James 1:19-21 ESV
“Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.”
These are good words for these troubled times in which we
are now living.
Although I am not personally witnessing flared tempers
raging, I assume that some people are getting angry over loss of freedoms, loss
of supplies on store shelves, loss of employment and incomes, and fears of the
future and what it holds for all of us. And, the worse things get, the more
tempers will flare, I would imagine.
So, this is good counsel for us to put our emotions in
check, and to not react emotionally to what is going on all around us, but to
stop, look and listen to God and what he is wanting to say to us all through
this time of difficulty.
For, none of this is coming as a surprise to God. And, he
has allowed it all to happen this way for a purpose. So, rather than reacting
emotionally to what appears to be our present situation, we truly do need to
just sit and listen to the Lord and to hear what he wants to teach us right now
through it all. For, I believe that what is happening truly is for the
salvation of souls.
James 1:22-25 ESV
“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.”
I believe God is allowing all of this trouble in the world
right now, in fact, to get us to be doers of the Word and not hearers only.
For, sometimes when things are going well, from a human standpoint, it can be
easy to get caught up in our own lives and in our own comforts, and we can get
lazy about our relationships with the Lord.
So, the Lord brings things into our lives to test and to try
us in order to get us to look to him and not to ourselves, and in order to get
us to walk in obedience to his commands and to not just go about life doing
whatever we want to do.
So, we need to take this time he has given to us to examine
our own lives and how we have been living them, and to examine the Word of God
and what it has to say regarding how we should be living our lives.
And, then if it turns out that we have not been doers
of the Word, but we have been hearers only, then we should turn away from
hearing only to becoming doers of the Word, in the strength and wisdom of God.
For, the Christian life is not just some status or station
in life which is stagnant. For, love for God is to keep his commandments. And,
those for whom the righteous requirement of the law will be fully met in them
are those who are walking (in conduct, in practice) according to the Spirit of
God and not according to the flesh (Rom. 8:1-17; 1 Jn. 2:3-6; Eph. 4:17-24).
For, you see, doing the Word of God is not optional. For,
faith is not just a feeling or an experience. Faith is putting into practice
what we say we believe. For, it means to be divinely persuaded, and if divinely
persuaded, then we submit to God, and we surrender our lives to him, and we
leave our sinful practices behind us to follow him in obedience (Rom. 6:1-23).
But, we don’t “do” the Word of God to earn or to deserve our
salvation. We “do” the Word of God as part of our salvation, for we are saved
to good works which God prepared in advance that we should walk in them.
Faith is not just hearing, but it is doing, in obedience to
our Lord. And, it is in the doing of the Word of God where we will be blessed.
James 1:26-27 ESV
“If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. 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.”
Our faith in Jesus Christ is not just a religion. It is not
just a set of religious practices. And, it isn’t just an escape from hell and
the promise of heaven when we leave this earth, either.
When we truly believe in Jesus Christ to be our Lord and
Savior, his Holy Spirit comes to live within us and to live his life out
through us for the glory and praise of God.
We are now the temple of God. So, our lives should reflect
that. Our lives should be for the praise of God’s glory. They should be in line
with God’s word, and they should be lived in service to our Lord. We should no
longer be living for ourselves just to please ourselves.
Since we are now the body of Christ, we should be living his
life in the world around us. We should be reflecting his love and mercy. And,
we should be sharing with people what he taught us, too. And, we should be
walking the walk and not just talking the walk.
In other words, our faith is revealed by what we do, not
just by what we say. So, we need to be loving others with God’s love, and we
need to be ministering to the needs (real needs) of others and not just be
serving ourselves.
Now, we can’t minister to everyone in the world, so we need
the leading of the Holy Spirit in this in what needs he would have us to meet.
And, then we have to follow his lead.
But, this isn’t just about being “good deed doers.” Even
non-Christians can be “good deed doers.” This has to be about sharing Jesus
with others, too, and it has to be about speaking the truth in love to people
so that they, too, can come to faith in Jesus Christ.
But, we can’t just do good deeds to others while we hold on
to sinful practices, either. For, the Christian life isn’t just about what we
do, it is also about what we don’t do.
So, if we want to have faith in Jesus Christ that is pure
and undefiled, then we also need to put away all wickedness, and we need to
reject worldly living, and we need to walk in the ways of the Lord.
We need to reflect Jesus Christ in all that we do, in other
words, and in our thinking, in our attitudes and in our speech, too.
Every day we need to be putting off the deeds of the flesh
and we need to be putting on Christ and his righteousness, and we need to be
walking in the light of the truth of God’s Holy Word. And, therein we will find
true peace and true joy, too.
Oh,
to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer
Lyrics
by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897
Music
by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897
Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,
This is my constant longing and prayer;
Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s
treasures,
Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.
Oh, to be like Thee! full of
compassion,
Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,
Helping the helpless, cheering the
fainting,
Seeking the wandering sinner to find.
O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,
Holy and harmless, patient and brave;
Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,
Willing to suffer others to save.
O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,
Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy
love;
Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,
Fit me for life and Heaven above.
Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,
Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy
fullness;
Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.
copyright
status is public domain
*Caution: This link may contain ads
No comments:
Post a Comment