Be doers of the word

James 1:17-26

Have you ever regretted something you said in the heat of an argument? I have gotten better over the years, but there are many moments I would like to have back, and many words I would like to revise.

In today’s text James writes:
let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;

In looking for an illustration of how not to obey this exhortation from James, I decided to read a section from Annie’s book. She submitted the manuscript on Friday and it will be published in September. So this is more than hot off the press – it is pre-press hot. The book is an allegory and talks about Peter and Celeste and their journey to the King’s City. In this section of the allegory, Peter and Celeste argue, which is visualized by a volcanic eruption.

Along the way, they passed another traveling family with six little travelers following in a neat line, not a speck of dirt to be seen on them.
“Celeste, did you see that family?” said Peter. “They’re proof it is possible to keep little travelers clean, if you would only take the time to wash them up.”
“I do my best,” said Celeste.
“Well obviously you could do better.”
“Why do you always criticize me, and in front of the little travelers too?” she said, raising her voice.
“Why can’t you take a little correction?”
When they reached the next camp site late that night, Celeste discovered she had left their best cooking pot at the cave.
“How could you have forgotten the pot? There weren’t any bushes for it to hide behind. It was a simple case of looking around to make sure you had everything. Are you that blind? Peter said, launching into a splendid tirade. “You have to care more about our supplies—I’m not sure we are going to be able to find another one like it.”
Celeste lashed back at Peter.  “There you go again,” she shouted. “Why do you always blame me and say it’s my fault?”
“Because it is,” Peter said, seethingly calm. “I’m not the one dancing up and down like a mad bee. I can control myself.”
“OOOOh” said Celeste, with sparks coming out of her eyes. “You march on ahead, you refuse to spend any time with me, you won’t discuss anything, and then at the end, you say it is my problem?”
“As a matter of fact, yes.   I am beginning to think that my mother was right all along. She warned me I was making a mistake because you would always be hot-tempered and emotional,” Peter said.
“Well, then why don’t you go back to your mother?”
“I would like to, but I can’t. I made a vow,” Peter said with his teeth clenched.
“A vow? You mean a vow to be insensitive to your wife? Or  a vow to appear righteous on the outside but inside be full of hate?”
They were so caught up in their argument that they didn’t hear the earth grinding under their feet, or the big groan as it slowly pulled apart. In the distance, a few trees in the forest crashed to the ground.
“If you would just work a little harder to keep the travelers clean,” Peter yelled at Celeste, “everything would be fine.”
“It’s fine for you to stand there like you are some saint, but you aren’t.  You say you love the King, but you are the most self-absorbed person I have ever met. Even my father cares more for people when he’s drunk than you do when you’re stone cold sober.” Celeste shrieked.
“You really must control yourself,” Peter said, as angry steam began to rise from the ground.
“CONTROL MYSELF???”  Celeste shouted at the top of her lungs.
“Yes, like I do.”
“I would never, ever want to be like you. You’re inhuman. You can’t feel ANYTHING!”
At that moment, a volcano erupted into the night sky ahead of them and a bright orange plume of molten lava shot up in front of them, spewing out fiery sparks. “This is great, just like fireworks,” one of the little travelers said, jumping up and down. But Celeste and Peter went on fighting.
“Just admit that you’re wrong. Why don’t you just say it, ‘I’m sorry I forgot the pot.’?” I’d love to hear you say that. Could you? Could you say that, Celeste?”
Somewhere in the forest, a clump of lava fell on a patch of dried pine needles and instantly there was a raging fire devouring everything in its path. Meanwhile, the flaming lava continued to spout out of the earth. Billows of smoke filled the air and the little travelers began to break out into violent coughing fits, but neither Peter or Celeste noticed that.
“Not until you apologize for the way you ignored us all day yesterday and half of today.”
“You deliberately went slow so you would have something to complain about.”
“How dare you say that.”
A wave of red hot lava that had bubbled over the side of the volcano surged across the forest towards the family. Celeste suddenly realized they were in danger. She quickly put on her pack, grabbed the three little travelers by the hand, and started to run away. “I will never, NEVER, I mean NEVER speak to that man again. He is a beast, he is a monster, he doesn’t care about me, and he never has,” she fumed.
“What man?” asked one of the little travelers , who looked behind in fear, to see if a monster was following them.
“Never mind,” said Celeste.

If you ask how much of what Annie has written about marriage is autobiographical, the answer is that while Peter and Celeste are not identical to us, there are some striking similarities. In our marriage, I have not always been quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry. In fact, I am not a good listener.

Listeners are quite rare, although there is a desperate thirst for good listeners. You can try this, sit down with someone and determine that you are not going to offer any of your own opinions. Don’t give advice. Don’t tell your own similar story. Say nothing except to ask clarifying questions and give responses that let the person know you are listening. Do you know what will happen? Even the quietest person will talk and talk and talk. We want to be heard.

The problem we have in relationships is that we don’t listen and we are frustrated that we are not heard. It is like the person who complained: “Some people are terrible communicators, they won’t listen to any of my opinions.”

In the Marriage Course Annie and I sponsor, we learn some communication techniques that help us to talk about emotionally charged issues without erupting into anger, and those techniques are not much more complex than what James suggests: be quick to listen and slow to speak. I have been amazed that when Annie and I have used the Marriage Course techniques, issues have been resolved that I was certain would lead nowhere. And the most important part of it all is making sure the other person knows you have listened. When we know we have been heard, we know we matter and then it is no longer so important that the decision go our way.

Married couples have difficulty communicating and need to learn, even after years of marriage, how to communicate more effectively. But poor communication is not limited to married couples. I saw a video on Youtube with over 6,800,000 hits that shows an argument between a pastor in the US and members of his congregation. The church leaders were so frustrated with their pastor that while he was away, they changed the locks on the church doors. When the pastor returned he was met by some of the church leaders on the church steps and an argument broke out. A woman slapped him on the face and the pastor responded by punching her in the face. (Now you know why this has had almost 7,000,000 hits. What a great witness for the church.)

We don’t know what kind of arguments the Jewish followers of Jesus were having that made James have wisdom and speech as a major theme in his letter, but we know there must have been arguments and fights. And the arguments and fights were substantial ones, enough to make James focus on how to restrain the tongue and resolve differences without becoming angry.

James tells us:
Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

The problem is that anger gets in the way of listening and anger works against our becoming more like Jesus. Anger insists on me having my way, me being declared to be right, me, me, me, me.

But to deal with anger you have to get at the roots. In the dialogue with Peter and Celeste, Peter and Celeste were already feeling hurt and frustrated before the argument that started with Peter pointing out how clean the six children of the other family were. The tensions between them were hot enough that it did not take much to set them off. A counselor meeting with Peter and Celeste would have them share the hurts and disappointments that led to the tension, using the argument itself only as an illustration that there was a problem to be dealt with.

So James tells us:
21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

There are two parts to getting rid of the anger that destroys good relationships. First we put away and then we receive. Put away carries the image of taking off clothing and James wants us to replace the rags of our sin with new clothing that comes from receiving the word that has been planted in us.

When Celeste became a follower of Jesus, she exchanged her ragged clothing for a new white cloak that was given to her. She was given the righteousness of Jesus to cover her sinful life. This is what also happened to us when we surrendered to Jesus, but salvation is a continual process and we need to continually take off the rags of our sin and become more pure. This means we have to resist temptation and we have turn around and repent when we have failed to resist.

James tells us to put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and then to receive the implanted word. The implanted word which is able to save our souls is the word Jeremiah prophesied about. (Jeremiah 31:33)
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Peter had received the righteousness of Jesus but he had two problems, he was not pure and he neglected the word that was in him. Last week I talked about resisting the temptation of pornography and that was one of Peter’s problems. He was not able to resist looking at the pictures he carried with him and he was not able to resist the urge to insist on his own rights. He was not able to care for Celeste because he was too busy taking care of himself. Peter was spending more time looking at his pornographic pictures than he was reading the Bible.

Celeste too had her problems. She carried with her postcards of her romantic fantasies that Peter would never be able to live up to. Her dissatisfaction with Peter and her inability to see things from his perspective made her resentful and angry.

All of this festered in their souls so they were unable to love each other as God intended when they first made their wedding vows. They no longer were thinking of how to make each other happy. They were protecting themselves from being abused and taken for granted by each other.

When we live unexamined lives and our pride and envy and lust is unrestrained, we are unable or not interested in putting off our sin and not serious about receiving the word that was planted in us. We spend more time absorbed in the things that tempt us than in the Bible – and then wonder why we are so frustrated and unsatisfied.

21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

How can we receive with meekness the implanted word? James continues with probably the best known verse in his letter.
22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

Imagine that you are a student at the university and are playing on one of the intramural football teams. This is easy for some of you to imagine since you do play for one of those teams. Now imagine that the coach of your national football team comes to coach your team here in Rabat. He works with you and gives you tips. He helps you with strategy and then when the game comes, you completely ignore what he taught and play the way you always have played. That would be foolish.

I am beginning my work to get a Moroccan driver’s license. I will go to the school and sit at the computer, going through the practice tests until they think I am ready to take the real test. And then I will sit in their car and have my driving test. What good would it do to read the book and practice the test but when I get in the car, not do the things the book says I should do? I will fail the test and not get my license.

James tells us it doesn’t do any good to simply read the Bible. If we do not put into practice what we read, then we have wasted our time.

Think about the effort God has made to give us a Bible to read. First of all, he had to work with imperfect people to get them to write something he could use, not simply for that generation but for all the generations to come. Then he had to work with the early church as councils met to determine what books would be included in the Bible. And then he had to make people aware of the need to translate the Bible into new languages.

Think about the effort God made to get you to want to read the Bible. He pursued you when you were not really interested or when you may have been antagonistic. He pursued you and made you thirsty so you wanted the living water he promises.

And more than all of this, think about the sacrifice God made, becoming human and then dying on the cross – for you.

So finally you have a Bible in your hand and you want to read it, what then? Do you read a few verses without really paying attention to what you read and then put it down so you can get on with your day?

You can hear some of the frustration of Jesus when he said to those who came to hear him at the Sermon on the Mount. (Luke 6:46–49)
“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?

Can you hear God asking you that this morning?

I recently read a book by Phillip Jenkins: The Changing Face of Christianity. In this book Jenkins talks about how the center of Christianity (equal numbers of Christians north and south, east and west) is now moving south and east with the center of the church near Timbuktu in Mali. As Jenkins discusses Christianity in Africa and Asia, he talks about how the Bible is viewed in these parts of the world.

There is a Zulu song that says, “Satan has no power / we will clobber him with a verse.” The Bible is viewed with so much power that it can become superstitious or almost magical.

In Kenya some prophets and prophetesses will not only pray for a patient but will place the Bible on the patient for healing. In India a visiting teacher was told to pray for a sick woman and to place the Bible on her head while he prayed. In West Papua in Indonesia, a woman explained that from her first to her fifth child she puts a Bible next to their heads when they sleep so God will protect them. In Nigeria a study was made and discovered that “the Bible is used to ward off evil spirits, witchcraft and sorcery, it is placed under the pillow at night to ensure God’s protection against the devil, it is put in handbags and cars when traveling to ensure a safe journey, it is used in swearing to bring God’s wrath upon culprits. “

In the West there are popular apocryphal stories of a man going to war and carrying a Bible his mother gave him in his breast pocket. He was hit by a bullet but not killed because the bullet did not penetrate the Bible.

Woody Allen, an American comedian parodied this story.
“Years ago, my mother gave me a bullet…a bullet, and I put it in my breast pocket. Two years after that, I was walking down the street, when a berserk evangelist heaved a Gideon Bible out of a hotel room window, hitting me in the chest. The Bible would have gone through my heart if it wasn’t for the bullet!”

The Bible is not a talisman. The Bible does not have magical power all by itself. The Bible is just a book. It is paper and ink and nothing more. A Bible in your hand will do nothing for you until you open it. The power of the Bible comes when we read it and obey what it says.

22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 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. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25 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.

James uses the image of two different mirrors to show the difference between hearing the word and being a doer of the word.

British researchers reported in 2010 that the average woman in Britain spends five years of her life looking in a mirror. That is 120 hours a year, almost 20 minutes a day. I don’t want to be sexist here, but I think most men do not spend as much time as women in front of a mirror. It is not that we are less vain, but society does not judge us by our beauty as much as it does women.

What do you do when you look in a mirror? We are much more critical of ourselves when we see our image than when others see us. When we look in a mirror we see the part of our face we do not like. Even those who are judged by the world to be the most beautiful look in a mirror at a nose they wish was smaller or a dimple they wish wasn’t there.

But no matter how intently we stare at every detail in our face, when we turn away, the image disappears.

James uses this mirror to talk about the futility of reading the Bible but not meditating on what we read or letting what we read change our behavior. We read the passage for the morning, close the Bible and forget all about what we read.

And then he contrasts a superficial view of ourselves in a mirror to the more profound look at ourselves that comes when we read the Bible and allow what we read to reveal who we are at a deeper level.

The writer of Hebrews wrote: (Hebrews 4:12–13)
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

When we read the Bible, study what it has to say, and seek how it applies to our lives, we are putting ourselves on the operating table. And the more intently you study the Bible and the more purposively you apply what you read to your life, the more intensive the operations become. As you go on in life you may eventually find yourself doing open-heart surgery.

Is that scary? It would be if it happened at the beginning of our walk with Jesus. But when God knows we feel loved enough by him, then he allows us the privilege of seeing a more true picture of ourselves so we can remove more of the ragged filthiness of our lives and receive more of his implanted word. These deep insights into ourselves are a gift from God that help us to more thoroughly clean out the messy spots in our lives.

I’m running out of time but let me say quickly that James ends this section by talking about worthless religion and true religion. If we fail to be doers of the word and do not restrain our tongue, our religion is worthless. But,
27 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.

When we put into practice what we read, we will find ourselves caring for those who are not able to care for themselves. We will be compassionate toward others, not seeking that our own needs get met above all else. We will repent when we have sinned and resist the temptations that come to us.

I want to finish this morning by introducing you to the insert in your bulletin. You can take this and put it in your Bible to help remind you about how to read your Bible and become a doer of the word.

Remember when you read the Bible you have two goals:
A. to have a good understanding of what the text is saying,
B. to have the Holy Spirit show you how to align your life with what it says.

And here is how to do that.

1. Observation: What does it say?
It might help to write out the text on paper. Or possibly type it out. But do not cut and paste. The point is to help you focus on each word.

2. Interpretation: What does it mean?
What was the situation the text is coming from? Was it Mark wanting to preserve the teaching of Jesus Peter shared? Was it Paul responding to a letter from the church in Corinth? Was it the writer of Hebrews writing to Jews who had discovered Jesus was the Messiah but now because of persecution wanted to know if they could go back to being Jews?

How does what is written relate to the theme of the book?

It is helpful to look at the notes in a Study Bible or look at a commentary. Many times a Study Bible has an introduction to the book of the Bible.

These first two steps are what we are covering in the Adult Sunday School class where Gordon Fee is talking from his book, How to Read the Bible for All It’s Worth. But now we get to the third step which is where you become a doer of the word.

3. Application: How does it apply?
Here is where the rubber hits the road. This is where you become a doer of the word. When you know what the text says and what it means, the question is how this is going to affect your life. What will you do differently because of what you have read?

Then on the sheet there are a number of questions to ask for each of these three steps.

There are is also in the bulletin five questions Tim Keller says we should ask when we read the Bible.

These are tools to help you become a doer of the word.

Last week I talked about the temptation of pornography. If you are struggling with that temptation and did not do anything about it this week, you are not a doer of the word and it is difficult to see how you could expect the blessing of God in your life when you refuse to take seriously his desire that you clean up the mess in your life.

If you were convicted by God in any other way and did nothing this week to change your behavior, why are you surprised you don’t have more peace?

I like the NESV translation of James 1:25
But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing.

Be a doer who acts and be blessed in your doing.