No. 5
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As we begin this section, we recall that James, the Lord's brother and lead pastor at the Jerusalem church is writing to the many believers that, to escape persecution, had scattered and fled to remote areas, as far as Asia minor. They fled persecution but they did not flee from the Lord. In the book of Acts we read, Now those who had been dispersed by the persecution which arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, giving the message as they went to Jews only. Acts 11:19
Do any of those city names sound familiar to you? The apostle Paul has either already traveled to these areas and planted churches ... or he is about to. If these believers arrived there before Paul did, he will discover these groups of Christians and establish them into churches there. But have a little difficulty with that option, simply because, in the book of Acts I find that Paul went first to a Jewish synagogue, preached the gospel to them, and achieved a degree of success. But there is no mention of his finding any pre-existing groups of believers who had fled from Jerusalem.
So, all that is to say James writes these words to them after Paul has already gone through there. This means that the 'mix' of Christians in some of these churches is interesting. The first members would be those that Paul led to Christ, taught them for a while and then moved on. Then some of the fleeing believers from Jerusalem would arrive and try to settle into a new way of life in a new area and a new church. Add to this a stream of other families fleeing persecution as the mis-treatment of Christians escalated.
James is writing his words into this mix.
For us, this is good. You and I should have no trouble identifying with one of these three factions. You are either an older mature believer, a wealthy believer, or a very poor believer. James is talking to you.
James 1:22 Don’t only hear the message, but put it into practice; otherwise you are merely deluding yourselves.
We are supposed to be quick to hear but slow to speak and slow to get angry. This is a general and all encompassing instruction. Be quick to listen in all of life’s interactions - but when it comes to the Word, we understand from James is saying, that we are to be quick to listen and then quick to obey.
Why would anyone ... hear the Word ... but fail to obey?
There could be several reasons: pride, power, good intentions, curiosity, mis-interpretation, forgetfulness,
1. Pride
a. They never intended to obey – they only want to know more than others. Here's an example:
For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but
either to tell or to hear some new thing. Acts 17:21
-or-
2. Power
Some say knowledge is power. Used positively knowledge can save us from making the mistakes of history. Used selfishly it can be used to manipulate others or merely to avoid work and responsibility.
-or-
3. We have good intentions.
a. But fear intimidates and paralyses us from obeying.
-or-
b. Our over involvement with the 'cares of this world' totally sidetracks us from obeying.
-or-
4. Our curiosity with the word, particularly with prophesies that may be related to our time has us
reading and trying understand …for the purpose of 'getting serious' when the time comes.
-or-
5. or our obedience is rendered ineffective due to interpretation and misinterpretation. In other
words … “This does not mean me, right?”
-or-
6. Forgetfulness could also be given as a reason for not obeying the Word. However, that leads us to
doubt how much we really cared to begin with, if we could forget so easily.
James draws a mental picture describing this practice. He says it is like a person looking at himself in a mirror
but the moment he turns to leave, forgets what he looked like.
He says,
23 The man who simply hears and does nothing about it is like a man catching the reflection of his natural face in a mirror. 24 He sees himself, it is true, but he goes off without the slightest recollection of what sort of person he saw in the mirror.
Then he proceeds to correct us by saying we should not be using the Word like a mirror. Mirrors are used intermittently. Rather, we should be in a constant state of mentally processing scripture.
25 But the man who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and makes a habit of so doing, is not the man who hears and forgets. He puts that law into practice and he wins true happiness.
James says there should be:
a. A deliberate and steady looking into the word. While a regular reading program has benefits, the word ‘intently’ (NIV), calls for much more diligence. “Makes a habit of” also includes things like analyzing, comparing, researching, asking.
b. A deliberate and conscious decision to ‘walk the talk’. 'Continuing in it' (NIV and NKJV) means thinking about what we saw in the Word as we go through the day.
And then James adds,
26 If anyone appears to be "religious" but cannot control his tongue, he deceives himself and we may be sure that his religion is useless.
A deliberate control of our tongues involves sacrificing your ‘right’ to have an attitude toward others who ‘are not doing what you are doing’.
And finally we come to understand that worthless ‘religion’ talks … but nothing practical ever comes of it.
James said,
27 Religion that is pure and genuine in the sight of God the Father will show itself by such things as visiting orphans and widows in their distress and keeping oneself uncontaminated by the world.
Here is a good example of 'Walking the Talk' from First John 3:16-23
16 We know what love is because Christ laid down his life for us. We must in turn lay down our lives for our brothers.
17 But as for the well-to-do man who sees his brother in want but shuts his heart against him, how could anyone believe that the love of God lives in him?
18 My children, let us love not merely in theory or in words — let us love in sincerity and in practice!
19 This is how we shall know that we are children of the truth and can reassure ourselves in the sight of God, 20 even if our own conscience makes us feel guilty. For God is greater than our conscience, and he knows everything.
21 And if, dear friends of mine, our conscience no longer accuses us, we may have the utmost confidence in God’s presence. 22 We receive whatever we ask for, because we are obeying his orders and following his wishes.
23 ¶ His orders are that we should put our trust in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another — as he commanded us to do. 1John 3:16 -23
John talks about actually laying down our lives for a fellow believer. Then John mentions something less drastic, yet far more common … seeing a fellow believer in need and doing nothing more than wishing them well or telling them we will pray for them. John offers two benefits of ‘having our hearts condemn us’(verse 21).
1. It tells us that we actually are believers. Unbelievers would not have the same keenness of conscience as a believer would have. This is a negative way of knowing we are children of God.
2. This sudden stabbing of the conscience lets us know our hearts can be at rest about this issue the moment we lift our brother’s load.
Back to the book of James, to repeat verse 27 …
James 1:27 Religion that is pure and genuine in the sight of God the Father will show itself by such things as visiting orphans and widows in their distress and keeping oneself uncontaminated by the world.
This would be called ‘putting your money where your mouth is’.
By the way, the term visit, when used in scripture, does not mean what we normally might think. It always carried with it this thought: Pure religion … care for the widows etc.
God even uses 'visit' to mean, in a negative sense, there is a coming a day when God is going to visit the godless … meaning, He is going to take care of them!
The church in Paul’s time, likely 20 years or so later than the book of James, had some kind of a system in place for caring for the widows and orphans. Here is what Paul wrote to Timothy:
16 If any believing man or woman has widows, let them relieve them, and do not let the church be burdened, that it may relieve those who are really widows. I TIMOTHY 5:3 - 16
This 'relief' means financial help. That is true caring. Bringing the relief money personally, sitting with them, sharing conversation with them … is all part of caring.
The last part of the verse says,
keeping oneself uncontaminated by the world.
How do we do that?
Contamination is an interesting word for James to use. What would we do if we were to be in a situation where deadly viruses or bacteria were prevalent? We would take 'the necessary precautions', right?
For examples; wear gloves, use a face mask, wash frequently and whatever else we think might protect us. What precautions can we take to keep ourselves 'uncontaminated' by the world?
I think that we first need to understand that God is the one who wants us to be uncontaminated, so He Himself has made provisions. We may not know exactly 'how' He does it, but Jude says, To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy ... JUDE 1:24
Jesus in heaven actually prays for us. That sounds a bit strange, because Jesus is at the right hand of the Father as we speak. So what we should really understand, Jesus makes intercession to the father for us. And He already was doing that before He left here. Here is a small excerpt from His last recorded prayer.
My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. JOHN 17:15
Isn't it comforting to know that Jesus' prayer engages the power of God to act against the spiritual forces that would love nothing better than to 'take us down'?
Next, we are encouraged to ask God for direction in our day to day decisions. Jesus taught us to say,
“Lead us not into temptation,” which means, lead us away from temptations to sin. He, as our Good Shepherd, leads. His leadership is available as a resource. But we need to want it and accept it.
And then, to further assist us in being uncontaminated by the world, we have another resource … and that is to program … or re-program our minds with the principles of God's word.
Apostle Paul calls this 'renewing our minds'.
Take a look … Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:2
The writer of Hebrews makes the transformation process very clear.
13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.
14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. HEBREWS 5:13, 14
The word of God, as it is internalized, is a re-programming power. It contains everything we need, from the very basic, to the more complex. The basic is called 'milk' … the more complex and challenging is called 'meat'.
Hebrews says that solid food (meat) is for those who have grown or matured. But there is an underlying reprimand here. He addresses the fact that some 'live on milk'. I have met some whose speech tells me that they want to stay babies in the faith. Their words go something like this, 'I just want to focus on God's love and majesty. I don't need anything more.'
If a nursing baby at his mother's breast could talk … actually his eyes, looking up into his mother's eyes says it all. His eyes are saying … I love you mommy!
And some believers want to stay there forever. But wants us to mature.
Our Hebrews passage tells us that the mature can better distinguish good from evil. That is a valuable asset in keeping ourselves uncontaminated by the world.
And then there is another resource … other believers.
James mentions this later on in this book.
JAMES 5:19 My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back,
20 remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins.
That is an example of being de-contaminated. Try as we might, we will can never succeed at remaining completely uncontaminated. So we all need a brother or sister to come along side of us from time to time … and bring us back to sensible Christianity. Will we enjoy being 'brought back'? Probably not. If you are the one 'bringing somebody back', here is a reminder from the Apostle Paul.
Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Galatians 6:1
To recap
To enable us to walk the walk ... God has provided us with resources.
The first is prayer. His prayer to the Father. He intercedes with the Father on our behalf
the Second is also prayer, our prayers to the Father. Asking for direction
The third is re-programming our mind to contain biblical responses to life's situations. Moving from milk to solid food.
The fourth resource is other believers.
Do any of those city names sound familiar to you? The apostle Paul has either already traveled to these areas and planted churches ... or he is about to. If these believers arrived there before Paul did, he will discover these groups of Christians and establish them into churches there. But have a little difficulty with that option, simply because, in the book of Acts I find that Paul went first to a Jewish synagogue, preached the gospel to them, and achieved a degree of success. But there is no mention of his finding any pre-existing groups of believers who had fled from Jerusalem.
So, all that is to say James writes these words to them after Paul has already gone through there. This means that the 'mix' of Christians in some of these churches is interesting. The first members would be those that Paul led to Christ, taught them for a while and then moved on. Then some of the fleeing believers from Jerusalem would arrive and try to settle into a new way of life in a new area and a new church. Add to this a stream of other families fleeing persecution as the mis-treatment of Christians escalated.
James is writing his words into this mix.
For us, this is good. You and I should have no trouble identifying with one of these three factions. You are either an older mature believer, a wealthy believer, or a very poor believer. James is talking to you.
James 1:22 Don’t only hear the message, but put it into practice; otherwise you are merely deluding yourselves.
We are supposed to be quick to hear but slow to speak and slow to get angry. This is a general and all encompassing instruction. Be quick to listen in all of life’s interactions - but when it comes to the Word, we understand from James is saying, that we are to be quick to listen and then quick to obey.
Why would anyone ... hear the Word ... but fail to obey?
There could be several reasons: pride, power, good intentions, curiosity, mis-interpretation, forgetfulness,
1. Pride
a. They never intended to obey – they only want to know more than others. Here's an example:
For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but
either to tell or to hear some new thing. Acts 17:21
-or-
2. Power
Some say knowledge is power. Used positively knowledge can save us from making the mistakes of history. Used selfishly it can be used to manipulate others or merely to avoid work and responsibility.
-or-
3. We have good intentions.
a. But fear intimidates and paralyses us from obeying.
-or-
b. Our over involvement with the 'cares of this world' totally sidetracks us from obeying.
-or-
4. Our curiosity with the word, particularly with prophesies that may be related to our time has us
reading and trying understand …for the purpose of 'getting serious' when the time comes.
-or-
5. or our obedience is rendered ineffective due to interpretation and misinterpretation. In other
words … “This does not mean me, right?”
-or-
6. Forgetfulness could also be given as a reason for not obeying the Word. However, that leads us to
doubt how much we really cared to begin with, if we could forget so easily.
James draws a mental picture describing this practice. He says it is like a person looking at himself in a mirror
but the moment he turns to leave, forgets what he looked like.
He says,
23 The man who simply hears and does nothing about it is like a man catching the reflection of his natural face in a mirror. 24 He sees himself, it is true, but he goes off without the slightest recollection of what sort of person he saw in the mirror.
Then he proceeds to correct us by saying we should not be using the Word like a mirror. Mirrors are used intermittently. Rather, we should be in a constant state of mentally processing scripture.
25 But the man who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and makes a habit of so doing, is not the man who hears and forgets. He puts that law into practice and he wins true happiness.
James says there should be:
a. A deliberate and steady looking into the word. While a regular reading program has benefits, the word ‘intently’ (NIV), calls for much more diligence. “Makes a habit of” also includes things like analyzing, comparing, researching, asking.
b. A deliberate and conscious decision to ‘walk the talk’. 'Continuing in it' (NIV and NKJV) means thinking about what we saw in the Word as we go through the day.
And then James adds,
26 If anyone appears to be "religious" but cannot control his tongue, he deceives himself and we may be sure that his religion is useless.
A deliberate control of our tongues involves sacrificing your ‘right’ to have an attitude toward others who ‘are not doing what you are doing’.
And finally we come to understand that worthless ‘religion’ talks … but nothing practical ever comes of it.
James said,
27 Religion that is pure and genuine in the sight of God the Father will show itself by such things as visiting orphans and widows in their distress and keeping oneself uncontaminated by the world.
Here is a good example of 'Walking the Talk' from First John 3:16-23
16 We know what love is because Christ laid down his life for us. We must in turn lay down our lives for our brothers.
17 But as for the well-to-do man who sees his brother in want but shuts his heart against him, how could anyone believe that the love of God lives in him?
18 My children, let us love not merely in theory or in words — let us love in sincerity and in practice!
19 This is how we shall know that we are children of the truth and can reassure ourselves in the sight of God, 20 even if our own conscience makes us feel guilty. For God is greater than our conscience, and he knows everything.
21 And if, dear friends of mine, our conscience no longer accuses us, we may have the utmost confidence in God’s presence. 22 We receive whatever we ask for, because we are obeying his orders and following his wishes.
23 ¶ His orders are that we should put our trust in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another — as he commanded us to do. 1John 3:16 -23
John talks about actually laying down our lives for a fellow believer. Then John mentions something less drastic, yet far more common … seeing a fellow believer in need and doing nothing more than wishing them well or telling them we will pray for them. John offers two benefits of ‘having our hearts condemn us’(verse 21).
1. It tells us that we actually are believers. Unbelievers would not have the same keenness of conscience as a believer would have. This is a negative way of knowing we are children of God.
2. This sudden stabbing of the conscience lets us know our hearts can be at rest about this issue the moment we lift our brother’s load.
Back to the book of James, to repeat verse 27 …
James 1:27 Religion that is pure and genuine in the sight of God the Father will show itself by such things as visiting orphans and widows in their distress and keeping oneself uncontaminated by the world.
This would be called ‘putting your money where your mouth is’.
By the way, the term visit, when used in scripture, does not mean what we normally might think. It always carried with it this thought: Pure religion … care for the widows etc.
God even uses 'visit' to mean, in a negative sense, there is a coming a day when God is going to visit the godless … meaning, He is going to take care of them!
The church in Paul’s time, likely 20 years or so later than the book of James, had some kind of a system in place for caring for the widows and orphans. Here is what Paul wrote to Timothy:
16 If any believing man or woman has widows, let them relieve them, and do not let the church be burdened, that it may relieve those who are really widows. I TIMOTHY 5:3 - 16
This 'relief' means financial help. That is true caring. Bringing the relief money personally, sitting with them, sharing conversation with them … is all part of caring.
The last part of the verse says,
keeping oneself uncontaminated by the world.
How do we do that?
Contamination is an interesting word for James to use. What would we do if we were to be in a situation where deadly viruses or bacteria were prevalent? We would take 'the necessary precautions', right?
For examples; wear gloves, use a face mask, wash frequently and whatever else we think might protect us. What precautions can we take to keep ourselves 'uncontaminated' by the world?
I think that we first need to understand that God is the one who wants us to be uncontaminated, so He Himself has made provisions. We may not know exactly 'how' He does it, but Jude says, To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy ... JUDE 1:24
Jesus in heaven actually prays for us. That sounds a bit strange, because Jesus is at the right hand of the Father as we speak. So what we should really understand, Jesus makes intercession to the father for us. And He already was doing that before He left here. Here is a small excerpt from His last recorded prayer.
My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. JOHN 17:15
Isn't it comforting to know that Jesus' prayer engages the power of God to act against the spiritual forces that would love nothing better than to 'take us down'?
Next, we are encouraged to ask God for direction in our day to day decisions. Jesus taught us to say,
“Lead us not into temptation,” which means, lead us away from temptations to sin. He, as our Good Shepherd, leads. His leadership is available as a resource. But we need to want it and accept it.
And then, to further assist us in being uncontaminated by the world, we have another resource … and that is to program … or re-program our minds with the principles of God's word.
Apostle Paul calls this 'renewing our minds'.
Take a look … Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:2
The writer of Hebrews makes the transformation process very clear.
13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.
14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. HEBREWS 5:13, 14
The word of God, as it is internalized, is a re-programming power. It contains everything we need, from the very basic, to the more complex. The basic is called 'milk' … the more complex and challenging is called 'meat'.
Hebrews says that solid food (meat) is for those who have grown or matured. But there is an underlying reprimand here. He addresses the fact that some 'live on milk'. I have met some whose speech tells me that they want to stay babies in the faith. Their words go something like this, 'I just want to focus on God's love and majesty. I don't need anything more.'
If a nursing baby at his mother's breast could talk … actually his eyes, looking up into his mother's eyes says it all. His eyes are saying … I love you mommy!
And some believers want to stay there forever. But wants us to mature.
Our Hebrews passage tells us that the mature can better distinguish good from evil. That is a valuable asset in keeping ourselves uncontaminated by the world.
And then there is another resource … other believers.
James mentions this later on in this book.
JAMES 5:19 My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back,
20 remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins.
That is an example of being de-contaminated. Try as we might, we will can never succeed at remaining completely uncontaminated. So we all need a brother or sister to come along side of us from time to time … and bring us back to sensible Christianity. Will we enjoy being 'brought back'? Probably not. If you are the one 'bringing somebody back', here is a reminder from the Apostle Paul.
Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Galatians 6:1
To recap
To enable us to walk the walk ... God has provided us with resources.
The first is prayer. His prayer to the Father. He intercedes with the Father on our behalf
the Second is also prayer, our prayers to the Father. Asking for direction
The third is re-programming our mind to contain biblical responses to life's situations. Moving from milk to solid food.
The fourth resource is other believers.