An Unexpected Turn of Events

By: Joshua T. Aitkenhead

James 1:19-27.

¹⁹My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, ²⁰for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. ²¹Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.

²²Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. ²³Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror ²⁴and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. ²⁵But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.

²⁶If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. ²⁷Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Praise be to God for the reading of His holy word and may His name be praised, and all God’s people said, AMEN! Now may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be fixed on You, our Father. You alone can teach us how to walk in Your ways. Amen.

We are now past the introduction to James and are heading into the points of morality. Here is where we will see how we should act as Christians in this society.

Sometimes, Life just throws you a curveball, and you just have to accept it. Growing up, I loved writing. More than that, I loved imagining different things. I had a wild imagination and to some extent, I still do. So it was natural for me to want to become an author. My dad thought differently. In high school, I did drama, and I loved it. I wasn’t too bad either. When my dad saw me act, he thought he would like to see me become an actor. Both me being an author and me being an actor were things God did not want to see happen. God saw me, and He saw my imagination, and thought that could be used for writing sermons instead of books. He saw my abilities on the stage, and thought that it would be better for me to preach His word. What we have lined up, and what God wants from us are sometimes two different things.

We have now reached the start of the morality teachings in James. What he has to say in the following chapters may be a bit unexpected due to some of the things Paul has taught, but we must remember that the whole Bible works together and does not contradict itself anywhere. We will be asked to reconcile this issue at a few points in the coming future.

How do you act around your friends? Let’s say a friend does something to you that you do not like, how would you react? Do you get angry? I believe that it is ok to be angry every once in a while. It is an emotion that God gave us, and our emotions are there to tell us something about our environment. Anger comes about to let us know that we do not like our present circumstances. So it in itself is not a bad thing. Even Jesus gets angry as you can read in John chapter 2. He drives out people from the temple for making the temple a place of evil. So why is it, that James tells us not to be angry? Shouldn’t we be allowed to express our anger? It is something given to us by God, so shouldn’t it be good in all situations? No, it should not. James here is not talking about righteous anger, like the anger Jesus had when He drove out the people from the temple, he is talking about an unrighteous anger. James says that people should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger. Now quick to listen and slow to speak is the key to this verse. He is basically saying that we need to know the situation before reacting to it. If we don’t know the situation, then what good will it do when we are caught up in anger? We become very reactionary when anger hits, that is to say, we react to everything. We don’t think straight. James just wants us to look before we leap. We don’t want to misuse any gift God’s given us. How many times in anger have you hurt someone’s feelings? How many times have you yelled at someone in anger, when it wasn’t really something they could control? By now, everyone should know about the Christian Bale rant. On the set of Terminator Salvation, Christian Bale let loose all his anger on a poor stagehand. Bale says some really harsh things to this poor man, that he can never take back. I know there are plenty of times from my childhood where out of anger, I yelled some things at my parents that I could not take back. Being angry, though, is a hard thing to keep track of. It happens in the moment and then it’s done. It’s not something that we really predict, so how do we remedy this? Well James gives this piece of advice. He says that we need to humbly accept the Word implanted in us. First off, James mentions the word ‘humbly’, as in, we need to be humble. This implies that our anger is coming out of a place of pride. Is our desire to be right so overwhelming that it overshadows what God wants for us? The next part of this deals with the word implanted in us. Now, the word being used here, plant, can imply two things: The first is that it implies that we have already received the word, it is already there. The second is that the word is added to us. In this verse, both are true. The word of God is something we receive when we become Christians, but it is also something we receive during our walk with God.

I told you all two weeks ago, that we need to go through trials so we can endure which will make us perfect. As Christians, we do not start out perfect, we will get there eventually when we get to heaven, but we do not start out that way. But there is a change in our behavior (or at least there should be) when we receive Christ as our savior. In short, We are saved, we are being saved, and in heaven we will be saved. Salvation is a continuous work in us by the Holy Spirit. It’s like this. God has given you each a seed when you accepted Christ. That seed changes you. As you grow closer and closer to Him, the seed grows more and more and as it grows, we become better and better. Eventually, when you meet up with Christ, that plant blooms into the perfect flower and you become a perfect being. James wants us to know this as we deal with our anger. Maybe it’s so that when we sin in our anger, we can at least have the comfort to know we are a work in progress. Maybe it’s to show that we need to back down from some battles and think things out fully before reacting, and remember how Christ would want us to act. Regardless, when James talks about anger, he wants us to be careful with it.

James then moves onto talk a little bit more about the word. He says that we need to become doers of the word, and not merely hearers. This means just what it says: we should read the word of God and actually listen to what it says. As an example, James gives a mirror and looking into it. The mirror shows us what we look like, what we need to improve, and what we are already doing that is good. That is what the word of God also does. But the thing about a mirror, is that the image only lasts a minute. As soon as you walk away from the mirror, you are free to forget what you look like. If you are too skinny, or too heavy when you step away from the mirror, then you can forget all about it. So this is what I want to tell you all right now, don’t have a mirror faith, instead have a picture faith. A picture lasts forever. You take it, and you can keep it as a record of how you looked when that picture was taken. Not only that, but you can also take more pictures as you get closer and closer to God, so you don’t always focus on the same thing. In the same way, we should always be looking into the word of God to understand what we look like.

This brings us to some dangerous territory. You see, Paul speaks out against the Law saying that we should rely on faith instead, and James seems to be saying that we need to concentrate on the Law. So who is right? Well, both are. Just doing good deeds won’t get us to heaven, but if we don’t practice our faith and change the problems in our life, then what good is our faith? You see, Paul did not call the Law useless, but he did say it was no longer needed as a way to salvation, and he’s right, it is no longer needed for salvation. We get our salvation through God and God alone. But Paul also says that the Law serves now as a tutor for us. The fact is, all of Christ’s teaching came from the Law of Moses. It was Christ who said that not a single iota would be removed from the Law. So then, how do we reconcile this? Well, I came across a cool quote that I would like to share, “Jesus did not come to overturn the Law of Moses; rather He pierced to the heart of its intention, and in so doing elevated the law”. What this means, is that Christ took the law, and made it more important by telling everyone what the Law meant when it said anything about any given topic.

For example, in Matthew 5:21 and onward it says: ²¹"You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' ²²But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca,' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell.

This is where James probably got his lesson on anger. He probably was listening closely to what Christ had to say about it. Christ talks here about the true intent of the Law, and He says that those angry with their brother is guilty of murder. That is why we need to get this anger out of us and reconcile the issue with our brother. This is why James says to be quick to listen and slow to speak. He does not want us to be guilty of murder! Christ took the law about murder, and brought out what it really meant and when the real meaning came out, the law for murdering seemed like a slap on the wrist. Forget about murder, if you even are a little bit angry with your brother you’ve committed murder!

Well, the last part of this verse talks about two things: a worthless religion and a pure religion. Here James calls a worthless religion something that belongs to someone who doesn’t bridle their tongue. A bridle is the thing in a horse’s mouth that directs it where to go. Basically, James is asking us to make sure we direct where our words are going carefully. We cannot just speak about anything and everything, we need to consider the things we say, kind of like thinking before we act, you know, being quick to listen and slow to speak! Later on in James, there will be a whole section about the tongue that I will preach on, but for now, know this: James calls our religion useless if we do not watch what we say. So what is the opposite of our useless religion? A pure one! This is what James says about a pure religion. It is to help those in need. Orphans and widows normally come up when someone talks about the needy. In those days, widows did not get a lot of money, and orphans had no one to take care of them. Nowadays, orphans are still poor, but widows seem to do alright due to life insurance, but it wasn’t always like that. James here is saying that our religion, in order for it to be any good, needs to be a religion of taking care of people. The last couple of sermons I preached, I mentioned community, but those versus did not come right out and announce how community was important like this verse did. I do a ministry on Friday nights at a Para-church organization called, “The Jesus Loves You Society”. The ministry looks after single moms and their families. I do the youth group stuff. Let me tell you, this is a rough ministry. For those of you who are squeamish, please, cover your ears. These kids have it tough. One kid told me about his dad who threatened to slit his wife’s throat while the son was in the room. Can you imagine that? I have seen my dad get upset with me, or my mom, or one of my sisters, but never did he say anything like that. These kids have had it tough. Now the interesting thing is, that working in this ministry helped a lot when I was not in a Church. Caring for these people helped me realize more about God. We sometimes say Christianity is not a religion, it’s a relationship, but I never knew how it could be a relationship, until I began to be a part of this ministry. You see, God has a special heart for the poor. They get it. They know that everything they get is a blessing. The reason we need to take care of the widow’s and the orphans? It’s because we need to also realize everything we get is a blessing from God. It’s also so we can be that blessing to other people.

So, now I’m going to try and sum this all up. God wants us to think rationally before getting angry, because He doesn’t want us to go against His word which He planted in us. This word is both a gift that he’s given at salvation, and is a gift He gives continuously through our walk, and a gift we get when we become perfect, like a plant given to us as a seed, that grows while we walk with Christ, and the flowers and blooms when we enter heaven. We need to be listening to the word of God that was planted in us. We can’t just have mirror faith that disappears once we leave the room. We need camera faith that preserves our picture, and we can go back to it at any time to see how we can improve ourselves. The law that we look at works with what Christ has taught us. Not only that, but the law is not rendered useless now that we’ve got faith, it is actually made more important. Chris gets at the heart of what the Law means and how we should follow it.

The last thing was how we need to keep a bridle on our tongue. We need to make sure we watch what we say and who we say it to. We need to look after the orphans and the widows and make sure they are ok. That is what it means to be a real Christian.

So what does all this mean when it is strung together? Well, what I think James is asking us here, is to not be hypocrites. Think about it, we talk about loving one another, but when we get angry, our true nature comes out. If we are bad mouthing every person left right and center, what right do we have to speak about the peace of Christ? None.

Think about the plant illustration I gave. If that plant remains just a seed, if that seed does not grow at all, then what right do we have to expect change in other people? None.

If we aren’t looking to the Bible to change what’s wrong with us, if we are not willing to take a picture of us, examine it, and work out our issues, then what right do we have to tell people to read their Bibles? None.

If we are don’t watch what we say, and instead throw around garbage language, what right do we have to pray for someone using the filthy mouths we cursed with two seconds ago? None.

If we are not taking care of widows and orphans, or anyone else who is down and out, if we are not willing to bless others and to show others love that God showed us, what right do we have to tell other people that God will look after them and bless them and show them love? None.

Now I know this is hard to hear sometimes. I also know this is something that I dealt with a lot when I was a new Christian. Hypocrisy kills. We cannot just stand idly by and watch our world go to hell, but the only way we will reach our generation is if we be the miracle to them. I know that’s a cheesy line from a move, but it is the truth, we need to be the miracle! All of this sermon points to one simple truth: we still need to follow the Law because the Law shows us how to act as human beings. Friends, the Law can be summed up like this: To love the Lord your God, with all your heart, and all your strength and all your mind, and to love your neighbor as you would yourself! That means we have to can our anger and save it for when it really matters. That means we have to nurture that plant inside us that will bring us to perfection. That means we have to do what the Word commands of us, no matter how hard it might be. It means we have to tame our tongue and look after those less fortunate than us!

Friends, I do not say these things to bring you down, but to encourage you, because I do see these things happening. So far, I have not seen any of you get that angry over anything. When I did the alter call, I called on the worship band last minute and I called on the people who prayed last minute and no one got angry at me. I see people growing and changing as that word planted takes root. I see people taming their tongue, and also looking after the less fortunate (actually I have a sun burn to prove we look after the less fortunate)! This sermon is to encourage you all to continue pursing God with all of your might, and to love each and every person you come across, not as an obligation, but as something you want as well!