Listening to it or Living it?

The second portion of chapter one begins to deal with some pretty convicting issues. But James, like most good communicators, remembers to encourage us before he gives us the constructive information. Verses 17-18 reasserts the goodness of God, and the fact that He never changes. Lucky for us! In a society where everything and everyone seems to change in the blink of an eye, our God is constant. James also reminds us that God chose us to be His children as "the first fruits". This refers to the Passover Feast when the Jews brought just a sample of the greater harvest. This signifies that we are a part of the harvest, but when we are obedient and walking in God's will, we will bring about an even more bountiful harvest to God's glory.

Then comes the harder part: being quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. I'm sure you guys have heard that God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason: more listening, less talking. Another thing to remember, the more we talk, the more responsibility we have because there are more words to be responsible for. Verse 26 goes even further to say that if we claim to be Christians, but we have no control over our tongue (which is an indication of what's going on in our heart) our religion is worthless.

So what's been coming out of your mouth lately?

In verse 22, James boils down the essence of the Christian life: we are to be doers of the Word, not just hearers. We can sit in church, go to youth group, participate in small groups, tune in the Christian radio station and get all the information in the world. But if that information we get about the Bible and our Christian faith, doesn't bring about a change in our behavior, thoughts, and our walk with the Lord, we are at best ineffective, at worst not even genuine.

Let's look at a practical example. Let's say you decide you're going to be a football player. So you say, "Hey I'm a football player." And you proceed to go to practice, sit on the sidelines, listen to every word your coach says. You buy Tony Dungy's book on football. You watch the NFL network every chance you get. But when it comes time to put on the pads and helmet and go on the field to play, you simply don't do it. Yeah, you want to look good and appear to be a football player, especially around the jocks, but you don't want to put any effort into the role. Now what kind of a football player would you be? Could you really even be considered a football player at all?

Another part of this passage that is really practical is verses 23-24. "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 a person he was."
Now really. How many of you get up in the morning, look in the mirror, turn around and never give another thought to how you look all day? In our appearance driven society, that rarely happens. If we get up and see our hair is a mess, our makeup is all over our faces, and the plaque is built up on our teeth, we typically do something about it. Even you guys at least throw a hat on your head.

But spiritually, do we make the same effort? I like the idea of scripture being like a mirror. A mirror reflects an exact image of whatever looks into it. That's some of the reason we find every excuse to stay away from our Bible reading: we don't always like what we see in the reflection of God's word. We are sinners, and nothing shouts out our lack of Christ likeness like the Bible. So instead of seeing that reflection and trying to do something about it to make it more like Christ, we shut the book and go about our merry way. Wouldn't it be great to spend more and more time in The Word and watch our reflection become more and more like Christ and less and less like the sinners we are? Verse 17 refers to God as "the father of lights." The Bible reflects His image back on us as we spend more and more time with Him in his letter to us. Then we can take His light and shine it on the lost, dark world around us.

Chapter one finishes by telling us what religion is acceptable as pure and faultless: visiting widows and orphans in their distress (being focused on others who are less fortunate instead of on ourselves) and keeping ourselves "unstained" by the world.

It's kind of a big assignment, but it definitely makes me think about how much time I spend thinking about myself and what I want, rather than those who are less fortunate and alone.

It also makes me think about how influenced I am by the world. It doesn't take much to make a stain... one blade of grass, one drop of ink, one drip of oil... How much has the world stained you?