I listen to God’s word like a couch potato. (Do potatoes listen?) Well, I don’t always listen that way. But too often I listen without a mind to do it. Which is what James warns against . . .
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says . [For] Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like (James 1:22-24).
Hard words. Especially given the occasion. James’ Jewish Christian readers have been dispersed among the nations. Some driven from their homes by persecutors. Some living in foreign lands. Many, I think, simply seeking solitude in their homes repeating life-saving Gospel to themselves. But, James warns, hearing alone is self-deceptive. “Do what it says.” (The Greek verb tense implies “Keep giving yourself to do what it says.”) An ongoing way of life, not merely an occasional obedience.
If we listen without doing the word our pastor preaches, we deceive ourselves. Why is listening-without-doing self-deceptive? James explains it’s like a quick look in the mirror, then forgetting what you look like. I’m always far more handsome in my mind than in my mirror. In the same way, James explains, if we don’t do the word we hear, we presume we’ve got it.
For example: “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of many kinds . . . ” (1:2). If I hear my pastor preach it, but don’t “chew” it over in my mind and start practicing it, I’ll forget it. The word won’t affect my attitude or action. And, instead of revealing Jesus-in-me, I’ll show others my sin-nature.
But 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 (James 1:25).
Contrasted with the mere hearer is “the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this . . . ” No cursory look, an intent one. The Greek is parakupto. Luke uses it of Peter, who “rose and ran to [Jesus’] tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths . . . ” (Luke 24:12). An investigative study longing to see his Lord. Nor does the intent-looker forget because he starts to put into practice the word heard.
Now: what is this “perfect law that gives freedom” (literally, “the perfect law of liberty”)? It’s the Law of Moses—the only law these Jewish Christians know. The mention of “law” demands comment, since we’ve learned from Galatians that “by works of the law no one will be justified” (Galatians 2:16).
Comment #1: God’s moral law (not ceremonial or dietary) remains in place. Murder and adultery are transgressions. No other gods before God remains the rule.
Comment #2: Jesus fulfilled God’s Law. (“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:27). Therefore, he is the believer’s righteousness before God—one reason James calls this “the law of liberty.”
Comment #3: The righteous requirement of the law is being fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit (Romans 8:4). The Spirit enables us to progressively “walk” (like little children) in God’s good, perfect and righteous law—a second reason why God’s law now gives freedom.
Comment #4 The one who does God’s law is promised heavenly happiness. ” . . . he will be blessed in what he does.”
James sums up this section of his letter by driving home applications about what he’s urged . . .
If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. Religion 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 (1:26,27).
To James (and thus to our Lord) words are consequential. Therefore, our tongue (!) plays a far-reaching role, even (especially) in our culture where words are “cheap” because indiscriminately, often thoughtlessly, spouted. Tight-reign the tongue!
Suppose, dear Jewish Christian reader, you are scrupulous about keeping the Sabbath holy and avoiding meat sacrificed to idols, but your unreigned tongue curses your neighbor? All your scrupulous devotion to your religion is worth nothing!
Furthermore, dear Jewish Christian, pure and undefiled religion in God’s eyes is what you may not consider “religion” at all: caring for orphans and widows in their troubles and keeping yourself unstained from this fallen world. In your dispersion and persecution many opportunities will arise for you to offer this care. So will the danger of your becoming friends with this world (see James 4:4) and, thus, morally polluted by its corrupted ways.
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Far-removed from us is all this, no? No! How prone we are to hear God’s word with no mind to do it! How ignorant of God’s word we are, not because we don’t hear sermons and read Bibles, but because our default position is to gather biblical information instead of pursuing biblical obedience. The heavenly happiness that comes from doing what God says is too often absent from our lives, while we pursue happiness in wealth and possessions. And, finally, perhaps we should fear near-perfect Sunday worship performances in favor of caring for the needy while staying free from the world’s moral pollution.
Help us, O God, to be better doers of your word
and not hearers only.
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