HOW DO WE KNOW THAT WE ARE RESPONDING WELL TO GOD S WORD? James 1:19-27 September 7, 2008 Whenever we take medication, medical professionals monitor our body s response. They want to be sure that the drugs that they are putting in our system are helping us and not hurting us. As an example, I take medication to control cholesterol. Once a year, my doctor takes a blood sample to check my cholesterol level and liver function. Down the road, he doesn t want me to suffer a stroke because we thought my cholesterol level was low when it was actually high. And he doesn t want me to need a liver transplant because unbeknown to us the medication was destroying my liver. So he checks to see that my body is responding well to the medication. In the same way, James gives us a way to determine whether or not we are responding well to God s Word. He doesn t want us to get down the road thinking that God s Word is having an impact in conforming us to the image of Christ, only to find out that it hasn t had any impact at all. He wants us to respond well to God s Word. If you have a Bible please open it to James 1:19-27. We will look at these verses and consider the question, How do we know that we are responding well to God s Word? Monitoring our response to God s Word seems like a good idea, but what does that look like? With my medication, a blood test confirmed my physical well-bring. James has something equally practical for us. Let s start in verses 21-22. Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. 22 But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. In verse 21, James calls his listeners to receive the Word of God in meekness and humility. When received into our life, the Word of God will save our souls. However we still have nothing concrete to determine if we are responding well to God s Word. Verse 22 moves from the theoretical to the practical. James tells us that we know we are responding well to the Word of God if we do it. In his translation of this passage, Eugene Peterson compares God to a gardener. This passage is a call to allow God to shape the landscape of our life with His Word. If we will submit to Him and the direction of His Word, He will bring His fruit out of our life. If we submit to His work and direction, the master landscaper will give us an iron-clad guarantee: He will make a salvation-garden of our life. So we know what it looks like to respond well to God s Word: We put it into practice. Since it will bring salvation, why would anybody not put God s Word into practice? Yet, in verses 23-24, James tells us that there are people who hear God s Word and then ignore it. 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; 24 for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.
The person who hears the Word of God but doesn t do it is like the man who looks in the mirror but doesn t make any change based on what he saw in his reflection. Given that the stakes are spiritual life and death, it is hard to believe that people hear the Word of God, then don t apply it. Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger shared this story in their book Simple Church. A recent medical study reveals just how difficult change is for people. Roughly 600,000 people have heart bypasses a year in America. These people are told after their bypasses that they must change their lifestyle. The heart bypass is a temporary fix. They must change their diet. They must quit smoking and drinking. They must exercise and reduce stress. In essence, the doctors say, "Change or die." You would think that a near-death experience would forever grab the attention of the patients. You would think they would do all in their power to change. You would think the argument for change is so compelling that the patients would make the appropriate lifestyle alterations. Sadly that is not the case. Ninety percent of the heart patients do not change. They remain the same, living the status quo. Study after study indicates that two years after heart surgery, the patients have not altered their behavior. Instead of making changes for life, they choose death. Though that statistic shocks us, James says it is even more amazing that people would hear the Word of God and not put it into practice. They don t make any changes in their life in response to the Word of God. Change is hard, isn t it? If we can t change when our physical life is in danger, how much harder is it to make spiritual change? The Bible teaches that it is impossible in our own power. Our inability to consistently apply God s Word is a symptom of our desperate spiritual condition. God created us to live for Him. Yet, because of our nature we live for ourselves. The Bible calls this our sin nature, instead of living for God, we live for self. As long as we live for self, we won t put the Word of God into practice on a regular basis. We need a change of heart. God offers that change of heart in the person of Jesus Christ. When we place our faith in Jesus not only does He forgive us for all the wrong actions, thoughts and words that stem from living for self, He empowers us to live for God. Jesus brings our heart back to life. Once we are living for God instead of self, we have the power to live out God s Word on a moment by moment basis. If you have never trusted in Christ, I invite you to do that right now. He ll forgive your sin and empower you to live the way God designed you to live. In verse 25, James compares the forgetter of God s Word with the doer of God s Word. 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. The perfect law or the law of liberty refers to the Gospel. The one who carries out God s Word will be blessed in all he does. So we know we can t live out God s Word without God s power. And we know that we are responding well to God s word when we live out God s Word. But living out God s Word is still a bit vague as a measure of how we are responding to God s Word. How do we know if we are truly living out God s Word? Will James get any more practical? None of us want to get to the end of our life to find out we responded poorly to God s Word when we thought we were responding well. Can James give us anything more concrete? In the rest of our verses, James will be specific. He will give us some indicators to determine whether or not we are living out
God s Word. This is not an exhaustive list, but it is enough so we can get an idea of how we are responding to God s Word. Starting in verses 19-20, we find the first indicator. This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. James encourages followers of Jesus to be slow to speak and slow to lose their temper. Rather than speaking or displaying our temper, we should be listening. Human anger does not produce the righteousness that meets God s standards. How are you doing in controlling your words and your temper? My occasional lack of control of my temper shows I m not responding that well to God s Word. We had a great Labor Day weekend. Last Monday night I cast a pawl over that weekend, when I unnecessarily lost my temper with one of our kids. I cut him off in conversation. Why do I do that? Why do we do that? A person that is quick to speak or quick to vent his temper is a self-absorbed person. That person views their words or their emotions as so important that they must express them. People given to God have surrendered themselves, so they can wait to express their thoughts and feelings. Instead, they can listen. No matter how many verses I can quote from memory, no matter how Biblcally sound my sermon, my inability to control my speech and temper and instead listen to my son, demonstrate I m not responding well to the Word of God. My failure to put God s Word into practice is a reminder of my moment by moment need for God. We all have that need. On top of that, when we are talking all the time, giving vent to our anger and failing to listen, how do we hear God? If we don t hear God s Word, we sure won t apply it. Let s ask God to empower us so that we are slow to speak and quick to listen. In verse 26, James elaborates more on the need for Christ s followers to control their speech. 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. We can substitute the word, pious or spiritual for religious. People may think themselves mature in the faith, but if they can t control their words, they deceive themselves. Why do we gossip? Why do we say things we know we shouldn t say? We do it because we are mad at someone and want to hurt that person, so we use words to get back at him. Or we want to win favor with someone, so we slip that person a little inside scuttlebutt. We give her just a tasty morsel of scandal. To the person who gossips, James says Your religion is worthless. You might claim to be a follower of Jesus, but you are deceiving yourself. How do we know that we are responding well to God s Word? We know we are responding well to God s Word when we control our speech and temper. When we fail to put God s Word into practice, we know something is amiss in our relationship with God. All of us have given vent to our anger. All of us have talked over people when we should have listened. All of us have gossiped. Let me ask, how do you feel after doing one of those things? Let me tell you how I feel. If I ve talked over somebody I feel selfish. I couldn t give him a chance, I had to show my wisdom. If I lost my temper I feel foolish. If I betrayed a confidence, I feel dirty. I sold this friend out to gain a little favor with this other
person. I hate those feelings. And so do you. God wants to move us past these experiences and feelings. When we come to God, He moves our focus off of our self. And as we are less consumed with self, we don t have as strong a need to express our feelings or words. We are not so dependent on another person s approval that we break a trust. If you struggle with controlling your words, throw yourself on Jesus. He will change your heart which will lead to a change in your speech and temper. In verse 27, James gives us two more indicators to see if we are responding well to God s Word. Interestingly, in verse 26, James talks of worthless religion and in verse 27, he talks about genuine religion. Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. One of those markers is to care for the loveless and helpless, the orphans and widows. When Jesus was on earth, one of the charges against Him was that He was a friend of sinners. Jesus majored in the loveless and helpless. Most of us are not drawn to such people. But as we draw near to Jesus, we take on His value system. Let s submit to Christ that we might care for the disenfranchised. As we draw near to Christ, trusting that He will change our value system, who can we call this week to practice caring for the helpless or loveless? Can we take a meal to someone? Can we visit a lonely person? Can we send a card? Ask God for direction in living out His priority of caring for poor and rejected people. Another indicator James mentions to gauge whether or not we are responding well to God s Word is that our value system is not corrupted by the world. This means that we don t value something in the creation more than the Creator. Often we develop what Tim Keller calls functional saviors. We look to money, our job, our boyfriend, or our standard of living to give us life. When we prize something more than Christ, James tells us we are not living out God s Word. When we prize something more than Christ, that thing control us. We have a neighbor with a beautiful lawn. Clearly, he takes great pride in it. But he pours hours into it. He cuts his grass twice a week. It seems he is always treating his yard with some chemical. That prize lawn drains his time and money. It owns him. Neighbors shake their head in disbelief at the time he puts into his lawn. Christ wants to free us from that tyranny, by calling us to value Him above all else. Now that James has shown us these markers, we can clarify the answer to our question. How do we know if we are responding well to God s Word? We know we are responding well to God s Word when we control our speech and temper, care for the helpless and loveless and maintain pure affection for God. A right response to God s Word endows us with power to become the people we d like to be. Instead of being quick to spew out words or fly off the handle, we gain control over our words and temper. Instead of passing by the down and out, we have a heart that moves us to care for such people. Instead of being consumed by the things of this world, we experience the freedom of an undiluted affection for God. A right response to God s Word enables us to live a quality of life not otherwise available. If after considering these indicators, you realize you are
not responding rightly to God s Word, let that motivate you to seek the Lord for the change of heart needed for a right response to His Word. Have you been in for a vision test to renew your driver s license lately? Not only do you have to read letters and numbers, but you have to acknowledge flashing lights by squeezing a sensor. Why do drivers have to go through these tests? A right response shows we are fit to drive. An improper response means we have a problem. Maybe we need corrected vision. Maybe we can t drive. In the same way, James gives us some indicators to show whether or not we are responding rightly to God s Word. A right response shows God is controlling and directing our lives and we re on our way to being the people He created us to be. An improper response means we have spiritual trouble. The good news is that we need glasses and we won t lose our license. If we ll submit to God, He ll redirect our heart so that we respond rightly to God s Word. How do we know if we are responding well to God s Word? We know we are responding well to God s Word when we control our speech and temper, care for the helpless and loveless and maintain pure affection for God.