The book of James is one of my favourite books in the Bible.

It’s so practical for us as believers today, and James doesn’t pull any punches as he deals with issues from two thousand years ago that are very similar to what we as believers have to deal with today.

Now, not everyone shares my fondness for the book of James.

Martin Luther, often thought of as the father of the Protestant Reformation, wrote, in his preface to the New Testament, “James’s epistle is really an epistle of straw, compared to these others [Romans, Galatians, Ephesians], for it has nothing of the nature of the gospel about it.”

Others feel James was a little too cranky and perhaps a little too judgemental and that his writing doesn’t include a lot about Jesus. As a matter-of-fact Jesus is only named twice in the letter.

However, it is a favourite for many of us and has been included as part of the New Testament from the very beginning.

When I introduced the book, I said James opened his letter by telling his readers four things.

1. You May Be Scattered, But You Are Not Forgotten.

2. Your Circumstances Are Creating a Better You.

3. God Has the Wisdom We Need, If We Want It.

4. Your Circumstances Are Not Your Identity.

Last week, Pastor Rob spoke on the next 6 verses and he highlighted,

1. Be Responsible for the Temptation.

2. Prepare yourself for the Temptation.

3. Fight Temptation from Your Identity in Christ.

Now James goes in a different direction.

Up to this point, James has been talking about the pressure, trials, and temptations that we face spiritually and emotionally as believers.

Now he shifts from what’s happening inside us to what should be visible to those around us.

Because eventually, if our faith is real, it has to become a visible part of our life.

So, let’s jump right into, James 1:19–20 Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires.

The first thing James tells his readers in this section is Slow Down

Let’s read that again. James 1:19 Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.

I probably don’t even have to expand on this. We could just sit here for a while and let that sink it, leave and apply it to our lives and most of us would be better off.

But I’m not.

We live in a culture of outrage.

All too often we are slow to listen, quick to speak, and quick to get angry.

And might I add, quick to justify what we said, and even quicker to post our outrage online.

Remember my John Maxwell quote from two weeks ago, “Your best excuse is your worst excuse, because you believe it.”

Notice that James doesn’t tell us that we should never speak out, and that we should never be angry. He just tells us to slow down and think before we speak.

It was Groucho Marx who said, “If you speak when angry, you’ll make the best speech you’ll ever regret.”

And many of us have given that very speech.

Solomon tells us in, Proverbs 10:19 ^NIV When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise.

And today, social media has made responding in anger way too easy. We react too quickly, often without taking time to think about what we are saying, or the impact it might have.

Back in 2019 there was a major meltdown on social media that involved an employee of the Halifax Water Commission. Perhaps you remember it.

Someone had taken a video of a work crew digging up a water main. One of the employees had a cup of coffee in his hand, and when he was done with the coffee, he threw the cup in the hole before it was filled in.

When the video was posted, the reaction was quick and vicious. With many of those who responded, demanding that the man be fired. For littering.

They wanted him to lose his job, and for his family to become destitute. For littering.

The mob said he had no respect for the environment, and that he should have walked over and put his cup in the trash receptacle that was nearby.

Now let’s pause for a moment. Granted in this day and age, you need to assume that whatever you do will be caught on video by someone, and throwing a cup away may not have been the best optics.

But let’s look at what people were suggesting that he should have done instead of throwing the cup in a hole and burying it.

They said he should have taken it over to the trash receptacle and placed it in the plastic bag that lined the trash can.

Eventually a small truck would have come and emptied the trash can. Then, burning fossil fuel, the truck would take the cup to a place where it would have been put on a bigger truck.

Then the bigger truck, burning fossil fuel, would have been taken the cup to another place, where it would have been . . . put in a hole and buried.

That’s the extreme, but how often do we react that quickly to a political view, a religious view, or a cultural comment that we don’t agree with.

I try to be careful online, because what I say and post reflects not only on Denn, but on Cornerstone, on Christianity and ultimately on Jesus.

Are there issues we should be angry over? Most definitely, but you probably aren’t going to convince someone of the validity of your point of view by fighting over it on social media.

You’ve heard me say it before, and I stand by it. Arguing on social media is like wrestling a pig, you both get dirty and the pig likes it.

It was Aristotle, who wrote, “Anybody can become angry, that is easy. But to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way — that is not within everybody’s power and is not easy.”

William Barclay, in the Daily Study Bible writes, “The world would be a poorer place without those who blazed against the abuses and the tyrannies of sin. But too often this is made an excuse for petulant and self-centred irritation.”

I used to tell our son, that not everything needs to be said.

 I read recently that a smart person knows what to say a wise person knows whether or not it should be said.

Slow down, decide does this have to be said, and if so, what is the best way to say it?

Because, ultimately as James reminds us, James 1:20 Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires.

But it’s not enough to simply slow down. Let’s keep reading, as James tells us, James 1:21–21 So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls.

Once we slow down, then we need to Take a Breath

First, James tells his readers to rid themselves of all vice and filthiness.

The original language is a lot more colourful as it tells us to strip off these vices.

The word that James uses for strip was the word used for stripping off your clothes at the end of the day. That you would remove your soiled clothes to be replaced with fresh clothes.

And this is a conscious act. It’s something that we choose to do or not do.

Jesus talks about how coming into a relationship with him is like being born again. That it is a new beginning.

Paul expands on that in 2 Corinthians 5:17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

And that is the miracle of grace, that God can take what is old and make it new. That he can forgive who we were and what we had done and give us a brand-new beginning.

But God doesn’t want us to put the old us back on over the new us. That would be like taking a shower and then putting our dirty clothes back on.

The Bible tells us in Ephesians 4:22 . . . throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception.

It has to be something we do.

We’ve been down this road before, that is the mixed blessing of free will.

As much as God wants this for our lives, he won’t hold us down and peel our old habits and sinful behaviour off of us, but he will be there to help us walk through the process.

And part of being a part of a church community is the accountability and help we receive from our brothers and sisters in this process.

But it’s not just throwing off the old. James tells us that we need to replace it with something better.

James 1:21–21 So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls.

In the same way that it is a conscious act to get rid of all the filth and evil in our lives, it is also a conscious choice to humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts.

How does God plant his word in our hearts? By providing it to us. To read and study.

But just as God won’t forcibly remove the bad from our lives, he won’t forcibly pour the good into our lives.

Through his Spirit, he convicts and strengthens us to do both.

In Psalm 119, King David asks, Psalm 119:9 How can a young person stay pure? By obeying your word.

Then he answers his question two verses later, Psalm 119:11 I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.

David then he expands on that answer over the next several verses, finishing up in Psalm 119:17–18 Be good to your servant, that I may live and obey your word. Open my eyes to see the wonderful truths in your instructions.

We live in the best of times for access to the word of God. We can access it on our phones, tablets, and computers. We can read it ourselves, or we can listen to someone else read it to us. But, and after the but comes the truth. We have to do it.

The Bible sitting collecting dust on your bedside table won’t do you any good, nor will the unopened apps on your phone or computer.

James tells us to slow down your response and then stop, take off the old, and pick up the new.

Let’s keep reading. James 1:22 But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.

The third things James tells us is to Get it Done

Michael Walters, writing in the Wesleyan Bible Commentary reminds us, “The critical element hinges around James’s insistence that true religion allows for no divorce between hearing and obeying.”

For most Christians, the danger is not rejecting God’s Word.

Instead, there are two separate dangers. The first is that we simply never read it. We take Denn’s word that is what the bible says, and we go no further than that.  But, seriously, are you willing to bank your eternity on me?

The second danger is that we become familiar with God’s word without being changed by it.

We read it faithfully. We might even memorize it. But we don’t allow it to change who we are or affect how we live.

The caution that James gives his readers and us is found in the next couple of verses.

James 1:23–25 For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.

This is a great illustration, and one that we all understand and can relate to, because we all look in the mirror.

Now, most people don’t look in the mirror just to admire themselves.  Unless they are Snow White’s evil stepmother.

Most of us look in the mirror to see how we look. Is our hair alright? Ladies, you are wondering if you got your makeup on all right? Do we have spinach stuck between our teeth?

But just looking and not correcting any issues that you find is kind of silly.

That isn’t exactly what he said, James 1:23-24 For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like.

We have mirrors everywhere, not so 2000 years ago. They certainly didn’t have mirrors as we have them.

If you were lucky, you would have a piece of metal that had been buffed so you could see your reflection in it.

Those would have been few and far between, and only the wealthy could afford them.

And it was here that I had a Denn thought. 

The majority of the world back then didn’t know what they looked like. They knew what other people looked like, but they could only guess what they looked like.

And even if they saw their reflection in a shiny piece of metal or reflected in the water, it wouldn’t have been a great image.

Here is another tangent, I just discovered it the other day.  Let’s do a little group exercise.  I need everyone to close their eyes. Just work with me on this, ok? 

Now, I want you to picture an apple in your mind. You got it? Some of you pictured a fully detailed apple. Maybe a red McIntosh or a green Granny Smith. For some, there wasn’t as much detail, and some, maybe it was just an outline of an apple and stem.

Do you know what I see? Nothing. A grey slate. 

And maybe you are like that, and you never thought of it before. You didn’t realize that people could imagine fully detailed pictures in their heads. And now you are panicking, wondering what’s wrong with you. I have bad news.

Nothing’s wrong with you, it simply a genetic quirk shared by about 3% of the population. It’s called Aphantasia, (a-fan-tasia), no it’s not a Disney movie, it just sounds like one.  Sometimes it’s described as having a “blind mind’s eye”.

Until a few weeks ago, I thought when people used phrases like “picture this” or “imagine that” they were simply speaking metaphorically. Nope they were actually seeing something.

Nothing wrong with us, it just a characteristic like being left-handed, or having red hair.

According to the Aphantasia Network website, “Rather than relying on mental imagery, people with aphantasia often excel at abstract thinking, logical reasoning, and conceptual processing.”

When we were discussing this as a staff, one of my staff members asked, “So you can’t see pictures in your head?” and when I said no, they responded. “That’s so sad.” The upside is that people with aphantasia have less chance of developing PTSD.

That was free for all of you and worrisome for others, who will spend the rest of the service trying to picture an apple in their mind.

Whether we can picture the reflection in our mind or not, James’ point remains the same: seeing truth should change us.

Let’s tie things together with the last couple of verses, where James warns us, James 1:26–27 If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless. Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.

James is saying, if we don’t slow down, take a breath, and then just do what we’ve been commanded to do, there are consequences for us as believers.

And then he gets a little sharp and says that fooling ourselves and our religion is worthless.

Then James defines what pure and genuine religion is in the sight of God.  This is not an exhaustive list.  But there are two things here.  Care for the orphans and widows in their distress and refuse to let the world corrupt you.

This isn’t an if and or option. We don’t get to pick which we would prefer to do as a Christian.

If I take care of the widows and orphans does that mean I can let the world corrupt me? Or conversely if I don’t let the world corrupt me, can I ignore loving people?

Some churches emphasize separation from the world; they are so proud of what they don’t do that “we aren’t like them.”

 Other churches emphasize caring for the hurting and needy, and they are so careful not to offend that they refuse to name or confront sin.

It was William Barclay who wrote, “All through history men have tried to make ritual and liturgy a substitute for sacrifice and service. They have made religion splendid within the Church at the expense of neglecting it outside the Church.”

However, James says genuine faith does both. 

And maybe he was remembering his brother Jesus’ words when he was asked what the greatest commandment was, and he responded in Matthew 22:37–39 Jesus replied, “ ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’  This is the first and greatest commandment.  A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’

For years, Wesleyans have used the phrase “social holiness.”  And it was the idea that holiness was never meant to be private.

That holiness wasn’t just about separating ourselves from the world.

Loving God should change how we speak, how we listen, how we respond, and how we care for people who cannot repay us.

So, James reminds us that genuine faith changes how we speak.  Genuine faith changes how we react.

Genuine faith changes how we treat vulnerable people.

And ultimately genuine faith changes who we are.

As we wrap up today, maybe there’s something on your heart you’d like prayer for. If so, just come up front—someone from our team will be here and would be glad to pray with you.

It might be in response to something I mentioned in my message.  Perhaps you need help in slowing down before you respond.

Or maybe, you are having problems stripping off those old habits.

Or it might not have anything to do with what was said today, but you just need someone who will agree with you in prayer.