Today James warns us to be on guard against having nothing but an outward show of religion. He wants us to understand that merely hearing the word of God does not justify us; it's obeying the word that matters. James, like Paul, often commands us not to deceive ourselves, and that's because it's so easy for us to deceive ourselves. We can get caught up in the idea that attending religious services and wearing the right clothes and saying the right words and having the right expression on our faces is enough. But God looks past all of that and straight into our hearts. Do we love Him or not? If we do, then as the Lord Jesus said, "If you love Me, keep My commandments." (John 14:15) This is the proof of our love: obeying what the Lord says.
In our passage today James mentions several areas in which we need to step up our game. The first area has to do with our tempers. The Lord is not pleased when we give way to anger. He has said to us regarding the attitude we should have toward those who have wronged us, "It is Mine to avenge; I will repay." (Deuteronomy 32:35a) It's not our job to pay anyone back for the wrong they've done us; that's God's job. It's bad enough when unbelievers fight and quarrel among themselves, but it's absolutely reprehensible when believers behave this way, so James tells the church members to keep a lid on their tempers. "My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires." (James 1:19-20)
I feel like James is writing this letter to me! Everything he's had to say so far has spoken directly to situations that are going on in my life right now. I'm a quick-tempered person. I don't often act out on my anger, but on the inside my temper is at a hot rolling boil and that's just as bad. It's bad for my spiritual condition and it's bad for my physical health too. Anger, whether it's held tightly in check or whether we lose control of it, does nothing good for the body. Our blood pressure rises. Our brains send out a "fight or flight" message, causing the levels of stress hormones to rise in our bloodstreams. We get tension headaches, sore necks, sick stomachs. If we don't find better ways to deal with our anger we can actually cause disease processes to begin in our bodies.
I don't know what your particular anger triggers are, but the things that make me angriest involve situations where I'm the only person who takes charge of problems or where I'm the only person who is being responsible for getting things done. The Lord has recently made it clear to me that I've contributed to this problem (and even caused it entirely in some cases) by doing too many things for people that they could easily do for themselves. I'm working on gradually handing over these responsibilities to those who should have been handling them in the first place. They are adults and are responsible for themselves. I've actually done them a disservice by making them so dependent on me. Some of you may be in the same boat. Maybe it's time to help the people around you learn how to be responsible for the things you're exhausting yourselves doing for them. It's not healthy for us or for them, and I think remedying this situation will go a long way toward reducing our stress. Reducing our stress will naturally reduce our feelings of anger and resentment.
James feels anger is a sign of holding onto morally corrupt attitudes. "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." (James 1:21) Anger doesn't come from a spirit of humility. Anger comes from a spirit of pride. We think to ourselves, "How dare she speak to me that way?", or, "Who does he think he is to treat me like this?" All sorts of moral filth springs up from a root of pride in our hearts. Pride is in us when we think we know better than God what we need. Pride is at work when we decide to do something that directly contradicts God's word. So James tells us to accept the word of God and allow it to take root and grow in our hearts. As the word flourishes in us, it pushes aside the unholy things. It takes up more and more room, crowding out the wrong attitudes.
But just hearing the word isn't enough to do the job. We have to obey it. It doesn't matter how much Scripture we can quote if we aren't following it. "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 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." (James 1:22-25) If we just run by the mirror and glance at ourselves quickly, later in the day we may forget what we saw. I've had people compliment my blouse or my dress and I've had to look down at myself just to remember what I so hurriedly put on that morning. If we only listen to the word and don't take it to heart, we're like somebody who looked so swiftly into a mirror that we didn't really see ourselves. But when we take the word of God to heart, we see ourselves well enough to realize there are things we need to work on. The word of God holds a mirror up to our lives and reveals to us where we are falling short. This enables us, with the Lord's help, to adjust our attitudes and actions. James promises us a blessing for our obedience to the word.
Next James tells us that there is a test that will tell us whether we are doers of the word and not hearers only. What type of things come out of our mouths? If our hearts are where they should be, our words will reflect that. "Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight reign on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless." (James 1:26) If our hearts aren't in the right place with the Lord, our tongues will betray us.
I'm reminded of something that happened one time at work. I'm an insurance agent and I was working up some home and auto quotes for a married couple who had walked into the office. The husband and wife talked among themselves while I punched information into the computer. Three times the wife used the name of the Lord Jesus as a curse word, so you can imagine my shock when I handed the finished quotes to the couple and the wife said, "We can't make a decision right now. We have to go home and pray about it first." I felt my mouth dropping open. I tried to keep it from dropping open but I couldn't and there for a few seconds I couldn't think of anything to say. I think I finally said something like, "Well, thank you for stopping in."
Don't get me wrong; we've all said things we shouldn't say. We've all been hypocrites in one way or another by either saying or doing things that contradict who we are in Christ. You can see why I was puzzled about the spiritual condition of the customer in my office. You can see why those around us are puzzled about our spiritual condition when we profess to be Christians but say or do things that suggest otherwise. James is just telling it like it is: who we are on the outside and who we are on the inside should be the same. They shouldn't contradict each other. If we profess to be in Christ, and if our actions or words don't provide any evidence to back up our claim, we need to spend more time in the word of God so that it can reveal to us where we are going wrong. Then, once we have recognized and repented of our errors, the word of God is able to instruct us in doing better. Just as our bathroom mirror reveals to us a messy hairdo or smudged eyeliner, the word of God is a mirror that reveals to us bad attitudes and wrong behaviors. If we don't look into this mirror, how are we going to know what needs fixing? If we hear the word of God and obey it, as James instructs us to do, we are going to grow in our relationship with the Lord on the inside and our outside is going to reflect that more and more each day.
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