James #2

Good morning, we are continuing in James today. A quick reminder, James is writing to the scattered church that has scattered because of persecution. In the midst of that, James is writing them with practical applications for how their faith should impact how they live.

Prayer

Engage / Tension

This morning, I want to start off with testing your knowledge of brand motto’s.

Disneyland? The happiest place on earth.

Capital One? What’s in your wallet?

KFC? Finger lickin good

I bring those up because if James was writing this letter in our culture today, he might bring in the Nike slogan to help get his point across for this next section. Who knows what Nike’s slogan is? Just do it. In this next section, James wants his readers and us to see that there are things that we should be doing in our life. I think one issue that we run into as followers of Jesus is that we don’t often act upon what Jesus wants us to do. We read the Bible, go to church once a week, and that is what we would consider our duties of our religion. But in this section, James challenges that. He doesn’t want us to just have this knowledge of what the Bible says, he wants us to act on it. He wants us to “Just do it.” So let’s begin our passage of scripture and see what James wants us to do.

Quick to Listen / Slow to Speak

James 1:19–21 NIV

19 My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. 21 Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.

James must have been a preacher because he starts this section by saying something a lot of preachers and teachers say. Take note of this! Write this down! This is important stuff! What he is about to say is important and he wants to make sure that we are paying attention to the commands that he is about to tell us.

The first command that James gives here is “slow down.” We should be quick to listen , slow to speak, and slow to become angry. Now, this goes against how our culture tells us to react to things. Our culture tells us that we should have an opinion about everything and we should make that opinion known as quickly as possible. This problem has grown exponentially since the creation of the internet. The internet can be a great resource but it also perpetuates this idea that you need to make your thoughts know 24/7 365 days a year. We don’t want to listen. In fact, if you’re honest this morning, how many conversations did you have this week where you stopped really listening to the person you were talking to because you were thinking about how to respond? You were more concerned about what you would say than continuing to listen to what they were saying? That is the exact opposite of what James is telling us to do. Instead of being quick to get our opinion out there we should be quick to listen and slow to speak.

I always think about the pastor’s group that I meet with once a month when I read this passage. There have been times when someone is talking and one of the pastors in the group will just kind of sit there throughout the conversation. And when I first started going to these meetings I would begin to think, “Isn’t that person going to say anything? They are just sitting there.” But what that pastor was doing was listening intently to what was being discussed. He was modeling this verse of being quick to listen and slow to speak. And when he spoke, there was way more wisdom in what he had to say because he had listened well and he had thought carefully about what he was going to say. There is a lot of wisdom in being quick to listen and slow to speak.

James also tells us that we should be slow to anger because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. We often jump to being angry, to getting upset with one another, but that should not be the case. Part of the reason we end up getting angry is because everyone (including us) doesn’t often follow those first two commands of being quick to listen and slow to speak. I think if we did better at being listeners and thinking about what we say and how we say it, our blood pressure would thank us! Our anger would go down considerably just by following those two commands.

James then goes on to say that we should get rid of moral filth and instead listen to the word of God. James wants us to do some spiritual house cleaning. Instead of listening primarily to the news or our world, we should be listening to the Spirit of God who is speaking to us and showing us how to live. Listen to the word that God has planted within you and live your life out of it.

Just Do It

James 1:22–25 NIV

22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

Here we get to the catchphrase of the section. Previously James told us to listen to the word planted within us, that is a good thing, something that we should be doing. But then he goes on to tell us, don’t just listen to it, do it! Hearing the word must be done first, but then following that should be obedience.

It’s like if you started a new job tomorrow and the boss was explaining what your responsibilities were. You took notes on what you were supposed to do, who to be in contact with, everything that was part of your position. You listened attentively and could recite all of the responsibilities back to your boss. That’s a good thing, you know what is required of you. But, is that boss going to be happy if you plop yourself down in a chair and don’t do anything? What do you mean he won’t be happy? You know everything, you know your responsibilities, so why wouldn’t he be happy? Because you aren’t doing any of it! You can know scripture like the back of your hand, you can recite Bible verse after Bible verse, you can have perfect church attendance for the year, but if that is all you do, then what is the point? What is the point of knowing how you ought to be living your life but then not doing it? James says it is like someone who looks in the mirror and forgets what they look like. We can show up to church on Sunday but then come Monday, totally forget what it means to live our lives as followers of Jesus. Our goal, our desire, should not be to just listen to the Word of God, it should be to listen and do it.

And I think this is where people can get frustrated with Christians. (And I can’t say I blame them) Christians are called to love as Jesus loved, to care for the poor and the refugees, the least of these in this world, but so often we neglect to follow through. We choose to be the person who walks by the person who has been beaten on and left on the road. Instead of helping the person.

John talks about this in 1 John 3:16-18 “16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.”

If we see someone in need and we can do something about it, we should do something about it. Hear the word of God, yes, but then be a doer of God’s word.

Pure Religion

James 1:26–27 NIV

26 Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. 27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

In this last section of chapter 1 James talks about religion that is worthless and religion that is pure.

He first brings up the topic of a religious person who doesn’t watch what they say. James is going to touch more on the topic of controlling the tongue in chapter 3, but we should watch what we say and how we say it. You might be religious in a sense, you go to church and everyone thinks you’re a Christian, but then speak terribly about others the rest of the week. It goes back to the first verses we read that tell us to be slow to speak. The way you speak matters, how you interact with people matters. And this maybe needs more attention for us today because of the great issues that the internet presents to us. We can get on facebook or some other online forum and hide behind our keyboard and say some really nasty things. Controlling our tongue also means we control our fingers on the keyboard.

We must watch what we say and think about what we say.

James then tells us what pure religion looks like. He says pure religion is to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep from being polluted by the world. Religion that is acceptable to God is to take care of the least of these, to take care of those who need it the most. In the Jewish society this was the widows and orphans. They had no one to help them with food or clothing and so James is telling the Christians to take care of them. In fact, they have been told this all the way from Isaiah’s time.

Isaiah 1:16–17 NIV

16 Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong. 17 Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.

Widows and orphans still need help to this day, but there are other groups as well that need help. And James today would tell us that we should take care of them. Don’t let your action stop at just thoughts and prayers, let your faith move you into physical action. Take a meal to someone in need, sit with someone who is mourning, help someone with their utility bill, help load someone’s groceries into their car. Be doers of God’s word, not just hearers. Help those who need help.

Inspiration

In 1996 there was a woman who was killed in New York, while 38 of her neighbors sat by and did nothing. The woman was walking home after work and was attacked. As she was attacked she screamed and the scream woke up a bunch of the people who lived in the building. They flipped their lights on and looked out at what was happening. The lady saw the lights and began to yell for help. One resident shouted down at the attacker to “leave that girl alone.” The attacked got spooked and ran off. Everyone in the building turned off their lights and went back to bed! The attacker came back and this event repeated itself two more times over the course of 30 minutes. Each time the residents would simply turn on their lights and look down at what was happening, but no one would call the police.

The man who eventually called the police after the woman was killed told the police that he didn’t call initially because he didn’t want to get involved.

Action

This cannot be the route for Christians. We cannot sit idly by as people suffer and we have the ability to help them. We need to be doers of the word.