Today, as we return to our study in the book of James, we are confronted with some helpful and convicting words that relate to how we interact with other people and even respond to sticky situations. Even as he presents this information - James does so with a specific outcome in mind:
James 1:19–20 ESV
Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
Essentially, it seems like his…
Objective - Righteousness of God revealed in our interactions.
As he lays out this objective for us, he’s not challenging us to simply conform to some externally imposed norms. Rather argues for transformation through God’s word. He calls us to receive, hear, and live God’s word.
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Receive the Word (19-21)
James begins with the end in mind.
James 1:19 ESV
Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;
For the brothers and sisters who would have heard these words in the first century, it’s difficult to know exactly what would have prompted this kind of instruction - it may have been reaction to persecution or I can imagine circumstances where even in the gathering of the church, people could be quick to speak and quick to anger with each other as they confront sin or address differences of opinions.
But there are a variety of ways that this can be helpful for us:
responding to social media or events in the news
reacting to children who are getting on your last nerve or whose actions make it seem like your authority is big questioned
neighbors
brothers or sisters in Christ who are frustrating you - after all, we are not perfect and so we will disappoint, frustrate and even anger each other from time to time.
He seems to urge that we slow down, take a beat and process things, …
James 1:20 ESV
for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
We may think that we have the right answer or the right perspective, but a little patience allows time for processing, reflecting, formulating a godly response. Earlier in the letter, James urged us to ask God when we need wisdom (1:5-8). Sometimes it will take a bit of time to be able to discern God’s wisdom. It may also take a bit of time to listen carefully and closely to what someone else is saying.
(possible illustration - processing through things with the elders)
But James is not only pursuing certain actions in our lives, but actually teaching toward transformation which requires that we…
Repent and Receive
James 1:21 ESV
Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
Just as Paul does in some of his letter, James urges us to make a two-step process.
repent - is essentially putting off. Just as we might remove an article of clothing, James calls us to remove the things that will corrupt the righteous life that God intends for us to live.
Have you ever noticed that spending time listening to or watching certain things will cause us to begin speaking, thinking, or acting in a way that may be contrary to the way a Christian should speak or act. Or when we hang around certain people, we begin to pick up their mannerisms and speech. Some of this is difficult to escape, but James calls us to put it off.
But this might also involve repenting of our own self-righteousness or pride - our own assumptions that we may think we have all the right answers. In this case, it’s not so much a corrupting influence, but our own sin nature that we need to address. Especially before we come to faith in Jesus Christ, everything we do, every perspective we have is tainted by the stain of our sinful nature. Even as Christians, while we’ve been redeemed, we still live within these bodies that wrestle with sin, that fall back into our old, un-sanctified ways of doing things.
Repenting or putting off requires us to walk in humility.
(it’s a bit like planting new plants in a garden - weeding is needed to make the planting successful - then ongoing weeding to make it effective and fruitful)
Jesus even referenced this in the Parable of the Soils and his explanation ( Mark 4:1-20). When the soil is good or clean, it’s ready to go to the next step - receiving the word and bearing fruit.
Mark 4:20 “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.””
what are those influences in our lives that we need to put off or repent of?
where is our pride getting in the way of godly responses?
(tease out some other applications/implications)
So, James doesn’t only want us to put off or repent, but he also wants us to fill the void and …
receive - the Word. James uses an interesting phrase by stating that we should receive the “implanted word”. This is a strange and rarely used word in scripture, but at the same time it’s implications are profound. Implanted most often refers to the process like that of a fertilized egg in a uterine wall or a seed implanted in the ground. Both, when nurtured and cultivated produce life. A seed rejected by the soil or an egg rejected in the womb does not produce the life that it was designed to produce.
When we receive the implanted word, then it will ultimately produce salvation.
Jesus, in many ways, is that implanted word - the word became flesh - the saving grace of God. We must receive his salvation - by repenting or removing or taking off our old, corrupted ways and then receiving his gift of eternal life.
But in addition to receiving salvation through Jesus Christ, we also have to be in a place where we can receive the spoken word - essentially accepting it. But how does that happen?
Thankfully, James helps us with that by showing us that we should…
Hear and live the Word
In their day, the way that most people interacted with the written word was through hearing it read aloud - often in group settings. It wasn’t that people were completely illiterate - though I would bet the literacy rate was far less than it is today - but rather, people did not have access to the written word. They could really only get it in gatherings like this.
James writes:
James 1:22–24 ESV
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 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. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.
Now, admittedly, there is part of these verses that is very easy to understand - his point is that we should hear and do the word.
What James is urging us to avoid is hearing and ignoring the word. It’s like us being here and hearing the word read, sensing a prompting from the Holy Spirit to take some sort of action and then choosing not to do what we’ve been prompted to do. That would clearly be hearing and not doing.
A few weeks ago, I was listening to scripture as I walked early in the morning. I got home, finished breakfast and then sat down to read and reflect on this passage a bit (not the ones I had been listening to) and was immediately convicted. I had heard the word but could not remember what was said. While the word that I had heard was familiar to me, it didn’t make an impact - or rather, I didn’t let it - I didn’t receive it.
James then provides an analogy of looking in a mirror and forgetting what we look like. Commentators differ some on this section of the text as James uses two different words in Greek to describe what’s happening here. If you look in your text, you’ll notice that James refers to someone who “looks intently” at his reflection and then forgets what he looks like. It’s not that the look is a glance or perfunctory, but the response is ignorance.
In the next segment, he uses another word for look that implies a sort of stooping down to look at the word - taking a close look.
Whether we are intently looking or stooping down to investigate - the point seems to be the response.
Are we forgetful hearers or hearing doers?
Does our reading or hearing the word make a difference in our lives?
Are we paying attention to the prompting of the Spirit or are we quickly moving on, treating our hearing like a religious obligation?
One of the challenges with considering this passage is that James also mixes metaphors and lessons. He moves quickly from the hearing/doing/looking into a sort of religious activity. It’s almost as though he is addressing that performance-minded part of ourselves that wants to check a religious box - I went to church, I listened or read scripture, I did that religious task - but then the word itself makes no lasting impact in our lives.
Beloved, in order for us to adequately receive the implanted word so that life is produced in our lives, then we must make some time to process what the word is saying and make real adjustments in our lives. We can’t simply go through the religious motions and hope that will be enough. Those religiously obligatory actions might be some of those things that we need to put off (v.23).
There is another sense in which when we look into a mirror and forget or listen to the word and ignore, then we are practically comparing our righteousness to our own standards. We basically assume that we are good enough and set up our own measuring standard.
We are not our own standard for our righteousness. God is. His word reveals that to us. So rather than looking in a mirror and forgetting, James urges us to look at the law and press on.
James 1:25 ESV
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 urges us to look, or as some translations say, look intently at the law. It’s not just a passing glance but a look that involves a physical response - bending over, examining, focusing.
But notice, what we’re looking at - we’re not looking at ourselves, but looking at the perfect law. Which begs the question - what is that?
What is the perfect law, the law of liberty?
The “law of liberty” a phrase that is only found it James’ letter and in the two instances the context doesn’t really help us to define it.
Douglass Moo notes that up to this point James has referred to the Word and now he switches to the law. Why the change? We need to keep in mind that while James is talking to believers who are exiled or spread around, they are largely Jewish background believers. For them, the law referred to the Torah - the first five books of the Bible. Moo notes that many people saw the law as perfect and even liberating as it taught how we should live in community, providing a helpful framework for a flourishing life. And yet, because James is teaching this from the understanding that Jesus is the perfect fulfillment of the law, he is the holy standard, and even provides a helpful interpretation of the law.
If we were to go back and look at the sermon on the mount, one of the clearest New Testament teachings on the Torah, we would see that Jesus affects matters of the heart in his application of the law. He frequently says - “you have heard…, but I say to you.” He raises the bar on what living the word, or looking intently at the perfect law looks like.
For example, it’s possible to read the word (the command in the Torah) that says - “do not murder,” look at ourselves in the mirror and think - “check, I got that one, haven’t killed anyone” - no problem - not really give it a second thought and the move on.
But when we consider Jesus’ teaching, he seems to call us to linger, to lean in and look closely at what murdering entails.
Matthew 5:21–22 ESV
“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.
So, as Jesus interprets or applies the law, he looks deeper into the root of the matter. Now he gets to our hearts and emotions. He’s getting to our speech.
How often have we lashed out while driving or said things to people out of anger? How often have we written people off as hopeless causes and veritably condemned them to hell because we deem them not worthy of the gospel or our time? Where have we made comments that demean public figures or others on social media, stating things that we know we would not say in person?
James and Jesus invite us to look in at the word, the law, and live it out more wholly.
James 1:26 ESV
If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.
Again, for James and Jesus is not about religious conformity, but holy transformation. They are not calling us to simply perform some religious tasks, but to exemplify that redeemed life that we say we have through Jesus Christ.
James seems to use some of the concepts in this first chapter as an introduction for themes that he will address more fully later on. It’s clear that one thing James has in mind is how our hearing, receiving, examining, and applying the implanted word impacts our speech. Remember, he started this section with the admonition to be quick, slow, slow - quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.
Once again, beloved, how is your speech? Do you speak out of anger or frustration? Do you speak hastily? Do you use words that are biting or even vulgar?
As Christians - the implanted word should impact our topics of conversation, the words we use, the comments we say about others, and even our joking.
Maybe this is just my own personal bent, but I am often frustrated by the way that our culture, media sources, and entertainment is so riddled with foul language. Personally, it seems like the overabundance of expletives really only displays a lack of creativity and thoughtfulness in speech.
As people who live in a society riddled with four-letter words - what a glorious opportunity we have to display God’s good Word in how we use our words.
Closing thoughts
James began by urging us to be “quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to be angry.” He then urges us to let the implanted word of God produce fruit in our lives by hearing and living the Word.
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What corrupting influences do we need to put off in our lives? News or media influences, social media, entertainment.
Where do we need to put up different boundaries in our relationships in order to put off the corrupting influences?
What language, or bitterness, or anger do we need to put off - or repent of?
Where do we need to slow down in our responses so that we might seek wisdom from God?
where do we need to spend more time asking questions in order to understand someone else’s perspective or who they came to that rather than being quick to formulate our own response to make sure our perspective is heard?
Possible closing story:
Caitlin Clark - blocking a ball from someone’s head and bumped into the other player - but because the person didn’t see the whole situation, she was about to jump on Caitlin, until a teammate pulled her back - instead of letting her react abruptly.
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the Lords supper
Jesus redeemed is from the corruption of our sin nature
By his death, burial, resurrection, and ascension he has invited us into a life of flourishing, a life that is distinct
We are unable to acquire this on our own, but receive his life as the substitute for our sinfulness.
possibly share a story from all camp UEP where Jesus exchanged his life for all of the worthless things people tried to offer in exchange for Tanagers life.
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benediction
1 Corinthians 15:58 ESV
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
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Sources
https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-nonfiction/citizen-journalism-vs-traditional-journalism
Moo, Douglas J. The Letter of James. The Pillar New Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: Eerdmans; Apollos, 2000.
