James 1:21-22-Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
Lay Aside….Get rid of, to put of, to strip away. The word can be used for someone taking off a coat.
It is our responsibility as a believer to get rid of those things that hinder us from having a closer walk with the Lord.
James saw the human heart as a garden, which if left to itself, it would produce only the weeds of sin.
Jeremiah 17:9-“The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?
Matthew 15:19-For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.
All Filthiness And Overflow Of Wickedness
We are to lay aside every sin, which includes, every form of uncleanness.
Whether it is thoughts, words, or deeds, they must be rooted out of the life.
For sin is sin, and it is an abomination unto the Lord.
Zechariah 3:1-10
If all your clothes are filthy, you can't be selective and take off some of them, and put on fresh clean clothes. They all need to be removed. How fresh would a new suit smell, if the undergarments had not been removed for months
James is telling us is, unless we get rid of sin in whatever form it takes, it will damage us, for sin destroys everything it touches.
Just think of sin as "ear wax"
Sin in the Christian’s life will keep him from hearing the word of God!
We need to be aware of those things in our lives, which can cause wax in our spiritual ears and hinder us from hearing the word of God. Wax needs to be removed, if we are to hear, and sin needs to be removed if we are to be holy.
Colossians 3:8-10-But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth.
Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds,
and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him
Hebrews 12:1-Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
Receive With Meekness The Implanted Word
For sometimes we can have the wrong attitude toward the word as well as towards those, who teach the Word.
I like what a preacher said to someone, when they told him that they don’t get nothing from his messages, He said, “If your willing you can learn something from everybody, a drunk can teach you something, even if all it is, is not to be a drunk!”
James is saying that we are to receive the word in a submissive and open-minded way.
Psalm 25:4-5-Show me Your ways, O Lord; Teach me Your paths.
Lead me in Your truth and teach me, For You are the God of my salvation; On You I wait all the day.
Sometimes there is an unwillingness to submit to God’s Word, and to surrender certain sins and certain desires.
There is a danger that we can read into the Bible instead of reading from the Bible.
If we are not careful we will only hear from God what we want to hear and that does not make us grow as believers!
BIBLE
Joseph Cook-- Do you know a book that you are willing to put under your head for a pillow when you are dying Very well; that is the book you want to study when you are living. There is only one such book in the world.
