Most people in America would identify themselves as Christian, but when it comes to how their beliefs about God have affected their daily lives, it becomes very apparent that their Christianity is name only and many individuals think this is completely okay according to God's Word. James has to say something about this mindset that is so prevalent in our day and was beginning to play a part the churches to which he ministered. James writes,
"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. 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 the 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 this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world."
James starts off by acknowledging that our public church community behavior should be a response to the breathtaking news of the gospel that we have all individually received. Essentially, James says, if you have received God's Word at salvation and your entire life has been transformed, it should also transform the way you interact with others. Receiving God's Word at justification is acknowledged by responding to God's Word in sanctification. When James gets onto these believers about anger, he is talking about quick-tempered flares of wrath. Jesus was angry on several occasions in the gospels, but it was a righteous anger; James is not talking about that kind of anger, but the kind that boils over and blows up when we are not treated the way we feel we deserve. The righteous life that God desires from us is not displayed in these sudden outbursts of anger, and so James calls Christians to put those things away. James is not saying that we are saved by putting away wrath and selfishness, for that goes against his point altogether. He is rather stating what is elsewhere acknowledged in Scripture: because Christians have received the gospel and been "brought forth by the word of truth" by God's own will (1:18), they have the Spirit's power to live in response to God's Word by putting to death their sins (Rom. 8:13, Eph. 4:22-24, Col. 3:5).
Why does James say we should receive this word that is implanted in us? How can you receive something you already have? He is telling them that the same word of truth that they received and obeyed when they were converted should also be received and obeyed continually. So the Christian life is one of constantly reminding ourselves what God has done for us in Christ and living in light of that amazing gospel news. Tullian Tchividjian states it perfectly in his recent book, Jesus + Nothing = Everything when he writes, "Our greatest need is to look at Christ more than we look at ourselves, because the gospel is not our work for Jesus, but Jesus's work for us."
James gives us a comical illustration to describe what we're like when we don't respond in obedience to the word we've received at conversion. Picture a lady crawling out of bed with the worst hair day ever. As she goes to get ready and looks into the mirror, she looks as though she were doing a very intense observation of herself and being fully aware of all the changes that need to be made. Now after about five minutes of examining herself closely in this mirror, she walks out the door headed for work without adjusting a thing. She may not have noticed, but you can just imagine the response her co-workers and boss gave when they saw her walk in…snickers, whispers, and finger-pointing because of how ridiculous she looks. Have you been this woman? When you let the mirror of God's Word reveal all the blemishes and bumps of sin in your life, do you walk away without making adjustments?
James ends his thought by calling us as believers to live as a redeemed people in a fallen and sin-cursed world. Living as redeemed sinners in a fallen world means helping those who are hurting, living out "the calling with which we've been called", and refusing to indulge ourselves with this world's temporary pleasures. We don't live with our nose stuck up in the air, but as hard working and disciplined servants of God in a broken and messed up world. We live as people who have been given the greatest of all gifts in Jesus and are not content until they let it show. Doers of the word because the Word Himself has done for us the work of salvation by taking our sins on the cross and rising again victorious from the grave. Responding to such gospel news comes naturally once we have truly received it.
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