mirror, isn’t He?
We look into it, and hope to see an image of ourselves there, don’t we?
After all, aren’t we made in the image of God?
Are we not His brothers and sisters?
But for those who have not come to see Christ, even as we stare into the mirror
all they will ever see is a brief, false glimpse of who they really are - and who they really are not: like Jesus!
Let Jesus explain this, Himself ~~
9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and looked down on everyone else:
10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
11 The Pharisee was standing and praying like this about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I’m not like other people—greedy, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
12 I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of everything I get.’
13 “But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even raise his eyes to heaven but kept striking his chest and saying, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner!’
14 I tell you, this one went down to his house justified rather than the other, because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Don’t think, Loved Ones, that these words are lost on me as a preacher! They leave me bewildered and afraid! Makes me want to cry out, “God have mercy on me, a sinner!”
James 1: 25
25 But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer who works—this person will be blessed in what he does.
The perfect law of freedom! (What is that?)
It is this, B&S:
1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus,
2 because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.
3 For what the law could not do since it was weakened by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as a sin offering,
4 in order that the law’s requirement would be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
It is the law of the Spirit of life in Christ!
They are the doers of the word!
5 For those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their minds set on the things of the Spirit.
**Hear is where the rubber hits the road!
Those who live according to the Spirit;
Those who DO!
“Not a forgetful hearer, but a DO-ER, who WORKS!
Working, towards purity and holiness - doing what God bids us DO THIS! // not That!
I am working through a study by Timothy Keller on James.
And in his commentary on James 1, where, I hope you remember, mention is made of the fact that we grow in Christ, even through our suffering, if we put our trust in God ...
He describes suffering as those times, when God takes away something we believe we cannot live without it … or them ...
What is it that you cannot live without, Loved Ones?
Is it your wealth
perhaps your children
How about your boyfriend
Or, perhaps, your beauty, your great strength, or influence, your position in life?
Does your life reflect your desire?
14 But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desire.
15 Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death.
You can know such a person, by his words, B&S!
Perhaps, you can know yourself … by your words … your thoughts ...
And our thoughts are expressed in our words
And our words soon turns into deeds!
On reflection, it seems to be true that our words ...
will harm (like words of gossip, or rage, or spitefulness, or war …)
or they will heal (like words of Christian love, and forgiveness, or compassion …)
We can have words that are blasphemous (o my god!)
or we can have words of praise and thanks giving!
“God have mercy on me, a sinner!”
26 If anyone thinks he is religious without controlling his tongue, his religion is useless and he deceives himself.
27 Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
Now you know, loved ones!
You have been adjusted by the Indwelling Word
Let us not forget it! (look up to the Cross, often!)
Let us from now on be quick to listen
slow to speak
slow to be angry
And may our God of mercy and love and justice,
strengthen us to walk the way Jesus walked!
and then walk confidently, purposefully
… even as we may still have to limp along in this life, for a little while.
Amen!