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"Testing and Tempting"
James 1:17-27
Good News Translation (GNT)
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17 Every good gift and every perfect present
comes from heaven; it comes down from God,
the Creator of the heavenly lights, who does
not change or cause darkness by turning.
18 By his own will he brought us into being
through the word of truth, so that we should
have first place among all his creatures.
Hearing and Doing
19 Remember this, my dear friends!
Everyone must be quick to listen, but slow to
speak and slow to become angry.
20 Human anger does not achieve God's
righteous purpose.
21 So get rid of every filthy habit and all wicked
conduct. Submit to God and accept the word
that he plants in your hearts, which is able
to save you.
22 Do not deceive yourselves by just listening to
his word; instead, put it into practice.
23 If you listen to the word, but do not put it into
practice you are like people who look in a
mirror and see themselves as they are.
24 They take a good look at themselves and then
go away and at once forget what they look
like.
25 But if you look closely into the perfect law
that sets people free, and keep on paying
attention to it and do not simply listen and then
forget it, but put it into practice - you will be
blessed by God in what you do.
26 Do any of you think you are religious?
If you do not control your tongue, your religion
is worthless and you deceive yourself.
27 What God the Father considers to be pure
and genuine religion is this: to take care of
orphans and widows in their suffering and to
keep oneself from being corrupted by the
world.
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Taken from 'word-on-the-web' supplied by the
Scripture Union
Lived-out wisdom
James 1:17-27
'The peace and wisdom of God fill your hearts, that nothing may rule in you but the life, which stands in the Lord God.'1
The iconic American comedy, The Simpsons, is an irreverent social commentary.
The characters, with few exceptions, are caricatures of the sin and folly that rule society:
Homer is a self-indulgent fool; Mr Burns, a greedy sociopath; Mo, an angry, bitter reject.
Probably the worst two characters are the church minister and his wife:
he is a cold-hearted hypocrite, she is a spiteful, self-righteous gossip.
This is a sobering projection of the Christian religion:
devoid of humility, compassion and love.
Rather than being a blessing to society, it is a curse.
James agrees: such religion is useless and he warned believers about its fatal influence in the church.
God's Word is the best mirror into our hearts.
We are called to trust in the Lord with all our heart rather than lean on our own understanding (Proverbs 3:5), but if we refuse to activate this trust in our daily lives, we resort to justifying rather than examining ourselves.
What comes from the heart will pour out into our daily lives and relationships (Matthew 15:18,19).
James uses unrighteous anger as an example of the fruit of a heart that is not at peace with God.
This kind of anger means we get furious about sins we see in others - a liberal lifestyle or dodgy doctrine, for example - but ignore the unforgiving, proud selfishness in ourselves.
The Word brings such sins as anger, hypocrisy and gossip into the light, but we must be prepared to get rid of them.
If we refuse, our religion is hypocritical and worthless.
A humble heart submitted to God's Word will be quick to listen because it longs to hear what is right and will then joyfully act on it, doing God's work in this needy, dark world with a 'pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith'
(1 Timothy 1:5).
Katharine McPhail
1 George Fox, in Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline, Hodder & Stoughton, 1989, p221
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