The Righteous Life
James 1:19-27
To Live a Righteous Life requires that we…
Hear the Word (v.19-20)
To really hear we need to…
Keep quiet (slow to speak)
Keep cool (slow to become angry)
Accept the word (v.21)
Do the word (v. 22-25)
Doing the word is evidenced by
Shutting your mouth (v.26)
Opening your Heart (and wallet) (v. 27a)
Keeping yourself from the polluted world (v. 27b)
Immersing yourself in the pure word (v. 21)
Well, its father’s day today and I want to start out today with a reminder of how important our role as fathers is.
Father’s day video
Intro
Slide
I’ve got a question for you dads, in fact for everyone here today.
Do you want to be known as a Righteous person?
To be Righteous is to be morally upright. This is not to be self righteous, which would be to be pridefully assured of your own righteousness, but in humility, striving to live your life in a way that is pleasing to the Lord.
When we are doing that, I believe that we continually recognize how we are falling short.
So, do you want to be known as a person living a righteous life?
I think we believe that may be an easy answer to give, but I think there are many people who would struggle with that because they think that
living a righteous life is not going to be enjoyable, or that
living the righteous life is living a boring life.
Well, James tells us that living the righteous life is where the blessed life is found.
And he also gives us some practical help not only in how we can live this righteous life, but he tells us a couple of things that living the righteous life will entail.
Turn with me to James 1:19-27
Slide
We are continuing our series through the book of James today as we are continually seeking to discover how we can live a real faith in real life. Today as we look at what James tells us about living a righteous life, we are going to find it has a lot to do with our relationship with the word of God.
I want to encourage you to be bringing your Bible with you as we go through James. You can make notes in it as we study it. While this is God’s word to us, we need to remember it is not a book to be worshiped, but a field manual to be lived out.
So it is important for you to have and bring your Bibles to church so you can have a better grasp of what is written there.
Ok, so read with me in James 1, beginning in verse 17 until the end of the chapter.
James 1:19-27
19 My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life 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.
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 a man 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 the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it-he will be blessed in what he does.
26 If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his 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.
Pray
In these verses we find several things related to the word of God that we need to do if we are going to live a Righteous life that is pleasing to the Lord.
The first thing that James tells us is that we need to
Hear the Word
Slide
James 1:19a - My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen…
Now this section of Scripture we are studying today is all about God’s word.
And while this advice of being quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to become angry is great advice for any relationship or occasion, I believe in the context of this passage it is really speaking in the context of the word of God.
So, the question for us is “Are we open to hearing the word of God?”
We may think we are, but that doesn’t mean we are.
The Pharisees would have said they were quick to listen, that they were open to hearing the word of God, but Jesus said over and over when he walked upon the earth that "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." (Matthew 11:15, 13:9, 13:43, Mark 4:9, 4:23, Luke 8:8, 14:35)
He was saying this often in regards to the Pharisees who thought they knew all they needed to know, but were full of pride and unteachable.
We need to be open to hearing the word of God. We need to be quick to listen and more interested in seeking to discern what the Lord wants us to know and how we can follow Him.
But being quick to listen cannot just stand alone. James tells us a couple of other things that need to be going on in our lives if we are really going to be able to hear the word of God and live the righteous life He wants us to.
One of those things he tells us to do is to
Keep Quiet
Slide
James 1:19b - My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak…
Again this is great advice in all of our relationships, and James is going to hit on our speech and our tongue several times in this letter. But in this context talking about the word of God, I believe the Lord is telling us through James that we need to be cautious in applying the meaning of it in regards to what we think it says.
I think we so often read something or hear something in God’s word and quickly believe we know its meaning and will tell ourselves this is what it means or tell others.
I believe that James is telling us that if we are going to live the righteous life, then we have not only got to be open to hearing what the Lord is saying, but we have to slow down in telling ourselves the meaning to it.
We need to take some time and meditate on His word without being so quick to determine the meaning and move on. We need to be quiet long enough for the Lord to speak the meaning of it into our lives.
This is a lot easier said than done, since we live in such a fast paced environment and we live in a world that wants to see things getting accomplished.
We have got to understand that reading the word and hearing it is really not about us accomplishing something. It is about God accomplishing something in us.
The author of Hebrews tells us that “the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12)
God’s word can transform us, but if we are going to hear what it is speaking into our lives, then we have got to keep quiet at times.
God tells us through the psalmist to “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10)
We are going to look a bit more at the practicality of this at the end of the message, but take this to heart. We need to be slow to speak, take time to be still and meditate on the word so we can be quick to listen, so that we can really hear what God is saying to us.
But we not only need to Keep quiet, to really hear God’s word. James also tells us that we need to
Keep Calm
Slide
James 1:19c - … be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry
Again, this is good advice for all of our relationships, but I believe this is more specifically meant concerning the word of God.
I think we can become angry at God or his word as it exposes our sin and we don’t like it. When that happens we begin to stop hearing His word.
But God is not exposing our sin just to make us feel bad. His word is seeking to transform us and he is trying to help us overcome these things in His strength.
And while we need not become angry at God or His word, but there are times that we should be angry at sin.
Jesus became angry when he went to the temple and the people had turned it into a market place where they were ripping people off, instead of the house of prayer it was supposed to be. He was angry at the sin.
We typically are not so angry at the sin in our lives as we are at the One who is pointing it out. Don’t be angry at the messenger as much as we are at the sin.
We need to be slow to get angry, we need to keep calm and seek to meditate on God’s word as we are slow to speak and let God’s word teach us and penetrate us and judge our motives and actions and transform us.
God loves us too much to leave us the way we are, but to change us, we need our sin exposed. Don’t get angry about that, but be grateful that we have a God who loves us enough to help us overcome those things in our life that ultimately are harming us.
So we need to hear the word and to really hear it we need to keep quiet and keep calm.
Now James tells us that hearing the word is only the beginning. After we hear the word, we need to
Accept the Word
Slide
James 1:21 - 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 implies a dichotomy here.
He says as we hear the word of God and it exposes sin in us, the moral filth and the evil that we have allowed in us from the outside, we need to reject that and instead humbly accept the word of God planted in us that can save us.
He is basically saying there is a choice here.
After hearing the word of God, really heard it, you have to choose whether you are going to
believe it for you, accept its truth for your life OR
reject it and live in the moral filth and evil that is so prevalent around us.
Now that choice sounds easy.
Who wants to live in filth?
But I believe this is the struggle and the deception that Satan is using on this generation.
Satan is telling us that following Jesus, believing in Him and living the righteous life, the life that is morally upright, the life that is in tune and in line with God’s word is boring and unenjoyable.
Now, I don’t want to sell you a bill of goods.
Believing in and following Jesus is hard sometimes and requires sacrifice.
Jesus said to his followers that they must pick up their cross and follow him.
Like saving for retirement
But the sacrifices of accepting the truth of God’s word into our life, of accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior, as the word of God tells us, are like the sacrifices we make to save for retirement.
We could spend all that we get right now, but that is going to be bad for us in the long term when we are living in poverty.
Living in the moral filth and evil that is so prevalent is probably easier right now, but it leads to very serious consequences for our eternity.
Don’t just hear what God’s word says, accept the word into your life and truly believe it in your heart.
But James does not stop there. There is a progression to the word that shows the reality of our belief.
We need to really be hearing the word of God if we are going to accept it. We know that we have heard it if we have accepted it into our lives. And we can know that we have accepted the word when we actually
Do the word
Slide
James 1:22 - Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
Hear the word, accept the word, do the word.
This is where the rubber meets the road.
We can say that we hear what God is saying and that we accept it, but the reality of our faith is born out in the way we really live our life.
A real faith is lived out in real life in our actions.
Listen to what James says about the person who doesn’t do what it says
James 1:23-25
23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man 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 the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it-he will be blessed in what he does.
James is telling us that it is crazy talk to say that you have heard what God’s word says and accepted it but you don’t do it.
That’s as crazy as looking at yourself in the mirror and forgetting what you look like.
When we look at God’s perfect word and hear it, accept it and live it, we experience freedom from the slavery to sin that we are trapped in and will experience the life that is blessed eternally.
So the reality is born out in what we do.
So often in the church, emphasis is placed on knowledge. Do we have a solid grasp of right doctrine?
Now do not get me wrong. This is very important.
But I have met people that are doing multiple Bible studies and seeking to grow in their knowledge, and it would appear are truly desiring to hear and accept God’s word, but they are so busy with trying to have a perfect grasp of the truth, hearing and accepting God’s word that they aren’t doing the word.
I think we would be better off doing one Bible study, or even just reading God’s word with an ear toward really hearing Him and accepting it and then just do what we are learning.
God’s word is not something we are going to hear and accept and digest into our lives overnight. It is a lifelong process.
His word continually transforms us over our lives.
Hear the word, accept what you hear, then do what you have accepted.
Now, James, never content to just leave us in the realm of the theoretical, tells us a couple of things that will certainly be evident in the lives of those who are hearing, accepting and doing God’s word.
He tells us next that doing the word is going to be evidenced by
Shutting your Mouth
Slide
James 1:26 - If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.
Now this is the second time that James has mentioned something about what we say and that we need to be cautious about speaking. This won’t be the last time he focuses on the tongue either.
James is telling us that doing the word in real life means what you say will be affected.
Jesus told us the same thing.
Luke 6:45 - The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.
Our ability to stop evil coming out of our mouth is an indication that God’s word is working in our lives.
We are not always going to be able to stop evil thoughts from entering our head, but we can stop them from exiting our mouth as God’s word fills our hearts and strengthens us to overcome.
Paul tells us in
Ephesians 4:29 - Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.
Proverbs 10:32 "The lips of the righteous know what is fitting, but the mouth of the wicked only what is perverse."
The advice your mother told you that if you don’t have anything good to say then say nothing at all is good biblical advice.
Sometimes doing the word is evidenced by what we don’t do and that is speaking when it is not beneficial or helpful to someone.
But James also tells us that doing the word is not only evidenced by shutting our mouths at times, but also by
Opening Your Heart (and Wallet)
Slide
James 1:27a - Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress…
Widows and orphans were those in Jesus day who had little recourse in the law and had no means of support.
I think many times people look around seeing those who are poor and we think where is God? I think God thinks the same thing in regard to His people, “where are my people? Where are those who say they are followers of mine? There are many who claim to hear what I am saying and say they accept it but they are not doing anything about it.
James 1:27 - Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress
We need to be opening our hearts to those who are truly in need. To those unable to provide for themselves.
This may mean opening your home to someone to live with you.
This may mean adopting a child
This may mean helping support someone who is adopting a child
This may mean sponsoring a child through world vision or Compassion International.
It may mean checking on some of the older folks, the widows whom the Lord has placed in your life.
It may mean helping them out financially as they struggle to live on an income that does not keep pace with inflation.
It may mean any number of those things, but it definitely will require sacrifice. Sacrifice in time, in money, in your life.
And James goes on to say that doing the word is not only evidenced by opening your heart and wallet by caring for widows and orphans, those who are unable to care for themselves, but it is also evidenced by
Keeping yourself from a polluted world
Slide
James 1:27b - … and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
While we need to be in the world, we are not to be of the world.
Jesus, when he was about to sacrifice for the sins of the world, prayed for His disciples. And while he recognized they were in the world, they were not of the world and he asked the Father to sanctify them with his word while they were in the world.
The only way to keep yourself from being polluted by the world is by
Immersing yourself in the Pure Word
Slide
James, throughout this section tells us to hear the word, accept the word, and do the word.
Jesus prays for the disciples to be sanctified by the word
John 17:17 - Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.
Peter tells us “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk” (1 Peter 2:2)
We need to immerse ourselves in the pure word of God so we can live the righteous and blessed life that Jesus wants us to live, a life that is evidenced by doing the word, by bearing fruit in our life.
Conclusion
I want to encourage you to take your inserts home and be reading the sections of Scripture we have put on there.
I want to remind you of James words in verse 25.
James 1:25 - But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it-he will be blessed in what he does.
The Righteous Life is the Blessed Life.
Open your ears to hear the word of God. Be still before Him. Keep quiet and keep calm so you can really hear him. Meditate on His word.
Then accept it and do it.
Doing it will be evident in the way you talk to people and the way you sacrifice in your life.
Then you will know that the righteous life is the blessed life.
Let’s pray.
