James 1:22-25

Introduction:

Good morning, Saylorville. My name is Jason, it’s Daylight Savings Time today, which I dare you to try to explain. But we’re full of life and energy here this morning, I know that! I had the opportunity to preach here just two weeks ago in our series in the Book of James called, “Keeping it Real.” And today, we’re jumping back into chapter one after taking last week off for our Missions Conference. And how awesome was the Missions Conference?

Tons of great opportunities to hear from some of our amazing missionaries, and to really consider what God might have us do as a church and as individuals when it comes to making disciples here locally and globally around the world.

One of my highlights from the Missions Conference was Sunday night’s “Missionary Christmas.” So, this is a really fun tradition that we have here at Saylorville where we just go nuts giving our missionaries gifts and we awkwardly watch them while they open everything up in front of us!

I was joking around with my parents, who were Missionaries in South Africa for several years. I was thinking back to some of the things that people gave us when we were missionaries. And, friends, I’m not joking when I tell you that we got everything from used tea bags to the foil wrapper from Hershey kisses – not the actual chocolate kisses – just the foil. Someone actually ate the chocolate and then flattened out the foil and put it in a ziploc bag and thought, “You know, I could throw this out, but that seems like a waste. You know who could really use a hundred tiny pieces of shiny paper that smell like milk chocolate? Missionaries!”

But this is not how we do things at Saylorville Church! You folks LOVE our missionaries. We’re practically throwing Apple products at them. You get an iPad, and you get an iPad, and you get an iPad! They’re opening up laptops and backpacks, brand new clothes, kids toys and gift cards. Listen, as a missionary kid I got half-used pencils – with bite marks! They had been chewed!

I’m not bitter. Really.

But I was thinking about this whole thing this week, and I asked myself, “Why do we love our missionaries so much?” And we do love them, right? I mean, missionaries come through here and we treat them like royalty. Need a house to live in? Here you go – we’ve got two. Don’t have a car? That’s okay, here’s a minivan. We love to bless these people. And I thought to myself, “That’s good. We should love our missionaries, but why do we love these people so much?”

And here’s what I came up with – We love missionaries because they are obedient. We look up to them because they are doing the hard work in hard places. Because they are responding to the commands God gave them. They heard God’s call and they obeyed. And here’s our connection to the Book of James…

God blesses those who receive and respond to the truth.

And, you know, that’s a biblical idea. In fact, it’s right in line with what we’ve been seeing in this series, isn’t it? Two weeks ago, we walked through five ways to prepare your heart before you open your Bible – right out of James 1:19-21:

1. Quick to hear
2. Slow to speak
3. Slow to anger
4. Put away sin
5. Welcome the truth

And I know several of you have been doing this, because you’ve sent me pictures of your empty vacuum bags, you’ve told me that your wife also won’t let you talk to her early in the morning. And some of you have actually adopted those 5 practices and you’ve seen God show you some amazing things when you’ve been ready to receive the truth of His Word – the Bible.

But that’s not the whole story, is it? Being ready to receive God’s Word is part one. Hearing from God – that’s important – and we need to start there. We need to be ready to listen to the Lord when He speaks through the Bible, through a sermon, or even through a friend who points out where you might be off a little.

But that’s not where James leaves us, and today, we’re looking at what could be part two of the message from a few weeks ago. And in God’s divine planning, He allowed me the privilege of being able to talk about these back-to-back passages with you folks. So, let’s grab our Bibles or your Bible app and watch how James continues his really practical instruction in the next few verses right there in chapter 1. So, you’ve already prepared your heart to welcome the truth. You’ve opened up your Bible, and you’re ready to receive what God has for you… and the question is, “Now what?”

James 1:22-25

22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 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. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 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 it’s almost as if James is anticipating that we read the previous passage about how important it is to hear the truth, and then we say, “Okay, I’ve heard the truth, I’ve listened carefully, I’ve welcomed it into my life. So, I’m good right?”

And he says, “Not so fast. Hearing is good. You need to start there, but that’s not where you end.” So, he follows that up right away with, “When it comes to the truth, don’t just hear it. You gotta do it.”

And this passage really sets up a contrast between two different responses to God’s Word. So, we’re going to look at those two responses, and then see an illustration that James uses to help us personalize the passage.

If you’re looking for a summary statement or a big idea here, it might be something like this: Ready to Respond: Hearing And Obeying God’s Word

So, let’s start by taking a look at these two contrasting responses right here in verse 22: and they are translated basically, “to hear” and “to do”. These two come up several times in this passage and later in the Book too. So, what’s James really getting at?

We’ll start with the person who hears – The Hearer – we’ll start there because we talked a bunch about being quick to hear God’s Word a few weeks ago and it really has to come first in the sequence of the two responses. And, James says, “don’t be someone who only hears the truth.” And the key here is that they only HEAR the Word, that they don’t act on it. So – reading, memorizing, studying the Bible – those are good things – and we should do them – but James says if that’s where it ends, then we’re in trouble.

We used to use this little phrase when I was a Youth Pastor and it’s still a good reminder today: The Bible wasn’t just written for our information, but for our transformation through its application.

In other words, you can know the Bible inside and out, you can study it every day, you can listen to sermon after sermon every single Sunday – but if you’re just filling your head with more knowledge and it’s not changing your life, then you’re short-circuiting God’s purpose in giving you the Bible.

In fact, this word that’s translated, “hearer” in verse 22 carries the idea of being an auditor. Not the kind of auditor that looks at your taxes, but the kind that takes a class without getting credit for it. Maybe you’ve heard of this, or you’ve even done it yourself. You’re flipping through the DMACC catalog online and you see a class you’d love to take. It looks like a great curriculum, and you’re really interested in learning more about the subject, but, and here’s the kicker, you don’t want to do any work. You want the content without the accountability. The experience without the exams. So you “audit” the class. You sit in the classroom and hear the lectures, but you’re never tested on how you’ve responded to the information.

I so appreciated Lucas Bair’s message last weekend on Matthew 28:19 – what we sometimes call “The Great Commission.” He made several strong statements during that message, and some of what he said overlaps with what James is talking about in our passage today. At one point, Lucas said, “Most of us don’t need to learn one more theological fact for the rest of our lives. The problem is, our learning has greatly out-paced our obedience.”

We have more good, theological teaching at our fingertips today than any time in all of history. You can watch great messages, read solid authors, study all kinds of Biblical passages and principles. You’ve got free access to libraries and libraries of commentaries. You’ve got preaching and teaching, Bible studies and small groups, modules and workshops. Somewhere in the Metro, I bet there’s still a Christian bookstore – remember those? Biblical knowledge is everywhere. But even with all of that available – look around. Friends, you see it, right? Marriages are still failing. Families are still breaking. Christians are still compromising and giving in to temptation. Every single day. And yet, we’ve got more immediate access to information about how to live as a Christian than we’ve ever had before.

And I know what that sounds like, to some of you. It sounds like we’re saying teaching isn’t important. That we don’t need good solid information. Or that we shouldn’t pursue learning. Now, don’t get up and run out of here saying we don’t think Bible knowledge is important. Go back and read the passage right above this one again. Remember, James just told us to welcome God’s Word into our lives with open arms.

But here’s where some of you are this morning – you’re auditing God’s Word. You’re opening up the Bible, adding facts to your brain, and walking away unchanged. In fact, you’re auditing this sermon right now. You’re sitting passively in an audience listening to a speaker. You don’t really expect to do anything with what you hear, but it sure feels good to be in church every week! “Now hold up just a second, Pastor, I’m here aren’t I? I listen to Christian radio too sometimes. I get the verse of the day on my phone and most days I take time to read it! I’m even in a study group where we read what someone else says about the Bible every week. And I get all the blanks in my workbook filled in every time!”

And none of those things is inherently wrong. But if we’re not being changed to be more like Jesus, then that’s not okay. And if I can humbly suggest to some of you, “What you need is not just more information, but more transformation.” Stop auditing God’s Word.

And so, James says, just hearing the truth isn’t enough. You need to obey. Be a doer (The Doer) of the Word. And why wouldn’t he say that? He’s just given us this whole section on how to prepare our hearts to hear the truth – and if that’s where it ended – what would be the point? Because we all know this – hearing without doing isn’t obeying!

There’s an old story about a father who asked his daughter to clean her room while he left the house to go do a few errands. He was really specific in what he told her to do – “Clean your room by the time I get back.” So he goes away, and comes back a little while later, and he asks his daughter, “Did you clean your room?”

And she says, “Well, here’s the thing dad. I heard you say “Clean your room.” And I’m willing to do that. So I got online and Googled, “What does it look like to clean your room.” Then I pictured my room in my mind and I thought about all the ways it would be different if I cleaned it. I invited a few friends over and we talked about what each of us thought it meant to clean my room. I went on Youtube and listened to a bunch of professional room cleaners. I came up with a plan and wrote it in a special cleaning journal I bought. I even looked up the phrase “clean your room” in the Greek and Hebrew languages. And I’ve been working on memorizing it in the King James Version, “Thou shalt clean thine room.” I definitely heard you say, “Clean your room.” Aren’t you happy with me?

And the dad responds with this simple question, right? You know it. “But did you actually clean your room?”

Friends, hearing without doing isn’t obeying.

The “doer” is someone whose life is characterized by action. This is the person who has received the truth and now does the work of responding to that truth.

So, James says, “Yes, be quick to hear the truth. Spend time in your Bibles, listen carefully when a friend confronts you in love, pay attention on Sunday morning and during other teaching times – but hearing only is not enough.

Here’s how this shows up in my life. There are times when I walk away from a Sunday sermon and I think, “Wow. That was powerful. Whew. Good stuff, right? Just the right balance of encouragement and conviction. Really great information. I know exactly what God wants me to do because of what I just heard.” And I get home and I’m running this direction and that direction, and then the work week starts and my schedule and my mind and my heart get filled up with other things and by the time the next Sunday comes around, I’m like, “Boy, last week’s message sure was a good one – I don’t really remember it and I didn’t really do anything different because of it – but I remember it being a really powerful message!”

And I don’t know if you ever do this, but sometimes I’ve heard great truth, but then I’ve walked away without truly changing. And – now this is the problem – I’ve let myself believe that God is going to bless that. I fooled myself into thinking that God is pleased when I simply “audit” the truth. When I hear the truth and stop short of obeying the truth.

And that’s exactly what James means when he says, “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”

See, hearing without doing isn’t obeying. And if you’ve allowed yourself to slip into a lifestyle where you think you’re pleasing God by gaining more and more Bible information without actually applying that information, you’re lying to yourself. Truth without transformation isn’t total obedience. A life that pleases God is one that hears and obeys. You simply cannot separate the two and still grow in your Christian faith.

And this is maybe stepping on toes a little because some of you have been in church since day one, or you’re in like 13 Bible studies every week, and you make your kids memorize verses and it hasn’t made a bit of difference in your life. But you think you’re good with God because you “know the Bible.” And James says, unless you’re “doing the Bible”, you’re lying to yourself.

Now this is a little hard to swallow, certainly for James’ original readers who were all Jewish people and they took pride in the fact that they knew the Old Testament really really well. And so James gives them a little parable – an illustration – to help them personalize this whole idea, and it’s helpful for us today too. And we already read the illustration in verses 23 and 24 and 25 so I’ll just summarize it like this:

The Hearer – the person who hears the truth and doesn’t do it – is like someone who wakes up in the morning, walks into the bathroom, looks at himself in the mirror (and I say, “Him” because a woman would never do this of course), he sees that his hair is a mess, he’s got drool lines on his cheek, sleepies in the corner of his eyes, maybe a little piece of last night’s dinner still stuck in his beard – and then walks away without changing anything. In fact, by the time he’s at work he’s forgotten what he looked like in the mirror. And so when his boss meets him in the office and says, “Hey buddy, you got a little something on your face there…” His answer is basically, “Umm, I looked in the mirror, okay? Isn’t that good enough?.” He’s deceived himself. He’s seen the truth, but hasn’t responded to the truth.

On the other hand, there’s The Doer. This guy actually does the same routine. He wakes up, looks at himself in the mirror, he’s got the same bed head, drool lines, boogers in his eyes, food on his face. The same stuff as the other guy. And what does he do? He does what every single one of us would do! He fixes his face! He makes the changes – combs his hair, washes off the drool, brushes his teeth. Because that’s what normal people do! They see what they really look like in the mirror, and they make adjustments. And so when he gets to work, he meets his boss, and his boss is like, “Wow, dude you look professional. I’m giving you a raise!” He gets blessed!

And it’s a great illustration because it’s just so ridiculous. What kind of person would look in a mirror and see things that desperately need to be changed, and walk away without making those changes? What kind of person?

A person like me. I would. And you. Because, every time we open the Bible or hear the truth it’s like we’re looking in a mirror. Because the truth reveals to us who we really are. And how many of us walk away from that sermon, leave that Community Group meeting, or close our Bibles and don’t make any changes? We hear the truth, but we don’t act on the truth – and we think that’s good enough, but we’re missing the blessing.

Conclusion

As I stood in the back of the gym last Sunday night watching all of our Missionaries open up their gifts as we closed out our Missions Conference, I couldn’t help asking myself, “What is it about these people that makes us admire them so much? Why are they like heroes to us? What’s different about them?” And here’s what I came up with – they obey. They hear the truth and they respond. They’re looking into the mirror, and actually making the changes. And some of those changes haven’t been easy. And they’re not perfect people. But they didn’t stop at hearing – they obeyed.

And I wonder, what has God been showing you in the mirror of His Word during this study in the Book of James? Is He telling you to be more joyful in trials? You’ve got plenty of those don’t you? Is He asking you to be truly generous – to invest your resources for eternity? To focus more on serving others than yourself? To ask forgiveness from that person you hurt? Or maybe you just need to surrender your life and say, “Lord, here I am. Send me.”

Or maybe you’re hearing this today and you just need to give your life to God once and for all. Stop playing the religion game. Stop hearing the truth without obeying the truth. Going to church when you were a kid isn’t going to get you to Heaven. Admit you’re a sinner, that you need Jesus to rescue you, and lay yourself at His feet. He died for you. He rose for you. And He’s waiting for you with open arms.

We heard last weekend that there are still over 1.5 billion unreached people in the world – people that don’t have access to a full copy of the Bible. That’s 1 in 5 humans. The equivalent of about 2 or 3 people in your row this morning.

But nobody in this room is in that “unreached” category. We all have the truth – even at our fingertips. Most of us have read it, heard it, and even studied it from time to time. The question is this, “What have you done with the truth?”

In just a few moments, we’re going to celebrate what we call, “The Lord’s Table” or “Communion.” This is a time for Christ-followers to remember what God did for us when He sent His only Son, so that whoever believes in Him might have eternal life through His death and resurrection.

It’s a celebration, because without Christ’s sinless life and His sacrificial death, there would be no Gospel – no Good News. And so we celebrate what Jesus did for us.

But it’s also a serious time, because in the two different elements – the symbols – of Communion we’re reminded of how sinful we really are. And that all of us have sinned and we fall desperately short of the glory of God.

So, while there’s nothing magical or supernatural about the cracker and the juice, Communion is an opportunity to confess our sin – and maybe this morning there’s a specific truth that God has shown you that you just haven’t obeyed. Maybe you’ve looked in the mirror of the Bible and you’re refusing to make those changes. Or maybe you’ve realized this morning that you’re a great hearer, but you need to be a doer too. Hearing without doing is disobeying. Do you need to confess that today?

While the music plays, take a few moments to talk to the Lord, and then if you’re a genuine Christ follower here this morning, you can make your way to one of the tables to pick both the cracker and the juice at the same time. When you sit back down, we’ll get a few more instructions and then we’ll take Communion together.

Communion

Unleavened bread or crackers (symbolizing Christ’s perfect, sinless life)

The Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians:

1 Corinthians 11.23 – For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

Let’s eat together.

Cups of grape juice (symbolizing Christ’s blood, his sacrificial death)

Again, Paul wrote to the Corinthians:

I Corinthians 11.25 – In the same way also Christ took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

Let’s drink together.

Pray/Song

*****

This last week, I was meeting with a friend, and he made this statement: I’ve really been trying to read the Bible and apply it to my life lately. And it just seems like things are going better! Do you think that’s a coincidence?

Joshua 1:8 – This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

James 1:25 – 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.

Hearing and doing leads to blessing. If you want God’s blessing, you’ve got to obey His Word. So what will you do with what you heard today?