Pure Devotion (James 1:22–27)

Sermon for MHBC (13 February 2022). You can watch or listen on Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, or our website. Live at 11:00am on Sundays. Also available as a podcast here or by searching “Monument Heights Baptist Church” in your favorite podcast app.

Today is a special Sunday because it is our WMU Focus Sunday. The ladies of our WMU have been so active in preparing a collection for the Pregnancy Resource Center. They’ve done a fantastic job.

I’ve been asked to preach about the biblical reasons for what we are doing. And frankly, there are dozens of passages that address this, but this morning I want us to look at James 1 because what the WMU has put together is an application of James’s instructions.

Before we go through the text, I need to say something about the preceding verses. The previous verses are connected to our passage because they talk about listening to God’s word. James instructs us to be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger, and instead listen attentively to the word. But James isn’t talking about mere hearing.

When we talk about listening, we can mean at least two things. We can mean the type of listening that we do while we are simultaneously watching TV. We might be asked, “Are you listening?” To which, we reply, “Yes, I’m listening,” meaning we are processing the auditory sounds.

But that’s not the type of listening James is talking about in our passage. James is talking about the second type of listening—the type we mean when we say to our children, “Listen.” By that, we really mean “obey” or “do what I told you.”

Listening attentively to the word of God requires this second type of listening because listening attentively to the word of God means obeying the word of God.

Now, I must make a confession. I find this passage personally challenging. I have been fortunate enough to have a lot of theological training, and I am so grateful for it. But I am often humbled and sometimes frustrated that my training doesn’t always translate into my life.

And I have seen the Lord be so kind and patient toward me. I often wrestle with the experience of my head and my heart not connecting. If you watched the Wednesday study, you might have picked up on the fact that I often feel like Jonah, able to explain and teach but often struggling to obey. And yet, the kindness of the Lord is never-ending.

And that’s precisely the point. In the book of James, we are clued in to the incomprehensible kindness and mercy of the Father of lights, the One who is the fount of all wisdom and goodness, the One whose fullness dwells in Jesus Christ. And because that is the God who speaks to us in His word, and because that is the God who brought us from death to live, we are compelled to radiate the same compassion into the world.

Let’s begin in v. 22: But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. Notice James is talking about obeying the word, doing the word, not just being familiar with it, not just hearing it. He says those who hear only are deceiving themselves. Here, I commend MHBC for your constant desire to obey the word and not merely hear it.

Notice also that hearing is assumed and necessary. James isn’t at all discounting the importance of learning and knowing. The head can’t be skipped. The brain is required. See, knowledge is necessary in order to do the right action. Knowledge is like a compass and a map. Knowledge tells us where to go, how to get there, and what direction we are going. But knowledge without action is like having a compass and a map and never going to the top of the mountain.

That leads us to vv. 23–24. It isn’t biblical knowledge if it stays in our head. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. Here’s James’s illustration. When you look into the mirror, you see yourself, but when you’re no longer in the mirror that image starts to fade from your mind.

Hearing the word, becoming familiar with it, is like looking in a mirror, but if it’s not put into practice, it will be forgotten. Look at v. 25: But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

So the danger is forgetting what we’ve heard. Or, we might say it this way: the danger is failing to practice what we know. One commentator says, “[T]he ‘faith said’ must correspond to the ‘life led.’”[1] James is just teaching what Jesus teaches in multiple places such as Luke 11:28: “Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.” Or at the end of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7, Jesus concludes with an exhortation to put his teaching into practice. The wise man, according to Jesus, is the one who hears these words of mine and does them (Matt 7:24).

So what do we do? Look again at the verse. Look into the perfect law, the law of liberty. What is the perfect law? What is this law of liberty? James explicitly talks about the law throughout this letter. When he talks about the perfect law, he’s talking about the realization of the entire OT law in Christ. When James talks about the perfect law, he’s talking about that which Jesus perfectly fulfills. And by extension, those of who are in Christ are to respond with the same action, primarily in our love for our neighbors.

James tells us to look into that perfect law that is revealed in Christ. This word translated one who looks is a fun word. It has the idea of stooping down to look. It’s like peering into a well. Or, for me a fun image is Winnie the Pooh peering into a honey pot.

And notice there’s a parallel word. Look into the perfect law and persevere. The idea here is to keeping going, to remain in it, to put it into practice. So we peer into the law as it is revealed to us in Christ and we put it into practice.

James goes on to explain this in vv. 26–27. Look at v. 26: If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. Take note of the words religious and religion in this verse. We will see religion again in v. 27. That’s the key subject in these verses. James is interested in explaining pure religion before God. And here in v. 26, he says religion without practice is deceptive. Remember he used that word back in v. 22. The one who only hears is deceiving himself. And he says, “A religion that doesn’t result in concrete action is worthless.” It is empty. It is pointless.

But then he tells us what pure religion is, what pure devotion before God is. Verse 27: Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. What is pure devotion? It shows itself in compassion and holiness. It shows itself in things like controlling our tongue, which in itself is an act of mercy, it shows itself in presence with orphans and widows and with those who are overlooked, and it shows itself in a desire for holiness and purity.

Let’s talk about a couple of things. Why orphans and widows? For one thing, James’s first readers apparently had a problem favoring the powerful in the world. That’s a fairly natural impulse. But James says the culture of the church is different from the culture of the world. Orphans and widows were some of the least powerful people in James’s day. He says go to them in their suffering. The natural tendency is to look away. James says go to them.

This is why I think we have to celebrate what the WMU has put together and why we have to celebrate so many actions within this church over the decades that have made every effort to love others, especially those who have been overlooked. You have pleased the Lord in those actions.

And this ongoing collection is important. It may seem small or minor, but it is an opportunity for us to reflect the same compassion and mercy that God has had on us. And that’s the whole point. Because God has been abundantly compassionate and lavishly gracious to us, we are called to live our lives in the same manner.

Let me talk specifically about what I mean. We are entering a fully post-Christian era. What that means for most us here is that for the first time in our lives the majority belief is not the one we hold. In the past, Christian actions and missions were commonplace.

For us to understand this shift, it is helpful to consider our brothers and sisters in other countries such as south Asian countries, where Christianity is decisively in the minority.  The law of Christ compels us to live differently in our culture. One of the elements that is glaringly absent in our culture is forgiveness and mercy. So-called cancel culture is rampant. Any infraction from the past is like blood in the water for a sea of sharks.

We have an opportunity with forgiveness and mercy. We can start where we are with our nearest relationships. We can practice letting go. And the reason we can let go is because of the great mercy extended to us.

Do you remember Jesus’s parable about the forgiveness of debts? He tells this story about a man who is forgiven a great debt, but then he immediately he goes to extract a lesser debt from someone that owes him. The whole point is that those who are forgiven are forgiving. James is urging us to take a look at the love and compassion and mercy of God and live lives that are changed by who God is.

When he talks about being unstained from the world, he’s not talking about some rigid legalism. He’s talking about practicing our confession. If we say the Lord is kind and merciful, we should be kind and merciful. If we say the Lord is holy, we should desire holiness ourselves.

And that’s really James’s point. Pure religion in the sight of God is a life that reflects the character of the Lord. Our task as image bearers, as those who are being conformed to the image of Christ, is to continue looking to Christ and abiding in Him, so that we reflect His character in the world. Since He has been immeasurably merciful to us, we are called to extend mercy whenever we can. This is pure devotion.

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[1] Dan G. McCartney, James, BECNT, p. 57.