James 1:19-27

19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;

20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. 21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

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.

26 If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. 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.

These verses really do contain some powerful “Good Works” – remember – this series is Genuine Faith, Good Works and some of the most powerful good works that we as born-again believers can perform are contained in these verses. Verse 18 – we were brought forth by the will of God and by the Word of Truth.

The Word of Truth, this implanted Word, is the Word that we need to be hearing and doing. The more we hear, the stronger our faith comes (Romans 10:17) – we need to feed our faith every day. Read our Bibles, particularly our New Testaments, we need to play quality sermons from reputable ministers, play their podcasts, watch their video clips - expose ourselves to the ministry of the Word of God. This is so important,

Very important to read your Bible every day!

So, doing good works, based on the Word of Truth - We covered verse 19 last week…

Verses 20, 21 - 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. 21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

The more and more we lock into the Word of God, the Word of Truth, the less and less will we be prone to hasty, careless speech, outright wickedness and angry behaviour – none of which pleases God. The more we eradicate this behaviour from our life the more we please God and the further we grow in spiritual things. We learn what to say, how to say it, what to do, how to do it – all of this instruction is contained within our Bibles. The saving of our souls is a progressive cleansing process, a progressive renewing of our mind process, a progressive sanctification process, ultimately all coming together in the completion of our Salvation as Gods saving work for us believers that try to honour the Lord with our lives.

22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

If we fail to put into practice that which we have heard and read, the whole exercise becomes self-deceptive. We think we know what we are doing yet the doing is not a part of us. That’s self-deceptive. 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.

When you look into a mirror – you see your own self that is reflected back to you. I have a wife and four daughters that had to get ready for church every Sunday morning – five ladies to get out the door and into the car and only two bathrooms….

James 1:18

18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

James had grown up with his half brother Jesus. He saw him grow up, start a religion, perform miracles all around the place, expound the scripture like no other, die for it and then God Himself raised his half brother Jesus, back from the dead.

James knew they - these new believers – were at the forefront of Christianity. It was no longer JUST all about his half brother Jesus,- no it was about what Jesus now meant to them all as the Messiah, who Jesus is and how Jesus still functions in the earth today. James knew they (meaning “the brand new born again church”) were the pioneers, the forerunners of this new belief system. A new belief system so grounded in, and based on the fact that GOD and Jesus WANTED to do this – this is how unspeakably valuable, unbelievably priceless that every person is, that they went through with it all – what became the life, the death and the resurrection of Jesus, the Christ, James’ very own half brother.

James knew in his heart and mind that this was the greatest gift of all that could ever come from the Father of lights – but he didn’t dwell there, no, James went on the say (James 1:18b) - that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. This new body of Christians, this new body of believers, those who we call the very “early church” were the start of a global change, that would never stop, even if you died – eternity had arrived – the greatest gift of all that came down from the Father of Lights.

James knew that as a “firstfruit”, as a pioneer, as a forerunner of a new global distribution network of God’s own truth that the work had only just begun. It’s more than a movement, it’s more than a new religion, - it’s the coming together of heaven and earth, the reconciling of humans back to God, the forever life-changing, eternal opportunity for the forgiveness of your own sin – literally a new creature in Christ Jesus – does this remind you of:

2 Corinthians 5:17-21

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Whilst the book of James doesn’t really speak much about salvation itself – he does touch on aspects of that most certainly in James 1:18.

18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

James knew that the real work – those good works that us believers are now called to, required to participate in, that help create trust towards Christians, that help to raise doubts in the minds of UN-believers when you do good to them and for them with no thought of gain for yourself – just the fact that you care about them…that’s why you help them… that we lay down our life for others as James saw his own half-brother Jesus do… please understand that just doesn’t mean to die for someone else – no, Jesus did that for us all already – our version of laying down our life is to invest TIME in someone else – that is time of your life that you can never get back – you could have spent it on you, but you spent it helping or caring for someone else – that’s a piece of your life that has been laid down for someone else – SELFLESSNESS – read Philippians 2

16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.

Right in the midst of James’ explanation and warning of the process of our own desires, that have not obviously been renewed and refocused to love and desire what it is that God approves of and wants in the believers lives, James inserts this blatant warning about deception.

This plays out in my mind this way – “You are making good progress, don’t let yourself be derailed by a fleshy desire getting in the way of powerful spiritual forward momentum”. Any lost time is a real tragedy and something we must be so conscious of avoiding. Sinful practices equate to wastage of life itself. So much time and energy lost pursuing wrong things.

It's critical to think of sin participation as a form of a deception. And James is saying “don’t be deceived”!

He then follows that up with:

17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. When good things happen, we aren’t “lucky”!

Absolutely not – it’s either a blessing of God and our Lord Jesus Christ or it’s a harvest from our worthwhile seed sown. Remember Colossians 3:16-17

16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Colossians 3:23-25

23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. 25 For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality.

Mark 4: 26 And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. 27 He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. 28 The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. 29 But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

Ephesians 6:8 - 8 knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free.

Friends, we will never escape the process and system of seed/plant/harvest.

There is no such thing as “lucky” it’s either a blessing of God and our Lord Jesus Christ or it’s a harvest from our worthwhile seed sown.

Once again, a genuine faith is Christ Jesus helps us understand these processes well, for not only our own benefit but also to ensure we definitely bring benefit and value to other peoples lives. That is the Christian way.

Amidst all of the problems, trials and the enticing of sin – BE REMINDED that good things are God engineered.

17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

The Father of Lights - the God that created all light – light be and light was! – the Father of lights is unchanging in his Character – Jesus Christ, the same yesterday today and forever – God doesn’t change like the transition from day to night back to day – God doesn’t change like a moving shadow – be grounded in the truth that our Good God wants good things for His people!

Many people have a problem with that – you need good, useful things – so you can do good works – James goes on and in verse 27, mentions visiting widows and orphans in their affliction – why – in their affliction? So that when you arrive they are not afflicted any more – you are there to practically help not visit and chat!

There’s a fascinating truth I’ve been meditating on in Genesis 1:26-28

Verse 28 – the very first two words ever heard by a human ear:

BE and FRUITFUL

To BE or BECOME the person that does and achieves all these things in V28 and do it from a fruitful and useful perspective.

DO SOMETHING – USEFUL!