How To Test The Reality Of Your Religion Series

An anthropologist once visited a Bantu village in South Africa to

study the customs of the very primitive people who lived there.

When he returned to the U.S. he sent back a sun dial to those people

to express his thanks for their cooperation. The natives were

delighted with their gift, and they were concerned that nothing

happen to it, and so they immediately built a thatched roof over it to

protect it. In so doing, however, they made it of no practical value.

The foolishness of this is obvious to us all, but James says the

foolishness is not always obvious to Christian people when they do

the same thing with their religion. They take it home after church on

Sunday, and they hang it in the closet with their Sunday clothes, and

there is stays until the next week. It is as worthless as a sun dial

under a roof. James warns us that if our Christianity is not practical, and we

only hear and do not do, then we are deceiving ourselves.

A Christianity that is not practical is not a real Christianity. If it does

not control your conduct, and change your character, and make you

more sensitive to the will of God and the world's need, then you

better stop and ask some questions about the reality of your religion.

In these last two verses of chapter 1 James has a lesson for us on how

to test the reality of our religion. If your religion does not change

you, you had better change your religion. James implies that there

are three questions that we must be able to answer with a definite yes

if we are to be confident that our religion is not vain, but of real

value to God, to the world, and to ourselves. The first question that

grows out of what James says is-

I. AM I PRUDENT IN MY SPEECH? 26.

James is saying in a different way what Jesus said when He made

the statement, "It is not what goes into a man but what comes out of

him that defiles him." Jesus was referring to the tongue just as

James is. The Bible makes it quite clear that one of the greatest

responsibilities that men have is the wise use of their tongue. Jesus

said, "By your words you shall be justified and by your words you

shall be condemned." A real Christian is one who does not say, "I

have freedom of speech, and so I can use my tongue as I please." He

is one who presents his body a living sacrifice unto God, and that

includes his tongue. He is one who is truthful with his tongue, and

wise with his words.

A man who can go to church on Sunday and then curse, and tell

dirty stories at the office or plant on Monday is only deceiving

himself, "for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." I

that is what comes out of his mouth, we know his heart is filled with

the language of the world and not that of the Word of God. James is

saying that the man's religion is vain, and it has no real value to

anyone. He is a double minded man who will receive nothing from

the Lord.

It is amazing how many people are deceived at this point. Out of

the same mouth comes both sweet and bitter. I have known men who

could talk about their church work, and of how they help the church

in so many ways, and then a few minutes later hear them using filthy

language, and do so with no respect for others in their presence. He

thinks he is very religious, but James would say that because he

cannot bridle his tongue he fails the test of real religion. A foul and

filthy tongue characterized the ancient world, and the Christians

who were won out from this type of society had a difficult time in

keeping their tongues committed to the glory of Christ. The same

problem exists today, where foul language is even very common in

the public schools; in modern movies, as well as the workplace. It is

easy for the Christian to get caught up in the common expressions of

the world and thereby cease to be different from the world. This can

totally ruin your witness and make your religious commitment of no

value.

Paul was concerned about this problem also, and he wrote to the

Colossians and said in 3:8-10, "But now you must rid yourselves of

all such things as these: Anger, rage, malice, slander and filthy

language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have

taken off your old self with its practices and have put on a new self,