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Show me your faith #6

OF PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

If you had to choose between Coke and Pepsi, which would drink would you choose?

            If you had to choose between Ford and General Motors, which vehicle would you drive?

            These are the “great” debates of the modern era. Really, they are quite inconsequential and Coke drinkers will drink Pepsi if they have to, albeit secretly lest their Coke friends find out. Even hardened GM men (I say “men” because I don’t think women care that much) will drive a Ford if it means not walking.

            What this little contest about soda or vehicles proves is this: You have favorites. And having a favorite drink or a favorite brand of anything is certainly not a moral problem. I have a favorite daughter and a favorite son; ask me if I have a favorite child and we begin to have a problem.

            When we venture into the realm of “favorite people” the theme seems benign, but on further thought there comes a realization that having “favorites,” outside of family, is more problematic than we are aware.

            This week, thinking that this subject was not hitting my heart very hard, I prayed, “Lord, show me where I play favorites, because I feel quite innocent in this.” And as I was praying the Lord brought to mind several instances where I have prejudices and where my pride keeps me from engaging certain people. I was appalled at myself; I stopped praying since I didn’t like what I was seeing.

            The underlying message of James 2:1-13 can slip by us like a barely-felt breeze if we are not seeing ourselves in it. When you allow the message to sink in, however, it becomes a gale-force wind that will knock you down, because the truth is, there are people you do not like, for reasons you have conjured up, and you don’t like talking to them or being with them or even associating with them.

            And we will discover today in our study that James forbids this kind of thinking because according to the law of love that Jesus taught, Christians must not favor anyone for any reason since it is not consistent with that law of love.

1. Faith and Favoritism are incompatible

James bases his command on his second and last reference to Jesus Christ. “My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism,” (2:1).

            We might be tempted to think that only two mentions of Jesus in five chapters of a letter gives the impression that James renders Jesus insignificant. If he did, this would be just a bunch of moral teachings.

            However, a careful study of James shows that James very carefully bases what he writes on the teachings of Jesus. And here in this verse, James is equating Jesus with the shekinah glory of God, the localized presence of Yahweh. So when James writes “our glorious Lord Jesus Christ,” he is giving Jesus the highest title – he is saying Jesus is God.

            This is not a tangent but rather a basis for the command. Since Jesus is God and we believe in him, on that basis we are told not to show favoritism, because faith and favoritism are incompatible.

            Favoritism, in this text, literally means “to receive someone according to their face.” It describes the essence of judging a person based on their appearance. The word implies that someone looks at a certain person and shows them his face, but turns away from another. It is picking and choosing who will see one’s face.

            If we broaden the spectrum of what “appearances” entail, we could say that there are some people we will not “show our face to” based on their politics, where they work, or who their friends are. Something about certain people has prejudiced our view of them and we would rather avoid them.

2. Judge no person based on appearances

James chose a specific illustration that may have been an issue in the Early Church. He outlines a scenario where two men come into a meeting of Christians, presumably a worship service. One is obviously wealthy and has social status. He is described as wearing a gold ring, which seems to stand out and is the emblem of his aforementioned social status. We are also told in the Greek that his clothes are “shining.” Woven into the fabric are strands of silver and gold.

            The other man is clearly poor and wearing “filthy old clothes.” In another part of James (1:21) this same term is used to speak of moral uncleanness. This is no accident, since many of us, if we would see a person in filthy clothes in church, would judge him or her to be in a sinful way. But this man is simply poor and doesn’t have nice clothes.

            Of course, the rich man is seated in good spot, while the poor man is told to sit at someone’s feet, presumably so they can keep an eye on him. It is humiliating to sit at someone’s feet since it symbolizes subjection, or the simple judgment that the one is socially better than the other.

            James is quick to tell us that if we do this to people who come into our church, or treat them in any way that suggests that they are not worth our attention and love, then we are plainly wicked. We are placing ourselves in the place of judge, something that only God has the right to be.

            Appearances are lousy evidence to judge by. You will remember when God sent Samuel to anoint a new king when Saul had failed to be a decent king. Samuel was sent to Jesse’s sons who were tall, strong and handsome. But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart,” (1 Sam 16:7). Then God pointed Samuel to David, a young, insignificant teenager whose job was the lowest of low, shepherding.

            Ironically, the person you call “Savior” and “Lord” was prophesied to be of no physical consequence as far as looks go. Isaiah foretold, “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him,” (Is 53:2b). Indeed, Jesus was the son of a poor carpenter and had no money to his name, he was a humble peasant from Nazareth (“can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked). Yet he is the Lord of glory.

            Based on appearances, Jesus did not amount to much. David, his ancestor, did not look like he would amount to much. With these examples, how can we be so superficial and judge someone to be of no account and not worth our time?

3. Why Favoritism fouls the name of Christ

James has given us his illustration, perhaps a bit exaggerated, but for a good point. Now we will look at his reasons for rejecting favoritism. The first two are rational arguments for rejecting favoritism, while the third is biblical. Why is favoritism to be rejected?

a) It is inconsistent with God’s choice of the poor – This is a peculiar feature of the upside-down kingdom of God. God has chosen the poor. “Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?” (2:5).

            When we favor the rich we ignore that God has sided throughout history with the poor because it is the poor who are likely to be responsive to him and are therefore nearer to the kingdom. Some of the most vibrant churches today are found in Africa, South America and Asia – particularly among the poor regions of our world. Why? Jesus said that the deceit of wealth chokes out the Word of God and faith in people (Mt 13:22).

            So should we all be poor? Does God only choose poor people to be his children? With this logic we would never want to help the impoverished escape poverty, lest they lose their salvation. Scripture would not teach us to help the poor in that case. But it is not just that they are poor that leads to their salvation. They are poor AND they choose to love God (v. 5). However, we cannot ignore that the poor are more inclined to trust in Jesus than the rich.

b) It is inconsistent with the conduct of the rich – The second rational argument is that to favor the rich makes no sense since they are the ones who are apt to sue you. It is not clearly stated but the impression is that in this context the rich were oppressing the poor and trying to gain more land.

            James does not condemn the rich for being rich. That would be an unfair judgment again on our parts. James condemns the rich for what they do – that is, exploit the poor.

            There does seem to come with wealthy a pride that suggests independence and self-sufficiency. When that pride overwhelms the wealthy they tend to mock the place of faith in one’s life. James wrote, “Are they not the ones who are blaspheming the noble name of him to whom you belong?” (5:7). They may do this directly, or more likely, indirectly by how they live – without a care for what God cares about.

c) It is inconsistent with the law of love – James then lets his readers have it with the royal law. Why it is called the “royal law” is not explained in the text. We presume it is because the Lord Jesus declared that the greatest commandment was “To love the Lord your God” and “To love your neighbor as yourself.” If the King says this is the law that fulfills all law then it is a royal law and one to be obeyed above all others.

            Back in the OT God gave this law, “Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly,” (Lev 19:15). And then God said, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” (Lev 19:18), a few verses later. Love treats all people fairly. Love sees all people as God sees them. Love does not discriminate based on wealth, social status, or appearance.

            James uses this appeal to say that showing favoritism, loving some but not others, shunning those you don’t like, ignoring a brother or sister in the church, or whatever, is a conscious breaking of the royal law of Jesus. And if you break one law, he says, you break them all. If you show favoritism you are as bad as a murderer. Sound harsh? John wrote, “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar…Whoever loves God must also love his brother,” (1 Jn 4:20-21).

            Hate is a strong word. Yet if we choose to “show our face” or make eye contact, that is, give our selves to one and not another, we are despising them – hating them.

4. Show in your life that MERCY TRIUMPHS

The conclusion that James reaches is this: “Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment,” (2:12-13).

            This is an excellent example of where James reaches into the teaching of Jesus and makes a connection and an application. When does mercy triumph over judgment?

            Jesus tells the story of a king who wanted to settle accounts with his debtors. He finds a man who owes him millions of dollars. Surely the man should be judged and thrown in prison for incurring a debt he could never repay. But the king has mercy on him.

            However, this man, who is scot-free of any debt or judgment, turns around and finds a man who owes him a few hundred dollars. The man cannot pay and so the first man has him thrown into prison.

            The king hears about the unmerciful servant who treated his fellow servant so badly and revokes the mercy he had shown him. Jesus tells us what the king says, “Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?” The king then throws the man in jail till he pays back what he owes – which is likely forever.

            Then Jesus concludes, “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart,” (Mt 18:35).

            Mercy triumphs over judgment. How? We all deserve what that unmerciful servant received but we have been forgiven a debt we could never repay. Our condemnation has been replaced with mercy. How did we appear to God? We were wearing filthy clothes and we looked poor. No one should have bothered with us in the state we were in. God ignored our appearance and saw hearts that would receive his mercy.

            So then, on what basis do we have the right to show favoritism to someone who comes into our fellowship and ignore others? What right do we have to be prejudicial based on petty differences, clothing, status, employment, or family lineage, when God has shown us mercy despite those things?

How can we show hospitality to some but not to others? Who is welcome in your home and who is not? Who is permitted into your conversations in the coffee shop and the tea house and who is not?

            You would say, as I did, I’m not prejudiced against anyone. I am not showing favoritism. But search your heart and pray that God would reveal it to you. THERE ARE people you do not associate with because your heart is wicked. I know this for a fact because my heart is wicked too.

            But mercy triumphs. God is merciful and he will judge us by the royal law if we show mercy to others and “love our neighbor as we love ourselves.”

Show me your faith

Pride and prejudice are a betrayal to Jesus.

            Who is God putting on your heart to love with mercy?

            Who are you avoiding because of a prejudice in your heart?

            How do we greet visitors to our church? How do we judge them? By the cut of their cloth or the look on their face?

            Are we afraid that mercy will demand that we care for new people when our lives are so busy already? Are we afraid of being overwhelmed by their burdens?

            Who do you need to love?

            Let’s take a moment to be quiet and ask the Lord to show us that person who needs our mercy.

                                                                        AMEN

Show me your faith #5

“GIVE ME THAT OLD-TIME RELIGION”

 

You have probably heard it said, “I don’t have a religion, I have a relationship with Jesus Christ.” I don’t know who started this saying but these things have a way of going beyond their intended meanings. This particular saying has become the standard mantra of the true believer: “I don’t have a religion; I have a relationship with Jesus Christ.”           

            A popular video on Youtube by Jefferson Bethke is entitled “Why I hate religion, but love Jesus.” In this video, Jefferson raps (yes, raps) about how religion is about being fake, about keeping appearances but having no heart for Jesus, about facades and rules and legalism. He declares that Jesus hated religion in his day and condemned those who made religion into a way of enslaving people.

            I personally find it quite presumptuous for Jefferson to say that Jesus hates religion. Yes, if religion is empty ritual and meaningless liturgy all for show, then Jesus probably hates it. If religion is about hair-splitting over theological disagreements, then Jesus probably hates religion. Jesus was certainly disgusted with the Pharisees who washed the outside of the cup but not the inside; he called them whitewashed tombs – nice on the outside but rotting corpses on the inside. Yes, that kind of religion is what turns people off.

            But when James wrote his pastoral letter and used the word “religion” he had a different meaning in mind. Religion, in James’ letter, is the external manifestation of inner spirituality. Or to put it another way, religion is outward expression of the inner heart-relationship we have with God. So when you say you don’t have a religion but a relationship with Jesus, you are saying that you have no way of expressing how you feel about Jesus.

            Earlier in the letter, James exhorted his readers not to merely listen to the word but to do what it says also. Doing what the word says is our religion. So doing what the word says includes caring for the helpless as well as living a pure life.

            Let’s see what James means by this religion thing.

 

1. Good Religion keeps a rein on your tongue

 

You will notice from our main text that religion has two effects: 1) practical compassion on the helpless, and 2) personal purity of life. What typically has happened in the history of the church is that we have tended to lean to one or the other, but not both at the same time. Either we have leaned toward social justice or emphasized personal holiness.

            As one writer illustrated, Christians are riding a horse and we are apt to fall off on one side or the other. We need to stay on the horse and marry social justice to personal holiness. We need to both care about sexual purity, financial integrity, a clean thought life AND have a heart for the poor and the helpless.

            Now we go back to a verse we have covered before to continue the point: “Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves and their religion is worthless,” (1:26).

            The reason we go back to this verse in connection with religion is that the critics of religion note one thing above all else in their hatred of religion – the Christian’s mouth. It is from the Christian’s mouth that trouble comes. As the Indians used to say in the Old Western movies, “White man speak with forked tongue.”

            We all have need of controlling our tongue better, don’t we? One woman said to another: "I can’t go into all the details, darling. I’ve already told you more than I heard myself."

            What proceeds from the mouth of the Christian, the religious critic claims, are so many rules for being a Christian that true relationship with God is swallowed up in legalism. And then we don’t always live up to the rules we have created.

            It was once said that if a person stopped swearing, drinking and hanging around the pool hall that he must have gotten religion. This image of a religious person has stuck so hard that if you hear a Christian use a foul word we, and the world, assumes that this person has slipped in their faith. Then the world says, “there’s your hypocrite,” because we don’t live up to the standard of our own rules of what a Christian is.

            Are they right or wrong? Yes. If we have made up rules for what a Christian is supposed to look like with our tongue and fail to live up to those rules they are right. However, that little appendage needs to be controlled for the sake of our testimony to what we truly believe: that a relationship with Jesus Christ changes us little by little through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit each and every day to look and sound and be like Jesus. So in that way the critics are wrong – rules are not the essence of our religion, our heart-relationship with Jesus is.

            So we need to pray like the Psalmist, “I will watch my ways and keep my tongue from sin; I will put a muzzle on my mouth as long as the wicked are in my presence,” (Ps 39:1).

 

2. Good Religion cares for the helpless

 

If with our tongues we declare that Jesus is a caring and compassionate Lord, then the critics will want to see evidence of this in the Jesus people. Good religion cares for the helpless.

            James writes, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress…” (1:27a). Some translations have the word “visit” instead of “look after.” The sense is that there will be a “continual and persistent ministry” with the helpless.

            God has a particular passion for the orphan and the widow. They were considered helpless in a world where if the man as the bread-winner died the wife became destitute. She might have to sell herself and her child into slavery to live.             God had special laws to assist the poor. In Deuteronomy we read that God “defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing,” (10:18). And God commanded, “When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands,” (24:19). One of the sins that led to Israel’s destruction was their neglect of the helpless ones.

            God’s rebuke of Israel’s religious fasting revealed the difference between His heart and theirs (Isaiah 58:6-9).

a) Who are the orphans? Times have changed. Orphans and widows do not glean empty fields. We don’t have orphanages; we have a foster system. Single women can find work easily in our culture (easier). So who are the orphans?

            The helpless are typically those who cannot speak for themselves. God wants us to be concerned about orphans because they are helpless without mommy and daddy. If mommy and daddy are killed in a car accident leaving a three-year old toddler bruised but alive, and if she has no relatives to care for her, then God says the church should look after her.

            Abortion puts a child in a worse situation. The parents are not dead, but have turned on the child and choose to have the child dead. This is worse than being an orphan. To have mommy and daddy choose to have you dead is worse than mommy and daddy being dead. So if God wants us to care for the helpless, voiceless ones, it is pretty clear that the child whose life is in danger, even in the womb, is the critical concern of the person who says, “I love Jesus.” Because if you love Jesus you have his concerns at heart and He is the reason we believe that all life is precious because he created all life.

            This is one example.

b) When are widows helpless? Perhaps we should define who a widow is as well. Yes, a woman who has lost her husband is a widow, even today. If we think, however, of the definition of helplessness and voicelessness, we have to broaden our definition to include the divorced woman, the woman who had an abortion, and the woman who was forced by circumstance to sell herself, to name a few. When religion goes bad these are the women who are left feeling as outcasts in the church. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is a religion that shows compassion and love on these women also.

            These women fall under the umbrella of good religion as the objects of our visits and care. Jesus leaves us with very little wiggle room when he talks about whom he accepts as his own in Matthew 25. There he talks about separating the sheep and the goats. Who are the sheep who get to go to heaven? Jesus said, “I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me,” (25:36). The sheep are those who treated every person as if they were Jesus himself, especially the poor and unwanted.

            Someone has said it like this: “We are never closer to the heart of God then when we care for orphans and widows.” Conversely, you can learn a lot about someone by the way they treat children and the elderly. James is saying you can tell if Jesus is first in someone’s life by whether or not they care for orphans and widows. If I say I value Christ, than I must value what He values. And Since Jesus values the most vulnerable, I must value the most vulnerable.

 

3. Good Religion is concerned about clean living

 

Religion seems to some people to be just a bunch of rules. Well guess what? There are rules for everything in life. Without rules there would be chaos. If religion is the outward expression of what’s in our hearts, then we will agree to some extent on what that looks like.

            I think sometimes what the world wants is for us to have our faith but look like the rest of the world, to not stand out too much, and maybe not make them feel guilty about their own lifestyles. Talking “religion” to these folks is like asking them to “give up” or “change” their lives, and they don’t want to change. That’s why a relationship is less restricting than a religion. Ironically, relationships need rules and require change also.

            What the world would like us to do is accept their values and live by their standards. James wrote that this exactly what we should not do in no uncertain terms. “…and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world,” (1:27b).

            We are to guard against being defiled or contaminated by world values. That is not to say that we are to remove ourselves from the world. Rather, we are in the world but not of the world.

            For our Amish and Old Order Mennonite brothers and sisters this has come to mean shunning the automobile and electricity. Yet sin has entered their cloisters time and time again in other forms. Child abuse and sexual assault are not uncommon among these secluded religious types.

            No, denying ourselves cars and electricity does not result in purity. James points us to our minds and hearts and tongues and hands. Remember, he said, “Do not merely listen to the word…Do what is says.” If you do not do what the Word of God says you are deceiving yourself that you are truly religious. And by religious I mean “devoted.” Reading and obeying the Word fills our minds and hearts with the knowledge of what it means to be devoted to God.

            In the forests of Northern Europe lives the ermine, a small animal known best for its snow-white fur. Instinctively this animal protects its glossy coat of fur with great care lest it become soiled.

            Hunters often capitalize on this trait. Instead of setting a mechanical trap to catch the ermine, they find its home in a cleft of a rock or a hollow tree and daub the entrance and the interior with tar. Then their dogs start the chase, and the frightened ermine flees toward its home. But finding it covered with filth, he spurns his place of safety. Rather than soil his white fur, he courageously faces the yelping dogs who hold him at bay until the hunters capture him. To the ermine, purity is dearer than life!

            To the Christian, purity ought to be dearer than life. The Word of God, not rules concocted by man, will teach us how to be morally pure in a depraved world.

 

Show me your faith

 

Doing good in the name of Jesus will bring few to Christ when others see no inward transformation in those reaching out to them. At the same time, the most pious, moral believers who refuse to help the needy of the world will find their attempts to convince others of Jesus’ love often falling on deaf ears.

            We need to stay in the saddle on this horse.

            The old spiritual “Give me that old-time religion,” written in the 1870s, doesn’t mention Jesus or the gospel that saves us, but it does have a redeeming verse: After a few rounds of “Give me that old-time religion,” it swings into “Makes me love everybody…it’s good enough for me.”

            If the outward expression of religion reflects a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ, that’s a good religion. If it “makes me love everybody,” then it sounds like Jesus has got a hold of your heart – “For God so loved the world…” And when that core value gets a grip on your heart you will change your world.

            Good and true religion must incarnate itself into life, not just generally but by specific acts in specific cases. Pure religion has little to do with ceremonies, temple rituals or special days. Pure religion means practicing God’s word and sharing it with others; through speech, service and personal purity.

            As Martin Luther said, “The world does not need a definition of religion but a demonstration of religion.”

            “Let us not love with words (alone) but with actions and in truth,” (1 Jn 3:18).

                                                                        AMEN

Show Me Your Faith #4

SPEAKING WISELY

 

Charles Spurgeon, the famous British preacher, once told of when he went to a nice restaurant for a meal. As he ate he kept noticing a rather angry looking man across the dining room who scowled at him every time he looked his way. Finally, Spurgeon decided to go over and speak to the man to see what his problem was. However, as he stood he realized that what he had been seeing was his own reflection in mirrors that line the walls across the room.

            When you look in the mirror do you like what you see?

            I remember the first time I heard my voice on a tape recorder. My friend and I were playing with voices and recording silly stories and jokes to hear how we sounded. My voice had just gone through the change. When I heard my voice I could not believe what I was hearing. That was not me. But even now when I listen to the sermon CDs from church I note how I don’t sound like I think I should.

            If you were to hear a recording of your conversation with your children or spouse or friends, would you like what you hear? I don’t mean the sound of your voice but rather the content of your conversation.

            These days anything can be caught on video because of the technology of cell phones. If someone were to record us during a typical day, would we like what we see and hear?

            When James wrote that anyone who lacks wisdom should ask God, the theme did not end with trials. This chapter, this whole book, is about seeking God’s wisdom for life, including how we live and speak.

            James does not write like Paul. James is more subtle in his reference to Jesus for some reason, but the implication of Christ’s Word is very strong in this letter. And what James exhorts us to do this morning is to speak wisely. How do we do that? By humbly listening to God’s Word with a determination to obey it.

            Let’s see how this affects our speech.

1. A Good Code of Ethics for Speaking Wisely

 

I know the code in verse 19 off by heart. That does not mean that I have perfected it. My biggest problem is with being slow to get angry. My anger is quick in certain situations. It’s a Klassen thing, they tell me.

            On the one hand I have learned to be slow to speak. On the other hand I have learned to have a quick tongue because if you want to be heard you have to speak before others speak. You have to be quick, witty, and lightning fast in thinking of a good burn. That’s how we talk in our social circles.

            James shows us that the wise follower of Jesus does not talk like that. He offers this code of ethics for speaking to help us better reflect Jesus and how Jesus would speak. “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,” (1:19).

a) Be quick to listen – James appears to write in a general way regarding this code. This is just good common sense. Be quick to listen. The tone of this command is something like, “hurry up and listen.” Or in other words, we should be eager to listen to what others have to say.

            Most of us use the time we are not talking to load up our next fantastic earth-shattering comment. Unfortunately, we don’t hear what the other person is saying. Often we end up repeating what others say in a different way.

            To listen is to show the same kindness and gentleness that Jesus had in listening to his friends. This is the fruit of the Spirit.

b) Be slow to speak – The word “speak” here has the same root that means “to chatter” or “to chirp.” That sound when everyone in a large room is speaking is like the chirping of thousands of birds.

            One evening in Winnipeg when I was trying to study the birds and squirrels were particularly noisy. I was annoyed so I grabbed my blank gun and fired a few rounds out the window. Silence. Then the chirping began again. (told you I had anger issues).

            James writes that we should hesitate to speak. Not that we should never speak, rather that we should slow down and think about what to say, and not while someone is talking.

c) Be slow to get angry – This refers not to a general outburst of anger as much as to a deep-seated wrath or rage. Anger like this is being nursed and stoked into a consuming fire that controls us. We must not let anger control us especially when it provokes quick retorts, nasty shots, or put-downs.

            James does not say “don’t get angry,” he says control your anger. Some injustices and wrongs in the world require an angry reaction. That shows that we care. But to let anger rule our lips is the problem James addresses.

 

Now as a general code of ethics for the mouth, this is good advice. There is more to this mantra than meets the eye. Left alone Dale Carnegie could have easily slipped it into his book on how to win friends and influence people. James is not that simple. There is a spiritually motivated, Christ-centered basis for this code, which we will now unpack.

 

2. Let the Word Govern Your Speaking

 

a) Anger produces nothing good – Beginning at the end, James continues with the theme of anger before returning to the other two parts of the code.

            He writes, “…anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires,” (1:20). Anger produces nothing good. Angry outbursts leave a wake of hurting and confused people. I am ashamed to say I know this too well.

            There is a saying, “Hurting people hurt people.” The chain reaction of anger causes those who are hurt to go and hurt the next person. It is “pay it forward” in the worst way.

            When we talk about showing people our faith, anger is not a very good witness of that faith. It is not the righteousness that God desires to see in us. Nor is he able to show his glory to the world through our anger.

            What James commands as an alternative to anger is a purge. “Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you which can save you,” (1:21). There is an exchange described in these words. To get rid of moral filth carries the image of us coming in from outdoors with our clothes covered in filth, soiled by the grime of the world. We are to take them off, put off the filthy clothing and put on the new. Paul says something like this in Ephesians 4:17-24.

            What James and Paul are getting at is that most anger comes from distorted priorities. We are caught up in the values of the world and want what we should not want and are angry that we don’t get it.

            If you want to trace anger to its source, use AHEN. This is not a chicken. It’s an acrostic. When you see the Anger (A), it is usually covering the Hurt (H). If you peek under the Hurt, you’ll see you had an Expectation (E). And if you look under the Expectation, you’ll find the Need (N).

            Evaluate the need. Do you really have a need in this area? Why is this need causing such frustration?

            James calls us to humility, to accept the word of God that is planted in us. The Word is innate in us who believe. It is planted there by God and is activated by our acceptance of it. The Word of God has taken up residence in us and is the source of our new priorities. It reminds us of what is truly important.

            Douglas Moo says of this verse, “What James is suggesting by describing the Word in this way is that the Christian must not think he is done with the Word of God after it has saved him. That Word becomes a permanent, inseparable part of the Christian, a commanding and guiding presence for life… Christians who have been ‘born again’ demonstrate that the Word has transformed them by their humble acceptance of that Word as their authority and guide for life.”[i]

            This is the exchange: the new priorities of the Word of God for the angry and frustrating priorities of the world.

b) Listen to the Word and do it – We go back to the beginning of the code now to talk about listening. But the listening is not just conversational ethics. James goes deeper with an emphasis on listening to the Word.

            “Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says,” (1:22). There is a great concern for deception in this letter. In verse 16, James wrote, “Don’t be deceived….” concerning the gifts of God; later in v. 26 he will mention deception again. It seems we are easily deceived.

            What is the deception in this context? Thinking that listening to the word is enough to grow your faith. No one had a nice leather-bound Bible in the Early Church, so they listened to someone read if from a scroll. But listening was not enough.

            James tells us that we deceive ourselves when we mistake the part for the whole. It is only a part of our devotion to God to hear the Word of God and receive it. We cannot be satisfied with that part alone. Some will say, “I spent 50 minutes this morning reading the Bible and can remember what I read. It was a super, awesome quiet time.” And James would say, “Well done! Now are you obeying what you read? Are your lips reflecting what your eyes have read? Are your relationships different, as the Word has instructed you they should be?” We must be doers of the Word. That is the other part.

            Jesus’ words come to mind regarding two builders, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock,” versus, “everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand,” (Mt. 7:24-27).

            Foolish is what James would call the person who looks at their face in a mirror and forgets what they look like. This is his comparison of the person who reads the Word of God or hears a sermon on Scripture, hears a command, and does not do it. If you see in the mirror that your mascara is running from your eyes and making black streaks down your cheeks, but do nothing, go out shopping or something, isn’t that dumb? Then why, James asks, would we see ourselves in the Word, get convicted that something in our life is out of whack spiritually, and then do nothing?

            “But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it – not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it – they will be blessed in what they do,” (1:25).           

            Mirrors in the first century were made of polished bronze or copper, and they produced a dim reflection. A glance at one of these would give a general impression, but nothing specific. You would have to consider closely what you saw, really get in there, and see yourself. The expression James uses is “stoop down and look into closely.”

            The Word of God is our mirror. We have to stoop down and spend some time looking into the Word. Then when we have seen ourselves according to this standard, we have to change something. We have to…it is inevitable. It has to change us, or we are ignoring what we saw.

c) Get a grasp of your tongue – It has to change the way we speak. This is why we are to be slow in our speaking, hesitant to talk.

            A guy came to his pastor and said, “Pastor, I only have one talent.”

            The pastor asked, “What’s your talent?”

            The man said, “I have the gift of criticism.”

            The pastor wisely replied, “The Bible says that the guy who had only one talent went out and buried it. Maybe that’s what you ought to do with yours.”

            “Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless,” (1:26).

            There is that word “deception.” Think of religion in the most positive light (we will talk more about religion in two weeks). Think of religion as devotion. Anyone who thinks they are devoted to Christ and yet says whatever comes to their minds is deceived. They are deceived because they think that grace allows them, or their intellect allows them, or their education allows them to spout off and even belittle people. Maybe they have in their own estimation a deep spirituality. But true spirituality is seen in this: Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.

            If we ponder the Word of God as it has been planted deep in our hearts by the Holy Spirit and do what it says, we will grab our tongues and watch what we say. We will speak love, peace, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

 

Show me your faith

 

A fellow named Joe went to church with Billy and Ruth Graham in Montreat when he was visiting them. There was a little Presbyterian church the Grahams went to regularly pastured by Calvin Thielman. One day after church as he drove home with the Grahams, Joe said, “Man, I almost went to sleep in church today. That was a boring sermon.” To which Billy replied, “Why Joe, I thought it was a wonderful sermon. I got a lot out of it.”

            Joe felt an inner rebuke by Billy’s comment. When he asked Ruth about it, she told him to listen more carefully and take notes. So he did. Joe took careful notes, noting the outline, cross-references and so on. For Joe it made a huge difference in how he heard the Word.

            Not everyone is wired to take notes. It helps but it is not the only way to listen.

            If we are going to show our neighbors and friends the faith that we profess, however, we need to do what the Word says.

            1. Listen to the Word of God intently. In the same way we want to learn to listen to people we are talking to, listen intently to what God is saying in his Word.

            2. Read God’s Word. As we make this a regular devotion it will counteract the messages we hear in the media (TV, newspapers, facebook, etc).

            3. Slow down, take time to listen, and pray for understanding. Maybe we need to pray like Samuel did, “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.”

            4. Be slow to speak. Give others a chance to speak into your life.

 

            May God teach us to speak wisely to a world that hears how Christians talk. And may they hear the voice of Jesus in our conversation.

 

                                                                        AMEN

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[i] Douglas Moo, James, TNTC, p. 81.