Doers of the Word
Notes
Transcript
Doers of the Word
Doers of the Word
17 Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
18 In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
19 You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger;
20 for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness.
21 Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.
22 But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.
23 For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror;
24 for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like.
25 But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing.
26 If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless.
27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
Introduction
How many times in the past year or two have you heard that people ought to act like Christians? Maybe you have heard it said differently in the phrase Christians are such hypocrites. Maybe you have experienced another Christian not acting or speaking appropriately. Maybe you yourself have not been acting and speaking like a good Christian. This is not something new to Christianity nor has it only come up in the recent past. This issue of acting like a Christian has been the subject of many debates since the beginning. Today we will go over a passage from the book of James. If you are not familiar with the book of James, you will get a glimpse today of what kind of book it is. For me, James speaks plainly and boldly of how a Christian ought to act.
Quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger
Listen to verse 19 again.
19 You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger;
Quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger… what does that mean quick to listen? I am sure you have heard the expression God gave you two ears to listen with and only one mouth to speak with because you are to listen twice as much as you talk. Quick to listen means instead of being quick to inject your words into a conversation, listen first. Being quick to listen means being interested in what the other person has to say.
Imagine if Jesus was always talking and nobody ever got to ask him questions or answer his questions. We would be missing a good bit in those gospels. Jesus listened to them. Jesus listened to the people who came to him with their needs. Jesus listened so he heard them.
Something I have noticed is that nonverbal communication as of late seems to be the source of a lot of frustration and hatred in this world. Nonverbal communication is social media, emails, text messages, letters, etc… in essence anything where the communication is one way and there is no physical interaction. Think of it like this. How many times have you read something and it made you mad but you found out later, how you read it was not now the person intended you to read it?
Slow to speak not only means, giving others the opportunity to speak and for you to listen but it also means being careful when you speak. Often, I have read something I did not agree with but chose not to respond. Why? Because in responding to nonverbal communication with more nonverbal communication, what would the likely outcome be? Anger and frustration with nothing accomplished other than getting mad.
James in this same verse cautions us to be slow to anger as well. Why? He answers that question immediately in verse 20 by stating, that kind of anger you display is not producing God’s righteousness. In other words, when we respond and get angry, we are not acting in a way that represent’s God’s goodness. Instead we look like angry people who only love those who speak and act in ways that we agree with. In other words, we have zero tolerance for anything. We accept God’s mercy and grace but we don’t extend that to others. Our anger teaches others that.
Doers of the word
When we are quick to speak, instead of of quick to listen, then our words can get us into trouble. We start speaking more evil than good. Our claim to who we are appears to be false because what is taught is not what we practice. In verse 22 James tells us to not to just be hearers who deceive themselves but to be doers of the word. If we know what the right thing to do which is to listen more and speak less, then we must also do this. We must practice what the word teaches us.
James says in verse 23 if we just read and listen to the word but do not apply it, it is is like looking in the mirror, then walking away and forgetting everything you just saw. Why do you look in a mirror? When you get ready for church or work or school, you look in the mirror to see yourself and check if your hair is fixed right, your clothes look good, that you are put together enough to go where you are going. What if we treated the word as a mirror to see what adjustments we need to make in our lives, then completely ignore it, then what is the point? Why do we simply listen to the word and then ignore what it tells us to do? We listen because we think that is good enough.
This is not good enough though. It is just like getting yourself ready to go and then ignoring everything you need to fix, your hair, your wrinkly clothing, your teeth needing to be brushed. If we see the things that need to be worked on, but simply ignore it then doesn’t it get embarrassing when others notice we missed things that should have been fixed before we left the house?
My point is not that we have to do what others think but that if we see things that we need to work on but simply ignore them because we think being aware of them is good enough, then what kind of gospel are we teaching others? James says be doers of the word and not just hearers.
Unbridled tongue
James keeps on this same thing when he expands in verse 26 what this self-deception looks like. Listen again to verse 26
26 If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless.
He is blunt in his words isn’t he? This kind of religion is worthless. If we see and read and hear the gospel news and the changes God wants in us, and we simply think knowing about it is good enough, then that is missing the whole point of the gospel which is God’s desire to give you a new life.
When we speak more than we listen, than the words, “I care about you” mean nothing. When we are quick to be angry over words written down, when we are willing to write off friends who disagree with us or think differently, then our words, “I love you” mean nothing. I think you get the point that when our words and actions don’t line up then we speak a different message about a different religion that is essentially worthless. It teaches of a religion where self-deception and self-centeredness are at the center of its practice.
Grace - New Hope
However, the good news in all of this is that there is still hope. God’s grace is still here where you can be different. God’s grace can still help you to change into who you should be rather than simply accepting things as they are today. It takes two things: staying in God’s word to listen to God and listen to others and secondly, a willingness to look in the mirror and commit to what you see that needs addressing.
Commit to God today your willingness to listen and act and be a doer of the word. Acknowledge shortcomings where you have just listened to God’s word and then lived your life the way you wanted anyway. Ask for forgiveness for not loving and care for others as God has loved and cared for you. Then let God’s grace wash over you, not just freeing you from the past failures but empowering you to become who God sees you can be. Empowered by the Spirit to be a doer of the word! As James says in verse 25, there is blessings in being doers of the word. There is pure and undefiled religion before God when we hear and become doers of the word!