James 1:19-2:13. Yesterday’s reading had three sections, the address of the letter, an encouragement to have joy in the midst of trials, and an encouragement that God is our inheritance.
In today’s reading there are two parts. The first part of today’s reading starts out with a verse that may be familiar to many of you. “Be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.” As James continues the letter from that verse he explains that anger does not make our lives into God pleasing lives. What makes our lives pleasing to God involves two things. First we need to get rid of what ever is left over of our old sinful life. I do carpentry work and sometimes when I am moving wood around I get sap on my hand, a big old blob of sticky ooze, which of course I promptly wipe off on my pants or some other object that is handy. The problem is that there is some of the sap left on my hand, even a rag won’t get it off, there’s residue, and it sticks to stuff or stuff sticks to it like dirt, and I wind up with a dirty spot on my hand. The only solution is to get rid of the residue with something that can remove sap. We need to get rid of the residue of sin in our lives. But how? We need to be humble or meek and allow the word of God to control our lives. The idea of meekness is to yield. Like when you come to an intersection and there is a yield sign, you need to let the other person go through first, to control the intersection. We need to let the Bible control our lives.
Our theme verse this year is next. We need to be doers of the word and not just hearers. The Bible is like a mirror that shows us how we really are. Paul told the church in Rome that the Old Testament law cannot make us right with God but that it shows us that we are not right with God (Romans 3:19-23). In those verses he also tells us that only through Jesus can we be right with God. But there is an advantage to the Old Testament Law, if it shows us something is wrong we can try to change it. We can try to get some of the sap off our hands. Ultimately though we need Jesus to clean us up. But James is telling us we need to act on what we know. Some times when I am working I will get dirt on my face. Later someone will make all kinds of weird gestures, pointing at my face, pretending to wipe their face. They are trying to tell me I have something on my face. Sometimes I just tell them I don’t care and move on. James tell us that is what it is like sometimes when we read the Bible. We see we are dirty and walk away and ignore it. James tells us we shouldn’t do that. If we act on what we see about ourselves, we will be blessed. It will be good in our lives.
James ends this first section by getting pretty specific. He tells the readers that pure religion (The Greek word translated religion comes from a root that means to cry out in fear. The idea is trying to relate to a god who is displeased with us and involves helping those most in need and not to be marked or spotted by the world.
In the second section of today’s reading James tells the readers not to play favorites as they live for Jesus. He tells them, first of all, that God does not play favorites and, second of all, that the people they are “kissing up” to are the very people who were being mean to them. He also tells them that, since God loves the people they are ignoring that they are actually dishonoring Jesus. James then mentions the law again this time calling it the royal law. He defines this “royal law” for us as “Love your neighbors as yourself”.. Jesus said that this was the second greatest commandment in the Law (Old Testament Law of Moses) and that along with the first greatest commandment, “Love God with all you are”, these two really defined what God expected of His people (Matthew 22:34-40). He then warns that playing favorites is sin (displeasing disobedience to God) and that any sin results in condemnation under the Law. He encourages them to live as people who will be judged by the royal law, to be merciful.
It is interesting in today’s reading that James kind of mixes up what he means by law. He talks about the “law of liberty” and the “royal law” probably both referring to the same thing. But he also talks about the Law meaning the whole law of the Old Testament. And remember James was probably one of the first, if not the first, “book” of the New Testament written so when he talks about the word of God or the law he is mostly talking about the Old Testament. I think that James is making a contrast between the whole Law and it’s negative effect, it brings condemnation and judgment, and the “spirit” of the Law found in Jesus’ statement (the Royal law or law of freedom) which leads to blessing. Overall James is telling us we can stay dirty, keep living based on our own passions (like anger), and not be pleasing to God or we can yield to God’s Word and please God. He is very practical by telling us that to please God we need to take care of the needy. And remember that the believers he was writing to included Jewish believers who had been chased out of Jerusalem and the surrounding area. The more established members of the churches he wrote too needed to remember those poorer members and not despise them. They were God’s people scattered. Just as the Samaritans were neighbors to the Jews (See Luke 10:25-37) now the Jewish Christians were neighbors to the Gentile believers and the Gentile Christians needed to open their lives and wallets to them. The law can lead to judgment or it can produce mercy. What will we do with what we see?
Lord help me hear and do. Help me respond to your word. Help me care for others. Help me not play favorites. Help me remember that anger accomplishes nothing. Let my words be filled with the story of your loving gift to the world. Let my life be a witness of your love. Help me care for others.
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