Faith Obeys

James 1:22-25

This point is closely intertwined with the response of humility in verses 19-21. In verse 25 James talks about the man who "looks intently into the perfect law of freedom." The phrase "looks intently" can be used to refer to stooping down and looking closely at something (Moo, James, 93). It's like when my three-year-old son sees a bug, and he stops in his tracks and bends down to put his face inches from the ground to look at it. He gazes on it. Likewise, amid the busyness of our lives, we need to stop for some time during the day, look at the Word, read it, and study it. Don't be content with a little word from God for the day. Dive in deep. 19The language here carries the idea of looking "with penetrating absorption." Absorb the Word.

The man who absorbs the perfect law that gives freedom and continues to do so will not forget what he hears. In verses 23-24 James contrasts this kind of man with another man who doesn't remember the Word. James uses a deliberately ridiculous analogy of a person who gazes into his own face in a mirror but then seconds later couldn't even pick himself out of a police lineup. He forgets what he looked like. James says not to do this with the Word—don't forget it.

This command not to forget God's Word reminds us of the history of God's people. In Deuteronomy God gave His people His law, the second giving of the law, before the people went into the promised land.1 Deuteronomy 6:4-9 contains one of the most important passages in Israel's history, and it relates to remembering God's Word:

A couple of chapters later in Deuteronomy, we see God warning His people not to forget His commands and decrees:

Don't forget God's Word: let it lodge in your heart and in your mind; have it always before you. The importance of God's Word is one reason I believe memorization of Scripture is an all-important spiritual discipline for every Christian. People say, "I can't memorize Scripture," and I want to be careful because I know that believers have different abilities to memorize. At the same time, Psalm 19 says the Word is more precious than gold, than "an abundance of pure gold" (Ps 19:10). The question is, "Do we value Scripture?" Do we value it more than we value our reality TV shows, the songs we download on iTunes, and the stats of our favorite sports teams? We tend to commit to memory those things we value most.

If all we do is listen to the Word when we come together for corporate worship, then we are like this fool in James 1:23-24. We listen and leave, and then by lunch, or perhaps by dinner, it's all gone. What good is that? This is why, in my own church, we have intentionally set up encouragement to memorize Scripture so that every week there is a verse (most of the time from the passage we are studying) to memorize. Men ought to lead their families to memorize Scripture together. Singles ought to memorize Scripture together. In a variety of ways and in the context of a variety of relationships, we ought to be encouraging one another to hide this Word in our hearts. If we don't, we will open God's Word and see sin for the horrible evil that it is, and then we will see God's gracious provision in Christ, but we will depart and go on our way as if we had never been exposed to these realities. This is not just dangerous; it's damning.

We Obey the Word Wholeheartedly

James 1:22

So far in our response to the Word, we've seen that we are to receive the Word humbly and remember the Word constantly. Third and finally, 21we obey the Word wholeheartedly. James 1:22 is the theme verse of the entire book of James. It says, "But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves." You have not really listened to the Word if you have not obeyed the Word. The bottom line is that the Word evokes action, and if there is no action from the Word, then clearly there has been no acceptance of the Word. This is the essence of faith. James 2 describes saving faith in more depth, but even here in chapter 1 we see this reality: those who have accepted Jesus obey Jesus. To think any differently is to live in deception. To say, "I have accepted Jesus," but then to live contrary to Jesus is to deceive oneself (1 John 2:4). James says you are blind to your true spiritual condition if you claim to have heard and received and accepted this word, yet you fail to act on it. You are deceiving yourself, for you think you're right with God because you listened to the Word, maybe even because you listened intently. But according to James, you're wrong.

James's words sound eerily familiar to Jesus' words in the Sermon on the Mount:

If your spiritual life is built on merely listening to the words of Jesus and not on obeying them, then one day your life will eternally and ultimately end in destruction. And the danger is that you're going to think you're OK all the way up until that day. Bishop Brownrig said, "To deceive is bad, to deceive yourselves is worse, to deceive yourselves about your souls is worst of all" (in Spurgeon, "Before Sermon"). I am frighteningly convinced that countless people within the church listen to the Word 22week by week, and yet it is not planted in their heart, and it is evident because they are not acting on it. Sure, they act on the things that agree with their lifestyle, or they act when it is convenient to obey. But when this Word confronts, challenges, convicts, or tries to change them, they put it aside and forget it, never putting it into action. Be careful if this describes your life because this is not the Christian life. In the Christian life the Word is planted in your heart, and you receive it like blood to your heart, humbly and constantly, and by the grace of God that moves your heart, you obey it. This is the Christian life. A life that is doing what this Word says.

As a pastor, one of the phrases that most concerns me is when someone says, "I just need to be willing to obey God's Word, particularly when it calls me to do something radical in my life or my culture. I just need to be willing. That's enough." Based on James 1, I want to warn you that this mind-set is extremely deceptive. Now, there's a grain of truth here, for Psalm 51:17 says, "You will not despise a broken and humbled heart." God desires a willing heart, just as God desires a listening heart, a heart that trembles at His Word (Isa 66). But if you listen and you don't do anything, you've not really listened. And if you're willing, but you don't do anything, you're not really willing.

Don't be willing to obey the Word; obey the Word. Don't be willing to help the poor; help the poor. Don't be willing to share the gospel; share the gospel. Don't be willing to live in purity; live in purity. We are to "be doers of the word and not hearers only" (v. 22). This exhortation—do it—can sound burdensome if we're not careful. However, listen to the language in James 1:25:

James switches from speaking of the "word" to describing "the perfect law of freedom." As soon as you start talking about obeying God's Word or His law today, many people hear that as legalistic, and they run away. But James says not to run, for the law is good. The "perfect law" James refers to in verse 25 is not the Old Testament law of Moses but rather the law understood through Christ—that is, the words of Christ and the truth of Christ that free us from slavery to sin and this world. The law says to us, "There is another way." Look at this way, this law, and do it, and you will be "blessed" in what you do (v. 25). It sounds like that 23blessing is conditional, and if you're wondering whether you have to do something in order to experience blessing, no, I'm not saying that—James is! And it's not just James—it's Jesus too, along with the rest of Scripture!2

We have created a Christianity that stops at saying Jesus loves you just the way you are and Jesus loves you no matter what you do. Certainly, there's glorious truth to this when it comes to Jesus saving us from our sins, no matter how horrible they are, and Jesus loving us when we have nothing in us to deserve such love. But at the same time, Jesus says things like, "You are My friends if you do what I command you" (John 15:14). And, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word" (John 14:23). John tells us in 1 John 2:4, "The one who says, 'I have come to know Him [Jesus],' yet doesn't keep His commands, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." So, how do we understand all this? How do we understand a law that brings freedom and an obedience that God commands? Understanding this concept helps bring the whole passage together.

James tells us glorious blessing is to be experienced in obedience to God's Word. That naturally leads us to wonder, "How do you obey God's Word?" The answer is not that you muster up obedience to the best of your ability. No, the answer is to receive the Word humbly, the Word planted in you, and to focus on it, remember it, and hide it in your heart and on your mind. As you do this, that Word which initially gave you life as a Christian will work in and through you and move you to follow God's decrees.

So don't settle for just listening to it. There are surely many followers of Christ to whom God has been speaking for days, weeks, months, maybe even years, and by His Word He's been calling them to do something in particular in their life or in their family. My counsel is this: Do it. Receive the Word humbly, remember it constantly, and obey it wholeheartedly.

For some followers of Christ, there may be an area of outright disobedience or an area of delayed obedience. It's an area of life where they have been putting off God's Word. They know what God's Word says, but they are not putting it into practice. The Word is saying, "Care for the poor," and yet they're still not doing it. The Word is saying, "Turn from gossip, turn from pornography, be reconciled to your spouse," and they are ignoring it because it doesn't fit with what they want. Or maybe24 the Word is saying something that so goes against the grain of the way this culture works, and they think, "I don't know if anybody will understand." In the end we must obey God's Word, regardless of the circumstances or consequences. This is one of the marks of true faith as the Bible defines it.

One of the books that has had an impact on me when it comes to the house church in China is called Back to Jerusalem. It is written by three Chinese pastors, and at the end of the book the pastors talk about the difference between believers and disciples, that is, people who just say they believe in Christ and people who are really following Christ. I think that difference is akin to James's distinction between hearers and doers. These pastors write, "True disciples are usually people that few understand. They are viewed as potentially unstable fanatics. Often the same governments that tolerate the existence of mere believers will stop at no ends to completely eradicate any disciples within their borders" (Yun, Yongze, and Wang, Back to Jerusalem, 115). Did you catch that? These pastors are saying that the government in China really does not care about people who are listening to the Word. But the government wants to imprison people who are doing the Word.

We stall so often at this point, and I want to be careful because I'm not suggesting that we throw godly, biblical counsel out the window and act without thinking. But at the same time, we can so worry ourselves by thinking that we might mess up that we end up not doing anything at all. If you are listening to the Word and absorbing yourself in it, I want to encourage you that you can rest confident that the Word planted in your heart is going to lead and guide you. So abide in God, abide in His Word, and when He speaks, obey.

Reflect and Discuss