June 14, 2021 PROVE YOURSELVES
James 1:21-25 “Therefore putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. 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 shall be blessed in what he does.
This passage of scripture can be, and often is, misinterpreted; one can conclude that we earn God’s approval and His love by the works we do. Why we do what we do, or our motive for doing ‘good works’ is the issue. A clear teaching of the New Testament is that we are to be about good works and that we are to live righteously, but if we ever believe that it is by our good works that we earn His acceptance and approval, we are in error. Trying to earn His favor by our works would be an ongoing, difficult, impossible and exhausting endeavor that leads to defeat. The wonderful, liberating news is that God has put a new nature in us, and when we live out of our new nature, we naturally ‘do’ the word of God. Ephesians 4:22-24 tells us that the new nature God has given us is “created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” The word of God is full of commands and instructions; it is an impossible task to keep them in our own strength viz. our old nature. Operating out of our new nature, we find it a joy to be doers of the word, and we are blessed in the process. If we say we believe the word, and we claim to have faith, yet are not doers of the word, our faith is dead-that is the warning in the book of James. We can also say that if we are not doers of the word, then we are not living out of our new nature. The verses referred to above in Ephesians, tell us to put off our old self, and to put on our new self. The putting off the old and putting on the new is a choice we make; in our spirit and in our mind we chose to walk according to the Spirit-it is really that simple. In the first verse above, we are told to lay aside those things that are unlike Christ, and in humility receive the ‘word implanted.’ We receive His word in humility because we are saying ‘no’ to our way and bowing the knee to Him and His ways. We are not to receive is word in a casual way, but are to have His word ‘implanted’ so that that the life we live flows from His word. His word is truth and His word leads to life. If we are hearers only, and not doers of His word, then we are deluding ourselves; to delude ourselves means to mislead, trick, or fool ourselves. In essence, our faith is to lead to being doers of the word-and that is how we prove ourselves and prove that our faith is genuine. So, let us make sure that we are not a forgetful hearer only, but a doer of His word.
James 3:13 “Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by His good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom.”
1 John 2:4-6 “The one who says, ‘I have come to know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in Him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.”
Blessings, Buddy
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