James: More GraceSample

It matters a great deal how we respond to God’s word.

God gives us birth spiritually through his ‘word of truth’ (1:18) as we hear the gospel of Jesus and turn from our sin. But we must also keep responding to God’s word in the right way. James pictures God’s word as a seed that God has ‘planted’ in believers. God wants this ‘seed’ to be productive; he is looking for a harvest.

• How must we respond to the word God has ‘planted’ in us and why (v. 21b)?

Hearing God’s word is not always a comfortable experience. When our wrongdoing is exposed, it is easy to snap straight back with angry excuses or denials. We don’t usually like being told we need to change. Yet we must humbly accept what God says about us. It is vital that we do so, for this word can save us. Hearing and responding rightly to God’s word is the means God uses to keep us safe spiritually.

James tells us what humbly accepting God’s word will look like in practice. This is how he wants his readers to respond to the challenging words of his letter.

• What are James’ dos and don’ts for responding to God’s word (vv. 19–21a)?

It seems likely that James is thinking here about how we respond to God’s word to us about our sin. This is the word that we are probably least keen to listen to and the word which is most likely to make us angry or provoke us to immediately answer back with arguments or excuses.

Instead we must respond to this word by taking drastic action to ‘get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent’ (v. 21) and to start producing ‘the righteousness that God desires’ (v. 20). We need to take our sin as seriously as God does. James is concerned about his readers’ attitude to their sin. He has already warned them that if they let sin become ‘full-grown’, it ‘gives birth to death’ (1:15).

How we respond to God’s word is how we respond to God. It is a litmus test of our spiritual safety. If we start rejecting or ignoring God’s calls to change, we are in a very dangerous place. When God speaks, we are to be quick to listen, slow to answer back and slow to get angry. We are to humbly accept his word. God has planted his word in us and he wants it to produce righteousness! How are you listening?

Pray

Ask God to help you humbly accept his word