All right. Good morning. So, it’s great. Yeah, great. Great to see you guys. And, yeah, if you were expecting somebody different, you got me twice in a row, so, yeah. For those who don’t know me, my name is Wes. I’m a pastoral assistant here at Red Village Church, and we’re gonna keep on working through our book series in the book of James, our summer series.
So, if you’ve got a Bible, go ahead and open up to James, chapter one. We’re going to work through verses 19 through 27. If you don’t have a Bible, there should be some Bibles in the chairs that you can grab and open up to follow along as we work through the passage. I’m going to go ahead and read the passage, and then I’ll pray and ask for the Lord’s help, and we will get with it.
So, James 1:19-27 says: “Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger, for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”
That’s God’s word for us. So pray with me.
Lord, we’re grateful that we can come here every Sunday to gather as brothers and sisters in Christ and to hear and study your word. I pray, God, help me to be a good communicator this morning. Would you open our hearts and our ears to hear your word and what you would have for us? And I ask this in Christ’s name. Amen.
If you remember, last week we covered a lot of ground as we studied the first half of James one. As a brief overview, James is written by the brother of Jesus, who came to faith after Jesus’ death and resurrection and was known as a pillar of the faith at the Jerusalem church. James wrote this letter to the twelve tribes in dispersion, which are likely dispersed Jewish Christians living outside of Israel.
James’ letter is extremely practical and is known as the proverbs of the New Testament, with many references to wisdom literature in the Old Testament. James’ letter begins by exhorting his readers to understand God’s sovereignty and trials that produce steadfastness in order to grow our faith and build our godly character, that we may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
God’s testing through trials is immeasurably valuable as it results in praise and honor to God for eternity when we receive the crown of life. This allows us to count it all joy through the joy that God gives us and through cultivating a joyous attitude. We studied how, if we are lacking in understanding during a trial, then we should ask God in faith, not doubting like the double-minded man, unstable in all his ways, but to ask in faith.
We studied how James reminds us about the brevity of life and the folly in pursuing riches, when only the humble will be exalted, not the rich who see themselves as exalted. We studied James’ teaching on internal temptation that comes from evil desires from within, which inevitably leads to sin and death that must be put to death through repentance and faith so that we are not dragged away by our own flesh.
Lastly, we studied the character of God described by James in verses 16 through 18, which describes God as the Father of lights, who never changes and is the giver of every good and perfect gift that we have in this life. This Father of lights, creator of all things, including the lights, by His own initiative, brought about new life in His creation through providing the word of truth, which is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
That brings us to verses 19 and 20 of our text. If you look with me at your Bibles, verse 19 says: “Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” James’ use of “beloved brothers” here in verse 19 is directed towards brothers and sisters of the faith, and each time James uses this phrase in his letter, it often suggests a transition in topic.
Here, James is transitioning to further exhorting his readers to put their faith into action by first providing three wise applications for the posture that they are to have in their speech. Those three applications are to be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger.
To be quick to hear means one humbly seeks to understand what is being said before speaking, or perhaps recognizes that they may not need to speak at all. Proverbs 12:15 says, “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.” Proverbs 18:2 says, “A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion.” Proverbs 18:3 says, “If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame.”
All these proverbs teach that it is wise to listen, to understand, and to hear before speaking. If you do not first listen, then you are a fool who only cares about being right in your own eyes. James reminds his readers to humbly listen before thinking about saying anything at all. To jump into a conversation without first listening is pridefully foolish. We want to understand one another by listening, not just run over each other with the first thought that comes to our mind.
The second wise application of speech that James gives us is to be slow to speak. Proverbs 10:19 says, “When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent.” Proverbs 17:27-28 says, “Whoever restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding. Even a fool who keeps silent is considered to be wise. When he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent.”
So often in society, we think that the person who talks the most is the most knowledgeable and is the wisest in the room. But Scripture says the opposite. When words are many, it is often a sign of foolishness that leads to transgression or sin. The one who is slow to speak is the one who considers what is truly the wisest thing to say before saying it. Being slow to speak also humbly acknowledges that your answer isn’t always the best answer, and therefore you give space for others to speak.
To think that we always have the wisest, most informative answer in the room is a sign of prideful foolishness, not wisdom. To speak quickly without hearing may also be a sign that a person actually loves themselves more than those who are sitting in the room and may also have things to say, which goes against the greatest command of all commands that God has given us: to love your neighbor as yourself.
To listen and to be slow to speak shows we are seeking to love others above ourselves, and that is what matters most in every conversation every day. The third wise application of speech that James gives us is to be slow to anger. There are many proverbs on the topic of anger as well. Proverbs 14:17 says, “A man of quick temper acts foolishly, and a man of evil devices is hated.” Proverbs 14:29 says, “Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly.” In Proverbs 16:32, “Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his own spirit is better than he who takes a city.”
Again, proverbs warn us that to be quick or hasty in anger is foolishness. The reason why I’m giving you so many proverbs is because James, as I said before, is the proverbs of the New Testament, so he is constantly reflecting on these proverbs. Society can teach us that anger is a sign of power and strength, and it helps us assert our leadership. But God’s word teaches the opposite. Anger is foolish, and instead of bringing strength, it brings a person to their own ruin.
Anger is a lack of self-control. It lashes out without rightly thinking in a wise way. To be slow to anger shows a person can control their own emotions, which shows greater strength than the one who lets their anger dictate their next action. James further tells us why one should be slow to anger in verse 20, saying that the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
As new creations made in Christ, God’s people no longer live according to the pattern of this world, but instead we are to live righteous, holy lives that reflect Christ himself. Righteousness, according to wisdom literature, can be summed up as living rightly in accordance with what God requires of His people through His word. Allowing anger to overcome us and dictate our thoughts and actions is not righteous living, for God Himself is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
James continues this thought of righteous living in verse 21, saying, “Therefore, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.” James builds on his exhortation of speech applications by instructing his reader to not only be slow to the sin of anger in order to be righteous but to put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness.
The Greek word for “put away” actually means to take off, like taking off an old garment. No longer are we to wear the old self that is covered in immoral filth with an abundance of evil actions. For those that are in Christ, that is the clothing of the past. It’s no longer fitting or desirable or makes any sense to wear. Therefore, take it off and put it away. Burn it, put it to death.
One of my favorite Christian artists is actually Josh Gerols, and I was listening to part of his testimony recently. He shared how music has always been extremely important in his life and sometimes has even been an idol. One day, after he placed his faith in Christ, he sat in his vehicle and began to listen through all of his CDs that he once identified with and that were an outflow of his sinful life.
Each CD that he listened to reminded him of his sinful past and the old way of living. He took the CD out of the player and broke it in two. He said it was a physical representation of the cleansing that God was doing in his heart and a way of putting his sinful desires to death. This music no longer defined his life and who he was since he had become new in Christ. Therefore, the old must be put away, or in this case, snapped in two.
I’m not saying you need to go through all your music and snap in two everything that you think has sinful lyrics. What Josh Gerols was getting at is that he is done with the old way of living and putting on the new. Listen to Colossians 3:5-10. I’m just going to read this through. It says, “Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these, the wrath of God is coming. In these, you once too walked when you were living in them, but now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouths. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.”
The blood of Christ was not cheap, and therefore God’s children, washed by His blood, do not cling to sin that nailed our Savior to the cross. By the power of the Holy Spirit living within us, we strip off the sin entangling us, and we run the race of faith towards Christ that produces the righteousness of God.
As we put away our sinful inclination, James tells us to, at the same time, receive with meekness the implanted word that is able to save your souls. Now, meekness takes on a submissive, humble attitude towards the things of God. It is not a form of weakness that society might relate it to. James’ use of “implanted word” here likely references the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel, who spoke of a new covenant that would allow God’s law to be written on His people’s hearts by the renewal of the Holy Spirit.
God’s word is implanted in His people of faith as the Holy Spirit leads them in obedience to God’s commands and righteous living. Another way to put this verse is, humbly accept the word of God that is planted within you. James is exhorting believers to not resist the implanted word that the Holy Spirit is working within them, which is all of Scripture, all of the Old Testament, the New Testament, everything within the Bible that God has spoken. Instead, God’s people are to clothe themselves with God’s righteous word.
Verse 21 begins James’ exhortation of discussing the value and purpose of God’s holy word, and that is that it has the power to save your soul. When James says “save your soul,” he is referring to the sanctification of our souls that the implanted word brings. The Bible talks about salvation as both an immediate reality and as a process.
As James writes about here, you have to understand that no other literature in the world has the ability to change the condition of one’s soul and bring salvation to it. No other book, philosopher, teacher, psychiatrist can do this. Only God’s word can save the soul. That is why James urges his readers to accept what God has put within each believer.
But in verse 22, we see James doesn’t stop at just accepting or receiving the truth of God’s word. He says, “But be doers of the word, not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror, for he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.”
Verse 22 could honestly summarize the entire epistle of James: be a doer of the word. It is here where the heart of James’ letter can be found. Faith is not a matter of hearing and then doing nothing. Faith is a matter of action, practicing what we believe to be true. As James discusses in chapter two, faith without works is no faith at all. It is a dead faith, which cannot save. That is why James gives so many practical applications for one’s faith to be put into action.
James tells us that to only be a hearer of the word is to deceive yourself. This person assumes that hearing is all that’s required in regard to God’s word. This hearing does not lead a person to further understand and worship the God that they are listening to. Rather, it leads them astray down a path that looks the part but has no real understanding of what faith in God even means.
Notice our text doesn’t say that this is like a hasty kind of quick glance into the mirror for this sort of man. Rather, this man looks intently. He considers what he looks like with careful and perhaps a long observation of himself in the mirror. But even with this careful consideration, after he goes away, he shockingly, at once forgets what he looks like, which reveals that this careful consideration is actually pointless. It’s a waste of time.
Can you imagine taking a picture of someone and then showing them the picture the next day, and then asking them, “Who is this?” and them replying to you, “I’ve never seen this person before in my life”? That would make absolutely no sense. It’s ridiculous and laughable to think about. That is exactly the point that James is making here in the text. It would be better if this person never heard God’s word at all than to hear it and do nothing in response.
As ridiculous as this sounds, many self-claimed Christians show up to church on Sunday, listen to God’s word, sing a few songs, and then leave out the back door, immediately forgetting everything they just heard. People can do this for years, thinking their hearing of the word and attendance at church checks the box of their salvation. It’s not that they weren’t looking in the mirror or listening to the words; it’s just that there was no self-reflection, no application that that person tried to make or sought to understand in response to hearing God’s word.
Matthew 7:26-27 says, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” It is foolish to build a spiritual house on the foundation of just listening to God’s word without ever doing anything about it. That faith is dead, and the reality is it will fall with a great thud.
Verse 25 of our text says, “But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.” The perfect law, that is the law of liberty or the law of freedom that James describes, is not just a reference to the Old Testament law.
The perfect law that James has in mind is the complete revelation of God’s truth, both in the Old Testament and what Christ has completed and revealed through the new covenant. No longer is the law of God defined by man’s obedience to the Levitical law, for that law brings death. But now, through Jesus’ sinless sacrifice as a payment for all who believe in Him, there is now no condemnation for God’s people.
For a person of faith who lives by the Spirit of God living within them, giving them freedom to obey with glad devotion, not under compulsion, as if trying to earn favor with God, to this person, they will walk with God by faith. We can find this perfect law of freedom by looking to Christ on every page of our Bibles, seeing Christ has fulfilled all that God requires of man and placed the Holy Spirit in our hearts so that we may live for Christ out of love for God and a love for those God providentially places in our lives.
The law of liberty sets us free from sin so that by faith we may live in good works found in the perfect law, as the Holy Spirit produces fruit in our lives that leads us in sanctification and in eternal life.
Here in verse 23, James actually gives us four different reasons for why this man is blessed. The first reason he is blessed is the way he looks at it. The Greek word for “looks” in this verse is actually different from the one in verse 23. When looking at the word “looks” from verse 23, this kind of looking involves stooping down to study the thing being looked at.
John uses the same word in his gospel when he describes how the disciples came into Jesus’ empty tomb and stooped down to look and understand at what had happened. It involves an intentional observation that is zealously searching for the answer with its study. This is how James describes how one should look into God’s word, searching for the application and studying what it means and how it will be done.
The second reason James gives for this man being blessed is he perseveres, which is actually different from the steadfastness related to perseverance that we discussed last week in verses 2-3. This kind of persevering means to look into the perfect law again and again and again and continue to do so on a regular basis. The blessed man of Psalm 1 delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on it day and night, all of his days.
The third reason James says this man is blessed is because after looking, he does not forget what he finds in God’s perfect law. He remembers it. God’s word is not something to be heard and left in the background of our minds. Rather, it is to be in the forefront of our minds, judging our thoughts and the attitude of our heart each and every day.
The fourth and most important reason James says this man is blessed is because he is a doer who acts. When a commandment is found in God’s perfect law or a shortcoming that reveals passivity or sin, this man acts quickly and does what God says. There is reverence when he reads God’s word. Obedience is not optional. He does not hear God’s word and then delay obedience. He immediately acts and rightly responds so that he may be found as righteous and blameless in God’s sight. He is a doer of God’s word, one who walks in step with the Holy Spirit living within him, bearing good fruit as a result of his faith, and therefore he is blessed by God.
Now, looking at verses 26-27, James looks at what it means to be a doer of the word from another angle. He transitions to what it means to be religious, which is a very broad term in relation to worship. Verse 26 says, “If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.”
To bridle one’s tongue means to control what a person is saying. A bridle is used to control a horse when riding it, to make it go wherever the rider wants to go. In the same way, we are to control our tongue and what we say, not letting every thought that comes to mind be voiced like an unbridled horse going wherever it desires.
As we studied earlier in verse 19, it is foolish to let our words be many, for they will quickly lead us into sin. The dangers of the tongue is a theme that James comes back to later on in the letter in chapter three, where he describes the tongue as a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it, we bless our Lord and Father and then curse people who are made in His likeness.
James makes it clear that if a person thinks they are religious and are worshiping God, but at the same time they have no control over the sin that comes from their tongue, their religion is worth nothing to God. Such a person has been playing the part of one who is religious and convincing themselves that they really are religious. But in doing so, they have deceived themselves, making the religion they perceive to practice and believe a sham.
James defines true religion in verse 27 as: “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” Pure and undefiled religion that worships the God of the Bible results in caring for the helpless as God cares for the helpless.
Listen to what God commanded His people in Isaiah 1:16-17: “Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil. Learn to do good; seek justice; correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless; plead the widow’s cause.”
Isaiah instructs the people to obey God by removing their sinful deeds that they were doing and to instead practice what they believe by learning to do good through God’s word and caring for the fatherless and the widow. James recognizes that the same thing must happen if one truly wants to practice religion that believes in Jesus and obeys His commands.
Just as God is the Father of the fatherless and protector of widows, so His people who believe in Him should do the same. James is not saying that caring for the orphan and widow sums up the entire Christian faith. Rather, he is practically laying out the applications or the actions that one should follow who is believing in a loving God.
That person will in turn love those around them, especially the helpless who are in need of God’s love. Pure and undefiled religion before a heavenly Father examines the heart of God through Scripture and then replicates God’s heart through loving those God has placed in their reach, especially the broken and needy.
For if we care for the needy but have not love, we are nothing and again serve as hollow religious people that only deceive ourselves. Jesus taught that during our time in this life, whatever we did for the least of the world, the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, the imprisoned, and the widow and the orphan, we did for Him.
The last part of James’ definition of true religion is to keep oneself unstained from the world, which is to remain holy, set apart from the sin and immorality found and practiced by the rest of the world. We are to be in the world, loving those affected by the stain of sin, but at the same time not immersing ourselves in the sin that the majority so willingly plunge themselves into.
James makes it clear that putting our faith to action through loving the helpless but holding on to sin is not pure and undefiled religion. Pure and undefiled religion results in hands that put faith to action through loving deeds to the helpless and a heart that continually pursues holiness. Therefore, we put to death every evil inclination and temptation, whether from within us or from the world. Instead, we fill ourselves with the implanted word that is able to save our souls.
Only through faith in Christ is this made possible. Through faith in Jesus, a person is made new and washed of the stain of sin that makes us white as snow. That is true religion that is worthy of eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ.
Before I close out our time looking at this passage, I want to give you three applications based on the text so that you can be a doer of the word and not just a hearer of the word.
So, my first application, if you’re taking notes, write these down. The first application is to value God’s word. It’s so easy for us to become familiar with the word of God and take it for granted, like making it lose its reverence and making it lose its taste that is sweeter than honey. God’s word has the power to sanctify your soul, something that no other literature, media, or form of entertainment has the ability to do.
God’s word is food for our soul, and our souls crave its spiritual nourishment so that we may abide in Christ and walk in faith by the power of the Holy Spirit. That being said, I encourage you to apply the four applications that James gives us in verse 25, which I’ll summarize as search, routine, meditate, and respond.
The first application for valuing God’s word is to search God’s word as you read it. We are to search the Scriptures for understanding and truth, not just listen and consider. When reading the Bible or listening to a sermon, we need to prayerfully ask God to help us see what He has for us and then search the passage we are reading for what God has to say to us. God’s word is living and active; it’s not just words on a page. We need to lean in and study God’s word each time we open up our Bibles.
The second application for valuing God’s word is routine. James tells us that the one who perseveres or continues looking into the perfect law will be blessed. We need to look into God’s word on a regular basis, which means we need to be reading God’s word in our own time and also making sure we are at church each Sunday. How often should we do this? Psalm 1 tells us to do this day and night, which I think is a good goal for each Christian who desires to abide in Christ and grow in the sanctification of their soul.
For the one who does this is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in season, and its leaf does not wither, and all they do, they prosper. As you do this, make a plan for how you will read through Scripture. Don’t just read random passages and jump around in the Bible or haphazardly show up to church when convenient. Rather, read through all of Scripture because all of Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for your spiritual growth.
If you’re looking for a Bible reading plan, I actually have the Navigator’s Bible reading plan that’s printed out on the back table on the next steps table, and you can take that with you as you leave. But whatever you do, make sure you have a plan and a time to do it each day so that you will have a routine of being in God’s word on a regular basis.
My third application for valuing God’s word is to meditate. Meditating on God’s word simply means not just thinking about it for five minutes of our day and then moving on. Meditating on God’s word is a means of allowing our souls to soak in what God’s word is telling us, to ponder why and how a verse fits in with the rest of Scripture and how it applies to us.
Meditating on Scripture helps us to not walk away after hearing God’s word and then immediately forget what we just heard. Some practical disciplines that you can do include journaling or taking notes as you read Scripture or listen to a sermon, praying through Scriptures as you read and reflect on what God is showing you when you’re reading it, and lastly, memorizing Scripture.
In college, I actually had a friend. Whenever I would see him, which was just random times that I was walking to and from campus, he would almost every time ask me, “Wes, what has God been showing you in the word recently?” Often when he would ask this, I struggled to remember what I had just read in my Bible that morning, other than the book of the Bible that I had been reading. Each time he asked me, it challenged me to put these disciplines into practice, and it helped me to remember and meditate on God’s word.
I don’t want to be the person in this text that hears God’s word and then immediately forgets as I walk away. We want to remember God’s word, and we do that by meditating on it.
My fourth application for you for valuing God’s word is to respond. Do not be the man or woman that looks in the mirror and forgets what they look like by not doing what the word says. That is meaningless, and you’re only deceiving yourself. Be a doer of God’s word. Make goals for how you’re going to apply what God reveals to you in His word, and tell others those goals so that they can hold you accountable and encourage you to keep them.
This leads me to my second application from this text, and that is to examine your life. James gives us multiple ways of thinking about people in this passage who are either practicing what they believe and doing what the word says, or they’re not. Which description best fits where you are right now? Are you quick to hear and slow to speak? Or are you quick to speak and slow to hear? Are you slow to anger? Or are you quick to anger? Are you a doer of the word who remembers it? Or are you just a hearer who forgets?
Are you religious without a bridle on your tongue and no acts of love for those around you, including the helpless? Or are you moving towards the helpless and those God has placed around you and whom God loves? Examine yourself in each of these ways that James gives us, and however you find yourself lining up with each of these exhortations, let it point you to Jesus, which is my last application for us in this passage.
Look to Jesus, who fulfilled every part of God’s perfect law. We as humans all fall short of God’s law and of being a doer of the word. We are all sinful, and we all fall short of doing that. But that is why Christ came. Jesus obeyed God’s word in every way and shows us what it means to live off of every word that comes from the mouth of God and then put it to action. Where we fall short, Jesus does not.
Jesus lived out His faith by being a doer of the word. Even when God’s word led Him to the cross, Jesus willingly poured out His blood and broke His body on the cross as a sacrifice to a holy God. So that where you and I fall short in keeping God’s word, we may find forgiveness for all who confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in their heart that God raised Him from the dead. Three days later, they will be saved.
This is the good news of the gospel that we have in Scripture, and that truth is available to you today if you will hear it and respond by faith. Jesus is the prime example of pure and undefiled religion before God the Father. Therefore, look to Jesus, knowing His sacrifice pays for your shortcomings and that He is the ultimate doer of the word, who by the power of the Holy Spirit, will help us to do the same until we meet Him face to face.
Let’s pray.
Lord, thank you for your word in James. God, I thank you that the work your Spirit does in our hearts when we believe in you doesn’t allow us just to remain the same, but rather you change us and you move us to really be like Christ and to be doers of the word and to love the helpless, the orphan, the widow, those that are in our community, our neighbors, our coworkers. God, you do this work within us.
I pray for everyone here, God, for those who have faith; help them to continue in good works and to pursue being a doer of the word and to be a good listener, one who is examining their life and seeking to apply what you have for them every single day. God, I pray for those who may be here who do not know you, that you would bring them to the understanding of knowing your love for them and placing their faith in you today.
Thank you for our time together. Thank you for your word, and be glorified through the rest of our time during the service. In Jesus’ name, we all pray. Amen.