Quick to Listen Slow to Speak (James 1:19-27)

In this episode, we learn that there is an outworking of our salvation that will lead us to control our speech, help helpless people, and keep us from being influenced by the ways of the world.

What is Grace Sermons?

Grace-based biblical teaching and sermons with Pastor Jason White. Messages that focus on Life in Christ and practical application as New Covenant believers.

So, we are in week 2 of a message series on the book of James that we are calling “Faith in Action,” and last week we made it through v.18 of ch. 1, where James taught us to count our trials as pure joy because God uses them to develop perseverance in our lives.

And as we walk by faith and dependence on Him and ask for His wisdom, we will experience the Life of Christ as our reward. We’ll begin to see that the abundant Life isn’t found in better circumstances but in Jesus Himself… And so we said last week that our prayer is that God would give us the wisdom to not waste the trials we go through.

And I hope that if you’ve gone through some trials this week that you’ve been able to cling to Christ and walk through them with this perspective that James gives us here in chapter 1.
Today, as we get ready to pick up where we left off in verse 19, I want us to be reminded of the last thing James said in the last section, which was in verse 18…

18 He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.

James reminds us that if we have put our faith in Jesus for salvation that we are not who we once were. We have been given new birth through the word of truth. This is a reference to the gospel. When we hear the good news of Jesus and receive his gift of salvation, our hearts are regenerated, and we experience a new spiritual birth.

And as we said last week, James is mostly showing us the outworking of that new birth. He is giving us very practical ways that this new birth affects how we live our lives and our behavior.
And as we pick up in verse 19, we see that again right off the bat…

19 My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.

When I was a Junior in High School, I was playing doubles in the finals of a tennis tournament at Lancaster High School…and my partner and I were playing some guys that we should have beaten. I mean in all honesty, we were better than they were, but I was not playing very well that day and I hit the last shot to end the match into the net, and when I did, I turned around and threw my racket as hard as I could all the way from the net to the back fence and yelled at “GD” (except I actually said the words) as loud as I could.

I was certainly not slow to become angry, nor slow to speak at that moment, and I immediately felt sick to my stomach. I felt God immediately say, “Jason, that’s not who you are.” “That’s not the kind of behavior that lines up with this new birth I’ve given you.” And I spent the rest of the afternoon not only running around the track (because that is where my coach sent me immediately), but tracking down and apologizing to my coach, my parents, my teammates, and even other parents who were there.
But I also have to admit, that my anger issues didn’t go away immediately. Because even though I knew that this wasn’t the right behavior for someone who was a child of God, I also didn’t truly understand my identity either. See, the reason I got so angry so quickly in those moments that I didn’t perform well was because I thought that I was defined by those things. I was trying to validate my worth and meaning and importance in front of others through winning.

And so when I lost, that wasn’t just a game, that was my life…what defined me and justified me before others. So I was quick to get angry…I was quick to speak and make excuses for why we lost so that I could convince others that I really wasn’t that bad, that I was better than that.
But once I began to understand so much more about who I was in Christ and my identity in Him and that I was not defined by my successes and failures, then I became a lot slower to become angry and a lot slower to speak.

And of course, I am using an example of playing sports, but the same is true in our relationships with others. We get angry when we are in a disagreement or argument with someone because we are trying to justify ourselves by being right…

We can’t be quick to listen to their point of view. We must speak & defend & put them in their place.
But when you and I understand our true identity and who we are in Christ and all that we have in Him, and we walk by faith then we will become slow to become angry, slow to speak, and quick to listen to how our actions affect other people or to learn their point of view on whatever we are talking about.
So, this new birth that James mentioned in v. 18 affects our emotions & our speech, and James will have more to say about this later as well…but it also affects much more as you see James says next in v21…

21 Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you (your souls).

For some reason, the NIV doesn’t translate the Greek word, psyche here, but it is there in the original writings. And we talk about this all the time when we talk about our spiritual anatomy.

We are a spirit, soul, and body. And the place of the new birth that James mentioned in v. 18 happens in our spirit. We are saved through this spiritual union that we now have with Christ.
But there is this outworking of our salvation that affects our souls and our bodies. And so James says here, to accept this new life planted in you as who you really are and get rid of all of the moral filth and evil that doesn’t match up with who you are now in Christ…

And when he says “to get rid of” it…he’s giving us the image of removing clothes…in other words, “You’ve been remade into someone new in Christ, so quit wearing your old clothes on the outside that don’t match who you now are on the inside.”

And those old clothes are the sins and behaviors that are evil and not from God. So, it’s not just speech (v.19-20) but an outworking of your salvation that affects all of your emotions, behaviors, and choices. “Wear the clothes metaphorically that match who you are on the inside.” Verse 22…

22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

So, if we listen to Jesus’ teaching about what is sin and no longer a part of the new creation we’ve become in Him and we continue to keep on those clothes and live like we once did then we are deceiving ourselves because the point wasn’t to just hear the teaching and know it intellectually but to accept it into our lives and live it out… “do what it says” in the power of the Spirit (to allow the outworking into our souls/bodies actually happen). Verse 23 (ex. of what it’s like when we don’t)…

23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his (natural) face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

So James says that when we only listen to God’s word and don’t follow through with what it says then we are like someone who looks at his “natural face” in the mirror and then walks away from it and immediately forgets what he looks like. But what does that mean? And what is this perfect law that gives freedom and how does that fit in here?

Well, there was one commentary that I read this week that sums this up so well…

What is seen in this mirror is described by James as his natural face. A more precise rendering of the phrase would be “the face of his birth.” The mirror then reveals to its Christian hearers the true “face” of their new birth into God’s family. It shows them what they truly are in Christ and therefore how they ought to behave in keeping with that image of themselves. Thus the believer who hears the Word but goes out and ignores what it has shown him is truly like a person who immediately forgets what kind of man he is. To be a mere hearer of God’s truth is to forget one’s true identity as a born-again and justified child of God, and to behave as though he is not.

The perfect law of liberty is the spiritual “mirror” into which a believer looks when he hears “the implanted word.” Since the commands of this Christian law are in accord with his innermost nature as a born-again person, they are not in any way a form of bondage but rather they are a “law of liberty [freedom].” What the Christian really learns from the Word (as seen in vv 23–24) is to become (in conduct) what he already is by virtue of his regenerate nature. When a person is doing something as a natural expression of his true nature, he is obviously enjoying the liberty of just being himself.

So… don’t listen to God’s Word about who you are and the kind of behavior that lines up with who you are now and just let it pass right through your head and go out and continue living like your old self…instead, live out who you’ve now become in Christ…

There’s so much freedom in that. At first we might tend to think of it as restrictions. I shouldn’t do this and can’t do that. But what we see is that these actions and behaviors line up with who we were ultimately created to be, and that we are now free from the bondage of sin, guilt, and shame and free to finally live out who we were created to be and what we were created to do!
How much blessing is there in that! (everything else is bondage…slave to behaviors that help us cope or to justify ourselves, form an identity around…all of which we have in Christ and are now free!)
Alright, let’s look at how James finishes up…v.26
26 Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. 27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Okay, so after James has said to not just listen to the word but be doers of it and given us an example of how that is like a person looking in the mirror and walking away and forgetting who they are, now gives 3 very practical ways that faith leads to action (behaviors that will line up with who we now are in Christ)

The first one is that we will keep a tight reign on our tongue. And of course the imagery is that of a bridle and a bit used to control a horse. To slow it down, to stop, or to go, and of course which direction to go. And James says that as an outworking of our faith, we will learn to keep control of our speech as the implanted Spirit leads and guides us to do so.

SO, is there an area of your speech that Jesus is wanting to tighten the reigns on today? The way you talk to your spouse, your kids? The way you try to defend yourself & always have to be right? The gossip you spread, the lies you are telling, the vulgar language that is inconsistent with who you now are?

If so, if these are “old clothes” that you need to take off and put on the “new clothes” of who you are in Christ, turn it over to Him today and allow Him to line up your speech with who you now are in Christ.
Okay, so the second practical thing James mentions here an outworking of our faith is that we will help helpless people. He specifically mentions orphans and widows as examples of helpless people.

Todd & Amy Block were a married couple who didn’t know Jesus several years ago, and a friend of Amy’s invited them to church and so they went and they heard the good news about Jesus and they both accepted His forgiveness and this free gift of eternal life by putting their faith/trust in Jesus.
And with a new heart, not too long after that God began to stir up the affection in their hearts for helping helpless people, specifically in the area of adoption. And as they prayed about that, Jesus led them to eventually adopt several children from 3rd world countries.

But God still continued to work in their hearts to help more people and before long they sensed him calling them to Guatemala where they ended up starting an orphanage called Village of Hope where they care for orphans by providing schooling, training, and a family to love them…all while sharing the hope of Jesus with them. And these kids’ lives are being transformed and changed forever.
I had a chance to go there on a mission trip several years ago and see it first-hand, and it truly is incredible. One of the things that really touched my heart was how Todd and Amy’s adult daughter and husband had started a new branch of Village of Hope called “Into His Arms.”

And what it is is palliative end-of-life care for baby orphans. See, from what I understand, sometimes babies are born in Guatemala with terminal illnesses and parents don’t want them. So they just leave them to die, and Addisyn (Todd/Amy’s daughter) learned about this and said, “That’s not okay!”
And they started taking these babies into their home and holding them, loving/caring them, singing to them, praying for them, telling them that they are loved as they die and are taken “into His arms.”
It’s an incredibly emotional thing to subject yourself to, but it’s born out of the new heart that Jesus gives us to want to help helpless people.

SO, who is Jesus leading you to help today? Because there is this outworking of the new heart that He’s given you to help helpless people. So, who is it that He is leading you to help today? May you help them in the power of the Spirit today.

There’s a third thing that James mentions as an outworking of our faith and that is keeping ourselves from becoming polluted by the world.

Now, that one verse has led a lot of people to feel like they need to create a bubble and isolate themselves from the world. Don’t watch rated R movies, don’t listen to secular music, don’t go to public schools, don’t go to parties, and a lot of things along those lines.

And listen, there can be a lot of things like that that can influence us and lead us to behave and act in ways that line up with the world instead of ways that line up with who we are in Christ.
So it is wise in some ways to certainly be mindful of how we might be influenced by things in this world, but keep in mind that…

We are to be out in the world influencing culture and people’s lives and not isolated in a bubble.
Jesus and the disciples went out into the world and hung out with people who were acting very worldly in their ways.

And so, we keep an eye out for how the world is influencing us as we go out into the world and allow Christ to use us to help people, ESPECIALLY THOSE WHO DON’T KNOW JESUS!

So, once again, what is Jesus saying to you through all of this?

If you’ve said yes to Jesus for salvation, what is he saying to you about your speech and how it lines up with who you now are in Christ?

What is he saying to you about helping helpless people as a part of the new heart He’s given you?

What is He saying to you about how the world is influencing you over and above how He is influencing you?

Are you listening for what He is saying, and are you willing to trust Him to work through you to lead you into action as you walk by faith with Him?

And if you’ve never said yes to Jesus, are you willing to take a step of faith and receive this new heart, this new birth that James mentioned?

It will lead you to finally be able to live out who God created you to be. And so if you are ready to say yes to Him today, would you pray with me?