The Belief That Behaves, Pt. 1
James 1:19‑21
Let's open our Bibles to the first chapter of James, James chapter 1. We pick up our study at verse 19 and so you'll want to hold your place there for a moment while we introduce the subject that is at hand.
In one of the great Psalms of the Old Testament and by far the longest, Psalm 119, the Psalmist said this, "Blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord." Let me say that again, "Blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord." One way to define a believer is that a believer is one who walks in the way of the Lord, who walks in the law of the Lord. True believers then subscribe their life to the Word of God, that's basic.
In verse 10 of that same Psalm, we read, "O let me not wander from Thy commandments." In verse 14, "I have rejoiced in the way of Thy testimonies as much as in all riches." It is the mark of a believer that he desires to pattern his life after the Word of God.
On the other hand, unbelievers do not seek God's law. In the same Psalm, verse 155 says, "Salvation is far from the wicked, for they seek not Thy statutes. In Jeremiah 6:16 we read, "Thus saith the Lord, stand ye in the ways and see and ask for the old paths where is the good way and walk therein and you shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein."
It is the desire of a believer to walk in the law of God. It is the desire of an unbeliever to avoid the law of God. When the Psalmist speaks for believers, he says, "I have chosen the way of truth," verse 30, "I have chosen to walk according to God's Word." In fact, in verse 161 of that same Psalm, he says "My heart stands in awe of Thy Word." And even though there are times when we fail to obey, it is the longing of our heart to do that. The Psalmist says in that same Psalm, "I delight in Thy law," verse 70. "Thy law is my delight. I will speak of Thy testimonies also before kings and will not be ashamed," verse 46. "I hope in Thy Word," verse 81. "I seek Thy precepts," verse 45.
And even in his own life when the Psalmist senses failure and sin, he cries out with words like this, "O that my ways were dictated to keep Thy statutes," verse 5. Or he cries out in verse 33, "Teach me, O Lord, the way of Thy statutes." Or in verse 35, "Make me go in the path of Thy commandments." Or verse 133, "Order my steps in Thy Word." Or verse 10, "O let me not wander from Thy commandments." Or verse 36, "Incline my heart unto thy testimonies." Or verse 37, "Quicken thou me in Thy way."
All of that sort of comes together to say the mark of a true believer in this particular aspect is a desire to do the Word and the will of God. The same Psalm, the Psalmist says, "I esteem all Thy precepts concerning all things to be right."
And the sum of all of that commitment comes in verse 112, "I have inclined my heart to perform Thy statutes always even unto the end." The reason, verse 97, "O how I love Thy law."
The godly, the true believer, the one with genuine saving faith is also described in Psalm 1 as one whose delight is in the law of God and in that law doth he meditate day and night. Such are the godly. The godly are those who love the law of God, who long to keep the law of God, whose highest joy, greatest treasure and deepest delight is obedience to the law of God.
So, we might conclude from that Psalm that a person's attitude toward the Word of God is a test of the nature of their faith. If it is true saving faith, if it is genuine belief there will be a strong compelling desire to hear and obey the Word of God.
Look with me at the gospel of John. And John seems to be on a special mission to make this point and to drive it home. In John 5 verse 37 he writes, "And the Father Himself who hath sent Me," of course Christ is speaking in the narrative, "has borne witness of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time nor seen His shape, and you have not His Word abiding in you for whom He hath sent, Him you believe not." The point is, John says if you don't believe in Christ, you have not the abiding Word of God. The reverse of that, if you believe in Christ, you have within you the abiding Word of God. In other words, you are committed to the truth of God's Word.
Chapter 6 verse 45, "It is written in the prophets and they shall be taught of God. Every man therefore who has heard and has learned of the Father comes to Me." And again Christ links true saving faith with a response to the Word of God, with a hearing of the Word of God.
Chapter 8 of John's gospel verse 31, "Then said Jesus to those Jews who believed on Him, If you continue in My Word, you are My true disciples, My real disciples." Again, it is a question of your attitude toward the Word of God, the Word of Christ. Verse 37, "I know you are Abraham's seed but you seek to kill Me...here's the reason...My Word has no place in you." And again we are noting that synonymous with true saving faith is commitment to the Word of God or the Word of Christ, both being one and the same. Notice verse 45, "Because I tell the truth you don't believe Me." In other words, you have no capacity to hear truth. You can't link up with truth. Verse 47, "He that is of God hears God's words, you therefore hear them not because you are not of God." Again the same link...true faith a hearing and a commitment to the Word of God.
Chapter 10 of John's gospel again focuses on the same thing. John 10:26, "You believe not because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you." Then verse 27, "My sheep hear...what?...My voice and I know them and they not only hear but they...what?...they follow Me." Again, the linking of true faith with submission to the Word of God.
Chapter 14 of John's gospel, he comes right back around to the very same theme again in verse 21, "He that has My commandments and obeys them, he it is that loves Me." The mark of true love to Christ is obedience...obedience. Verse 23, "Jesus answered and said to him, If a man loves Me, he will keep My words...he will keep My words." Verse 24, "He that loves Me not does not keep My sayings and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me." The one who is truly connected to Christ in genuine saving faith hears His Word. The one who does not hear His Word, therefore gives evidence of not knowing Christ at all.
Chapter 15, the same idea, verse 7, "If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, you shall ask what you will and it shall be done to you. In this is My Father glorified that you bear much fruit so shall you be My disciples." In other words, a true disciple is marked by two things, he hears the Word and he produces...what?...fruit.
Chapter 17 verse 6, Jesus in His high priestly prayer says, "I have manifested Thy name unto the men whom Thou gavest Me out of the world," He's praying to the Father. "Thine they were and Thou gavest them to Me...and here's the mark of their genuineness...they have kept Thy Word. Now they have known that all things whatever Thou hast given Me are of Thee for I have given unto them the words which Thou gavest Me and they have received them and have known surely that I came out from Thee and they have believed that Thou did send Me." Again, true faith is linked with a hearing and a believing and a response to the Word of God. Verse 17 of the same chapter, Jesus says, "Sanctify them by Thy truth, Thy Word is truth."
So all of these passages basically do what we just saw in Psalm 119, they identify true saving faith with a great heartfelt desire to hear and obey the Word of God. This also is a theme that John does not want to release so when he writes his first epistle in chapter 3 and verse 10, he writes, "In this the children of God are manifest and the children of the devil whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother." In other words, show me the life, if it does righteousness it is of God, if it does not do righteousness it is not of God. To put it another way, show me a life, if it obeys the Word it is of God, if it does not it is not of God. Very basic.
In the third epistle of John, even there in verse 11 one last time, "Beloved, follow not that which is evil but that which is good. He that does good is of God, but he that does evil hasn't seen God." In other words, by your response to the Word of God, by your response to His commandments can be identified the genuineness or the falseness of your claim to faith.
Are you familiar with 1 John 2:24? Listen to this, "Let that therefore abide in you which you have heard from the beginning." That's the truth of God, God's Word, the gospel. "If that which you have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, so shall you continue in the Son and in the Father." Again, the reality of saving faith and its continuity is linked to a life of obedience...a life of obedience.
Now James, in effect, is going to give us this very same mark of true saving faith, so let's go back to James chapter 1 where some of you have been all along, that's fine. Now James throughout his epistle, as you know, is giving us tests for living faith. The whole epistle of James is a series of tests by which you can measure the reality of your faith or its lack of reality. The first test that James gave to real faith was the test of...what?...trials. How you respond to trials is an indicator of whether your faith is real or not. The second one was how you respond not to trials but to temptation. The third test is how you respond to the Word of God. How a person responds to trials is a monitor on their faith. How a person responds to temptation is a monitor. And how a person responds to the Word of God is equally a monitor that measures their faith. How you listen and how you react and how you desire the Word and how you obey the Word reveals the nature of your faith and gives your spiritual temperature in that sense.
Now think about it. Because God's Word is the originator of the new birth, because God's Word is the agent of transformation, and that's the theme of verse 18 of His own will begot He us with the Word of truth to make us into a kind of new creation, a firstfruits of a new creation, because it is the Word of truth that is the agent of transformation it is the Word that incorruptible seed, Peter calls it in 1 Peter 1, is that incorruptible seed that gives us the new birth, it is that Word of truth that makes us a new creation, that Word of truth not only is there at the beginning but it becomes the focal point of all the rest of our spiritual existence. It is the power of our new life. It was the power of our new birth. It is the continuing power of our new life. Just as the Word is that which brings about the new birth, the Word is that which feeds the newly born believer. That's why Peter says as babes desire the pure milk of...what?...the Word that you may grow thereby. It is the power of God which saves and it is the power of God which brings about progressive spiritual growth.
So, having been born again by the Word, we become its pupils and our heart's desire is to listen to it and to learn from it and respond to it, just in the same way a baby desires milk. You do not have to teach a baby to like milk, you don't have to teach a baby to want to eat, it wants to eat as soon as it arrives and continues to want to eat until it finally dies. And so all the way through life there is this normal hunger. And I believe that's true of a believer transformed by the Word of truth, he becomes then sort of linked to the Word of truth and there is a very normal spiritual appetite toward the things of God. If that appetite is there even though we don't always act like it, that's indicative of new birth. If it is not there, no matter how we may falsify it that is indicative of the absence of new birth.
Now James is going to make two major points in this regard. Point number one is that saving faith is marked by a proper reception of the Word. Point number two, it is marked by a proper reaction to the Word. So we're talking about how you receive it and what you do about it. And those are the things that mark out true faith. Now for tonight we're just going to look at the first one, a proper reception of the Word...a proper reception of the Word.
Look with me at verses 19 to 21, and that's our text for tonight. What a tremendous text, now listen carefully. It starts out in verse 19, "This you know, my beloved brethren, let every man be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. For the wrath of man works not the righteousness of God. Wherefore, put off all filthiness and abundance of wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted Word which is able to save your souls." The key word here is "receive." We're talking about how you receive the Word. That's the issue. And if you are a true believer there is a receptivity. To put it in a simple illustration, your dial is tuned to that frequency. That message comes through because that's where you've set your spiritual dial, you want that message, you desire that, you want to obey God. And when you disobey, you find yourself caught in a terrible, terrible vice and twisted and ripped and shred because it's what you're doing but not in the deepest part of you what you really want.
True saving faith is marked by a desire for a proper reception of the Word. Jesus said in Mark 4:24, "Take heed what you hear." In Luke 8:18 he said, "Take heed how you hear." The true believer looks at the what, the content, and the how, the intensity, with which he responds to the Word of God. Jesus points out in the parables of Matthew 13 when He talks about four soils that some people hear the Word and some don't, right? And you remember that in that little interim between the parable and the beginning of the chapter in its explanation about verse 18, the section in the middle Jesus says, "Blessed are your ears for they...what?...hear and your eyes for they see. Blessed are you because you understand what has been hidden from the wise and the prudent and the unbelieving. You hear and you understand." Why? Because your faith is real and you have made a connection with the living God. And in that connection there's a flow of love and life and power that makes you responsive and receptive to the Word of God.
Now, this marks us but at the same time we need to cultivate it. It isn't as if we can sit back and it will happen automatically. It takes all of the spiritual energy that God has and all of the commitment that we can make to that to realize the fullness of being true receivers of God's Word. In the reception of the Word, James gives us three things. Okay? And this is what I want you to see tonight. A right response to the Word involves three things...number one, a willingness to receive the Word with submission...a willingness to receive the Word with submission.
Now obviously unbelievers would be characterized in a different way. Unbelievers do not submit to the Word of God. It may irritate, it may aggravate, it may exacerbate their predisposition against the things of God, but for sure they're not going to willingly submit to it. Typically, for example, in 2 Timothy 3, we get a characterization of an ungodly person. It says, "They resist the truth...they resist the truth." That verb means to stand against the truth...anthistemi, it's an anti position, they take a position against the truth. Also, I think in the fifteenth verse of chapter 4 it mentions Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil, the Lord rewarded him according to his works, of whom do thou beware also for he has greatly stood against our words. Now there's a typical picture of an unbeliever who is in opposition to the Word of God. He's like the hard soil, or the soil with rock underneath it, only hears so long and then shuts it off when there's a price to pay, or the weedy soil where it listens a little while but if you have to give up all the things in the world and the cares of this age and the deceitfulness of riches, forget it. They really don't want to hear that clearly.
Typically then the unbelieving mind resists the truth, just as typically true faith receives it. And willingly receives it with an attitude of submission. And I want you to see how this is tucked right in here in verse 19. Now verse 19 says, "My beloved brothers," I'll just pull that phrase out, that's also back in verse 16 and James is being very sensitive and very concerned and very compassionate and showing a lot of love as he exhorts his people. Something certainly every wise teacher and instructor does. And again he calls them his beloved brothers, a familiar and sort of repeated phrase throughout this epistle, along with just my brothers with which he begins chapter 2 and chapter 3. So he has a loving heart toward these people and yet is very strong in his exhortation.
He says to them, "This you know..." Now some of your Bibles might say "wherefore" at the beginning of verse 19. That is what we call in the Greek text a variant reading. That is the word hoste. In the better manuscripts the word is histe, only one letter difference, the difference between in English would be an "o" and an "i", that's all the difference there is. All of the better manuscripts without exception have the histe which should be translated "this you know." By the way, that also fits much better with the use of dei in verse 19 as well and makes sense in the context. So what he is saying is, this you know. What does he mean? Well, he's really playing off of verse 18. "You know this, you know that the power of the Word was able to beget you again, to make you a new creation, the firstfruits of glorious new creation that God will perform in the future...you know this."
In other words, you know the power of the Word. Okay? You know the power of the Word, this you know that by His will He begot you with the Word of truth and made you a new creation...this you know. In other words, you're aware of the marvelous power of the Word in regeneration. You have experienced the power of the Word in regeneration. You have experienced the power of the Word to transform your life and make you a whole new creation. You know what it is to be transformed by that incorruptible seed and given eternal life.
Now, since you have experienced the power of the Word of God to make you a new creation, the idea is you've got to let it continue to do its powerful work in your life. That's the transition that he makes...marvelous transition. God brought us forth by the Word and wants us to live not by...what?...bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, Deuteronomy 8:3. So all Scripture is given that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works, 2 Timothy 3:15 and 16 and 17, that whole text there.
Now, the Word we've experienced that its power to make us new creation and now we must yield to it in its power to cause us to grow. And by a continual faithful hearing of the life giving Word, the power of the new nature is stimulated into action. And we'll see that action in verses 22 to 27. But as you with your dial now spiritually turned to the channel that the God is broadcasting on, you begin to hear and receive, that stimulates the new nature into action. And it all begins with an attitude of hearing the Word of God...of being receptive. He brought us forth by the Word, so we live by the Word. It is our food. Jeremiah says, "Thy wo