19 – My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry,
20 – for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.
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.
22 – Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
23 – Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror
24 – and, after looking at himself, goes way and immediately forgets what he looks like.
25 – But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it-he will be blessed in what he does.
26 – If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his 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.
When I turned 16, like most of my peers, I spent a great deal of my time thinking about CARS. In fact, as the day approached when my friends and I would get our driver’s license, that was pretty much ALL we talked about. So, KNOWING about the hottest, most POPULAR cars was a real source of significance. The more you knew about Mustangs, Cougars, Camaros, Javelins, and GTOs-the more popular you were.
I remember one day standing around with some of my peers talking cars, when what looked like some sort of antique European roadster drove by. It was a yellow convertible with a leather interior and it had chrome exhaust pipes running the length of the body. It was beautiful! Well, I wanted to look good to my peers and so I pointed to it and said, “Hey guys, there goes a genuine antique roadster. I think it is definitely German made.” I expected them to be impressed with my knowledge but they weren’t. In fact, they told me that it wasn’t really an antique European roadster. It just looked like one. They explained that you could purchase a special kit and build one of these faux roadsters on top of a Volkswagen Beetle chassis. So the roadster I had seen was basically a phony. About that time I remembered thinking that the car had LOOKED like a roadster but that it certainly didn’t SOUND or PERFORM like one.
Well, unfortunately you can say the same things about many Christians. I mean, we may say we are disciples of Jesus Christ. We may even attend church and tote impressive looking Bibles, but a closer look reveals otherwise. A glance under the “hoods” of our lives shows that our commitment to our Lord isn’t all that genuine because we simply don’t WALK our TALK. Continuing our “sports car” metaphor, I would say the sad truth is many of us don’t PERFORM as we should-and this has devastating consequences when it comes to evangelism. Referring to this Brennan Manning once said,
“…the single most cause of atheism in our world today is Christians…who acknowledge Jesus with their lips…but walk out of the church doors and deny Him with their lifestyle. This is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”
And this problem is nothing new. When Mahatma Gandhi was a student in South Africa he often attended a Christian church. He was attracted to Christ and often read the New Testament. But, he never became a Christian. When asked why he said, “I got the impression that [Christians] were just a group of worldly-minded people going to church for recreation and conformity to custom. I have the highest admiration for the Christian life and for the Christ of the Bible. And I might have become a Christian if I could have seen one.”
Now, I think Mr. Gandhi misunderstood the main message of Christianity. I mean, the Bible teaches that we never “arrive” this side of eternity. Christians certainly aren’t perfect. And that’s good because if perfection were a requirement, none of us would get into heaven. We don’t earn our salvation by our level of performance. We receive it through the grace of God when we put our faith in Jesus Christ. But Gandhi was correct in pointing out that many of us do not take our commitment to our Savior as seriously as we should and because that is true, the world is often confused as to what it means to be a Christian.
Well this is another issue about which James gives us practical advice. In fact, the portion of his book I want us to study this morning, he cites three of the behaviors or characteristics that should be found “under the hoods” of genuine followers of Jesus Christ. And the first he mentions is this.
1. Authentic followers of Jesus are people of CONTROL.
Specifically he says that one way they show their self-control is the way they keep a tight rein on their ANGER. In verses 19 and 20 he says that Christians must be…
“…slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.”
Now-in order to control this particular emotion, we need to understand that there are two basic types of anger: SELFLESS anger and SELFISH anger.
The first type-SELFISH anger-is a GOOD thing. It’s the way we feel when someone intentionally hurts our children or when injustice causes people to go hungry or when a sniper shoots innocent people. These kinds of things SHOULD make us angry. The truth is the world would be a sadder place without this form of anger-anger that is motivated by wrongs committed against other people. In fact when this SELFLESS kind of ANGER is disciplined into the service of Christ it becomes one of the great dynamic forces of the world. Think of it this way. God’s anger is righteous, and in a similar way if we allow God to help us control it our anger can energize us to take actions that are righteous.
So SELFLESS anger is good. But the other form of anger: SELFISH anger is NOT. You see, selfish anger is an anger that is undisciplined and uncontrolled and because it is, it takes away our ability to think clearly and make balanced decisions. For example: Someone cuts us off in traffic on 270 and we get so mad that if we had a bazooka we’d blow them off the highway. The supposedly rapid 10-items or less checkout line at GIANT moves too slowly because of some mathematically-challenged shopper and our blood pressure soars.
You know, I’m officially a soccer dad now. Every Saturday we go to watch Becca play and I have been amazed at the ANGER displayed by parents at these games. Alan Kaufman was telling me that there is a 30% turnover rate in MSI refs each year and the main reason they give for quitting is that they are tired of dealing with parents who can’t control their anger. This reminds me of a marque saying we once used. “Don’t lose your temper. No one wants to find it!” Well, this second kind of anger is something that JAMES says ought NOT to be found in the Christian life because, as he says in verse 19, it “…does not achieve the righteousness of God.”
Now, by looking at different Bible translations we see that in this phrase James is telling us two things. The Contemporary English Version translates it this way, “If you are angry, you cannot do any of the good things that God wants done.” This particular wording infers that anger is a detriment to the part each of us as individuals play in furthering the kingdom of God. And of course it is. I mean, has your temper ever kept you from getting something good done? Men, perhaps you were trying to fix your car and you lost your cool when your car wouldn’t cooperate and you got angry and stripped out a bolt. Ladies, have you gotten so angry with your kids that you acted more immature than they did and lost respect in their eyes? You wanted to teach your kids something but your anger got in the way.
Well, the same thing is true of us as Christians. Our anger can keep us from doing the good that God wants us to do. Lost people look at the way we vent our anger at soccer games or on I-270 or in the Giant check-out line and think, “If that’s Christianity, I don’t want anything to do with it.” Anger can prevent us from doing the good God calls us to do.
But that’s not all James is saying here. Listen to how the Living Bible words this verse and you’ll see what I mean: “…anger doesn’t make us good, as God demands that we must be.” Translating this verse like this places James’ emphasis not on what our anger does to God’s kingdom but rather on what it does TO US. And selfish anger can do incredible damage to us as individuals. As an old proverb says, “Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad.” That’s pretty close to the truth because uncontrolled anger will destroy us if we let it.
A. One way that SELFISH ANGER hurts us is when we allow it to become a DISPOSITION.
This is why in Ephesians 4 Paul said, “Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry.” Now, have you ever done that? For example Have you ever gone to bed angry with your spouse?
When you did, how did you get up the next morning? Rested? Refreshed? Did you look out the window and say “Good Morning, Lord!” Or did you wake up angry and hurting and say, “Good Lord, it’s morning!”
You see, when we go to bed angry we wake up angrier because our anger has become a settled disposition. Have you ever been watching your favorite team play football. Let’s say it’s the REDSKINS playing the COWBOYS and, unlike Steve and Paul, you’re rooting for the SKINS.
Washington loses by one touchdown scored when one of the SKINS’ players fumbles the ball.
Well, this makes you ANGRY and to make matters worse, they replay this fumble ten times from five different angles. And every time you see it replayed, the hair rises on the back of your neck. And you get angrier. In the post game show, what clip to they play? THAT FUMBLE. You turn on the 10 o’clock news. What do they replay? THAT FUMBLE. Sports Illustrated comes in the mailbox later that week. The cover story features this same aggravating FUMBLE.
Well, this is exactly what our mind does with a situation that has caused us anger. It replays it over and over again and each time it does we get angry again. If you fall asleep still thinking about it, your subconscious replays it all night long and you can bet you’ll still be thinking about it in the shower the next morning. You see if we let anger continue-if we let the “sun go down” on our anger, it becomes our disposition. That is to say we become more than just angry-we become angry PEOPLE. Anger burns itself into our personality.
And you know, many times our angry disposition isn’t turned out on others; instead it’s turned inward. Dr. Paul Meier, co-founder of the MINRITH MEIER NEW LIFE CLINICS says that this anger turned inward is probably responsible for 95% of psychological depressions. So if you suffer from depression, there is a good chance that anger is behind it.
A good example of this can be seen in the life of Jonah. You may remember that God asked Jonah to preach His message to the wicked people of Nineveh, and Jonah refused initially. God got his attention as he fled in a boat going the wrong direction. Remember the special underwater condo that God prepared for Jonah in the belly of that fish? Well Jonah eventually went to Nineveh and preached and as a result the people repented and turned to God. But this made Jonah ANGRY because he didn’t like the Ninevites. He was furious with God for not destroying them. He embraced his anger long enough that it turned into a settled disposition and as a result, Jonah became a pouting prophet. Remember as he sat out in the desert he became so depressed that he asked God to take his life? Jonah’s depression was the result of his anger turned inward. It will be interesting to see how the new VEGI-TALES movie shows this part of Jonahs’ life.
B. And then, another way that ANGER can hurt us is that it can open a door to greater evil in our lives.
This is what Paul is talking about in Ephesians 4:27 when he refers to anger and says, “…do not give the devil a foothold.” He is saying that if we do not control our anger the devil can use it as a “beach head” from which he will launch an invasion into our lives that will lead us to temptation and sin. We see this early in the history of the human race when the first brothers, CAIN and ABLE brought sacrifices to God. Remember? God accepted Abel’s but rejected Cain’s and this made Cain very angry. Well when Cain got angry God warned him by saying, “Be careful Cain. Watch out, because due to your angry attitude, SIN is crouching at your door.” Cain ignored God’s warning and opened that door and when anger came into Cain’s life the first murder followed.
Richard Walters is a psychiatrist in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He writes, “People will be murdered today because of someone’s anger. Others will die from physical ailments resulting from or aggravated by their angry feelings. Many people die in anger-related auto accidents. While others carry out the angriest act of all: suicide. Countless relationships die little by little as resentment gnaws away at the foundations of love and trust. Anger is a devastating force, and its consequences should sicken us.”
Repeatedly the Bible teaches us that anger opens the door to greater evil in our lives. Proverbs 14:17 says, “An angry person does foolish things.” A few chapters later Proverbs 29:22 says, “A hot tempered man commits many sins.” How many of us have ever done something stupid, dangerous, or immoral, simply because we didn’t control our anger!?
Well, fortunately James doesn’t just tell us about the PROBLEMS associated with uncontrolled anger. He also gives us a PRESCRIPTION for this malady. In verse 19 he gives two simple steps to avoiding the selfish destructive kind of anger.
1. First of all he says that we should be, “SWIFT to hear.”
One translator puts it this way, “..be a ready listener.” You see, so many times we’d never lose control of our temper in the first place if we LISTENED long enough to really understand what the other person was saying or why they were saying it. Perhaps, the old Greek philosopher Zeno was right. He said, we have two ears and only one mouth because we are supposed to listen twice as much as we speak. Just as we should always look before we leap, we should also LISTEN before we speak.
2. The second thing James advises is that we be “SLOW to speak…”
In other words we must not let our anger cause us to say things that are not Christlike. Think of it this way: As Christians we don’t need to just invite Jesus into our hearts-we need to invite Him into our mouths as well. The sad truth is that many Christians have not done that. Their contentious tongues have hindered the work of God a thousand times over. Their critical tongues have closed church doors. Their careless tongues have broken the hearts and homes of many of God’s servants. This is why James says in verse 26 that, “If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.”
The fact is-how well we control our tongues is a good barometer of our spiritual maturity. Many times the true test of the strength our relationship with Jesus is not our ability to speak our mind as much as it is our ability to bridle our tongue. “Swift to hear” is a reminder to give the person with whom we are relating time to explain what he means. “Slow to speak” is a reminder to take time to understand what we mean before we reply. There’s an old saying that goes like this, “It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool that to speak and remove all doubt.”
The truth is that an immediate declaration of our opinion is not always the best approach to take, because sometimes when we allow our feelings to settle so that we can take a more rational look at the situation, we come to realize that our immediate ANGRY reaction was wrong. When you are mad at someone try this. Write them a letter and tell them exactly how you feel. Then put the letter away and wait until the next day to look at it again. Usually at this point you decide not to send the letter because time allows you a chance to curb your anger and bring yourself under control.
So, James says that one characteristic that should be found in the life of a genuine Christian is CONTROL. We should be able to CONTROL our anger.
2. He goes on to cite a second quality that should be found in the life of a Christian: CONVICTION.
Now a person of CONVICTION is someone who sincerely believes something-and you see their sincerity in the fact that they live their lives according to their beliefs.
I grew up in Dover, Delaware and there is a large Amish population there. Back then the Amish children attended public school with us so we interacted with them every day. Well-as I got to know them and talk to them about their strange dress I became impressed by their CONVICTION that the old ways were best and I was impressed because they didn’t just SAY they believed all this-they actually lived their belief. Their “SAY” and their “DO” matched-if you get my drift. For example, they said they believed it was wrong to drive automobiles and they stood by their conviction because they rode in horse drawn buggies all over town-even in the dead of winter. They said they believed it was wrong to dress according to the world’s ever changing clothing styles and they stood by that-because every day they the boys wore the same black pants with suspenders and the girls the same dark dresses with bonnets.
Well, James points out in this text that, as Christians, we should be people of firmly held convictions as well. Disciples of Jesus Christ must not only BELIEVE the Bible. They should also pattern our lives after it-even if that means resisting the world’s influence so that we stand out. In a sense we are like the Amish because as verse 27 says, we must “…keep ourselves from being polluted by the world.”
In the 2nd century, Trajan, the Roman Emperor wanted to dishonor Christianity and stop its rapid growth so he appointed Pliny to examine the Christians and bring a report back to him. After a thorough investigation Pliny gave this report, “They bound themselves by an oath, not for any criminal end, but to avoid theft or robbery or adultery, never to break their word, or repudiate a deposit when called on to refund it.” In other words, unlike the world around them, the Christians Pliny observed held to their convictions and lived such righteous lives that not even their critics could find fault with them.
Well James is saying that a genuine Christian will be known for this depth of conviction-he teaches that following Jesus doesn’t just mean we BELIEVE but that we BEHAVE-that authentic Christian faith relates not only to THEOLOGY but also to MORALITY. As he says in verse 20, if we truly follow Jesus we will have the conviction to live, “…the righteous life that God desires.”
And James goes on to say that this involves both GETTING RID of some things and ACCEPTING some things. Look at verse 21 where he writes that a GENUINE disciple of Jesus will GET RID “…of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent…”
Now the word picture James uses here is that of taking off a dirty shirt or coat. He says we are to “put away” or remove from our lives THOUGHTS and ACTIONS that are sinful or evil. I like the way the Living Bible puts it. It says, “Get rid of all that is wrong in your life, both INSIDE and OUTSIDE.” In my study this week I found out that the Greek word we translate as “filth” was also used in James’ day to refer to the WAX that builds up in our ears. So another thing he is saying is that we need to GET RID of everything with would stop up our ears to the truth of God-anything in our culture that would make us deaf to the moral guidance that comes from God’s still, small voice.
But as I said, James doesn’t just tell us to GET RID of certain things. He also says that we are to ACCEPT some things.
Verse 21 goes on to say that we are to “…humbly ACCEPT the word planted…” in our hearts and minds. So James wisely teaches here that we are not only to PUT the garbage OUT of our lives. We are to put some things INTO our lives as well. We are to GET RID of the world’s way of thinking but we are to REPLACE IT with God’s way of thinking-which He has revealed to us in the Bible. This book is our standard for behavior. It is our moral compass. It defines what is right and what is wrong. Well when we do this-when we “accept the word planted…” it leads to ACTION. We show our CONVICTIONS in the way we live.
James compares the Bible to a mirror and points out how foolish someone would be if they looked in a mirror, saw that their face was dirty or that they needed to comb their hair or that they had a big piece of spinach stuck in their front teeth but then forgot what they saw in the mirror and went off without washing their face or combing their hair or brushing their teeth. And some Christians are that foolish. They use the Bible but only in a casual manner. They read it, hear sermons from it, attend Bible studies, and catch a reflection of who they are and Who God is. But that’s it-they never do anything about what they see.
This reminds me of Soren Kierkegaard’s story about a make believe country where only ducks
live. One Sunday morning all the ducks came into their little duck church, waddled down the aisle, and waddled into the pews. Then the duck minister came in, took his place behind the pulpit, opened the duck bible and read, “Ducks! You have wings, and with wings you can fly like eagles.” The ducks all quacked loud AMEN’s! The duck pastor continued to read and said, “With your wings you can soar into the sky!” Again the ducks responded with AMEN’s and HALLELUJAH’s and AFLACKS so the duck pastor read some more with even greater emphasis: “Ducks, you have wings! YOU CAN FLY!” And all the ducks in the church quacked, “Amen!” And then the service ended and they all waddled home.
What about you? How sincere are your convictions? Are you known as someone who shows how firmly you hold your Christian beliefs by the way you live or do you just waddle through life like everyone else on this planet?
James says that we show how authentic our faith is as Christians if we LIVE by our CONVICTIONS and if we CONTROL our anger and then a third characteristic he says should be seen in the life of a Christian is this:
3. …True disciples of Jesus we will be people of COMPASSION.
As verse 27 says: “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress…”
In other words James tells us that if we really follow Jesus-if our religion is pure and faultless-we will be moved by the pain and distress of others. We will be known as people who help the needy of this world. A young school boy came running to his teacher one day shouting,
“Teacher, two boys are fighting and I think the one on the bottom would like to see you.”
Well, those people of this world who are on the bottom in the struggles of life would like to see those of us who call ourselves by the name of Jesus Christ lend a helping hand. The Bible teaches over and over again that we should do this-we should care for the tangible needs of human beings. This is part and parcel of genuine Christianity.
In the Deuteronomy 15:11 God says, “I command you to be open-handed toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in you land.”
Proverbs 14:31 says, “He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.”
In Matthew 25:40 Jesus brought it even closer to home by saying: “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for the least of these brothers of Mine, you did it for Me.”
Now did you catch what Jesus is saying in these familiar words? He is saying that He cares for the hurting people of the world like a parent does for his own children. Well, parents how do you feel when someone helps your kids? To me it is as if they are helping me-don’t you agree? And that is what Jesus is saying here. When we are moved to action by our compassion for others-to Jesus it is the same as if we were helping Him. The poor and needy-the victims of this world are that important to our Lord. And this means that when action-oriented compassion toward others is absent in our lives, it is a tell-tale sign that something is spiritually amiss. You see, when we are in a growing relationship with Jesus, the things that matter to Him matter to us…the things that concern Him concern us. If we walk closely with Jesus we will look at the people around us with His eyes. We won’t see the needy as an annoyance…because that is not how Jesus sees them. As Matthew 9:36 says,
“When Jesus saw the crowds-hundreds of people in need-He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”
James 5:11 says, “The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.”
And because He is Colossians 3:12 says that if we are His authentic disciples we will, “clothe yourselves with compassion and kindness…” We will be recognized as Christians by the way we care for the hurting of this world.
In Eternity magazine Olga Wetzel tells of a time she was riding a bus from Flagstaff, Arizona to Albuquerque, New Mexico. They stopped at a small wayside station in the middle of nowhere and a young Indian boy got on and took the seat next to her. It was a bitterly cold night and in the warmth of the bus the little boy soon fell asleep. After about an hour he woke up and walked to the front and asked the driver if they were near his destination. The driver angrily snapped back, “No. We passed that a long time ago. Why didn’t you get off?” The little boy said, “Well, stop the bus and I’ll walk back.” The driver said, “No. It’s too cold. You’d freeze to death. You’ll have to go into Albuquerque and then get a ticket to ride the bus back.” When he came back to his seat disappointment showed on his little face. He told Olga that his sister was waiting for him back at the stop and that he was afraid about finding the right bus back and didn’t think he had enough money for the ticket. She said, “Don’t worry. You stay with me and I’ll help you get on the right bus.” Then she went up to the driver and asked him to make sure the return driver would not charge the boy. The driver reluctantly agreed. Then she put her arm around the little boy and said, “Everything will be alright. You don’t need to worry about anything.” They rode on for a few minutes and then he tapped her on the shoulder and asked, “Lady, are you a Christian?”
Has anyone ever asked you that question? I mean, have you ever shown so much Christ-like compassion to someone, that they connected you with Jesus? What a compliment that little boy paid Olga Wetzel that night!
Well, how are you doing as a disciple when it comes to CONTROL and CONVICTION and COMPASSION? Would you say that your life gives evidence that you are an authentic follower of Jesus Christ? Are the “Ghandi’s” of this world drawn to Christ by the way they see you follow Him?