We continue our series, Seven Practices of a Healthy Christian. Last week, we focused on the heart and this week we focus on the mind – live the Bible. Through the process, we’re keying in one two key words: constancy and consistency.
A recent survey shows that less than only one in five church-attending people read their Bibles daily. Bible engagement is directly related to spiritual growth. Meditating and studying on the word of God are the heartbeat of the Christian life. You can’t sustain a practice of Christianity without the word of God. God’s Word is the lub-dub of the coronary Christian life. In order to be consistent and constant in the practice of the Christian life, you must be consistent and constant in the Scriptures.
Today’s Big Idea: The Word of God will do the Work of God.
My aim this morning is for you to love this book. I want you to treat this book differently than a grocery list, your school textbooks, or the IRS guidelines for preparing your taxes. Instead, I want you to live off this book.
“Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creation. 19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness that God requires. 21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. 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 and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world” (James 1:18 – 27).
People throughout history have been guided three different options when it comes to choosing what will be authoritative in matters of their faith.
1. Tradition
Many people choose to establish the bedrock of their belief on tradition. One group within Christianity says that the right approach to discerning spiritual realties is to listen to the leader of the church. When this leader speaks on matters of religion, he can’t go wrong. But various leaders often contradict themselves. Others believe in the tradition of their parents. Whatever their father or mother believed, they believe with little reflection.
2. Human Experience
Some say God have us a rational mind and this is our basis of authority. This group says that humans are the ultimate arbitrator for determining one’s belief. We should look only to one another’s opinions to find the anchor of our beliefs. I have not met anyone who is smart enough for me to place my trust in for all of eternity.
3. The Bible
The commitment of a healthy life and a healthy church is to place our full trust and authority in matters of faith in the Scriptures. The Reformers, a group of Christians who broke against placing their trust in tradition nearly five hundred years ago, called this position sola scriptura. The words mean we will only trust the Scriptures. Though both the book of Mormon and the Quran claim divine inspiration, we believe only the Scriptures are inspired by God. Jesus Himself said about His Words: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (Matthew 24:35).
Jesus said this upcoming week’s memory verse: “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God’” (Matthew 4:4).
Jesus commands us to Eat this Book.
1. Conversion Starts Your Spiritual Taste for God’s Word
Everything flows in James 1:18-27 from verse eighteen. “Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creation” (James 1:18). The words “he brought us forth” is literally to “give birth.” Here God gives birth or causes human to be saved. But notice the way in which verse eighteen says God causes humans to be saved – it’s through His word that he creates saved humans. God adds saved human beings in His eternal family through His Word: “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17).
Conversion is the beginning of your taste for God’s Word because it was through God’s Word that you are saved. Before we are born again, our hearts are full of other things that push out the word of God. We are like people who are so stuffed with candy between meals that when the feast is offered we are not hungry. In fact, our stomach turns at the thought of eating. This is how lost people feel about the real meaning of God’s word. They feel no need for it. It’s not implanted in them.
2. Fill Up on the Holy Book
“Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger” (James 1:19).
James gives converted people three commands in verse nineteen: be quick to listen, be slow to speak, and be slow to anger. Then verses twenty and twenty-one give a fuller explanation for being slow to anger. Verses twenty-two through twenty-five give a fuller explanation for being quick to listen. And lastly, verse twenty-six is devoted to the importance of being slow to speak. Each of these three commands is tied back to the central idea of the importance of God’s Word. And none of the three commands can happen until the Word of God is implanted in verse twenty-one: “Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls” (James 1:21).
The word is implanted in verse eighteen: “Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creation” (James 1:18).
So it is God’s action of placing the Word inside of us causes conversion. The act of God in conversion gives us the ability to do the three commands in verse nineteen: be quick to listen, be slow to speak, and be slow to anger.
2.1 Have an Open Ear
“Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger” (James 1:19) Literally, you are to hurry up and listen to God’s written Word. You should rapidly pursue listening to God’s Word. The believer should respond to opportunities to hear God’s Word quickly and not reluctantly.
Jesus told a parable in Mark 4 about four kinds of listeners. Each listener was represented by a different soil. The type of soil indicated how likely you were to God’s Word. We might talk about these four soils as the: The Hard Heart; The Shallow Heart; The Crowded Heart; and the Fruitful Heart. It was only this last heart that Christ commends for listening: “But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold” (Mark 4:20). This was the only one that listened and the only type of heart that allowed the Word of God to do the Work of God.
2.2 Have a Closed Mouth
“Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;” (James 1:19)
“Do you see a man who is hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him.” (Proverbs 29:20)
“When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent.” (Proverbs 10:19)
“Whoever restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding.” (Proverbs 17:27)
2.3 Have a Calm Spirit
“Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness that God requires.” (James 1:19-20)
Here is a picture of a person who experiences a deep-seated rage. It describes a person who is nursing a grudge. Deal with anger before it deals with you. James here is not prohibiting all anger. There is a godly anger against sin.
Again, all three commands have to do with how you are listening and acting on to God’s Word. These three commands are branches from the one tree trunk, where God’s Word is given careful consideration and thought. You must prepare to worship Christ.
Have you ever painted your home? You must prepare the surface to paint. You can’t just slap on the paint.
Each of the three commands will produce a Clean Heart: “Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls” (James 1:21). The word James uses for “filthiness” was used for disgusting earwax. It was the very word that medical doctors of the day used to describe earwax. The point is that such filth plugs up the spiritual ear so that God’s Word cannot be received. The picture in verse twenty-one is one of taking off filthy clothes. A Clean heart will hear better.
D. L. Moody placed the following words in the front of his Bible: “Sin will keep you from this Book and this Book will keep you from sin.” As a surgeon cleans his hands prior to surgery, so must a person clean his heart before worship with God. In addition to ridding ourselves of the moral filth, James tells us that we are also to receive the Word. The word “receive” is the word for hospitality. We are to welcome the Word into our lives as if I was welcoming you into my home for dinner. We are to welcome the word with meekness. Because you are saved, you are doing this. If the Word wasn’t inside you at your conversion, then you have no ability to practice the Christian.
A CONTRAST
When the Word is implanted inside you: “And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers” (1 Thessalonians 2:23).
When the Word isn’t Inside You: Jesus said of the leaders who were trying to kill him: “You seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you” (John 8:37). The word of truth was not implanted in them. Be careful. These leaders knew their Bibles better than anyone. But the word of God “found no place in them.” It was not implanted in them. Before we are born again, our hearts are full of other things that push out the word of God. We are like people who are so stuffed with candy between meals that when the feast is offered we are not hungry. In fact, our stomach turns at the thought of eating. This is how unregenerate people feel about the real meaning of God’s word. They feel no need for it. So it has no place. It’s not implanted in them.
2. Practice God’s Word
“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.” (James 1:22-25)
Notice the words of verse twenty-two: we are to practice and hear the Words of God. Hearing, understanding, and studying God’s Word is vital. We also see people to listen to God’s Word but do nothing about it. Imagine a young physician who, having just graduated medical school, practices medicine dismissing all that he has learned in medical school. Imagine a judge who rules cases without any regard to legal precedence. Think of a pharmacist who knows that a patient is taking multiple drugs but doesn’t pay any attention to how the drugs might interact with one another. Or imagine a cook who doesn’t follow recipes, instead he adds ingredients as they come to him. Each person must follow guidelines established as best practices in his or her profession. Whether one is an architect or electrician, heeding the established codes and regulation averts disaster. Would you want your taxes prepared by a person who doesn’t follow the IRS guidelines? Or would you hire an electrician who wires your home without any heed to electrical codes? At times every teacher of the Bible wonders whether the door of this place contain a magical eraser. The Scriptures are opened during Sunday Morning Bible Study and during worship, and yet how little of it goes with us as we leave this place. How very little of the Bible goes with us to the home; … into the school; … and into the business decisions at the office or the factory.
The word “hearers” in verse twenty-two is the word we use for auditing a course. The person who audits a course in a university setting is the most relaxed person in the class. He or she is just filling their notebooks. Do you not what the person who audits a course does the night before the test? Anything they want to do! They have no tests to study for and no papers to prepare for. Many are just hearers only.
Some of you are hard-pressed to demonstrate to God or your closest friends any significant change in your life. Immediately following the Civil War, special riders were dispatched and sent to plantations throughout the South. These riders had what I consider an enviable task. They would ride from plantation to plantation, informing slaves of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, which brought them their freedom. The response of the slaves varied. Some cried and cheered, while others stood in stunned silence. Still others refused to believe the news and returned to work.
If you are listening only and not doing the Word of God then you are “deceiving yourselves” (verse 22). Charles Swindoll has said, “The Scripture is not designed for your idle curiosity but the Scriptures are designed to change your life.” The Word will make you more gracious and loving. The Word should make you more hospitable. “If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them” (John 13:17). You must keep yourselves in the Word for fighting sin involves fighting a foe that takes many forms. The Word is your weapon for war. Like an army with many soldiers, sin attacks persistently. Once you knock one sin down, another quickly arises.
In verses 23-24, we have a picture of the forgetful hearer. “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.” (James 1:23-24) One who looks into the mirror in the morning and quickly forgets what he looks like. He does nothing about his spiritual appearance once he has looked into God’s mirror, the Word of God. None of you would come to church with your bedclothes on. No quick glance is sufficient. God consistently tells His people not to forget His mercies and His Law. James’ concern with practical obedience is signaled by his shift from the term “Word of God” in verses 21-23 to “law” in verse 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.” (James 1:25)
Someone may ask how does God’s Word and God’s rules become “the law of liberty?” Music does not result from random banging on a piano. Musicians confine themselves to the discipline of the lines, spaces, and key signatures of the musical score. Artists must confine themselves to a canvas. And drivers must confine themselves to the rules of the road. But he answered them, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.” (Luke 8:21) ”Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” (John 14:21)
What does the shift from “word of God” in verses 21-23 to “law” in verse 25 mean? What difference does the message make? We could say that doing and hearing God’s Word is evidenced in three ways: by conversation, by concern, and by conduct.
Three Practical Ways to Share:
3.1 Conversation
“If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless” (James 1:26). James mentions an aspect of speech in every chapter of his letter. Your tongue can be used for blasting or blessing others.
3.2 Concern
“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” (James 1: 27)
First- Century widows sometimes became prostitutes in order to survive. Orphans were frequently sold into slavery. There are very few money-making possibilities for first century woman and orphans. These two people would be helpless and hopeless in that day. Emperor Julian wrote of the church in the fourth century that love was the thing that drew converts. “Atheism [i.e., Christian faith] has been specially advanced through the loving service rendered to strangers, and through their care for the burial of the dead. It is a scandal that there is not a single Jew who is a beggar, and that the godless Galileans [Christians] care not only for their own poor but for ours as well; while those who belong to us look in vain for the help that we should render them.”
3.3 Conduct
“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” (James 1:27)
We are to keep ourselves from being polluted from sin. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Matthew 4:4) Jesus commands us to Eat this Book. Today’s Big Idea: The Word of God will do the Work of God.
Commitment Time
Will you commit to reading God’s Word every day this week? Will you ask a friend to hold you accountable for memorizing God’s Word? Will you join a Sunday Morning Bible Study group?
