Book of James: 1:22-27 That pen and paper moment

James 1:22–27 ESV

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 who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25 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. 26 If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. 27 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.

Chuck Swindoll in his book Improving Your Serve, which I have edited for contemporary us:

Let’s pretend that you work for me. In fact, you are my executive assistant in a company that is growing rapidly. I’m the owner and I’m interested in expanding overseas. To pull this off, I make plans to travel abroad and stay there until the new foreign office gets established. I make all the arrangements to take Irena and Ethan in the move to he Macedonia for six to eight months, and I leave you in charge of the busy British organisation. I tell you that I will write you regularly and give you direction and instructions.

I leave and you stay. Months pass. A flow of emails are sent and received by you at the national headquarters. I spell out all my expectations. Finally, I return. Soon after my arrival I drive down to the office. I am stunned! Grass and weeds have grown up high. A few windows along the street are broken. I walk into the receptionist’s room and she is doing her nails, chewing gum, and listening to her favourite disco station. I look around and notice the waste baskets are overflowing, the carpet hasn’t been vacuumed for weeks, and nobody seems concerned that the owner has returned. I ask about your whereabouts and someone in the crowded lounge area points down the hall and yells, “I think he’s down there.” Disturbed, I move in that direction and bump into you as you are finishing a chess game with our sales manager. I ask you to step into my office (which has been temporarily turned into a television room for watching afternoon soap operas).

“What in the world is going on, man?”“What do ya’ mean … ?”

“Well, look at this place! Didn’t you get any of my emails?”

“Emails? Oh, yeah—sure, got every one of them. As a matter of fact … we have had an email study every Friday night since you left. We have even divided all the personnel into small groups and discussed many of the things you wrote. Some of those things were really interesting. You’ll be pleased to know that a few of us have actually committed to memory some of your sentences and paragraphs. One or two memorised an entire email or two! Great stuff in those emails!”

“Okay, okay—you got my emails, you studied them and meditated on them, discussed and even memorised them. BUT WHAT DID YOU DO ABOUT THEM?”

“Do? Uh—we didn’t do anything about them.”

22 be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves

What is the point of the preaching of the Word if you do not do what you hear? Oh, many a preacher have asked that question!

Good preachers want to see Christ formed in you but are still shocked when it does not appear to change and transform the lives of those that they preach to - and we are equally shocked when they see people truly changed!

In the eighties and first part of the nineties congregants used to take notes on the preaching. The reason why we have sermons from last century and before is not because the preacher gave out notes, it was because their congregants remembered what was said almost word for word. There’d be few here who could recount my sermon back to me even directly after the service let alone a week or a year later. And for that matter, nor can I!!! Today we have YouTube and you can rehear what the preacher had to say.

James is not saying here, that some say he says, that it is the doing that makes you a Christian. Indeed, we are told what the work of God is in:

John 6:28–29 ESV

28 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

So faith and doing and interrelated. They are near enough the same. The work that God requires of you is to believe in Jesus. What specifically about Him? That He was sent by His Father, that He died for your sins, your sins personally, died as a result, and then was raised to life from the dead bodily. That’s it.

So, what is James saying? What I’ve said all along. What is the point of saying you have faith if then you do not continue in obedience to what you hear from the Word of God? In fact, James, says, you are deceived. So many times in the New Testament we are warned about not being deceived. Well, now you know one way to avoid it, do what you hear.

23-24 23 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. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.

He then illustrates what that is like. You look in a mirror very closely but nearly by the time you turn away you do not remember what you look like. This is why eye-witnesses to a crime are sometimes next-to-useless. They see with their eyes but then cannot describe what happened or the person who did it. Many factors go into this such as the suddenness, the fear, and what changes what we see most is another eyewitness who doesn’t see it how you did and you doubt yourself and because of acceptance fall in line with that person’s version of events.

The good thing is that this person is looking, at least.

James—Faith That Works The Wrong Example/Way (vv. 23, 24)

A story from the last century tells how a missionary out in the bush had hung a small mirror on a tree in order to shave. The local witch doctor happened by and curiously looked into the strange glass—and seeing her hideously painted features she jumped back! Immediately she began to bargain with the missionary for the mirror. The man demurred, but to no effect. Finally, realizing that the witch doctor would not be put off, he let her have the mirror—whereupon she threw it to the ground, breaking it to pieces, shouting, “There … it won’t be making ugly faces at me anymore!”

The mirror here is the the Word of God, the Bible. The person looking in the mirror sees their reflection. The Word of the Lord is reveals our secrets: it shows our lives, our thoughts, our hearts, our most inmost self.”

but it has no real effect and so doesn’t making any moves to change what he or she sees.

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

But there is another type of person. One that has been taken hold of and has to keep looking.

Now, I am not being sexist here but women are more prone to looking into a mirror more acutely especially if going out to an event or a date or maybe even to church and some if just going to the shops. Not a hair out of place. Just the right amount of mascara, the right tone of foundation and blusher, and though I am no expert in these things, you have made sure you look as perfect as you can by looking and making sure no blemishes are seen.

The person who looks into God’s Word and keeps doing so realises that there are many blemishes revealed to them. And they take action to deal with them as they see them. Not in some outward show and by putting on a mask. But actually doing something about those things so that the blemishes are properly dealt with.

Of course, they also realise that they really know what they are like before God and that no good thing is revealed in them before God. But they are still those who look and do and keep on looking and keep on doing.

But if we are not like this then we shall stagnate as Christians and even though we may have looked at God’s Word it will have less and less effect upon us until we do what it says. We become stubborn like Pharaoh who in then end became hard-hearted and not open to the voice of God or even able to hear it.

But if you are obedient to the Word of God it will transform you. God’s will is for you to be holy, separated to Him, to do what is required of you. If you do these things, James says, you will experience blessing.

So, what is all this about? It is about fellowship with God. We break our fellowship with Him when we say I will do it my way rather than Yours. There is no more miserable person that a Christian who is not living the Christian life. And what is this perfect law of liberty if it is not what Jesus taught and indeed James comes back to in the following chapter?

James 2:8 ESV

8 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.

And Paul tells us:

Galatians 5:13 ESV

13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

What do you do when you read something in the Scriptures that speaks to us? What do we do when we hear a something in a sermon that reaches our hearts. Nothing? Or do we commit ourselves to doing what we hear? Do we take a pen and paper and write down what God is speaking to us?

26-27 If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless. 27 Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world

Then James being intensely practical speaks of the fact we can be all talk and no walk. Actually, it is worse than that here. There is a pretence of religiosity. Did you know that the word religion here is never a positive word in the New Testament. The dictionary suggests that religion is belief and devotion to religious faith but that is not a biblical definition. Religion in the New Testament is either about outward show of religiosity or about thinking that doing good works will put you in God’s good books. And when we look at the world’s religions that is exactly what we see included in the ‘religion’ of Christianity.

The Word of God, if we allow it, transforms us from the inside out.

Romans 12:2 NKJV

2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

We are to unravel ourselves from the ways of the world. But do we know how to? How often do we recognise what it truly means to be a disciple of Jesus? How often do the ways of the world appear contrary to God’s? Are we aware at all? If the world lauds and praises something then do we join them or does something seem off? How much of our time is spent on the worldly things? When we are told to redeem the time because the days of evil, do we realise that the days are evil? Do we know how to use our time effectively and not by wasting it, especially in front of our TVs? Maybe some us should jettison the TV altogether.

James 7. Examples of What It Means to Be a Doer of the Word of God (26–27)

From the book of Genesis, Lot is an example of a man who was spotted by the world. He started living towards Sodom, disregarding the spiritual climate of the area because of the prosperity of the area. Eventually he moved to the wicked city and became a part of the city’s leadership. The end result was that Lot lost everything—and was saved as only by the skin of his teeth.

How quick is the slippery slope to worldliness.

How can we know these things if we do not listen and read God’s Word?

And when we do then it should result in changed lives towards purity and towards doing good to others. That is that old-fashioned word of charity. Pure religion is when we do things for people who can never pay us back. For James he thought of the fatherless and widows. This was not just about a donation to charity but being the charity. It was about getting up and doing something like visiting.

And what of those who are on our list of people in need? Are we looking after them as well as we can be? Are we visiting? It is not just what our pastoral care team can do or the pastor can do. If you prompted when you pray about someone, drop in to see them. If we do not care for our own then how will we show care to the community?

Christianity is not a private religion but has an outward profession of faith in word and works. And it is a pure form of Christianity and combats the impure.

We can only be moulded by God to be who we ought to be by being those who look intently and constantly into the Bible, the Word of God.

We have talked of the Bible being a mirror to our souls but it is also a two way mirror into the soul of God. He reveals who He is and all that He has done. When we see Him for all that He is, then we fall on our knees and worship and respond to Him when He asks: Who will go for us?

Today we have called it Baptist Missionary Society Sunday. Many Christians have gone out into various nations to live their lives for the Gospel. Maybe God will call you to that too. Or maybe He will call you to be here instead and be a missionary in this place. Everyone of us has that call.

Who will keep themselves unspotted from the world. Who will tell the good news of forgiveness of sins and eternal life? Who will demonstrate in word and deed that they are who they say they are? Let’s have those pen and paper moments and become disciples of Jesus.

Song: 300 Take my life

Benediction

Colossians 3:15–17 NKJV

15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. 17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

Bibliography

Guzik, David, James, David Guzik’s Commentaries on the Bible (Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik, 2013)

Hughes, R. Kent, James: Faith That Works, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1991)