Vol. 11 — No. 20 May 17, 1970
James 1:22-27
But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straight way forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
In Christ Jesus, whose Word is the Bread of Life, Fellow Redeemed:
The epistle of St, James can be summarized In one word: “Repent!” That word always calls for a double turning—a turning away from sin and a turning towards the Savior from sin. The prophets of the Old Testament, John the Baptist on the threshold of the New Testament, Jesus—the Prophet of Galilee, and His apostles after Him all proclaimed that same message: “Repent!” Man who is estranged and alienated from his God is to return to his God. The slave of sin is to turn to the only Liberator from sin that there is, our Lord Jesus Christ. “Repent!” “Turn ye!” This Is the cry heard in the world ever since Satan deceived Eve. This Is the cry that sounds forth from this letter of St. James.
“Turn ye!” In the section before us James was addressing himself to an ancient, almost national sin of Israel—the cleavage between profession and practice. They confessed in word, but not in deed. They heard, but they didn’t do according to that which they heard. This is the sin that the Lord so vehemently exposed and condemned in the 23rd chapter of Matthew. He spoke of the scribes and Pharisees who sat in Moses’ seat. They were the teachers of the people, the spiritual leaders. What was their great fault? “They say, and do not!” They could expound and keep on expounding the law, dividing and sub-dividing, analyzing and examining this situation and that case, but they never quite got around to translating all their teaching into action in their own lives. Jesus told the multitudes and His disciples, “All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.” (Matt. 23:3) Follow their teaching, but don’t follow their examples because they don’t do what they tell you to do.
This same evil of teaching and hearing, but not doing and living according to the Word was creeping back into the Christian Jewish congregation at Jerusalem and the surrounding areas. When one reads the first chapters of Acts, one can still be refreshed by the warmth of that first love that filled their hearts. There was a spontaneous devotion to the Word. There was a loving concern for those in need. There was that beautiful agape—that self-sacrificing, living-for-others love that freely expended itself in the services of others. But in time things changed. The church became poor and persecuted. The members became tired and oppressed. They were losing their first love. They were still hearing, still listening, but they weren’t being moved. A chasm was developing between their hearing and their doing. James was their spiritual physician. He diagnosed their ailment, and he applied the cure: “Turn ye. Repent!” His entire letter is a series of “Turn ye’s!” In the section of our text he cries out:
“But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” One who imagines that hearing the Word is sufficient without ever translating that hearing into corresponding action in his life is deceiving himself. More literally, he is cheating himself by false reasoning. He reasons that his God wants him to hear His Word, not to forsake the assembling together for public worship, to have the Word of God dwell in him richly. Such a person is so right! God does want all of us to do all these things. But the trouble with us is that we tend to think that once we have done these things—heard the Word, come to Worship Service, listened to the Sunday School instruction—that then we have it made. Then God surely can expect nothing more of us. He surely should be satisfied with us. Such reasoning is false reasoning. Reasoning in that way is cheating oneself, deceiving oneself, for God nowhere says that just hearing His Word, letting it bounce against one’s eardrums, exposing oneself to instruction is sufficient. No, no, no! Turn ye from that way of thinking, for it is self-deception!
But more! It is even a little retarded. That’s the best way that I can think of to describe James’ example. He wrote: “For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.” Now we all look into a mirror. We did that this morning when we were preparing to come here to the House of God. That’s been more than an hour ago. Have you forgotten what you look like? If you look in the mirror again when you get home, will you recognize yourself or will you say to your reflection in the mirror: “Who’s that?” It sounds a little stupid, a trifle retarded even to put it that way. But James used such a way-out example to demonstrate how retarded, how just plain stupid such thinking is on the part of Christians—if and when they imagine that just hearing the Word of the Lord is sufficient without that Word having taken root and having become a motivating force in one’s life. Because people were thinking that way and because we can easily get to think that way James cried out: Turn ye! Be Word-Doers, not only Word-Hearers!
“But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed, or doing.” James had used the example of looking into a mirror. He continues by speaking of looking into the perfect law of liberty. What’s that? It’s a synonymous variation for other expressions that James has already used in his letter. He had spoken of “the word of truth” by which the Father of lights begets us to be the firstfruits of His creatures. He had spoken of the “engrafted Word, which is able to save your souls.” He continued by speaking of “the perfect law of liberty.” The Word of Truth, the Engrafted Word, is the Perfect Law of Liberty—simply the Word of God in all its fulness that truly liberates a person from the chains of sin and the tyranny of Satan so that he is free to serve his God and his fellowman. But James urges us to do more than look into “the perfect law of liberty.” We are to “continue” in it and be not “a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work,” Only such a person will be blessed.
If you but recall our Lord’s parable of the final judgment, the meaning of James become clear immediately. Faith in Jesus Christ alone saves, but such a faith lies within the recesses of one’s heart. It can’t be seen either with the natural eye or with an X-ray machine or in any other way. We can’t pull our faith out of our hearts and put it on display to prove that we are the blessed of God. That is why Jesus used the fruits of that faith as evidence of faith in the parable of the final judgment. Faith alone saves, but that faith is never alone. It is constantly producing its own witnesses, the fruits of that faith, the hearing of the Word that has been converted, into doing the Word. If the Word that you hear in the Sunday School instruction and from this pulpit moves you into becoming a doer of that Word, then you are, indeed, blessed. If not, let me tell you now as a warning—that: you will be in for a rude surprise when you stand before the Judge of all flesh.
To be a Word-Doer is to be blessed and to remain blessed by keeping unspotted from the world. James defines “pure rligion and undefiled” as keeping oneself unspotted from the world. In brief Word-Doing and dirtying one’s skirts with the world are incompatible. There are those who give the appearance of being Word-Doers. They are very active in their churches. They promote civic charities and espouse noble causes. But they keep on dirtying themselves with the world—over-eating, over-drinking, responding to the lusts of their flesh, pursuing pleasure and never succeeding in finding satisfaction, working to gain security and never really being sure of it, enslaving themselves to petty hates and prejudices, falling for Satan’s lie that their own doing and being good according to their own standards will square them with their God. Such people who are spotted and soiled with all the filth of this world, even though they hold membership in some church, are not blessed. They too will be in for a surprise when they are called before the Judge of all flesh. To be a Word-Doer is to be blessed and to remain blessed—but only by keeping oneself unspotted from the world.
Word-Doers are always the salt of the earth. They are always bringing blessing to others. James mentioned two ways in this brief section. The first is by the use, or better, the non-use or controlled use, of the tongue. “If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.” It is James who in the following section gives us that most amazing description of the tongue. He speaks of it as a fire that had been kindled in hell. He calls it an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. That’s strong language, but how true! Here in this verse James speak of bridling the tongue. Put a bridle on it. Control it. If you don’t, you’re fooling yourself and your religion is vain—empty, good for nothing.
Think of how people hurt one another with their tongues! The greatest harm and the greatest damage done this congregation has been by those who have rejected the truth preached here and then have vented their venom with their tongues agaist us. How easy it is for you and me to use our tongues to lash out at someone, inflict wounds upon his personality, actually tear him up inside. James says: “Bridle your tongue!” Control it! Curb it! Check it! Doing that is bringing blessing to others first by not harming them with our tongues and second by benefiting them. We are a small congregation. We have common problems. Sometimes people get upset or are uninformed about some matters, or need to be calmed down or encouraged. When we use our tongues to soothe, to restore peace, to bring understanding, to bring comfort and cheer and encouragement, then we are bringing blessing to others. Such word-doing does bring blessing to others.
“Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this. To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction.” One of the signs of the deterioration of public morality in our nation is the refusal of members of a family to care for their own. People hardly want to be bothered with their own children, much less others. Widows frequently feel like some fifth wheel on the wagon. Children don’t want to be bothered with their aging parents. What are these things the signs of? A breakdown and loss of “pure religion and undefiled.” People want what they want when they want it. They don’t want children or the aged, the lonely and the forsaken to interfere with the satisfying of their wants. And so it is that the responsibility for caring for many of these people is shifted to the public, which hires people to do what members of the family should be doing for their own. The world is full of lonely people, people who have real or imagined problems, people who are frustrated, people who have real or imagined fears. Pure religion and undefiled is to take time off to visit such, to think of ways to help such, to put oneself out to serve such. How easy it is for us to excuse ourselves. We are so busy, and it is true that we are busy. It’s always been that way. That is why James calls down to us through the ages: Turn ye! Repent! Don’t fool yourself into believing that just hearing the Word is enough. Be a Word-Doer. Don’t just talk of love and listen to talk of love, but LOVE! Concern yourselves about others. Become involved. Do something! Be a blessing to others! Turn ye! Amen.
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All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the King James Version.