We don’t like to be made fun of, we really don’t like jokes played on us. It embarrasses us and makes us seem not as bright as we think we are.  But the reality is that if we faced the facts, no one has played more jokes on us and tricked us than ourselves.  At first we might not want to believe this, but if we are honest, no one even comes close to the work we have done ourselves.

We might not consider most of the work, jokes, but maybe deception, specifically self-deception. The Bible points out that many people are deceiving themselves into thinking they are saved when they are not.

On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’ – Matthew 7:22-23 NLT

But there are true believers who are fooling themselves concerning their Christian walk. They think they are spiritual when they are not. It is a mark of maturity when a person faces himself honestly, knows himself, and admits his needs.

Spiritual reality results from the proper relationship to God through His Word. God’s Word is truth (John 17:17), and if we are rightly related to God’s truth, we cannot be dishonest or hypocritical. In these verses, James stated that we have three responsibilities toward God’s Word; and if we fulfill these responsibilities, we will have an honest walk with God and men.

Receive the Word (James 1:19-21)

¹⁹ 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. ²¹ Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. – James 1:19-21 ESV

James calls God’s Word “the implanted word”. Borrowing from our Lord’s Parable of the Sower (Matt. 13:1–9, 18–23), he compares God’s Word to seed and the human heart to soil. In His parable, Jesus described four kinds of hearts:

• the hard heart, which did not understand or receive the Word and therefore bore no fruit;
• the shallow heart, which was very emotional but had no depth, and bore no fruit;
• the crowded heart, which lacked repentance and permitted sin to crowd out the Word;
• the fruitful heart, which received the Word, allowed it to take root, and produced a harvest of fruit.

What are some of your insights with these 4 kinds of a heart? Have you experienced them?  Which is one heart you need to always be alert and concerned about?

It should be evident that we want to strive and keep a heart that is fruitful. We must be careful to not get caught in the “works trap”. Religious works may be manufactured, but they do not have life in them, nor do they bring glory to God. Real fruit has in it the seed for more fruit, so that the harvest continues to grow fruit, more fruit, much fruit (John 15:1–5).

Too many people are in that tragic condition in which “seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.” (Matt. 13:13). They attend Bible classes and church services but never seem to grow. Is it the fault of the teacher or the preacher? Perhaps, but it may also be the fault of the hearer. It is possible to be “dull of hearing” (Heb. 5:11) because of decay of the spiritual life. Dull in this sense is like a dull knife.  It is not very effective, it is actually dangerous.

Just as the servant is quick to hear his master’s voice, and the mother to hear her baby’s smallest cry, so the believer should be quick to hear what God has to say.

Tony Evans made a good point that if we were swift to run to God for some insight first, and not as a last resort, we could then reduced the number of second and third opinions we seek. The challenge we put ourselves in today is that when trials and temptations come, we talk to others and others and then finally when we don’t think we have a good answer, we look to the Bible. It needs to be the other way around.

Besides being swift to hear we need to also be slow to speak. We have two ears and one mouth, which ought to remind us to listen more than we speak. Too many times we argue with God’s Word, if not audibly, at least in our hearts and minds.  We go to the Word for insight and we don’t like what we see so we begin to debate God and justify our thoughts. We read one or two verses and we going on ranting our point of view.

One of the reasons many don’t look to the Bible first is that they see the truth and they don’t like it. They would prefer to go to a friend and find some encouragement and help, than the truth.  (first Adam?). The issue I face is that if I see the truth and don’t like it, I get frustrated and even mad. When I want a new phone and going to God, He makes it clear that it is not wise and I should not even be tempted by it with all the other things going on; then I don’t like that answer, so I go to a friend and ask them their opinion. I get in a real bad situation when I go for that second or even third opinion.

Can you relate to the situation of wrestling with the truth and your own desires? Can you examine your life and see where you may have gone to others before God? Do you have any illustrations where you either got in a bad situation one way or how going to God first may have helped you in the past?

Practice the Word

²² But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. ²³ For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. ²⁴ You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. ²⁵ But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it. – James 1:22-25 NLT

It is not enough to hear the Word; we must do it. Many people have the mistaken idea that hearing a good sermon or Bible study is what makes them grow and get God’s blessing. It is not the hearing but the doing that brings the blessing. Too many Christians mark their Bibles, but their Bibles never mark them! If we think we are spiritual because we hear the Word, then we are only kidding ourselves. James uses the reference to a mirror in this passage and there are some key benefits to a mirror.

The main purpose of a mirror is for examination. It provides the ability for us to see ourself and make ourself loo as clean and neat as possible. As we look into the mirror of God’s Word, we see ourselves as we really are. James mentions several mistakes people make as they look into God’s mirror.

We glance in the mirror and don’t even examine what we see.  We do not study ourselves with the Word. Many sincere believers read a chapter of the Bible each day, but it is only a religious exercise and they fail to profit from it personally. Their conscience would bother them if they did not have their daily reading, when actually their conscience should bother them because they read the Word carelessly. A cursory reading of the Bible will never reveal our deepest needs. It is the difference between a candid photo and an X ray.

The second challenge with the mirror is that we forget what we see when we only glance at it. Many times we don’t like what we see and we avoid the mirror. This is the same situation as when we read the truth in the Word and avoid it because we don’t like it.

The third challenge is when we look and listen but do not respond properly. We fail to do what the Word tells us to do. Many times we can think that hearing is the same as doing, and it is not. We Christians enjoy substituting reading for doing, or even talking for doing.

Perhaps one reason we glance into the Word instead of gaze into the Word is that we are afraid of what we might see. After seeing ourselves, we must remember what we are and what God says, and we must do the Word. The blessing comes in the doing, not in the reading of the Word.

Can you see the correlation of using the mirror and using the Bible?  Can you see where we can get caught in merely seeing and not doing? Doing reading plans and quiet times but not truly allowing the mirror (Bible) to assist us to take action. We just keep doing our quite times and checking a box…

Share the Word

²⁶ If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. 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. – James 1:26-27 ESV

We can easily get caught up in “religion” Pure religion has nothing to do with ceremonies, temples, or special days. Pure religion means practicing God’s Word and sharing it with others, through speech, service, and separation from the world.

There are many references to speech in this letter, giving the impression that the tongue was a serious problem. It is the tongue that reveals the heart (Matt. 12:34–35); if the heart is right, the speech will be right. A controlled tongue means a controlled body.

After we have seen ourselves and Christ in the mirror of the Word, we must see others and their needs. Words are no substitute for deeds of love. God does not want us to pay for others to minister as a substitute for our own personal service!

When James uses the term “world” he means “society without God.” Satan is the prince of this world, and the lost are the children of this world. As the children of God, we are in the world physically but not of the world spiritually. We are sent into the world to win others to Christ.

Doers of the Word. Actually doing and living like the Bible lays out. It is difficult and impossible without God.  How you doing?

The world wants to “spot” the Christian and start to defile him. First, there is “friendship of the world” (James 4:4), which can lead to a love for the world (1 John 2:15–17). If we are not careful, we will become conformed to this world (Rom. 12:1–2), and the result is being condemned with the world (1 Cor. 11:32). This does not suggest that we lose our salvation, but that we lose all we have lived for.

Lot is an illustration of this principle. First he pitched his tent toward Sodom, and then moved into Sodom. Before long, Sodom moved into him and he lost his testimony even with his own family. When judgment fell on Sodom, Lot lost everything.

It was Abraham, the separated believer, the friend of God, who had a greater ministry to the people than did Lot, the friend of the world. It is not necessary for the Christian to get involved with the world to have a ministry to the world. Jesus was “unspotted”, and yet He was the friend of publicans and sinners. The best way to minister to the needs of the world is to be pure from the defilement of the world.

This week spend some time in front of the mirror, don’t run away, examine it. Listen more than talk and put what you hear into action.

Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 2). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

Tyndale House Publishers. (2015). Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Mt 7:22–23). Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Jas 1:19–21). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.