Slow to Speak, Quick to Do

James 1:19-27

Is the Christian life something that happens to you or is it something that you are actively involved in? This isn't a trick question, but is meant to make you think. The answer of course is yes. Jesus comes and sovereignly resurrects your soul. He takes out your heart of stone and gives you a heart of flesh. You are then given the Holy Spirit to empower you for good works. As Voddie Bauchum once put it, "The gospel does not require obedience, it produces it.” After Paul tells us that we are saved by grace through faith (Eph.2:8-9), the very next verse tells us that we are saved for good works (v. 10). We are not floating through the Christian life but are actively involved in making decisions that reflect our new standing.

Our passage in James here is even more direct. Verse 22 tells us very plainly, "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves." Good works here are not a suggestion. Without good works, our faith is self-deception. What sort of works is he talking about?

James offers to us a couple of areas to look at in our lives. They aren't exhaustive, but they are foundational. After covering our endurance under trial, James moves to the more everyday sort of concerns in the Christian life. The Christian life isn't just lived when the diagnosis of cancer comes in. It is lived in the moment right after someone says something stupid to you. And you'd like to finally give them what's been coming for years.

Let's get practical.

Your Speech Says a Lot About You

James opens up this section by showing us very practically what this steadfast, mature life looks like in the everyday, and the example that he gives to us is something we would probably not think of: Can you listen to people without interrupting them or flying off the handle?

Of course James isn't talking about your ability to listen when someone is praising you. That is very easy to silently absorb. How are you listening when someone is being critical of you, constructively or otherwise, or simply being boring. How you listen and respond says a lot.

How so? I find, when I don't listen to people it is because I am thinking too much about how this conversation affects me. For example, if I stop listening so I can form my reply while they're still going, it might be because I'm trying to finish the conversation and move on with my day. That's selfish. Or maybe I think I am genuinely helping the person and want to have an immediate answer to the problem so I look helpful. That's good intentions mixed with pride. Or if I am being critiqued I want to have a comeback that is devastating. And that is just plain old anger.

And that is what is so brilliant about this point. It isn't just practical advise. How you speak with people present or otherwise reveals a lot of what is in your heart. Matthew 15:18 "But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart," and how you speak when others aren't around to hear your commentary about them still counts. Those private group texts. Those anonymous Twitter accounts. All have the heart behind them on display. Perhaps that is why in verse 26 we are told that a person's religion is worthless if it can't even keep a lid on your tongue. If even the practical wisdom won't slow you, what is your faith supposed to do?

I know the world tells us to express our authentic feelings, and it is a good thing to be honest, but hastily, angrily venting actually doesn't advance the righteousness of God. To put it another way, angry rants don't do what God wants.

Instead, James tells us, put off that stuff. He calls our evil "filth." One commentator described this word as putting off clothes that are so filthy they can't be cleaned. All that can be done is to throw them away. Take that hasty, angry talking and throw it away. Instead, humbly receive God's Word. Angry rants won't save you and bring you to heaven. Receiving God's word will. Venting about all the bad things that happen at work won't make you feel half as good as reminding yourself of what God is doing even through that hard job in His Word.

Ok, so instead of us talking, we are listening. We are listening to God's Word. We hear of God's saving work on our behalf. We see God's commands for a flourishing life that will take us to heaven one day! What now?

Obey What You Hear

Don't stop at listening. Actually apply what you have heard. That brings us to verses 22-25, and this verse 22 is one of the most famous in James. Be doers of the word and not hearers only. That command is pretty clear. What makes that command ominous is the warning after that phrase, "deceiving yourselves." In other words, if we only hear God's word and go, "Huh, that's interesting," and move on without any further thought or change of action, then we are tricking ourselves that we really hear God's command.

James compares it to looking at oneself in the mirror. If you look at the mirror and then do nothing with what you see, neither adjusting anything nor remembering even what you look like, that look in the mirror did nothing. However, if you look into the law of liberty (God's revelation in His Word), and persevere in that, you will be blessed in your doing.

Notice that there is the offer of blessing for doing what God tells you to. God could just say, "I told you to do it, so do it." But God, in His graciousness, tells us that He intends to bless us in the doing. This really bolsters the point of being a hearer of God's Words.

Think about it this way. We've all had the experience of either telling a kid or being the kid who heard with their ears a command from their parents but didn't do it. How do we confront them? We say, "Did you not hear me? Clearly you didn't, because you didn't do what I said." What are we actually saying with that? Imagine me talking that way to the president for not doing what I say. It sounds off, doesn't it? But it sounds right with my kid, because I made them, love them, and give commands for their good. Why should they not listen? It is owed obedience at least.

How much more so with God? And I don't think that the highest of Christian obedience is reached with owed obedience, either. I think that is reached with awed obedience. He has created, sustains, loves, and provided a path to eternal bliss. How can we justify not doing what He says? Do you not know who it is who brings these commands to you? Further, these commands are not slavery. Saying whatever comes to your head in a fit of anger is slavery. You feel carried along saying things you regret! Being given the ability to slow down, really listen, respond calmly and helpfully, when the time is right is the greatest freedom of speech one could ever find.

That's what James picks up in verse 26. He picks up again at our speech and concludes that if our relationship with Jesus cannot even help us reign in what we say, then our claim to following Jesus is worthless. James isn't even talking about the desires of the heart yet. If you can't even keep a lid on the worst of your spoken impulses, then clearly one has not encountered Jesus. It is like if someone were to stand in front of the Grand Canyon at sunset and go, "Eh, it's a hole." You would conclude they either aren't looking at it or are too distracted by something else going on in their lives to find wonder in anything at that moment. You would say, "Hey, what's wrong?"

Now, of course this doesn't mean that the Christian will never slip up in what they say. But if the pattern of life is a tongue totally out of control, then there is some serious attention that needs to be paid.

Give Attention to What the World Ignores

But that is an example of what not to do. What should we do? James closes this chapter with three things. True religion is care for the widows and orphans, the helpless and needy, the one's who cannot do anything for you in return. That was truer then than it is now, but the substance of the command is the same. Help those who cannot pay you back.

But that is usually where people stop. You hear coastal elites clucking from their laptops that this is what true religion is, but they (and we) don't seem to notice that there is a comma there rather than a period. Yes, it is helping those who cannot help us back AND to keep ourselves unstained by the world. What does that mean? It means that we are not caught up in what everyone else in this world's system is caught up in: money, fame, power, convenience, never having to do anything that we don't want to do, and we will kill ourselves a little bit each day to achieve it, even as we pass ruined life after ruined life along the way somehow concluding that we are different.

James is holding out the promise that you in fact can be different. We cannot leave this world. I don't think that withdrawing from the world is the answer. Jesus didn't say, "My power I leave you, now hide!" He said, "Disciple the nations, not dodge them."

Application

We disciple that world by showing a new way of being. Create what the redeemed world will one day look like. Let's have the Church be a place where you are listened to, yet shown how not to be stained by the world's solutions. Artists, I know there are a lot of you in here, show through your art what is The True, The Good, and The Beautiful. And by the way, you likely aren't going to find that online. The world's algorithms are tuned to the world's values.

Parents, don't be slaves to what our culture thinks your kid should be doing. Sure, enjoy baseball and ballet, but approach it through this lens. We aren't doing these things because everyone else is doing it. We do these things because there is something true, good, and beautiful. Point that out to them.

Oh! And don't forget the orphans and widows. Don't know where they are? We've got widows right here at Knollwood. If you want to care for those also beyond our walls, there are all kinds of opportunities, but to name one, just over the woods of our church is Alabama Food Solutions, our food bank. They need volunteers to greet, pack food boxes, and donations!

All of this empowered not through your efforts but prayerfully coming to the Holy Spirit each day for grace.