I Pity The Fool 5-7-06
“Stop Foolin’ Yourself” Series James 1:21-27
Intro. At age 36 Erik Weihenmayer (WINE-mayor) is known as a world-class athlete. He’s a skydiver, a paraglider and a marathon runner. He’s been featured in Time magazine, People magazine, Sports Illustrated and he’s been on the Tonight show, Oprah, NBC’s Nightly news and the Learning Channel. And oh, by the way, he just happens to be the one and only blind man who ever made it to the top of Mt. Everest. Now how does a blind man climb such a treacherous mountain? He does 2 things very well – he listens and he obeys. He listens to what his guide has to say and then he does it. For Erik, listening and doing is a matter of life and death. He would be a fool if he listened to his guide, but then decided to do his own thing.
It may surprise you to know how often the Bible identifies a person who hears God’s word but refuses to do it as foolish. In Matt. 7 Jesus said it this way, “Anyone who listens to my teachings and obeys me is wise…but anyone who hears my teaching and ignores it is foolish.” In Rom. 2:13 the Apostle Paul wrote, “For it is not merely knowing the law that brings God’s approval. Those who obey the law will be declared right in God’s sight.” Now let’s hear what James has to say about this very same issue. Read 1:21-27. If Mr. T were here, he’d paraphrase v.22 like this – “I pity the fool who hears God’s word but doesn’t do it!”
A couple of weeks ago the latest Barna Research report came out with some shocking news about how the church is perceived by most Americans. In this report 4 out of 5 Americans said that they DID NOT consider the church as a necessary ingredient for their spiritual growth. As I read that report I wondered, “What’s happened to the church? Why are we so impotent when it comes to making an impact on our culture?” I think I know the answer. When the church is filled with people who hear the word but we refuse to do the word, then the world looks at us…points its finger at us and says…that’s foolish! Our refusal to back up our words with actions is one of the primary reasons why the world looks at the church and says, “Why should I bother”?
We need to remember that James was writing to xians who had been scattered abroad. They’d been forced into missionary service because they no longer lived in familiar surroundings. But instead of their circumstances being viewed as a negative thing, James wants them to see their circumstances as an opportunity to make an eternal impact on their culture. And the only way they can do that is to do 2 things - hear the word and do the word. So you see, if our church is going to reach the culture that surrounds us, then we’ve got to do exactly what James says - hear the word and do it. James says there are 2 types of xians that peacefully co-exist in the church, the listeners and the doers. Let’s take a look at these 2 distinct groups and see which one we fit into.
I. The Listeners
1). The first thing we learn about the listeners is the fact that they spend time in the word. And that’s a good thing! Listeners are those types who love reading the bible; they might even have one of those systems where they read through the bible in a year. Listeners are often people who have a systematic quite time. That is they spend time almost every day reading, studying and taking notes over the things they’ve learned. I’ve found that listeners are often people who love the church, they usually take copious notes during the sermon time and they even teach bible studies and lead Life Groups. But according to this passage there’s another step necessary for your spiritual development.
2). This group JUST listens and they go no further. Parents – where’s the last time you were face to face with your kids and you told them to do something, you knew they heard you, but what ever you asked didn’t get done? Maybe it was a homework assignment or picking up their room or mowing the grass…but it just didn’t get done. Do you know what that is? It’s passive listening. That means you lack the passion to do anything with the info you’ve been given.
Now here’s the sad truth when it comes to the church. Most of us are passive listeners. We like what we hear, we agree with what we hear, we might even believe that doing what we hear would be good for us, but we simply lack the passion to carry it out. Think about it for a moment – you know what God says about sharing your faith, but you don’t do it. You know what God says about blessing you if you tithe, but you don’t do it. You know what God says about trusting him in every area and yet you still don’t do it. Now why is that? James gives us the answer in v.23. When he says you are “a hearer only or just a listener” he uses a word that means an auditor. Have you ever audited a class in school? It’s a blast! When you audit a class you don’t have to take any tests, you don’t have to complete any homework assignments and in fact, you don’t even have to show up for class. So when James says there are those in the church who are auditors, it’s not a compliment. It’s his way of saying you’re playing games with the most important information in the world.
3). Listeners look in the bible, but they don’t respond to what they see. (v.23-24) James says its like looking in the mirror first thing in the morning and yet not doing anything about your appearance. I don’t care how beautiful you are when you go to bed, or how sweet your breathe may smell, but when you climb out of bed first thing in the morning, you’d better do something about your hair and your breathe. The implication from v.24 is that a listener sees himself for what he is and yet he’s unwilling to do anything about it. He sees and yet walks away. One writer said, “He looks but he does not see, he hears but he does not act.” A listener is that type of person who knows that he’s hearing God speak to his heart, but he simply turns away and pretends like he never heard.
4). A listener is self-deceived. The NT identifies 4 different ways you can be deceived. You can be deceived by other people, by the culture of the world we live in and of course by Satan himself. But by far the most humiliating and frustrating way is to be self-deceived. James says if you hear the word but don’t obey the word then you are only fooling yourself. The GK word for deceiving yourself means that you’ve put your logic to the side. You know the right thing to do, but you simply decide to do something else. The listener knows volumes more than he practices. That’s what enables a respiratory therapist to go on break and take a smoke, or a cardiologist to stuff his face and become grotesquely overweight or a beautician whose hairdo could scare the crows away. What about you? When’s the last time you looked in the mirror of God’s word and actually responded to what you saw?
I. The Doers
At first glance you may think that there’s just a subtle difference between these 2 groups of xians. But in reality, they are miles apart. The difference between listening and doing is like the difference between reading a menu and eating the meal or holding the prescription in your hand and actually swallowing the pill. If you continue to satisfy yourself with simply listening to the word, then you’ll never enjoy the full adventure of the xian life. No wonder the church is filled with people whose lives are boring them to death! If that’s you, then maybe its time for you to step out in faith and swallow the pill.
Right in the middle of v.25 James says, “If you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard”. That makes it very clear that doers of the word also are great listeners. They love the word, but they love it for it’s transforming power and not just for the sake of a little more information.
The basic difference between the listener and the doer has to do with the way they approach God’s Word. The listener has a casual approach as he reads and hears God’s word. It’s a take it or leave it approach; sometimes he takes it and other times he leaves it. And it all depends on his feelings at that specific moment in time. But the doer’s approach to the Word is very different. It’s much more careful and considerate than the listener’s approach. Notice how James describes the doer in v.25 – “You keep looking steadily into God’s perfect law”. This simple little sentence harbors a treasury of theological significance in it. For instance, the word “Looking” points to the depth of the doers approach. When you think about the image of the mirror you could say that the listener takes a glance at his face, while the doer really takes his time and studies what he sees. The word for “looking” in v.25 comes from the same root word that described what Peter did when he looked into the empty tomb of Jesus Christ. Can you imagine what it was like for Peter that day? He had just received the news…Jesus was alive! And he had to see it for himself. Luke 24:12 says Peter stooped and peered into the tomb. Now I can tell you this for sure – he didn’t just take a casual glance around that tomb and then bit his life on what he saw. NO WAY! He made a careful, calculated, thorough investigation of what was and what wasn’t in that tomb! And that kind of look changed his life.
There’s another word that’s pretty important in this verse – it’s the word “steadily or intently”. The doer of the word is disciplined enough to spend the time it takes to know what God wants him to do, whereas the listener is content to check off his bible reading on his “to do list” for that day. I love the way George Duncan says it, “God does not reveal the deep things of the Spirit to the casual xian who simply drops in for a chat.” NO – God is waiting to speak to those Christians who are willing to give his word the depth and the discipline it takes into order to do what it says.
Notice the last half of v.25 – “If you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, THEN God will bless you for doing it.” God’s promise of blessing is irrevocably linked with our obedience. You can’t have one w/o the other. For far too long churches have patted themselves on the back because they’ve established wonderful educational programs. You can read through the bible in a year, memorize a new verse every week, check off your quite time every day, but if you aren’t DOING what God says then you’ll never experience the blessings he promises.
So how do you know which group you fit into? How do you know whether you are a listener or a doer? Well, James being the very practical writer that he is gives us a little test at the close of chapter 1. The test is pretty basic since it’s only got 3 questions. James asks, “How are you doing in the area of self-control? What do you do when you see someone who is in need? And is your culture effecting you or are you effecting it?”
Now James is going to have a lot more to say about the tongue in chp.3 but he still uses it here as a basic test of your self-control. Look at how down to earth he gets. If you claim to be religious, if you claim to know God and you don’t control your tongue then you are fooling yourself, you are self-deceived; you’re only playing the church game. Then he just comes right out and says that kind of religion is worthless, useless for both you and those who might be watching your life. Your tongue is an indicator of his heart. What comes out of your mouth first travels through your heart. So don’t fool yourself and think that your loose tongue is a tiny little problem. Actually James 3:5 says the tongue is a small thing but it can cause enormous damage.
The second test has to do with our compassion quotient. James uses orphans and widows as examples, but real faith, a real relationship with God doesn’t stop with certain types of people. This question basically asks how tender is your heart? Are ready are you to lend a helping hand? The implication is if you are always on the receiving end then something’s wrong with your religion. When’s the last time you helped a stranger, a neighbor or even a friend? That’s what real compassion looks like and its what Jesus expects from you and me. Listen to what Jesus said to his followers in Matt. 25:44-45, “Lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and not help you?’ And he will answer, `I assure you, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.”
The final test is a little more personal. James simply says we should refuse to let the world corrupt us. Let me put it this way – a doer of the word will be involved in his culture, he won’t be a recluse. God’s not looking for a few good monks who will hide themselves away in some cave hoping to keep themselves pure from the stain of this world. NO – God wants you and me to roll up our sleeves and get busy with the project of transforming our culture. And the only way that’s possible is if we affect it rather than allowing it to effect us. So how are you doing? Are you a listener or a doer?
My prayer is that you’ve seen the truth about yourself and you are ready to do something about it.
