Slices
Prepare
Give thanks for the wisdom, truth and saving grace of God’s Word. Consider what helps you go deeper in your relationship with God and nurtures your faith.
Bible passage
Listening and doing
19 My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 because human anger does not produce the righteousness 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 someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues in it – not forgetting what they have heard but doing it – they will be blessed in what they do.
26 Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their 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.
Explore
Gardeners know the importance of planting seeds in fertile soil, and nurturing their growth with water, nutrients and the occasional weeding! This takes time, care and painstaking research. For God’s implanted Word (v 21) to germinate and become fruitful in our own lives, we need to provide fertile soil, by rejecting all that causes harm to ourselves and others, so we can be fully open to all that God’s Word can teach us.
James gives us practical advice to aid the fruitfulness of God’s Word in our lives: to listen, to speak only after careful consideration and be slow to anger (v 19). This is a huge challenge for some of us, and yet is essential advice that enables our relationships to flourish.
But listening is not enough. Our passage compares listening and not acting on God’s Word with looking at ourselves in a mirror and then forgetting what we have seen (vs 23–25). If we look deeply into God’s Word, our response is not to live without reference to this freedom, but to step out in obedience, acting on all that God’s living Word offers. Implanted with God’s Word, we are challenged to grow in practical holiness and to share God’s compassion for those who are in most need in our churches and community (v 27).
Respond
How can we become ‘doers and not just hearers’ of God’s Word today?
Deeper Bible study
‘... what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.’1
If you heard me play the piano, you would be hard-pressed to believe that I had lessons for ten years. Even at the time, I was terrible at practising. Perhaps you could tell a similar story about learning a musical instrument or some other skill. We all know that to improve in any skill, practice is required.
In our reading today, it is clear that James believes that faith in Jesus has to be more than mental assent. Rather, it must be worked out in practice, specifically in the areas of speech (vs 19–21), acting on the Word heard and not being listeners only (vs 22–25) and caring for the most vulnerable in society (vs 26,27). True faith in Jesus involves not only our relationship with Jesus but also our relationship with others. The problem is that, so often in our relationships with others, we speak and get angry too quickly, listen too slowly, are prone to self-deception and, too frequently, if unintentionally, ignore the cries for justice from the vulnerable. The threefold remedy for these problems is given in verses 21, 25 and 27. Each of these requires practice, of course, and that is precisely what James expects of us.
It is true that every one of us represents work in progress. That progress cannot happen through simply affirming our faith in Jesus and his death and resurrection. Progress happens as we live out what Jesus requires of us. In other words, we need to have a faith that is practised. How are you doing at practising your faith? I hope, pray and believe that you are not like the child Julie who was not good at practising the piano, rather, that you are those who take joy in practising!
Reflect on the last week. How have you been able to practise your faith? Ask God for his help for the areas in which you struggle.
1 Mic 6:8
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Numbers 17–19; Acts 19
Pray for Scripture Union
Wayne Dixon and volunteers from Local Mission Partner Christian Connections in Schools (Slough, Windsor and Maidenhead), will be visiting around 40 schools between 6 and 16 March to present Easter Cracked. Pray for the schools and the ten churches involved.
