Summary of James 1:19-27:
James offers some practical advice, saying everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger for man’s anger does not bring about righteous life. Get rid of all moral filth and evil and humbly accept the word planted in you.
Do what the word says. Anyone who doesn’t is like a man who just looks in a mirror and forgets what he sees. Anyone who follows the law will be blessed in what he does. Keep a tight rein on your tongue and look after orphans, widows, and keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
BSF Study Questions Acts Lesson 28, Day 3: James 1:19-27
6) Personal Question. My answer: All of them! I love the slow to anger and slow to speak because I anger quickly and speak quickly. Do what God says to do. Keep yourself from being polluted. All great advice for living.
7) Personal Question. My answer: I hope a positive one. I’d hate to see myself without Bible study.
8 ) Personal Question. My answer: Donate. I have precious little time to give so I donate instead.
Conclusions BSF Study Questions Acts Lesson 28, Day 3: James 1:19-27
I love the practical advice that we all know, but we all need to hear.
End Notes BSF Study Questions Acts Lesson 28, Day 3: James 1:19-27
Much of our anger and wrath comes from being self-centered and not others-centered. Swift to hear is a way to be others-centered. Slow to speak is a way to be others-centered.
This word is able to save us, both in our current situation and eternally. The purity of God’s word can preserve us even in an impure age.
“The first thing, then, is receive. That word ‘receive’ is a very instructive gospel word; it is the door through which God’s grace enters to us. We are not saved by working, but by receiving; not by what we give to God, but by what God gives to us, and we receive from him.” (Spurgeon)
ii. Here James alluded to the spiritual power of the word of God. When it is implanted in the human heart, it is able to save your souls. The word of God carries the power of God.
Must Be Doers
It was common in the ancient world for people to hear a teacher. If you followed the teacher and tried to live what he said, you were called a disciple of that teacher. We may say that Jesus is looking for disciples: doers, not mere hearers.
Jesus used this same point to conclude His great Sermon on the Mount. He said that the one who heard the word without doing it was like a man who built his house on the sand, but the one who heard God’s word and did it was like a man whose house was built on a rock. The one who both heard and did God’s word could withstand the inevitable storms of life and the judgment of eternity (Matthew 7:24-27).
A Christian looks into God’s Word to do something about it, not just to store up facts that he will not put to use by being a doer of the word.
In the ancient Greek language, the word for looks into spoke of a penetrating examination, so that a person would even bend over to get a better look. Though James stressed doing, he did not neglect studying God’s Word either. We should look into God’s Word.
The New Testament never uses this ancient Greek word for “religious”in a positive sense (Acts 17:22, 25:19, 26:5; Colossians 2:23). James used it here of someone who is religious, but is not really right with God, and this is evident because he does not bridle his tongue.
Your walk with God is useless if it does not translate into the way you live and the way you treat others.
“This seems to reflect upon the hypocritical Jews, whose religion consisted so much in external observances, and keeping themselves from ceremonial defilements, when yet they were sullied with so many moral ones, James 1:14; Matthew 23:23; John 18:28; devoured widows’ houses.” (Poole)
A real walk with God shows itself in simple, practical ways. It helps the needy and keeps itself unstained by the world’s corruption.
The Christian ideal is not to retreat from the world; they are in the world, they are not of it; and remain unspotted from the world.
“I would like to see a Christian, not kept in a glass case away from trial and temptation, but yet covered with an invisible shield, so that, wherever he went, he would be guarded and protected from the evil influences that are in the world in almost every place.” (Spurgeon)
From the book of Genesis, Lot is an example of a man who was spotted by the world. He started living towards Sodom, disregarding the spiritual climate of the area because of the prosperity of the area. Eventually he moved to the wicked city and became a part of the city’s leadership. The end result was that Lot lost everything – and was saved only by the skin of his teeth.
“There is no book with so lofty an ideal of what life may become when it is yielded to the grace of Christ. ” (Meyer)