James 1:16-18 ESV
“Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.”
We hear a lot of talk these days about God’s grace, and how
it is a free gift from him to us, which it is, and yet many people make up in
their own minds about what that grace is and what it isn’t. But if it is from
God, then it will conform to God and to his will and purpose for our lives (Tit
2:11-14).
For, God’s divine character and his divine will for us
humans has not changed. Both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament,
under the New Covenant, we are taught that we must surrender our lives to Jesus
Christ, and obey his commands, and leave our sinful lifestyles behind us.
There is no wiggle room under the New Covenant for continued
deliberate sinning against God as a matter of life course or of practice
(habit). God’s grace allows for the fact that we might sin (1 Jn 2:1-2), but it
does not allow for habitual deliberate sinning against God (Gal 5:16-21; Eph
5:3-6).
For, when we believe in Jesus, we are crucified with Christ
in death to sin, we are resurrected with Christ to newness of life in him, and
now by God’s Spirit we are to walk (in practice) according to the Spirit and no
longer according to the flesh (Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; 1 Jn 1:5-9; Eph
4:17-24).
We as Christians are to be an offering to God, a sacrifice, dedicated
to the Lord and to his service, set apart for God and from the world, holy unto
God. We are to give ourselves to him as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to
him, which is our acceptable worship of him (Rom 12:1-2).
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.”
There are many people talking about lots of different things,
and there are many people teaching numerous variations of the gospel of Jesus
Christ. But they aren’t all speaking the truth. They aren’t all teaching the
pure word of God. Many of them are teaching a gospel which is altered and
adulterated.
So, if we are to be quick to hear and slow to speak, then we
need to make certain that what we are hearing, with regard to the Scriptures,
is the truth, and that we aren’t listening to and receiving lies. We can be too
quick to hear, in other words, if we don’t test what we hear against the truth.
On social media there are so many different messages, and
probably most of them are not what we should be listening to, or else we need
to be listening to them with discerning minds and hearts. Too many people are
too quick to listen on there, and they are quickly accepting lies for truth.
So, it isn’t always a good idea to be quick to listen, for we
may be too quick to accept lies for truth or to accept things into our minds
and hearts that are not good for us. So, in these types of cases, we need to be
slow and deliberate in our listening so that we don’t listen to the wrong
things.
But the message here is that we should be good listeners. We
should not be too quick to respond to people, especially if we are going to
respond in anger. So, if we hear things we don’t like, we need to pray for the
wisdom of God in how to respond so that we aren’t a bad witness for Christ, and
so we don’t say things to hurt others. We need to think before we speak!
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.”
Many people today in the Christian world are teaching that
we are NOT to obey the word of God, for they call that “works-based” salvation.
But they are interpreting the Scriptures wrongly because they are ignoring the
bulk of the teaching on what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ.
Probably most of you reading this have read other devotions
the Lord has given me to write. One thing that has become abundantly clear to
me as I have been writing these daily devotions is that it doesn’t matter if I
am teaching from the Old Testament or the New, the message is consistent.
It doesn’t matter, as well, what book I am teaching from in
the New Testament. The message is consistent. You can’t miss it unless you are
pulling Scriptures out of their context and unless you are making up your own
gospel based on those cherry-picked Scriptures out of their context.
For, the message throughout the Scriptures and throughout
the New Testament is that we are to honor God as the holy God that he is, and
that we do this by humbling ourselves before him, by repenting of our sins, and
by turning away from sin to follow our Lord Jesus (God the Son) in obedience to
his commands.
[Lu 9:23-26; Acts 26:18; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph
4:17-24; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; Tit 2:11-14; Col 1:21-23; Gal 6:7-8; Rom
2:6-8; etc.]
As followers of Jesus Christ, we are to do what his word
teaches us under the New Covenant, much of which comes from the teachings in
the Old Testament, too. Thus, if we are not obeying him, as a matter of
practice, we don’t know him, and we don’t have eternal life with him (1 Jn
2:3-6).
So, we are to put away from our lives the fruitless deeds of
darkness, and we are to walk in the light of God’s truth and righteousness. We
are to walk (in practice) according to the Spirit and no longer according to
the flesh. And we are to persevere in our walks of obedience to the end, and we
will be blessed in our doing, and we will be blessed with eternal life with God.
I
Can See Clearly Now
By Johnny Nash
I can see clearly now the rain is gone
I can see all obstacles in my way
Gone are the dark clouds that had me
blind
It's gonna be a bright, bright
sunshinin' day
It's gonna be a bright, bright
sunshinin' day
Oh yes, I can make it now the pain is
gone
All of the bad feelings have
disappeared
Here is the rainbow I've been praying
for
It's gonna be a bright, bright
sunshinin' day
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