So Get Rid Of All Filth And Evil Your Lives, And Humbly Accept The Word God Has Planted In Your Hearts
Be Swift To Hear, Slow To Speak
JAMES 1:19-22
“So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”
James 1:19-22 NKJV
https://bible.com/bible/114/jas.1.19-22.NKJV
Faith is not something Christians simply possess, or a belief or feeling of trust. The faith James is talking about is also something we do; it is an expressed choice or action.
This is true when we initially receive our faith, we act on that belief, surrendering ourselves to Jesus Christ with the conscious decision to follow Him and obey His commands.
Faith is choosing to obey Christ and follow His example in every decision we make, every conversation we have, and everything we do. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
Hebrews 11:1 NKJV
Faith is believing on the God given instruction that comes as intuition or a gut feeling from within our spirit.
For the Holy Spirit joins our spirit at salvation, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.”
Romans 8:14-17 NKJV
But faith can only come through relationship, by getting to know Jesus well enough to know that He is God and that He is always right, and that He holds us safely in His hands.
James presented Christian faith as profoundly practical, giving us good instruction through God’s Word.
But we believers can do nothing good in our own strength, which is why our Father in heaven sent His Holy Spirit to help us and guide us in our walk.
Jesus said, ““If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.”
John 14:15-18 NKJV
When one commits his life to Jesus, God is faithful to send His Holy Spirit with the promise of Salvation (EPHESIANS 1:13-14; 2 CORINTHIANS 1:22) and that He would never leave us.
Therefore, just as Peter said at Pentecost, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.””
Acts 2:38-39 NKJV
Having received the gift of the Holy Spirit, one must crucify the lust of the flesh and walk in the Spirit, and a battle begins from within, “For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.”
Galatians 5:17 NKJV
While the Holy Spirit helps and leads, we believers must cooperate with Him.
Therefore, get rid of filthiness and wickedness and be doers of the word, not just hearers only.
Our faith has no life apart from our choices and actions. People who truly put their faith in Christ follow the leading of the Holy Spirit and behave in ways that show love, kindness, humility, selflessness, and self-control (see GALATIANS 5:16-26), for these are the fruits of the Spirit.
People of true faith are imitators of Jesus Christ.
James advice is to be rid of all that is wrong in in our lives, and humble ourselves before God, and accept the message of salvation we have received, because it alone can save us.
James tells us, be “swift to hear and slow to speak.”
We must understand that what we believes say has extreme power.
Every word spoken is either a blessing or a curse and can have dramatic effects on our lives.
James said, “My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. Indeed, we put bits in horses’ mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.”
James 3:1-12 NKJV
Indeed, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.”
Proverbs 18:21 NKJV
My beloved, refrain from the lust of the flesh, including gossip and negativity that shall curse both our brothers and sisters in Christ and ourselves.
But rather, walk in the Spirit and produce His fruits, “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law
(Galatians 5:22-23).”
Jesus would never involve in retaliation nor gossip, nor any evil thing, and He is the example to follow.
“Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless. Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.”
James 1:21-27 NKJV
All glory to God forever and ever! Amen.
