Tuesday, August 9,
2016, 6:00 a.m. – The Lord Jesus put in mind the song “For Our Nation.” Speak, Lord, your words to my heart. I read James 1:19-27 (ESV).
Slow to Anger
(vv. 19-21)
This
you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to
speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the
righteousness of God. Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that
remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to
save your souls.
What is anger, and is all anger wrong? Anger is passion, rage,
resentment, wrath, punishment, and/or vengeance. I read this on biblehub.com: "’Orgē
comes from the verb oragō meaning, “to teem, to swell”; and thus implies that
it is not a sudden outburst, but rather (referring to God's) fixed, controlled,
passionate feeling against sin . . . a settled indignation (so Hendriksen)’ (D.
E. Hiebert, at 1 Thes 1:10)” (1). So, anger can be good, and it can be bad. It
can be irrational and of the flesh, or it can be justified and righteous. Yet,
it should not be out-of-control. Even when Jesus turned over the tables in the
temple, I believe his anger was fixed and controlled, and he knew exactly what
he was doing.
We read in Ephesians 4 that we are not to sin in our anger,
so obviously not all anger is sin. It also teaches us not to let the sun go
down while we are still angry, and we should not give the devil a foothold (vv.
26-27). I believe anger is a natural human emotion given to us by God to
motivate us to some kind of action, and that the emotion of anger is not
sinful. Yet, our reasoning for being angry may be rooted in sin, or it may be
rooted in righteous indignation against sin. I noted, in this passage of
scripture in James 1, that it states that the anger of man does not achieve the
righteousness of God, so this quick anger spoken of here seems to be rooted in
the flesh of man and not in the holiness and righteousness of God, which is opposed
to sin. So, evidently this is speaking of sinning in our anger.
When we sin in our anger, or when anger itself is sinful, I
believe it has to do with resentment, bitterness, hatred, envy and strife. It
is rooted in selfish pride which does not get its own way and so the person
gets heated under the collar and explodes at others with harsh and often
untruthful words, or else he or she implodes the anger and it turns into
bitterness and resentment, which then comes out of his or her mouth whenever he
or she is angry (heated) again. Sometimes people are quick to get angry because
they don’t really listen to other people. They have already decided in their
minds what the other person is going to say or what the other person’s
intentions are, and so they react with preconceived notions in mind, and blow
up or implode based upon a lie which they are convinced is truth.
The caution here is that we must not be quick to get angry
and to speak what is on our minds, in our quick anger, but we must be
thoughtful and self-controlled, and choose our words and actions carefully and
prayerfully. We must also be good listeners. When we don’t listen well to what
people say we may find ourselves jumping to conclusions, and assuming their
words or intentions, which may not be theirs at all. So, good listening skills
are essential to controlling words and actions prompted by a feeling of anger
about any situation. If we find ourselves getting angry with people regularly, we
must do a heart examination to find the source of our anger so that it can be
directed in the correct path. In other words, the emotion of anger should
signal us that something is wrong, and that we need to do something about it. We
may need some spiritual cleansing of unforgiveness and bitterness or we may
need wisdom in how to direct our righteous indignation against sin.
Doers of the Word
(vv. 22-25)
But
prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude
themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a
man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at
himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.
But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides
by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man
will be blessed in what he does.
There are a lot of people who know a lot of scriptures
because they heard them read in the gatherings of the church, or because they
read them for themselves, or because they studied them in school, or they may
have heard them on TV or on the radio, and/or they may have read or heard them
on the internet, etc. Yet, it is not enough just to know the scriptures. We
have to do what they say.
It doesn’t matter if you have a Bible college degree, or if
you know biblical Greek, or if you are a pastor or a teacher of the Word, or if
you have memorized oodles and oodles of scripture verses. There used to be a
commercial on TV years ago advertising a child’s toy called G.I. Joe. The commercial
said, “And knowing is half the battle.” This came to mind this afternoon as I
was writing what the Lord was teaching me through this passage. If knowing is
half the battle, then doing is the other half. We have to know in order to do,
but if all we do is know, but we never do, then what we know is useless to us.
This, to me, is a lot like wisdom. Knowing is just head
knowledge. Doing is applying the knowledge we have to our daily lives. This is
wisdom. When all we do is gain a lot of head knowledge, thinking that makes us
spiritual, which it doesn’t, then we are not exercising wisdom. The opposite of
wisdom is foolishness. We are behaving foolishly, thus, when God speaks to our
hearts, and he reveals his truth to us through his Word, and yet we walk away
from it and we continue to do what our flesh tells us to do, instead of doing
what the Spirit instructs us to do.
So, when we read the Word of God, or when we hear it read to
us, we need to listen intently to what is being said, and we need to pray for
God to speak his words to our hearts. Then, we need to not forget what he said
to us, but we need to immediately apply the truths we learned to our lives and
continue to apply them to our lives via the power and working of God’s Holy
Spirit within us, as we cooperate fully with that work of grace in our lives.
I hear so many people these days, who profess to know Christ
and his Word, say that we don’t have to obey the Word of God, that we don’t
have to repent of sin, and that we don’t have to submit to Christ and to the
cross of Christ. They say that God demands nothing of us other than to “believe,”
only “belief” comes across as a shallow emotional experience, the way they
describe it. Yet, the Word, if they paid attention to it, says the opposite. It
says we must turn from our sin and follow Jesus with our lives, and that we
must walk in the Spirit and not according to the flesh, and that if we say we
have fellowship with God but we continue in sin that we are liars. It says that
if we do not obey Christ’s commands that we don’t love God and that we don’t
know God.
So doing the Word, and not just hearing it only, not only
brings with it much spiritual blessing in our lives, and in the lives of those
whose lives we touch on a daily basis, but it is essential to our eternal
salvation. Believing in Jesus is not just escape from hell and a ticket into
heaven when we die. Believing in Jesus means death to sin and living to
righteousness – all in the power and working of the Spirit of God in our lives
as we yield to the Spirit.
Pure Religion
(vv. 26-27)
If
anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but
deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless. Pure and undefiled
religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and
widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
There are a lot of people in this world who pride themselves
with being very “religious.” They follow their religion and they do what their
religion tells them to do, or at least they do what is seen outwardly by people,
much like the Pharisees of Jesus’ time. Yet, their religion and their religious
activities don’t produce change of heart and mind, nor do they bring about the
righteous life that God requires. They are just rules made up by man which they
follow, thinking that if they do all those things that it will get them
acceptance by God.
I had an impromptu conversation with a woman at a mall
yesterday. At first, I was not part of the conversation. She was talking with
other people about politics and such, and I just listened as they talked. Then,
the subject of religion came up, and she told me her religious affiliation, and
how she does all the things her church tells her to do, and that her leaders
tell her to do, and she thinks by doing all these things that it is going to
gain her heaven. So, I let her know that none of those things matter. I told
her that the only thing that matters is whether or not she has put her faith
and trust in Jesus Christ to be Lord (owner-master) and Savior of her life, and
I explained what that meant, biblically speaking.
Yet, she kept going on about how she follows her religion
and what her leaders tell her. So, I asked her if she owned a Bible. She said
emphatically that she did, but she added, “But don’t tell me to read it.” She
said she won’t read it, because her pastor (of sorts) will read it to her and
he will tell her what it says. So, I tried to explain to her that we are not to
follow what men say, but what God says, and that we will only know what God
says if we read his word, but she was like a brick wall. She said she has
always been this religion and she will never change. Wow! I pray for her
salvation.
The point of all this is that following a religion will
never gain us acceptance with God or the promise of heaven when we die. We have
to obey the Word of God, and what Jesus and his NT apostles taught us, and we
have to love others with God’s love, especially caring for those who are not
able to care for themselves. As well, if all we do is talk, but our lives don’t
match our talk, then our religion is worthless. If our mouths speak what is in
opposition to God and his Word, especially as a matter of course, then our
religion is worthless. We need to have tongues which are under the control of the
Holy Spirit, not that we must be perfect, but that we should daily be yielding
our hearts, lives and tongues to God in full submission and in surrender to his
will for our lives. And, we must come out from the world of sin and be separate
(unlike, different) from the world.
For
Our Nation / An Original Work / September 11, 2012
Bombs are bursting. Night is falling.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Trust Him with your life today.
Make Him your Lord and your Savior.
Turn from your sin. Follow Jesus.
He will forgive you of your sin;
Cleanse your heart, made new within.
Men betraying: Our trust fraying.
On our knees to God we’re praying,
Seeking God to give us answers
That are only found in Him.
God is sovereign over all things.
Nothing from His mind escaping.
He has all things under His command,
And will work all for good.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Men deceiving: we’re believing
In our Lord, and interceding
For our nation and its people
To obey their God today.
He is our hope for our future.
For our wounds He offers suture.
He is all we need for this life.
Trust Him with your life today.
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