James 1: 19 - 27 ON DISPLAYING MATURITY: Verse 19 Be quick to hear – take time to listen; Be slow to speak (Prov. 16:32), then you will be slower to get angry. If you follow these directions you have time and opportunity to control anger. v. 21 Lay aside (get rid of, throw away, cast off) filthiness [ungodliness, sin] and the overflowing [excessive] wickedness when you see it in your thoughts, desires or actions. THIS is our choice and the Holy Spirit empowers us to do this. Then…the second part is where the POWER lies…Receive the engrafted (implanted) Word of God. This is the Word that has become part of who we ARE and our very nature and character has been changed by it. This Word is able to save [deliver, heal, restore, make whole] our souls [mind, emotions and will]. What changes us isn’t just what we hear on Sunday morning…that Word is seed, sown unto our hearts. It’s only when we nurture, study, review, and ACT on the Word we have heard that it takes root and becomes part of WHO we are. When this happens we find that it is easier to ‘lay aside the superfluity of naughtiness’ or ‘throw away’ the filthiness of the world and our own flesh and soulish desires. THIS whole process is based on OUR WILL. God doesn’t force us to hear the Word, make us get rid of the ungodly, sinful thoughts and actions and push us to nurture the Word that we have heard. He tells us the reason we should do these things and He offers the Spirit of God to give us the power to obey….then the choice is ours. v. 22 DO the Word: (1) Receive it, (2) Obey it. If we don’t we are only hearers. To hear the Word and NOT act on it is deceiving ourselves! Satan, the great deceiver and father of lies – doesn’t even NEED to do it. By just ‘playing church’ – hearing the Word and forgetting it – we are operating in agreement with him. The Devil LOVES it when Christians do this. He doesn’t try to keep them from church because he knows it isn’t “profiting them” anyway. See Hebrews 4:2. v. 23-24 Hearing the Word and not applying it to our lives is like looking in a mirror and seeing ourselves as we truly are “warts and all”, then turning away and forgetting what we are really like. The Word of God IS a mirror, but it shows us what our ‘natural’ man is like and what our ‘spirit’ man is supposed to be like. v. 25 Looking AT the Word of God and CONTINUING in it – this is what we referred to earlier regarding verse 21, as NURTURING the Word that has been sown in our spirits/hearts. It is not drawing away or pulling back when the Word contradicts our choices and our lifestyle but, rather choosing to act on the Word and be changed. When we draw away we forget the Word and fail to apply it to our life. There IS a blessing to those who DO the Word and not just hear it. See Luke 6:48-49 tells us that the man who DOES the Word faces the same storms that assault the one who only HEARS the Word. But, the one who DOES the Word continues to stand after the forces of destruction have ended. Sometimes we see something horrible happen to someone who goes to church or they go back into the sinful life they led, and we say “How could this have happened? They were such good Christians?” Maybe….maybe not. Perhaps they came, heard the Word, and forgot it – not applying it to their lives. v. 26 Maturity is revealed in patience – see verse 4. Maturity is also revealed in the ability to control our mouth! WOW!! Patience AND our mouths! If you think you’re mature and can’t control your mouth, you are fooling yourself. None of us like to hear this – none of us are as patient as we should be and none of us are as much in control of our mouths as we would like to be. That simply means God isn’t through with us yet. We don’t get discouraged, but we are ENCOURAGED, because maturity is still something we are working toward, it is still our goal and it is still within our grasp. v. 27 Pure – holy – godly – true “religion” is revealed by how (if) we take care of widows and orphans. This goes beyond just those two categories – it includes EVERYONE who is NOT ABLE to care for themselves. Do we help the teen-aged boy who has no father in the house and hasn’t got a clue how a Christian man should act or do we just “throw him away” and say “He’s gonna be no good!” What do we do to help the single mother who struggles with two jobs and has her 3 kids in child care and CAN’T SEE how she can even be a godly parent on her schedule? Do we just invite her to church (thereby adding another place she should be) or do we “do live together” with her and see how we can actually DO something to help? The way we treat the helpless is how Jesus sees us treating Him. Jesus said “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto Me” and “Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye did it NOT to one of the least of these, ye did it NOT to Me.” (Matt. 24:40, 45) [tomorrow, Chapter 2] REMEMBER: post your questions and/or comments on THIS page.
Posted on: Wed, 05 Jun 2013 19:43:17 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015