Lesson for February 2, 2014: Hear and Do the Word (James 1:19-27)
This treatment of the International Sunday
School Lesson is written by Sam E. Stone, former editor of CHRISTIAN
STANDARD.
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By Sam E. Stone
Most Bible scholars
believe that the James who wrote this epistle is the one who was a brother of Jesus (Matthew
13:55). Though he was skeptical of Jesus during
his ministry (John 7:5),
James was convinced that Jesus was the Son of God after the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:7). James
was numbered among the company in Jerusalem waiting and praying after Jesus’ ascension (Acts 1:14). Later Peter and Paul met with him in
Jerusalem (Galatians 1:19) where he was the “presiding
elder” at a church conference (Acts 15). Andrew McNab pointed out that James’s letter to the
churches (Acts 15:6-29)
has some very striking parallels with the phraseology in this epistle.
Self-Control Needed
James 1:19-21
An old saying declares it is obvious that we should listen
more than we speak, since God gave us each
two ears, but only one mouth! This fits with several Bible
teachings (Ecclesiastes 5:2; Proverbs 10:19; 13:3;
15:2). Of course, it is most important that
we listen to what God says, not simply other
people. Being slow to speak will help us be slow to become angry. R. V. G.
Tasker wrote, “An essential condition of listening to God is that the mind should not be distracted by
thoughts of resentment, ill-temper, hatred, or vengeance, all of which are
comprised in the general term ‘human anger.’”
It is not a sin to be angry. Jesus
himself became angry (Mark 3:5). The
question is, “What makes us angry?” It is one thing to be angry at
injustice and wrongdoing. It is quite different to be upset because of some
personal slight or difference. James warns us to be sure we are angry about the
right things. (See also Ephesians 4:26.) Even God
becomes angry at times (Joshua 23:16).
Hearing and Doing Required
James 1:22-25
Listening to God’s Word is
important, but even more important is to do what it says. We are not to be “hearers
only.” Jesus gave a blessing not to those
who only hear the Word of God, but to those who “hear the word of God and
obey it” (Luke 11:28). James knew all
too well the empty [ceremonial-ism] of the Jews who said yet did not. Jesus denounced this trait in the Pharisees (Matthew 23).
If a person listens to the Word but does not do what it
says, he is missing what is essential. James makes a helpful comparison: it’s
like looking into a mirror but forgetting what you see there. R. C. Foster
wrote, “Many refuse to come to church, and lay the Bible
aside because they dread to look within and behold the reflection of their
guilty souls . . . The man who deliberately turns from the higher and nobler
things of life . . . hesitates to look in the divine mirror and see how small,
withered, and emaciated his soul has become.”
The conscientious believer looks into God’s Word and then considers the implications for
his life. It is called the “perfect law,” just what the law ought to be
(see Psalm 19:7).
It is dangerous to be forgetful in the spiritual realm. Scripture is the perfect law that gives freedom. All who
continue doing what they have learned will be blessed in what they do.
Proper Religion Described
James 1:26-27
Some people consider themselves religious. They give
scrupulous attention to details of formal worship. Tasker said, “Such a
person may be very careful to use the right words when he is performing a
religious ceremony, but very careless in his speech at other times.” Such
religion fails to please God (Matthew 15:8; Isaiah
29:13). How we use our tongues indicates what is in our hearts (Matthew 12:34). We may think that we are very
religious, but we may be far from what God
wants us to be.
James gave a specific illustration of the sort of life that
pleases God. What he accepts as pure and
faultless is illustrated in two ways: to look after orphans and widows in their
distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. Scripture makes it abundantly clear that God wants his children
to help those who cannot help themselves. A. T. Robertson declared, “This
standard of purity and piety seems impossible, but God
knows how to estimate the relation between listening and doing, between
doing and loving, between loving and purity of life. The life must pass muster
with God.”
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*Lesson based on International Sunday
School Lesson, © 2009, by the Lesson Committee. Scripture
quotations are from the New International
Version ©2011, unless otherwise indicated.
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