The Great Debate

Text: James 1:19-27
Focus: Grace vs works
Function: To motivate people to service.
Form: Bible Study

Intro:

Martin Luther didn’t think that this epistle should be included in the New Testament. He was concerned that this book described a sort of salvation whereby someone had to earn God’s favor by their own effort.
Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us (SHOW): For by grace you are saved and this is not from you, it is a gift from God. It is not a result of works otherwise, we would have something to brag about.

So, Bible scholars have argued back and forth the whole question about faith verses works.

We are going to be doing a study on the book of James for the next several weeks. So let me be clear as to where most of the scholars have ended up on the discussion. (SHOW) Salvation is by faith alone in Jesus blood shed for us. The proof of salvation is not the ability to quote a statement, but in the way our lives have changed.

So, during this study, I hope to keep explaining the necessity of both so that we can understand it more clearly.

Look with me at verses 19-21: (SHOW) You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.

We mentioned this a couple of weeks ago when we were looking at the scripture, “Be angry and sin not.” We saw, from this verse that while anger gets us motivated, the solution to the problem doesn’t exist in our anger, but in our gentleness.

So, first things first. When we take time to actually listen to someone we find the sincerity in their words and the genuineness with which they came to their opinions.

Say this with me.
(SHOW) Quick to LISTEN, slow to speak and slow to anger.

When he explains “slow to anger” he says “therefore” and tells us how to do it.

We know that we must be quick to listen and slow to speak and keep our tempers under control and that is best accomplished by stopping two things and starting one thing. First the 2 things to stop: “ridding ourselves of wickedness and rank growth of sordidness.”

I love these deep statements that can be interpreted many ways.

Let me make this a little more simple. (SHOW) Don’t be mean and don’t be naughty.
(Be kind and be pure)

Then, we are called to do this: (show) Welcome with meekness the Word that has the power to save your souls.

Welcome with meekness. I love this phrase! This phrase describes an approach to the God’s Word. He is talking about the bible, but he is describing Jesus.

Jesus is the Word of God revealed in human form.

Meekness is not weakness. But it is an attitude. It is the same attitude of “quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.”

The true Christian is a person who stops to consider his or her ways.

Stop and think about what you are hearing.

How often do people listen with the intent of forming an answer instead of just really hearing what the other person has to say?

Okay, you all know this. And you, if you are like me need to be reminded of this from time to time. I had an old preacher mentor who used to tell me all the time: “Don’t be afraid to repeat certain principles, we soon forget their importance.”

Let us move on to: “welcoming the Word.” He goes into a little more depth about how that plays out in our lives.

(SHOW) 22But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing.

I have heard a lot of sermons on these verses.

They give us something to do. They give us something to be proud about.

You hear this verse creep into my sermon prayer very often. I often pray “Lord, help us/ME to put into practice what you say to us this morning.”

It is taken right from this verse.

I hope you have this nagging fear that we hear the word and say to ourselves “Boy Oh boy, I wish brother so and so was here to hear this sermon today.”

We tell ourselves that we are the people who put into practice what we hear.

Go back to the introductory paragraph: Be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to become angry… …With meekness welcome the word.

The sermon isn’t for someone else, it is for you.
When our heart is there, welcoming the word, then we aren’t thinking about it how it applies to someone else, we think about how it applies to us.

Go back to that sermon prayer; I also say “Help us/ME…” I am preaching to myself.

I have many times fallen into the trap, the error, or the sin, of comparing myself to others.

And it goes back to this great debate, “what works do we have to do in order to prove our salvation?” If we have to do the works to prove our salvation, then technically, have we earned our salvation?”

When we look at Matthew 25, there are many who cast out demons, heal the sick, raise the dead, preach the gospel in the name of Jesus and He will say: “I never knew you because I was naked and you didn’t clothe me, I was hungry and you didn’t feed me….”

It is a big debate that has been going on since the time of Martin Luther and the beginning of the Reformation.

Martin Luther was clear, the bible teaches that Christians are no longer under the law, but are saved like Abraham was. We are saved by faith.

So James answers this question before he talks about “doing the Word” instead of merely “hearing the Word.”

(SHOW) But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing.

It isn’t the OT law we are under, but we are under a NT law. James refers to it twice, here and in chapter 2, verse 4. Here he calls it the perfect law, the law of liberty. In Chapter 2 he calls is “The Royal law.”

Paul said, the OT law was handed down by angels, but the Law that Christ has given us is royal because it comes from King Jesus.

It is a much more simple law to understand and repeat.

(SHOW) The Royal law is “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

We are under that law. But it is a law intended to set us free to do good.

James is a book about holiness. But it isn’t the holiness that the Pharisees placed their hope in. Their holiness was a code of rules and regulations, certain kinds of clothes, rules about who you could eat with, what you could do or not do on certain days. It commanded them as the way they paid their tithe, and even the way they washed their hands and prepared their food. It contained over 10,000 commands.

And the Church has at times strayed into that kind of legalism as well.

Martin Luther rejected the words of the book because they were being falsely applied to things like penance, adoration of the priesthood, and unquestioning faith in the leaders.

But that doesn’t come from James. When James talks about holiness, He talks about keeping the tongue in check, not showing favoritism to the rich, caring for the poor and worshipping and focusing on God.

Look at the remainder verses of our passage:

(SHOW) 26If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

If you want to talk about the great debate, then this is the great debate in Christianity. Does the Church exist for the good of itself, or for the good of the world?

It is true, the Church exists to bring glory to God and this is how we do it.

It is twofold: Be pure and loving.

The Law of liberty is to Love God and Love our neighbor.

Being pure IS loving God. Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins. If we keep on sinning, they we make a mockery of the terrible price He paid to save us.

But here is what I have found. Churches are either places where people focus on purity, or places where people focus on caring for others.
We are called to both. One could almost say that the division between the left and the right in the church has to do with which of these two things we emphasize. When I read Matthew 25 and read the words “depart from Me, I never knew you…” I tend to focus on the latter, caring for others.

I have seen too many times where people justify turning their heads from the poor and oppressed because “they paid their tithe.” Or, “they don’t participate in those kinds of activities, so they must be Christians.”

All of that is merely placing our hopes on our purity. But God’s intention is both.

Because the other side of that is people can be so into loving the neighbor that they refuse to tell them how their sinful behavior is destroying their relationship with God and their relationship with others.

You remember how we looked at 1 Corinthians 5 where a man was committing incest and the church was saying “but we are free in Christ” and Paul told them that this kind of activity was even shameful to pagans and irreligious people.

Purity is about loving God. Taking care of widows and orphans is about loving others.

This is the Royal law because it is the law that Jesus implemented for us.

Do you love Him? Do you love others?