James 1:19-27 - Why James Says to be Doers, not Hearers (Session 5)

This episode is a verse-by-verse Bible study of James 1:19-27, on being quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, and becoming doers of the Word. Learn how God’s Word changes desires, behavior, and practical Christian living.

In this study through James 1:19–27, the focus is on what it means to be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. This passage explains how the Word of God changes a believer from the inside out, transforming desires, behavior, and daily conduct.

This verse-by-verse Bible study explores the importance of receiving the implanted Word, laying aside filthiness and wickedness, and becoming doers of the Word rather than hearers only. James uses vivid pictures such as the mirror, the bridled tongue, and the law of liberty to show how genuine faith produces visible fruit.

Special attention is also given to pure and undefiled religion, including caring for widows and orphans and remaining unstained by the world. This is a deeply practical passage on Christian maturity, obedience, love, and the life-changing power of Scripture.

Topics covered:

• Quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger 
•  Hearers vs. doers of the Word 
•  The implanted Word of God 
•  The law of liberty 
•  Bridling the tongue 
•  Pure and undefiled religion 
•  Visiting widows and orphans 
•  Practical Christian living

Transcript

Glenn 0:15

Today on Reasoning Through the Bible, we're in the book of James, where he tells us to be quick to hear. We learn that being quick to hear actually changes our desires and changes our behavior. Hi, my name's Glenn and this is Steve. We are Reasoning Through the Bible Today. We're in the book of James, chapter one. Steve, we're going to learn today how changing our desires on the inside produces a better fruit than what we have in the past.

Steve 0:41

And that is something that's really evident with me, glenn, in that I know that I have a changed person. I'm not a perfect person, but for sure I am a changed person. I'm glad that it works out that way, because I know that the type of person I could be if I wasn't a changed person.

Glenn 0:59

Today we're going to learn in the book of James, chapter one, how changing our desires has a tremendous impact on our behavior. We learn that if we are quick to hear and slow to speak and slow to anger, then the Word of God has a tremendous effect on us in our lives. This is such rich ground. We have such a great book here that's so practical. So if you have your copy of the Word of God open to James, chapter one, steve, if you could read from verse 19 down to verse 27.

Steve 1:32

This, you know, my beloved brethren, but everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger, for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.

Steve 1:42

Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness in humility, receive the Word implanted which is able to save your souls, but prove yourselves doers of the Word and not merely hearers who delude themselves. Or if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he's like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror. For once, he has looked at himself and gone away. He has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was, but one who looks atently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it. Not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does. Anyone thinks himself to be religious and yet does not bridle his tongue but to seize his own heart, this man's religion is worthless, pure and undefiled. Religion in the sight of our God and Father is this to visit orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

Glenn 2:39

So in verse 19, it says that we should be quick to hear. In those days people didn't have copies of the Word of God that they could carry around in their pocket. There may have been one copy at the place where they were meeting as a church. Therefore, when the Bible was studied, someone would read it aloud and then the group would teach and discuss it here. It seems fairly straightforward that when he says quick to hear, it's quick to hear the Word of God, and the Word of God that gets implanted in us is what changes us. Jesus would often say if you remember over in the Gospels, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. That's what he's talking about. Be quick to hear is to quick to pay attention, and learn the Word of God.

Steve 3:24

Pay attention. That's what I get out of. This is somebody that needs to listen to what's going on. Remember how many times that we had as parents say to us listen to what I'm saying, or that we, as parents, said to our kids you're not listening? What that actually meant is is that you're hearing what I'm saying, but you're not comprehending what I'm actually saying, and I think that's what James is saying here is. You know, be quick to hear, but you also need to be comprehending, as he's going to explain here in just a little bit.

Glenn 3:56

Why is it so hard for people to be quick to hear in this concept? Why is that so difficult for people?

Steve 4:05

Well, I think that it goes to that. People have their own ideas. I think their natural inclination is to go their own way. Sometimes they want things that are going to be tickling their ears, so to speak. They want things that they want to hear and embrace, that doesn't really put them into a situation where they have to actually do something about it, or that it's a conviction to them. They'd rather just have something that they can kind of nod their head with and say, okay, I can understand that, and then move on. It's not anything that they have to actually take action on. I think that James, when he gets in here further about that, he's going to start making that clear that it's not just hearing but it's also actions behind it. People sometimes want to tune that out. They don't want to listen. When it gets to those type of things where you actually have some conviction, they tend to tune it out. They're not quick to hear those type of things that come out of Scripture.

Glenn 5:04

If I ask why it's so hard for people to be quick to hear, it's because we're weak humans and we forget so easy. Therefore, what we need to do is memorize the Word of God. If we memorize it, then it's in us and it changes our behavior. He also talks in here, Steve, about being slow to speak. The old adage is everyone was given two ears and one mouth, so we should speak half as much as we listen, which is probably really good advice. Why is it you think we get in so much trouble with our tongue? He's going to talk later in this book about some analogies he gives about the tongue and how to control the tongue and how much damage the tongue can do. Why is it that we have so much trouble keeping our big mouth shut and just listening?

Steve 5:51

to people Because we're not slow to speak, we're quick to speak. Just the opposite. I think that we let our head overrule our mouth many times. I know that in my youth and even now sometimes things run through my head that sometimes it says you need to say this. As you get older and wiser, you understand you need to hold that thought in. You don't want to say that out loud. That's the things that I think that people get to. They don't think they don't process, they just halfway hear what's being said and then they respond to that. I believe that that's what James is talking about Quick to hear, wanting to hear, slow to speak. Process what's actually being said. Don't think that you have to actually give a response. No response at all is the correct response.

Glenn 6:44

At the end of verse 19 and into verse 20, it says be slow to anger. For which means because slow to anger, because the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. Think about that the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. What I think of Steve is too many times I've seen too many Christians that are just angry. They're angry people. They're angry at an unrighteous world and they're angry at the failures of people around them. I immediately think that there's things that we, as Christians need to be a little slower with when we speak and when we get angry. There's a lot of things genuinely in the world that we should have righteous anger about. We live in a very dark world. We live in a very disobedient world, but I think that some Christians just seem to be always angry and I don't think it really helps us as a church in the world. We need to be a little quicker to listen. We need to listen because some of those people, yes, they're doing some very dark things, but they need somebody to listen first. I think this would be good advice for a lot of very angry Christians that are angry at the world. Not God is angry with us as some of us do with people around us, then we'd all be in pretty dire straits.

Glenn 8:05

I think Verse 21 ends up giving a very important lesson Just because we get angry at unrighteousness does not mean we are righteous. Think about that. Just because we get angry at unrighteousness doesn't make us righteous. In fact, sometimes we can get so angry at unrighteousness that we cross the line into unrighteousness too. How did Jesus? He handled a lot of situations. The people he got really angry at were the religious people that were compromising the word of God, the people that had the moral failures he was a lot more forgiving of. That's what I think of Steve. When I see this, what are you thinking?

Steve 8:44

When you look at Jesus in his final trial, the final hours of his life, and the things that were done with him when he was shuttled back and forth between the high priest and pilot and others during that whole time, when you read about it, he said very little, he didn't speak very much. A couple of questions that he answered. Look what they did to him. They were beating him, spitting on him, tearing out his beard, those things. If anybody had a right to be angry, jesus had a right to be angry at the world, at what he was doing, but he didn't show that. He stayed there and he kept his mouth shut. He kept quiet as what was going on, because this is something that needed to come about. If Jesus can do it in those types of circumstances, we certainly can do it. One of the petty things that people might do against us retribution, striking out an anger at somebody because maybe something that they're doing to us. It's not going to bring a solution many times to whatever might be going on.

Glenn 9:44

In James, chapter one. He gives a logical sequence here. I think it's good to summarize what's in these verses, from verse 14 through about verse 21,. He's giving this logical progression of what happens that either produces sin and death or righteousness. In verse 14, he talks about we are tempted. We are tempted by an external force.

Glenn 10:08

He then uses language that is similar to birthing a child. He says that this external temptation mates with an internal desire or an internal lust. When that external temptation mates with this internal lust, it produces or brings forth sin. That's the sequence he's saying there. By contrast, starting in verse 18, god brought us forth. Again, he's using language of bringing forth a child or birthing a child. God brought us forth by his word. Therefore, we are to hear the word, receive the word and we're to be doers of the word.

Glenn 10:50

The concept here is that there's always going to be this external temptation out there. There's always this external temptation. If we have an internal desire that's lustful, then that lust will mate with that temptation and produce a child. That's called sin and death. On the other hand, if the external temptation meets with God's righteousness that's on the inside of us, then no mating will happen. The only thing will happen is that bring forth righteousness. At least it won't mate with the temptation. It'll bring forth righteousness and will be immune to the temptation.

Glenn 11:26

That's the word picture that he's explaining here. I just found that to be a very beautiful word picture here in James, chapter 1. Bring forth is the same as bringing forth a child. My Christian friends, we all struggle. I've been there. Believe me. Are you going to bring forth a child of sin and death or are you going to bring forth a child of righteousness? The right answer on those is, he tells us, be quick to hear, slow to speak and receive his word. Hear the word, as you very rightfully pointed out a minute ago, steve, is to not just hear the sounds hitting our eardrum, it's to actually internalize it, believe it and make use of it in our lives.

Steve 12:03

One of the things that James is getting into and he's going to expand on that when we get into chapter 2, is that there's this internal sense that believers should have. They are to be hearers, they're to be slow to speak, slow to anger, they're to be doers of the word. This is talking about, I believe, an internal sense of how we should act, how we should live our life. We should be more Christ-like, we should live to be more like Christ. As Paul says, we are to put off the old man, we are to put on the new man. If we're not involved in these type of activities, then we should question what's going on, or really just question why not? James is going to expand on this as we get further on in chapter 1 here and go into chapter 2.

Glenn 12:54

Verse 21 gives us a very important key to how to live correctly. Here's a question for you, Steve, about verse 21. How much filthiness and wickedness should we put aside?

Law of Liberty Concept

Steve 13:05

We should put as much as we can of the filthiness. Really, I think what that comes up was that when the filthiness comes, you need to take it out. You don't need to let it build up, you need to put it aside, and the wickedness as well.

Glenn 13:18

Verse 21 says putting aside all filthiness and wickedness. I say this somewhat facetiously, but I think there's an important truth here when it says all well, Steve, how about, if I leave just a little bit of filthiness and wickedness, I'll just keep it over in the corner where nobody else can see. All I want is just to keep this one little bit of filthiness in my life.

Steve 13:40

That's that little bit of leaven that Scripture talks about that ruins the whole loaf. A little bit of sin always ruins the whole life. No, you can't keep that little wickedness back without it having an effect on you and spreading and making things even worse.

Glenn 14:00

Look again at verse 21,. Putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness in humility, receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. I find that to be very profound. All he's really saying here is Christians, lay aside the filthiness and receive the word of God. When it says, receive the word implanted, god implants the word in us. He gives us the word of God. It's our active verb here is to receive it, this word that he is implanted, which means to accept it. When that happens, it'll produce the fruit of righteousness. He implants the word in us. We receive it. When we receive it, then we're able to lay aside all the filthiness and we end up acting righteously. That's the word picture here. Without that, we're never going to be able to put aside the filthiness.

Steve 14:55

A question that comes up, glenn what does it mean? To be implanted? How is the word implanted in us? I think that there's just like this the people that are listening and watching this session. Here we're going through the word of God. They're hearing the word of God. It's being implanted in you whenever you hear a sermon from a pastor or in your church, or when you're in a small group and you're going through certain books of Scripture. All of those areas are ways that the word is being implanted. Whenever you study Scripture on your own and you look at it. Those are all ways that the word is implanted in us, wouldn't you agree?

Glenn 15:36

I would agree very much. The more we hear the word of God, the more we meditate on the word of God. Then it gets implanted in us and it will change us. Times that I've memorized verses and times that I've taught my children to memorize verses. It comes out at the appropriate time. God will change our life in that regard.

Steve 15:56

If we never hear the word of God, we never read the word of God and we never study the word of God. The question is how is it going to be implanted?

Glenn 16:05

Exactly, exactly. That's the problem. Keep looking. If you look at verse 21, into verse 22,.

Glenn 16:11

The logical sequence here verse 22, prove yourselves doers of the word and not merely hearers who delude themselves. James' logical progression here is to hear the word of God, receive the word of God and then you're going to be doers of the word of God. This is one of his themes. If you're not doing the word of God, then something's amiss, something's wrong, and he's going to expand on that in chapter 2. One of the major themes here in James is very practical Lay aside all the filthiness, receive the word of God and then you will be doers of the righteous acts of the word of God.

Glenn 16:51

It also talks here at the end of verse 22. It talks about hearers who delude themselves. It's talking about deluding themselves as to whether they are following God's commands, not whether they're saved. One of the things that I think people get very confused here with James is we sort of lug in doctrine and theological conversations from Paul and these questions were not there yet. That's why, when we started the book of James, steve, we went over a fair amount of time here where we were talking about who James was talking to, at what time period the book was written. Remind us about that. Who's the context in his audience here?

Steve 17:36

As we noted before, this is a book that James is writing to the Jewish believers, and it's an early dating as well, before the council took place and all of that of bringing up certain things that Paul was doing and taking the gospel to the Gentiles.

Glenn 17:51

James is talking to Jewish people that had heard the word of God and still had this Jewish context about them. They were still very much Jewish. He talks about that throughout the book. James was talking to Jews who had just learned that they did not have to follow the Mosaic law in order to prove themselves righteous before God. They were dealing with that issue. It was not really dealing with salvation issue and all the Gentile questions that came later in the epistles of Paul.

Glenn 18:25

When he says here in verse 22, don't delude yourself. He's not talking about deluding yourself about whether you're saved or not. That's not even an issue in the entire book. What he's talking here is delude yourself as to whether you're being any good in the world. That's what he's talking about. James says in one sense very simple and straightforward, but it's profound he's always dealing with are you dealing with practical good to yourself and those around you? That's the theme here. Then he talks about this analogy with the mirror. If you look yourself in a mirror and then walk away, you forget what you're like. But if you look intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, then you know what you're like and what you're able to do. Then, in verse 25, he's talking about being an effectual doer and not just a hearer. Notice in verse 25 that the New Testament Christians are indeed under a law, Not the Mosaic law, but he sells the perfect law, the law of liberty. We are to abide by the law of liberty. Let's kind of talk about that for a little bit.

Glenn 19:33

Steve, we're going to pick it up again in chapter 2, because he brings up this same idea there. In Romans, chapter 6, we are told that we're not under the law but under grace. When we point this out we have, New Testament Christians are no longer under the measured by the Mosaic law. Our righteousness is not measured by how many of the Old Testament commands we keep. People accuse us of being lawless. I remember a post-millennial guy that I knew one time said if you don't believe you're bound to the Mosaic law, you're antinomian, which just means lawless, anti-law. We're not lawless, it says here. We're under the perfect law, the law of liberty. Steve, what is this law and how does it fit?

Steve 20:21

Well, I believe this law of liberty is the gospel of Jesus Christ and it's Jesus's law. We saw that Jesus talked about loving others and treating others as you treat yourself. His Sermon on the Mount, the things that he went through there, the Mosaic law, was one that was a burden. Jesus said take my yoke upon you, because my burden is light. He was referring to this Mosaic law that had become a great burden to the people. Jesus's law, the perfect law, what he taught in his commands, that's the law of liberty that does not weigh us down and isn't a burden to us.

Glenn 20:59

Again, james was speaking to Jewish Christians that had just become disciples and followers of Jesus Christ very early in the New Testament church, not dealing with a lot of the Gentile questions that Paul deals with later. The audience here is struggling with this idea. They had been steeped in this Mosaic law since they were babies. It was drummed into them. You have to obey these laws. James here is reminding them you're keeping a law. It's the perfect law, the law of liberty. You're free from the Mosaic law, which is the law of sin and death.

Glenn 21:35

This theme is played out other places in the New Testament as well. Romans 13.10 says that love is the fulfillment of the law. Galatians 5.14 says that the law is fulfilled in loving your neighbor as yourself. James 2.8 that we're going to get to in the next chapter says we fulfill the royal law by loving our neighbor as ourself. This perfect law, this law of liberty, binds us, but it's a law of love and not a law of obligation. We do things to ourselves and our neighbors because we love them and not out of some obligation that I'm supposed to do this. Here's the next question, steve. If it is a law of liberty, if we're free from the law of sin and death, then how can this law of liberty have requirements to abide by? Because that's what he seems to be saying here is that if it's a law of liberty, how can it then be a law? It seems like almost an oxymoron or a contradiction in terms. How can I have a law of liberty with obligations to it?

Steve 22:38

I think that's best explained by his illustration here In verse 23, when he talks about a man who's a hearer of the word but not a doer. The illustration is with somebody that looks into a mirror and once he's looked at himself and gone away he immediately forgets what he's talking about here. Isn't somebody that kind of looks into the mirror and they see that they have some imperfections. They see that there's something there that they need to take care of, but they don't take care of it and they walk away with it.

Steve 23:10

And then when he gets down here to verse 25, and he says but one who looks intently at the perfect law, that's an illustration of somebody that would be bending over to look at the mirror. They're really examining their face in the mirror to see what's there, the imperfections that their face, and then they do something about the imperfections. Through his illustration here he's got two parts Somebody that looks in the mirror kind of casually and sees there's imperfections and doesn't do anything about it, and somebody else that looks intently at this law of liberty and sees the imperfections and sees what it draws out and shows the imperfections and what he needs to do. Then he does something to correct those imperfections. Not sure if that exactly answered your question, but I kind of see the illustration here of what James is making regarding somebody actually taking action.

Glenn 24:09

I would agree. The law of liberty is a law of love. Love is the highest ethic. That was one of the messages that Jesus brought. Was that the law of love is really what we're bound by.

Glenn 24:22

Remember, in the Gospels Jesus had a lot of criticism for the Pharisees. The Pharisees were very particular at trying to keep the exact letter of the law. They would tithe 10% of the spices in their garden right, just very small minutiae of the law they were diligent to keep. But they then found loopholes in the law. While they were keeping the letter of the law. They weren't meeting the spirit of the law. They stood up and say we're keeping the law, but they were using it to hurt people. They were using it to take advantage of people. They were tying up heavy loads and laying it on men's shoulders and not doing so much as lifting a finger to help. Jesus had a lot of criticism for that.

Glenn 25:03

Jesus' law of liberty is based on love. Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and your neighbor as yourself. That was Jesus' statement about what is the first and greatest commandment. We are free in Christ. We're free. We're not obligated to keep all the commands in the Mosaic law. What we're actually held to is a much higher ethic. We're called to love our neighbor as ourself. It's the law of love that frees us from these obligations of did I work when I carried my sewing needle on the Sabbath? These type of things. That's not the point. The point is are you loving your neighbor and you're doing what's best for glorifying God? I can't go out and just do anything and everything, because if I do, it'll bring shame upon my God, it'll destroy my witness in front of my neighbors. That's the law of liberty. I obey God's commands because I love my Lord and I want to be a good witness for him out in the world. That's the law.

Visiting Widows and Orphans

Glenn 26:03

Now, james' message here is that a true Christian Christian has a changed heart. That will result in abiding by the law and doing good works. If a man doesn't do good works this is one of the themes. We'll pick this up in the next chapter, chapter two If he doesn't do good works, if he can't bridle his tongue, his religion's worthless. That's one of James' central themes. Then, at verse 27 is a great admonition to all of us. If we look at verse 27, he says here that the pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God is this to visit orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world. That is a great principle that all of us should learn. James does not give us any reason here for confusion, steve. He's very straightforward. He's very clear.

Steve 27:01

If you walk away from James with these practical commands, saying that you're not clear, then you're not reading James and we're seeing here a theme that he's picking up here, a taking action, and as we get into chapter two where he's going to expand on that and we're going to understand exactly what it is that he's really talking about when he's talking about doing and doing works.

Glenn 27:24

One more time in verse 27, it says here that pure and undefiled religion is to visit widows and orphans in their distress. My Christian friend, if you're in search of a ministry, if you don't know where God would have you fit, just go visit some old people. Go visit some widows and orphans. All they need is somebody to talk to. They're just very lonely. Oftentimes there's people around your church that a great ministry would be just going and visiting them and becoming a friend. That is one of the great messages here at the end of James, chapter one. We'll stop there for today. We're out of time. Next time we're going to get into chapter two and it gets into even more straightforward commands and even deeper waters. We'll be there next time as we continue to reason through the Bible, and we trust you'll be here to do so with us as well.

Steve 28:16

Thank you for watching and listening. May God bless you.