I
will be honest with you; I find James to be hard-hitting. Why?
Because James, no holds barred, challenges our behaviors, and we,
with our brokenness, consistently fight change; that, and this
foolish notion that we don’t have to respond to the law because we
are under grace. If you were told that under grace you get to act out
in any manner you wish, you were deceived, for the law is now written
upon our hearts and administered by the Holy Spirit of God that lives
within us if were are followers of Christ.
Hebrews
8:10b KJV ...after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my
laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts:
Yep,
there is that “so-called” context thing again; and yes, the
context, as we read it from Jeremiah 31:33, is about Israel, but how
quickly we forget, WE HAVE BEEN GRAFTED IN. Here in Hebrews, the
author is associating this putting the law upon their hearts, with
application to the Christian community, whether they be Jewish in
origin or Heinz 57/Gentile converts.
The
publishers of the NASB entitled this next section,
“Hearing
and Doing the Word.”
Thanks
to my “religious” upbringing, I respond to this statement by
thinking, if you are doing something, then you are working in an
effort to abide by the law.
Paul,
in his letter to the church in Rome, a congregation of primarily
Jewish believers, said,
for it is not
the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the
Law will be justified. Romans 2:13 NASB
This
righteousness has nothing to do with works, and Paul makes that clear
when he speaks of Abraham.
...” If his
good deeds had made him acceptable to God, he would have had
something to boast about. ... Abraham believed God, and God counted
him as righteous because of his faith.”
(Romans 4:1-3 NLT)
Abraham
demonstrated faith before there was a law, and he did nothing more
than believe. Some will point out how Abraham was circumcised, and
that is true, but Abraham was deemed righteous by God before Abraham
chose to be circumcised as a symbol of that commitment. (Genesis
15:4-6. Genesis 17:11.) So, when we act following what the Word says,
we are acting in faith, not some movement of ultra belief, but a way
of life that pleases the Father.
How
does James define some of these laws that are written upon our
hearts?
James 1:19
NLT
Understand
this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen,
slow to speak, and slow to get angry.
Why
should I be quick to listen and slow to get angry? James answers that
question. (Because, as James 1:20 NLT, tells us,) Human anger does
not produce the righteousness God desires.
There
are other translations; one reads:
Anger does
not help you live the way God wants. (James 1:20 ERV)
The
righteousness produced in us, and living the way God wants, work in
conjunction. In truth, most of us can't do this on our own, and
James, it seems, understands that and tells us how to proceed to
solve that problem.
James 1:21
CJB
So
rid yourselves of all vulgarity and obvious evil, and receive meekly
the Word implanted in you that can save your lives.
The
NASB uses the phrase putting aside all filthiness and all that
remains of wickedness instead of the words vulgarity and obvious
evil. Putting aside is such a simple phrase. A person could
think, I’ve got this, it requires no further explanation, and
completely miss the depth in the sentence; this is what we do when we
skim over simple words. The Greek word pas means to cast aside or put
away.
This act of
putting is not merely setting an item aside in a cupboard for future
use; this is one of those “be done with it” moments. The
Greek word was used twice, and therefore implies emphasis.
Ephesians
4:21-24 NASB if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in
him, just as truth is in Jesus, (22) that, in reference to your
former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being
corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, (23) and that you
be renewed in the spirit of your mind, (24) and put on the new self,
which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and
holiness of the truth.
Notice
how Paul throws out the challenge, “if
indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him,”
as though there is something about our lives that would cause people
to doubt this relationship we claim to have. Instead of leaving room
for doubt, we are told to lay aside the old self; this is an old self
that is being corrupted as it follows the pattern of lust and deceit
that our brokenness lays out before us. This sounds hopeless, seeing
as brokenness is a part of our very being, but it isn’t hopeless
because we can be renewed in the spirit of our mind through the WORD
of God. Actions like putting the WORD of God in us is how we
actively put on the NEW self, which is in the likeness of God and has
been created in righteousness, holiness, and truth.
Another
example that uses the Greek word pas that we translate into putting
is,
1 Peter 2:1-3
NASB Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy
and envy and all slander, (2) like newborn babies, long for the pure
milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation,
(3) if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.
Filthiness?
This is the Greek word rhuparia;
and we are told that it originates from rhuparos.
So let's look at that word for a moment. The Word Study Dictionary
defines rhuparos
as Filth, filthy, foul. Those words cover a wide range of
behaviors.
“and
all that remains of wickedness.”
Remains is the Greek word perisseia and means superabundance. The
implications are that WE have the propensity toward a superabundance.
Since
I am speaking to the man-cave, what is the way to keep a young man
from giving himself over to filthiness?
James
says to receive the implanted Word. It is the Word that is able to
save our souls. Again, this has a disparaging connotation because it
implies that we might not be saved. How is that even possible when we
have an assurance like this:
"My
sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me, and I give
eternal life to them, and they will never perish, and no one will
snatch them out of My hand. "My Father, who has given them to
Me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the
Father's hand. (John 10:27-29
NASB)
If
we are followers of Christ, taught in Christ, then it is not possible
that we have no hope and are not saved. However, it is quite evident
that we need saving, from a variety of things, including ourselves,
daily; and that is why James used the word sōzō to tell us that
the Word can deliver or protect us. You should all understand that
you are a soul and that your soul will live forever. The variability
in that statement is that you either live in heaven with the Father
or live in hell with that master if you so choose.
With
that in mind, what would it mean to save
your soul? Since we never die, this has
to have a spiritual analogy, and it only makes sense that spending
eternity with the Father is the better choice.
James 1:22
NASB But prove yourselves, doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.
Did
you catch that, James said to prove yourselves doers of the word. How
would you go about doing that?
There
is only one answer to the question, and that is to live a life that
demonstrates God is living inside you.
Notice
that there is a second half of this statement, and it says that those
who only hear, adding no action associated with the Word, are
deluding themselves. A synonym for the word delude is victimize.
Without putting associated actions to the Word of God, we are merely
victimizing ourselves.
For if anyone
is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at
his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and
gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.
(James 1:23-24
NASB)
You
stand at the mirror, looking at your face because you just finished
shaving. You hear this voice in your head saying, did I get them all?
Your answer in reply, yep, but what is that? We look, but we don't
always notice things. Maybe it's because we looked before, and there
is no need to do that again. I heard those words bouncing around in
my head on multiple occasions. To put this in perspective, how many
of you have seen someone who has had a melanoma removed and is now
walking around with small butterfly strips across their nose or
forehead? How did they miss that?
James 1:25
NASB But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of
liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but
an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.
Intently
also means to peer within.
Synonyms: (to be)
absorbed, engrossed, and captivated by.
“and
abides by it” = stay on, continue,
remains long enough to digest what is being said.
“ not
having become a forgetful hearer.” I
have heard the book of Romans taught multiple times, and yet I could
barely remember a thing out of the book. What I do remember, because
religion applies it to their “soul-winning” techniques, is,
Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God.
Sadly, we are taking this out of context when we use it for
salvations, as it was meant to point out to the hearers, that God had leveled the playing field, and therefore everyone was welcome into this
grace.
This
ability to forget became a grievous thing to me and prompted me to
recently do a very intense study of the book of Romans.
“an
effectual doer will be blessed in what they do.” Another
translation, James 1:25
GW puts it this way.
However, the person who
continues to study God's perfect teachings that make people free and
who remains committed to them will be blessed. People like that don't
merely listen and forget; they actually do what God's teachings say.
Many
want nothing to do with the book of Revelation, but there is a
similar admonition.
Revelation
1:3 NASB Blessed is he who reads and
those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which
are written in it; for the time is near.
Sadly,
I had a pastor tell me to not study or talk about end times events.
Do you think I honored his demands? Not a chance.
James 1:26 NASB If anyone
thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue
but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is worthless.
So
earlier, in James 1:21, we were told to put aside all filthiness and
all that remains of wickedness. Now, here in verse 26, it tells you
straight out, if you think that you are
religious, but refuse to bridle your tongue, you are deceiving your
own heart. James just comes out and
says it, your religion is worthless.
Anyone who
thinks he is religiously observant but does not control his tongue is
deceiving himself, and his observance counts for nothing.
(James 1:26 CJB)
And
finally:
James 1:27
KJV Pure religion and undefiled
before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows
in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
Perhaps
another version can open the window a bit more and therefore see more
clearly.
The religious observance that
God the Father considers pure and faultless is this: to care for
orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being
contaminated by the world. (James 1:27 CJB)
You
should get the idea by now, it is not just tending to one people
group, such as widows, but to care for those in need. Matthew 25
tells me that doing this is no different than helping Jesus himself.
“For I was hungry, and you gave me food, I was thirsty, and you
gave me something to drink, I was a stranger, and you made me your
guest, I needed clothes, and you provided them, I was sick, and
you took care of me, I was in prison, and you visited me.”
Without merely disregarding God's Word, what
is your take away from this?
