05.04.07
James (5): The Wisdom of Words (James 1:19-27)
There is an expression – “Talk is cheap, but actions count”. In a sense this is true, but in another sense it is not – because according to James, talk can cost us our very souls. During the Second World War, in an attempt to keep national security, the government started a “Careless talk costs lives” poster campaign. In this passage, James uses the idea of words - the way we speak and the way God speaks - to show us the true path to blessing in the Christian life and to keep us from careless talk. In vs. 19-25 he lays down the principles and then in vs. 26-27 he gives us two examples of what he is teaching - in vs. 26 an example of how not to use our words; and in vs. 27 an example of how to use God’s Word. Remember, James was a Jewish Christian steeped in the Old Testament Scriptures and so what he is teaching here reminds us a great deal of the Book of Proverbs - the book which is often called Wisdom for Living. Here, then, in James 1:19-27 we have God’s Wisdom for our use of both our words, and our use of His Word.
[A] The Words of Men (vs. 19-20, 26)
In these verses we are those who are speaking and, I would suggest, we are speaking to other people. It may be that vs. 19 is linked back to what vs. 18 calls, God’s “Word of Truth” so that everything in vs. 19-20 is talking about the way we respond to what God says to us, but I rather think that we are here entering a new section. The question is, as believers in Jesus Christ, those who have been transformed by His dying love and are inhabited by His Holy Spirit, how are we to use our words? Bear in mind that the first readers of this letter were disadvantaged Christians who had been exiled from their homelands and were being persecuted for their faith in Jesus. The way they used their words in the listening of their persecutors was absolutely vital - it could win them for Christ or it could lose them for Christ. It could mean heaven or hell.
1. The Pattern of Successful Communication (vs. 19) - there is an old adage - God gave us two ears and one mouth that we should listen twice as much as talk. Successful and wise communication lies in our ability to listen carefully - indeed to be ready to listen before we are ready to speak. Our words are to be few. James tells us what happens if we do not listen carefully - we become angry. If everyone talks and no-one listens, nobody really understands where anyone else is coming from; misunderstandings ensue and anger develops. The path of poor communication rests in speaking much, listening little and being quick-tempered. When the tongue speaks before the ear hears, trouble is sure to follow. How important it is then that we listen before we speak!
2. The Problem of Human Anger (vs. 20) – human anger is unproductive – it does no good thing. There are occasions when someone can have righteous anger, but that’s not the kind of anger being talked of here – this type is anger caused by misunderstandings or human conflict. Anger and sin are never far apart. And according to James it does not work the righteousness of God; it does not take you to where God wants you to be in your relationship with Him; it does not make His Kingdom come; it does not glorify Him. You could understand how suffering 1st Century Christians could become angry and take the law into their own hands, but that would not make them disciples of the man who said, “love your enemies” and would not make them followers of the God who said, “vengeance is mine. I will repay.”
3. The Emptiness of False Religion (vs. 26) – many deem themselves to be religious. They wear a mask of piety and gloves of devoted service, but James says here that unless they keep their tongue in check, they are not truly religious at all. See how central the tongue is in all Christian service! The tongue is the primary medium of communication, and the whole Christian life is about communicating. Some Christians mistakenly believe that the best way to live is in splendid isolation, in a monastery or in continual retreat. But Christianity does not flourish in these environments – God’s Kingdom is to come in the world of society; if Christianity can not be lived out in the day to day of human communication, then it is false. But remember our master Jesus, of whom it was said, “there was no guile on his lips”. The man who claims to be religious but cannot control his tongue is self-deceived – he doesn’t really know himself, he is a hypocrite and he doesn’t know it. His religion is also useless. He is a fool. It is as though he were living from day to day as a figure in a book – he wears a star trek uniform – he is useless, pointless and although we cannot see it, upon his gravestone is written “this man’s life was worthless and empty”.
If we would be successful communicators and successful Christians, we must take the warnings of James 1 into account – quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to become angry; keeping our tongue in check and communicating as God communicates, full of truth and every word full of purpose.
[B] The Words of God (vs. 21-25, 27)
In these verses God is speaking to us and the point at issue is what we do with the words God speaks to us. How shall we respond? There are four stages in our response to that word which James picks up on; four things which shall come to us if we will deal with God’s communication correctly:
1. The Way of Salvation (vs. 21) – God’s word, implanted within us by His Holy Spirit, is able to save us. It is through the Word that God, as James has already told us in vs. 18, gives us new birth. The NIV perhaps does not pick up the force of the sentence because it translates the verse as having two imperatives – get rid and accept – but in fact, the first of these is not an imperative. It is assumed that we in the process of salvation we have put aside all moral filth and the prevalent evil. It is the other side of the coin of accepting the message of salvation – in other words, to accept the message of salvation with humility is to put aside all filthiness and moral evil. The two are intimately linked, but it is the accepting of the Word of Salvation which is our primary responsibility – the putting aside of moral filth and evil is implicit within the accepting of God’s saving words. And we must understand this if we are to be true Gospel Christians – the step towards God, the step we are commanded to take here, is necessarily a step away from the filth of this world. And so, God’s Word saves us; but by the same token, one cannot walk towards God without walking away from the world. And so the first response is one of being saved, and indeed, it is only through being saved that we can obey any of the rest of what God says to us.
2. The Way of Truth (vs. 22-24) – to listen to God’s Word but not to do it, is to deceive oneself. We have already seen that the person who professes religion, but does not hold his tongue in check, is deceiving himself – he doesn’t know himself; he is a hypocrite. But the correct response to God’s Word is not merely to listen, but to put it into practice – not to passively listen, but to actively listen and then to actively do. James proceeds to give an amusing illustration of this point with the picture of a man who forgets what he looks like after having looked at his face in the mirror. The Word of God is like a mirror – we look in it and see ourselves – perhaps as we are reading we are convicted about a particular sin in our lives – but then we must respond by not merely listening to that convicting word, but also acting upon it in repentance and renewed devotion to God. In so doing, we will be living true to our profession as Christians and not deceiving ourselves.
3. The Way of Blessing (vs. 25) – To listen is not to be blessed; to do, according to James, is to be blessed. The law here is described as one which gives liberty – liberty I would suggest because it frees us up from having to live in bondage to our crooked and sinful natures, living in bondage to the world and to its pressure upon us to conform to its standards, living in bondage to Satan and his powers of temptation – it frees us up to be the people God made us to be – His law, lived out through the Gospel, frees us up to be truly human. But this is not a one-off action; it is a life-long commitment to active listening to God’s voice, and aggressively putting into practice what He says to us. Here we have determination and commitment to God’s Word and in that, there is real blessing.
4. The Way of Purity (vs. 27) – James gives us two examples of how this active listening and aggressive doing works in practice. He begins by stating that to listen and respond to God’s Word in this way is to be pure and faultless – to be like Jesus – to be children of our God and Father – because, at the end of the day, that is the purpose of God’s communication to us – to make us like Him. And so, James gives us two examples of how, if we respond to God’s Word correctly, we shall become like Him: the first is by showing our concern in practical ways for the disadvantaged – the widows and the orphans. After all, this is no more than Jesus did for us by dying for the powerless. Secondly, it is to positively choose to go God’s way in life and not to give in to the world’s conformist agenda. It is to keep ourselves from being polluted by the world, but rather to be completely devoted to the Lordship of Jesus in our lives. Love for others and love for God – these are where God’s Word will lead us if we, through His promised Holy Spirit, put them into practice.
And so, if you would be wise tonight, what will you do with the words you speak? And what will you do with the words God speaks to you? Will you keep yourself from being double-minded; dallying with the world and with God? Keep yourself pure; devote yourselves to Christ – for in Him alone is to be found true wisdom. AMEN