Learning and Living the Word
James 1:22-27
September 24, 2006
Evening Worship
Introduction
Imagine, if you will, that you work for a company whose president found it necessary to travel out of the country and spend an extended period of time abroad. So he says to you and the other trusted employees, "Look, I’m going to leave. And while I’m gone, I want you to pay close attention to the business. You manage things while I’m away. I will write you regularly. When I do, I will instruct you in what you should do from now until I return from this trip." Everyone agrees.
He leaves and stays gone for a couple of years. During that time he writes often, communicating his desires and concerns. Finally he returns. He walks up to the front door of the company and immediately discovers everything is in a mess--weeds flourishing in the flower beds, windows broken across the front of the building, the gal at the front desk dozing, loud music roaring from several offices, two or three people engaged in horseplay in the back room. Instead of making a profit, the business has suffered a great loss. Without hesitation he calls everyone together and with a frown asks, "What happened? Didn’t you get my letters?"
You say, "Oh, yeah, sure. We got all your letters. We’ve even bound them in a book. And some of us have memorized them. In fact, we have ’letter study’ every Sunday. You know, those were really great letters." I think the president would then ask, "But what did you do about my instructions?" And, no doubt the employees would respond, "Do? Well, nothing. But we read every one!"
This may sound silly but this is the way that many Christians try to follow Jesus. They may hear the Truth but do nothing about it. American culture has created a passive form of Christianity that is totally unbiblical. We are meant to make active attempts to live out the message of God’s Truth
Passive Christianity is morally wrong – Bruce Barton
We cannot be passive but proactive when it comes to obeying the Word of God.
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.
James reveals a pattern for life change here in chapter 1. It is one that literally can change the lives of people if they would just follow it. The pattern is extremely simple in concept but much, much harder in practice.
Three Step Process to Life Change
1.) Listen – Being ready and willing to obey the Word of God
2.) Learn – The only way to learn is through personal obedience. It is putting what is heard into action. Turning the hearing into habits. It only takes 21 days to form a habit. If you can change your habits you will be able to change the way that you live
3.) Live – Change our way of life. This is a total change of lifestyle. This happens when we change enough of the old habits that it affects the entire way that we live. All of this starts with a willing heart and openness to hear God speak through His divine Word
James said that we should be quick to listen to the Word. This literally means that we should be constantly ready to obey when God’s Word connects with our lives. James carries on with this theme when he calls his readers to obey the Word. We need to always be ready to obey and then follow through with actual obedience. It is not enough to say that you will obey or have the intent to obey.
God does not call us to be successful, but to be obedient. -Billy Graham
Obedience must be completed through our actions. We cannot settle for just hearing God’s Word or even have a willingness to obey. Anything that falls short of actual obedience is not being a doer of the Word.
I’ve read that when Edward VI, the king of England in the 16th century, attended a worship service, he stood while the Word of God was read. He took notes during this time and later studied them with great care. Through the week he earnestly tried to apply them to his life. That’s the kind of serious-minded response to truth the apostle James calls for in today’s Scripture reading. A single revealed fact cherished in the heart and acted upon is more vital to our growth than a head filled with lofty ideas about God.
One step forward in obedience is worth years of study about it.
James continually talks of listening and hearing the Word, why such a strong focus. One thing is that the early Christians often heard the scriptures read to them. Copies of letters or books of the New Testament were difficult to obtain and at times illegal to possess. The church would hold one copy of every letter that they had and would spend time together reading the scripture. The goal was to listen and learn the Word of God.
1.) Only hearing the Word leads us to deception
You cannot hear the Word, know the Word and then live however you please. Just listening to God’s Word does not make you acceptable with God. This makes it too easy to slip into sin. The acceptance of God flows through the fact that we confess our sins and repent of them. We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus
21 But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—Romans 3:21-25
2.) Only hearing the Word leads us to forgetting
When you do not put learning into practice is will soon be forgotten. The Word then never becomes part of the person’s life. James uses a powerful illustration of looking into a mirror. The understanding is of a person looking into the mirror and then never doing what needs to be done. The bed head hair would stay in place, the makeup would never come on and the clothing might never be straightened.
3.) Hearing and doing the Word leads to blessing
When the Word is heard and obeyed it leads to freedom. We are set free by the grace that comes from the gospel. The only way to freedom is by surrendering yourself to obedience to the Word of God.
To obey God is liberty – Seneca
We see ourselves as we truly are when we look into the mirror of God’s Word. There is no way to avoid God’s mirror because it reveals not the outer person but the inner reality. The perfect law that James is talking about is not the law of the Old Testament. James is talking about what is elsewhere called the royal law or the law of love. This was spelled out by Jesus in Matthew 22:37-40
MT 22:37 Jesus replied: " `Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: `Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
The mirror of god point out areas of disobedience and then gives us the opportunity to seek forgiveness.
You call Me master and obey Me not.
You call Me light and see Me not.
You call Me the Way and walk Me not.
You call Me life and live Me not.
You call Me wise and follow Me not.
You call Me fair and love Me not.
You call Me rich and ask Me not.
You call Me eternal and seek Me not.
If I condemn thee, blame Me not.
Conclusion
"A bus driver became annoyed with his job because he had to wait 7 minutes after every run near an open field which ’litterbugs’ had made into an unofficial dump. He often thought that somebody should do something about that unsightly mess. One day he himself decided to get out and pick up some of the tin cans and other debris which were lying all around. This improved things so much that he soon was eager to complete his route and spend all his free moments in cleaning up the area. When spring came, he was so enthusiastic about this project that he decided to sow some flower seeds. By the end of the summer many were riding to the end of the line just to see what the motorman had accomplished by doing what he and others had only talked about before."
