August 30, 2015
(Note: this is an edited version of a sermon that appears earlier in this blog in the James series.)
I used to work with a guy who spent lots of time playing basketball video games. He understood how the game worked and knew how to develop a good strategy. He could get his players to make the right moves to win the game, both for offense and defense. He knew what it took to win a basketball game. But he didn’t play the game himself. He was overweight and out of shape; his connection with basketball was purely imaginary. He didn’t even watch real games.
When I was a young Christian, I talked with a man I had known all my life, who had never shown even the slightest interest in spiritual things. As I was talking with him, he informed me that he believed the gospel. He believed Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Savior of the world, and he had read several books on the end times. I was so amazed by his response that I didn’t know what to say. I said, “so you believe it’s all true?” And he responded, “yes.” So I asked him whether he was ready to stand in God’s presence, and he said, “no.” But he didn’t seem to be terribly bothered by that fact. He believed in the truth of the gospel, but his belief had no impact at all on his life. This kinds of divisions in our lives are common, and we get used to the lack of connection between our internal and external worlds.
Satan’s goal is to destroy us spiritually, and if he can’t achieve that by preventing us from coming to faith, he’ll try to isolate our faith so that it’s purely inward. The Screwtape Letters, by C.S. Lewis, is a series of letters from a senior demon to a junior demon. When the man they’re trying to destroy comes to repentance, Screwtape advises his nephew: “The great thing is to prevent his doing anything. As long as he does not convert it into action, it does not matter how much he thinks about this new repentance” (p. 60). As long as it’s a purely inward thing, not ever converted into action, it’s in the realm of imagination.
That’s the problem James is addressing in these verses. Faith in the gospel is not just a sense of inner conviction. It’s not the sort of thing that can be confined to one dimension of our lives. God calls us not only to hear His Word and believe it with our minds, but to respond to it in obedience. Those who don’t convert their faith into action are self-deceived, James says: “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” They persuade themselves that because they like listening to the Word, because they enjoy learning about it, they must be OK spiritually. But Jesus gives a very stern warning about this in the Sermon on the Mount: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). James wants us to know that genuine faith involves more than saying, “Yes, I believe the Bible is true.” Faith in the gospel brings us into fellowship with the living God, who then sets out to transform every area of our lives in preparation for that day when we will see Him face to face and live in His presence forever. Believing the gospel is the beginning of the process of purification and transformation into the likeness of Jesus Christ.
The first thing James calls us to in this passage is attentiveness to God’s Word. There’s some discussion among commentators about the words James uses in verses 23-25. When he describes a person looking in a mirror he uses one word, and then he uses a different word to describe a person looking at the law of liberty. This contrast comes across in the NIV: “like a man who looks at his face in a mirror.... But the man who looks intently into the perfect law....” It’s even stronger in the NEB: “He glances at himself and goes away.... But the man who looks closely into the perfect law....” The first is a careless, superficial glance, and the second is a focused gaze. But other translations make no distinction at all. The NRSV, for example, uses the word “looks” in both places, and some commentators argue that there’s really no significance in the word change, that James used different words for the sake of variety but that they both mean the same thing.
The difficulty with a discussion like this is that all the commentators and translators are more familiar with the original languages than any of us, and our temptation is to simply choose the position we like best, the one that fits with our assumptions. I like the first idea better, that James is drawing a contrast between two different ways of listening. That fits more neatly into my sermon. But as I’ve read the various commentaries, the second position seems to have a slightly stronger case.
But that’s not terribly important anyway. Maybe there isn’t an intentional contrast between these two words, but the point is that James is talking about two different ways of listening. Some hear in a way that doesn’t lead to obedience. Their hearing remains on the surface of their minds. If we want to avoid falling into the same trap, the place to begin is with attentive listening to God’s Word. We need to know the truth before we can obey it. We can also say that obedience is rooted in attentiveness to God’s Word, and that mere hearing is often (though not always) rooted in superficial attention. The words pass through our minds, and we say, “oh yes, I believe that,” and then we go on with our lives. But the words never get any deeper. They don’t lead us to genuine repentance, which is a change of direction, a new way of living. They don’t connect with our lives in the world. It may or may not be that James used two different words to underscore this point, but the difference is there in any case, so translations like the NIV are on the right track in emphasizing two different ways of paying attention to God’s Word.
So whether or not James is contrasting two different words about hearing, if we want to become doers of the Word, rather than mere hearers, we need to listen to God’s Word attentively. Psalm 1 describes people who are doing this: “Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers; but their delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law they meditate day and night.” They take delight in God’s Word and meditate on it day and night. They’re attentive to it. Their listening is not superficial.
The second thing James emphasizes here is the importance of remembering. Those who are mere hearers look and then immediately forget what they’ve seen; “But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget... they will be blessed in their doing.” This is a frequent emphasis in the Old Testament. When Moses was reminding Israel of the law, he said: “So be careful not to forget the covenant that the Lord your God made with you....” (Deuteronomy 4:23). Later in the same book, Moses is confronting Israel with their stubbornness and he says: “You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you; you forgot the God who gave you birth” (Deut. 32:18). The prophets make the same complaint. Here’s one example from Jeremiah: “[The false prophets] plan to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another, just as their ancestors forgot my name for Baal” (Jeremiah 23:27). Israel got into trouble again and again because they forgot the truth.
This kind of forgetfulness is a spiritual problem, not a mental one. We can be regular church attenders, we can even be consistent in our personal devotions, and be forgetful hearers at the same time. We go to church on Sunday, and even if we don’t say it this way our attitude is “well, now that’s out of the way and I can get on with the things I want to do.” Then we approach our personal devotions in the same way. Everything is compartmentalized; spiritual exercises may make us feel better, but they don’t connect with our lives. We spend time in Bible reading and prayer, then when we go to something else we leave it all behind. There’s no connection between the spiritual compartment of our lives and the other things we do.
If we want to become doers of the Word, we need to find ways to break down the walls of these compartments. One way we can begin to do this is by allowing God’s Word to confront the way we’re living our daily lives in the world, asking God for wisdom and direction by considering questions like: “what kinds of changes might God be calling me to make in response to this passage?” Or “what does this truth that I’ve just encountered have to say to some of the other compartments in my life?” “How can I put this into practice?” These kinds of questions can help us remember who we are and who we belong to as we leave our spiritual exercises and go out into the world.
This leads to the third thing James emphasizes, which is obedience. James is calling us to respond to God’s Word with concrete, specific acts of obedience. Mere hearers think it’s enough just to hear. Paul is confronting people like this in Romans 2 when he says, “For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but the doers of the law will be justified” (Romans 2:13). God calls us, not only to listen attentively and to carefully remember what we’ve heard, but to follow up on this with obedience.
That’s the point of verses 26-27, where James contrasts true religion and false religion. He’s not saying “religion is a bad thing; all you really need is a relationship with Jesus.” He’s not contrasting religion and relationship. He’s contrasting true and false religion. Religion has to do with the outward implications of a relationship with God (see Luke Timothy Johnson, The Letter of James, pp. 210-11). Christian discipleship is not only an inward relationship, it’s a relationship with God that shows itself in outward actions. The word “religion” has to do with these outward actions. One commentator explains it this way: “Religion is... a comprehensive word for the specific ways in which a heart-relationship to God is expressed in our lives” (J.A. Motyer, The Message of James, p. 75).
The question is not whether or not we’re religious. The question is whether our religion is true or false. In describing the difference, James focuses on three areas: bridling the tongue, showing compassion for those who are vulnerable and in need, and avoiding the pollution of the world. False religion is confined to the spiritual compartment; it doesn’t lead to transformation in the way we use the gift of speech, in the way we respond to people who are in need, or in our attitude toward the world. We may be very diligent in our religious duties, but otherwise we look no different than those around us who make no profession of faith at all. James is saying that when this happens we’ve accepted a counterfeit religion. We’ve been self-deceived and our religion is worthless.
He wants us to know that Christian salvation is about more than going to church and having devotions. God calls us, not only to hear His Word and believe it with our minds, but to respond to it with obedience. He calls us to grow in obedience in each area of our lives: in our relationships, in learning to bridle our tongues; in the ways we use our resources, sharing with those who are vulnerable and in need; and in the way we relate to the world, being in this world but not being polluted by it. When we cultivate a life of obedience, James says we are blessed: “But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act – they will be blessed in their doing.”
Notice how he describes God’s Word. He calls it the “law of liberty.” It sets us free to live the kind of life we were created to live. God’s Word isn’t like a straightjacket which keeps us from doing what we want to do. It’s the Word of the God who created us and who knows what is best for us. “True freedom is the opportunity and the ability to give expression to what we truly are. We are truly free when we live the life appropriate to those who are created in the image of God.... The law of God is the law of liberty because it safeguards, expresses and enables the life of true freedom into which Christ has brought us. This is the blessing of which James speaks (25), the blessing of a full life, a true humanity. Obedience is the key factor in our enjoyment of it” (Motyer, p. 71). Being doers of the Word is the best thing for us; it leads to the kind of life God created us for, a fully human life.
This passage is closely related to one earlier in the chapter which says “welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.” This Word that we’re being called to obey is the Word that saves us. James is saying that if we claim to believe this Word but aren’t growing in obedience we’ve deceived ourselves. Our faith is worthless and will not save us. This doesn’t contradict Paul’s teaching on justification by faith. James is saying that genuine faith can’t be confined to our inner lives; it will manifest itself in outward acts of obedience.
How we respond to this “word that has the power to save” our souls is of the greatest importance. We can’t afford to allow more “urgent” things to crowd this out. C.S. Lewis reminds us of the infinite dimension of our lives and the lives of those around us: “It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations.... There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal” (The Business of Heaven, pp. 147-48). Each of us is headed in one direction or the other, and we are influencing the direction of others whether we’re aware of it or not. None of us are mere mortals. In the light of such overwhelming possibilities, how can we allow ourselves to be deceived? Since we live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, since we are all moving, and are influencing one another, in one direction or the other: “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” Listen attentively to the Word, then remember what you’ve heard as you go about your duties, and order your life in obedience to His commands. Those who do this are blessed.
I used to work with a guy who spent lots of time playing basketball video games. He understood how the game worked and knew how to develop a good strategy. He could get his players to make the right moves to win the game, both for offense and defense. He knew what it took to win a basketball game. But he didn’t play the game himself. He was overweight and out of shape; his connection with basketball was purely imaginary. He didn’t even watch real games.
When I was a young Christian, I talked with a man I had known all my life, who had never shown even the slightest interest in spiritual things. As I was talking with him, he informed me that he believed the gospel. He believed Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Savior of the world, and he had read several books on the end times. I was so amazed by his response that I didn’t know what to say. I said, “so you believe it’s all true?” And he responded, “yes.” So I asked him whether he was ready to stand in God’s presence, and he said, “no.” But he didn’t seem to be terribly bothered by that fact. He believed in the truth of the gospel, but his belief had no impact at all on his life. This kinds of divisions in our lives are common, and we get used to the lack of connection between our internal and external worlds.
Satan’s goal is to destroy us spiritually, and if he can’t achieve that by preventing us from coming to faith, he’ll try to isolate our faith so that it’s purely inward. The Screwtape Letters, by C.S. Lewis, is a series of letters from a senior demon to a junior demon. When the man they’re trying to destroy comes to repentance, Screwtape advises his nephew: “The great thing is to prevent his doing anything. As long as he does not convert it into action, it does not matter how much he thinks about this new repentance” (p. 60). As long as it’s a purely inward thing, not ever converted into action, it’s in the realm of imagination.
That’s the problem James is addressing in these verses. Faith in the gospel is not just a sense of inner conviction. It’s not the sort of thing that can be confined to one dimension of our lives. God calls us not only to hear His Word and believe it with our minds, but to respond to it in obedience. Those who don’t convert their faith into action are self-deceived, James says: “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” They persuade themselves that because they like listening to the Word, because they enjoy learning about it, they must be OK spiritually. But Jesus gives a very stern warning about this in the Sermon on the Mount: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). James wants us to know that genuine faith involves more than saying, “Yes, I believe the Bible is true.” Faith in the gospel brings us into fellowship with the living God, who then sets out to transform every area of our lives in preparation for that day when we will see Him face to face and live in His presence forever. Believing the gospel is the beginning of the process of purification and transformation into the likeness of Jesus Christ.
The first thing James calls us to in this passage is attentiveness to God’s Word. There’s some discussion among commentators about the words James uses in verses 23-25. When he describes a person looking in a mirror he uses one word, and then he uses a different word to describe a person looking at the law of liberty. This contrast comes across in the NIV: “like a man who looks at his face in a mirror.... But the man who looks intently into the perfect law....” It’s even stronger in the NEB: “He glances at himself and goes away.... But the man who looks closely into the perfect law....” The first is a careless, superficial glance, and the second is a focused gaze. But other translations make no distinction at all. The NRSV, for example, uses the word “looks” in both places, and some commentators argue that there’s really no significance in the word change, that James used different words for the sake of variety but that they both mean the same thing.
The difficulty with a discussion like this is that all the commentators and translators are more familiar with the original languages than any of us, and our temptation is to simply choose the position we like best, the one that fits with our assumptions. I like the first idea better, that James is drawing a contrast between two different ways of listening. That fits more neatly into my sermon. But as I’ve read the various commentaries, the second position seems to have a slightly stronger case.
But that’s not terribly important anyway. Maybe there isn’t an intentional contrast between these two words, but the point is that James is talking about two different ways of listening. Some hear in a way that doesn’t lead to obedience. Their hearing remains on the surface of their minds. If we want to avoid falling into the same trap, the place to begin is with attentive listening to God’s Word. We need to know the truth before we can obey it. We can also say that obedience is rooted in attentiveness to God’s Word, and that mere hearing is often (though not always) rooted in superficial attention. The words pass through our minds, and we say, “oh yes, I believe that,” and then we go on with our lives. But the words never get any deeper. They don’t lead us to genuine repentance, which is a change of direction, a new way of living. They don’t connect with our lives in the world. It may or may not be that James used two different words to underscore this point, but the difference is there in any case, so translations like the NIV are on the right track in emphasizing two different ways of paying attention to God’s Word.
So whether or not James is contrasting two different words about hearing, if we want to become doers of the Word, rather than mere hearers, we need to listen to God’s Word attentively. Psalm 1 describes people who are doing this: “Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers; but their delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law they meditate day and night.” They take delight in God’s Word and meditate on it day and night. They’re attentive to it. Their listening is not superficial.
The second thing James emphasizes here is the importance of remembering. Those who are mere hearers look and then immediately forget what they’ve seen; “But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget... they will be blessed in their doing.” This is a frequent emphasis in the Old Testament. When Moses was reminding Israel of the law, he said: “So be careful not to forget the covenant that the Lord your God made with you....” (Deuteronomy 4:23). Later in the same book, Moses is confronting Israel with their stubbornness and he says: “You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you; you forgot the God who gave you birth” (Deut. 32:18). The prophets make the same complaint. Here’s one example from Jeremiah: “[The false prophets] plan to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another, just as their ancestors forgot my name for Baal” (Jeremiah 23:27). Israel got into trouble again and again because they forgot the truth.
This kind of forgetfulness is a spiritual problem, not a mental one. We can be regular church attenders, we can even be consistent in our personal devotions, and be forgetful hearers at the same time. We go to church on Sunday, and even if we don’t say it this way our attitude is “well, now that’s out of the way and I can get on with the things I want to do.” Then we approach our personal devotions in the same way. Everything is compartmentalized; spiritual exercises may make us feel better, but they don’t connect with our lives. We spend time in Bible reading and prayer, then when we go to something else we leave it all behind. There’s no connection between the spiritual compartment of our lives and the other things we do.
If we want to become doers of the Word, we need to find ways to break down the walls of these compartments. One way we can begin to do this is by allowing God’s Word to confront the way we’re living our daily lives in the world, asking God for wisdom and direction by considering questions like: “what kinds of changes might God be calling me to make in response to this passage?” Or “what does this truth that I’ve just encountered have to say to some of the other compartments in my life?” “How can I put this into practice?” These kinds of questions can help us remember who we are and who we belong to as we leave our spiritual exercises and go out into the world.
This leads to the third thing James emphasizes, which is obedience. James is calling us to respond to God’s Word with concrete, specific acts of obedience. Mere hearers think it’s enough just to hear. Paul is confronting people like this in Romans 2 when he says, “For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but the doers of the law will be justified” (Romans 2:13). God calls us, not only to listen attentively and to carefully remember what we’ve heard, but to follow up on this with obedience.
That’s the point of verses 26-27, where James contrasts true religion and false religion. He’s not saying “religion is a bad thing; all you really need is a relationship with Jesus.” He’s not contrasting religion and relationship. He’s contrasting true and false religion. Religion has to do with the outward implications of a relationship with God (see Luke Timothy Johnson, The Letter of James, pp. 210-11). Christian discipleship is not only an inward relationship, it’s a relationship with God that shows itself in outward actions. The word “religion” has to do with these outward actions. One commentator explains it this way: “Religion is... a comprehensive word for the specific ways in which a heart-relationship to God is expressed in our lives” (J.A. Motyer, The Message of James, p. 75).
The question is not whether or not we’re religious. The question is whether our religion is true or false. In describing the difference, James focuses on three areas: bridling the tongue, showing compassion for those who are vulnerable and in need, and avoiding the pollution of the world. False religion is confined to the spiritual compartment; it doesn’t lead to transformation in the way we use the gift of speech, in the way we respond to people who are in need, or in our attitude toward the world. We may be very diligent in our religious duties, but otherwise we look no different than those around us who make no profession of faith at all. James is saying that when this happens we’ve accepted a counterfeit religion. We’ve been self-deceived and our religion is worthless.
He wants us to know that Christian salvation is about more than going to church and having devotions. God calls us, not only to hear His Word and believe it with our minds, but to respond to it with obedience. He calls us to grow in obedience in each area of our lives: in our relationships, in learning to bridle our tongues; in the ways we use our resources, sharing with those who are vulnerable and in need; and in the way we relate to the world, being in this world but not being polluted by it. When we cultivate a life of obedience, James says we are blessed: “But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act – they will be blessed in their doing.”
Notice how he describes God’s Word. He calls it the “law of liberty.” It sets us free to live the kind of life we were created to live. God’s Word isn’t like a straightjacket which keeps us from doing what we want to do. It’s the Word of the God who created us and who knows what is best for us. “True freedom is the opportunity and the ability to give expression to what we truly are. We are truly free when we live the life appropriate to those who are created in the image of God.... The law of God is the law of liberty because it safeguards, expresses and enables the life of true freedom into which Christ has brought us. This is the blessing of which James speaks (25), the blessing of a full life, a true humanity. Obedience is the key factor in our enjoyment of it” (Motyer, p. 71). Being doers of the Word is the best thing for us; it leads to the kind of life God created us for, a fully human life.
This passage is closely related to one earlier in the chapter which says “welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.” This Word that we’re being called to obey is the Word that saves us. James is saying that if we claim to believe this Word but aren’t growing in obedience we’ve deceived ourselves. Our faith is worthless and will not save us. This doesn’t contradict Paul’s teaching on justification by faith. James is saying that genuine faith can’t be confined to our inner lives; it will manifest itself in outward acts of obedience.
How we respond to this “word that has the power to save” our souls is of the greatest importance. We can’t afford to allow more “urgent” things to crowd this out. C.S. Lewis reminds us of the infinite dimension of our lives and the lives of those around us: “It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations.... There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal” (The Business of Heaven, pp. 147-48). Each of us is headed in one direction or the other, and we are influencing the direction of others whether we’re aware of it or not. None of us are mere mortals. In the light of such overwhelming possibilities, how can we allow ourselves to be deceived? Since we live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, since we are all moving, and are influencing one another, in one direction or the other: “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” Listen attentively to the Word, then remember what you’ve heard as you go about your duties, and order your life in obedience to His commands. Those who do this are blessed.
