“Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your sound. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” (James 1:19-27)
SO BE SWIFT TO LISTEN TO GOD’S WORD
These scriptures begin with a firm instruction given in the light of what previously has been said. We do not feel the casualness of mere suggestion here but the firmness of a God-inspired directive. It is made plain that here is council for every child of God. “Be swift to hear,” always ready to listen. Listen to what? Surely not listen to everything and anything that might be said in this world. No, according to what has just been said and as we shall see in the following verses, we are being instructed both to listen, and how to listen to God’s Word. Later we will be told to be doers of the Word and not hearers only, but first we must learn to be hearers. The instructions here on being proper hearers have been greatly neglected. Many sermons have been preached on being “doers of the word, and not hearers only,” but not nearly as much has been said on “being hearers”. Here we have it taught by the Holy Spirit. First become hearers, and then doers. For if we do not hear right, we will not see clearly to do right. And right here lies the answer to many problems.
ON BEING A HEARER
Note what works together to make a Godly hearer. One thing we are to be swift in, and two things we are to be slow in. We should always be eager and ready to hear what God would say to us, but hesitant to speak, and hesitant to get angry. How much like those our Lord describes in the beatitudes who are “poor in spirit,” and those who are “Meek.” (Matt. 5:3) To them the kingdom of heaven belongs and they shall someday inherit the earth. How many a word from God has been neutralized by hasty and empty comments, or made ineffective by our excuses and the rationalizing of our situations or behavior. If we truly hear what God has to say, and if our heart is sincere, what is there for us to speak except to say, amen. Anything we might say more than this “cometh of evil”.
WE MUST BE SLOW TO ANGER
“Slow to anger.” Why is anger not ruled out altogether? Why are we told only to be slow to anger? Because there is anger, and then there is anger. Because we are to be very careful as to what sort of anger we allow. That is why we have more said to us concerning this in the following verse. The scripture goes on to say in verse twenty: “for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.” It is the wrath of man that we must be careful to avoid. It can never do good, only harm. Doing harm is not becoming to a child of God.
OUR HEAVENLY FATHER IS SLOW TO ANGER
There is a wrath that the Scripture calls the wrath of God. We read of it all through the scriptures in Old Testament and New. It is possible for God’s children to reflect the wrath of God, and I am sure there are times when we should. The more perfectly we become like our Heavenly Father the more we will feel about things as He does. But we must be careful here too, that we truly understand what things do arouse the anger of God, and that He himself is “slow to anger and plenteous in mercy.” (Psalm 103:8) Concerning this Godly anger the Apostle Paul writes, “Be ye angry, and sin not.” (Eph. 4:26)
HUMAN ANGER IS NEVER GOOD
But the anger of man will never work righteousness, for it is selfish and self-centered. It is aroused when his way or will is crossed. In the case of our text, anger can be aroused by the Word of God. This is why we are next told to “put away all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness (or overflowing of wickedness). Does this not well describe the wrath of man? It is the over-flowing, or over-spilling, of wickedness, and of course such behavior must be rejected.
SO WE CAN PROPERLY RECEIVE THE WORD
Keep in mind now we are being taught how to be hearers of the Word. After following the instructions given to this point, we are now able to receive the implanted word (engrafted word, AV). The Greek word used here seems to express a two-fold thought. There is the idea of planting, but more than that, a successful planting; that is, a planting that actually begins to grow. The picture then is clear. The ground must be properly prepared in order that the Word will be able to flourish and grow. In other words, without this proper approach to hearing, the Word cannot become an effective working force within our lives. Now with the spirit of meekness prevailing in our attitude toward the ways of God, there will be no resistance to the receiving of the Word. And as the “good ground” receives the seed and bears fruit, so the Word of God finds its way into the embrace of our hearts. So then, it is the implanted Word received with meekness, which is able to save our souls.
SO THE WORD CAN BE EFFECTIVE
The fact that these words are spoken to “beloved brethren” (vs.19), and born-again ones (vs. 18), makes it abundantly clear that it would be a mistake for us to confine their meaning to that of a preconversion promise. The ability of the properly received and implanted Word to save our souls is promised to born-again believers. For “man shall … live … by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” (Matt. 4:4) Truly it is only after our conversion that we really begin to listen to what God has to say to us. In fact, it is a sign that we have truly been converted when we will listen. We become a people who live by faith and who drink of the water of life freely. The implication here is that unless the Word of God becomes implanted within our hearts, saving power is not present.
THEN WE MUST BE DOERS
Next, we are warned about possible self-deception. Being hearers is only part. Knowledge, no matter how pure, is vain unless applied. Even though we have become good hearers and the Word has found the embrace of our hearts and is now able to flourish, there stands yet one possible barrier to fruitfulness. It is our will. After our heart consents to the truth of the Word, our will must also consent. Obedience is an act of will. We then become doers of the Word and not hearers only.
Let us take heed not to glory in how much we read God’s Word, or how much of it we memorize. For it is possible to do all this and not even hear what God is saying, let alone, be faithful and obedient to it. No, let us not delude ourselves. “He that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” (James 4:17)
NOT CONTENT WITH HEARING ONLY
An illustration follows of what a “hearer only” is like. He is like a man who looks into a mirror and carefully examines his own face — he sees himself as he really is — then turns and goes away immediately forgetting what he saw. Here again the importance of being a good hearer must be pointed out. If we are not the kind of hearers described above we will not see ourselves as we really are. So it is worth repeating that these verses deal in detail with both hearing and doing, both with the heart and the will. The former first being correct we are thus prepared for the latter. If we are ignorant it is our ignorance that must be dealt with first.
In God’s Word; the perfect law — the law of liberty — we see not only what we should be or were meant to be, but also what we are and how we are doing. It allows us to see ourselves as God sees us. We should see this as a wonderful privilege and as a mercy from God. We all know how much easier it is for us to be able to criticize ourselves than to have someone else criticize us. We can handle it then before someone else get a chance. This standing before the mirror experience, gives us that opportunity. We see the kindness of God here too. It is not as though God is pointing an accusing finger at us and telling us how bad we are, but rather He sets a mirror before us and we “behold ourselves.” How sad to lightly esteem this grace of God by failing to become doers of the Word.
GODLY HEARING BRINGS UNDERSTANDING
Another important truth is found here is that a good hearer is said to be one who sees. This denotes understanding. “He that receiveth seed into the good ground,” Jesus said, ” is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit.” (Mathew 13:23) Oh, the wonder of God’s Word that is light and understanding to the honest, and humble heart, but confounds the proud who boast in their own wisdom.
DO IT NOW OR YOU’LL FORGET
We are warned next about the danger of our proneness to quickly forget what we saw — what we understood to be true. Learning to handle things immediately is the answer to this problem. We have tendency to “put it off.” But putting it off is only arranging to forget. Failure to do, to obey, to act upon the truth is to deceive ourselves. For what we saw is still true whether we have forgotten or not. All wisdom, all progress, and all healthy growth stops and waits for us to make the proper move. If we are a doer that works, and are “not a hearer that forgets. We shall be “blessed in our doing.” This works, is the active ingredient of our faith — that makes faith a living force.
AN ILLUSTRATION
“If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.” Now we must not miss what we have here. Already the application of the above teaching is set before us in an example. Every verse is important. Every instruction has strong intent. God has not spoken for naught. In verse nineteen we were taught to be “slow to speak,” which implies the bridling of the tongue. Then we were told that in hearing and not heeding we are deceiving ourselves. Now for the application.
One among us may seem to be religious, that is, appearing to be a pious worshiper, but at the same time he is not living in obedience to the Word that he hears, his religion amounts to nothing. In this case if he cannot, or will not, quietly and meekly receive the Word of God, without defending himself, or making excuses, or rationalizing his position, he is deceiving his own heart. His religion is vain — it is empty.
A DEFINITION
The last verse of our text gives us the true definition of pure religion. We can see it involves both character and conduct. Our conduct must be that of doing good. In the previous verse the control of the tongue is mentioned, here, the visiting of the fatherless and widows in their affliction. In both cases our conduct is in view. One has to do with our personal conduct, the other with our conduct in relationship with others. Doing good! That we would be pleasing God in our personal life and in regards to others.
Along with this, and equally important, is the condition of our character or “inner man.” Pure religion is to keep oneself unspotted from the world. This is a word that is often sadly neglected nowadays. Nevertheless it stands sure. We have already seen (vs. 18) that we were meant to be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures, members of a new order. We belong to the Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to us. To take on of this world, its ways, its thinking, and its wisdom, is to blemish that which God intended. We will develop spots that will be quickly recognizable as being of this world, surely not from Heaven. But pure religion and undefiled before God is to keep oneself unspotted. We must live here as men from another world, as indeed we are, if we have truly been born again from above. We are in this world but not of this world. (John 17:14-15) Unspotted! Pure and undefiled!
UNDEFILED BEFORE GOD
Both the “inner man” (character), and the “outer man” (conduct), become involved in obedience to God. The latter usually reflects the former. Neglect is either area can defile our religion and bring reproach to our Heavenly Father.