Both Sound and Sight (James 1:26-27)

Your TV can preach a better sermon than you think. When the sound works but the screen stays dark, you realize something essential is missing. We use that everyday frustration as a sharp lens for James 1:26-27: Christianity was never designed to be heard only. It has to be seen.

We walk through James’s warning to the “serious” religious person, the one who shows up early, stays late, gives, serves, and still fails a basic test: an unbridled tongue. James calls that kind of religion worthless not because faith is fake, but because it’s non-productive. We talk about why this is a daily struggle, how self-promoting speech can hijack real devotion, and why spiritual maturity often shows up first in what we stop saying.

Then we pivot to what James calls “pure and undefiled religion” in the sight of God: caring for orphans and widows in their distress and staying unstained by the world. We connect that command to church history, where Christian compassion helped spark hospitals, orphanages, and a radically different view of the value of human life. The thread running through it all is simple and demanding: help people who cannot pay you back, because God had a Father’s heart toward us first.

If you’ve ever wondered how to make your faith unmistakably different, press play, then subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review. What part of your “sound” needs a clearer “picture” right now?

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Transcript

Why Human Life Matters

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Girls during the early years of the church, until Christianity took root and things changed in the fourth century, they would be left out on the porches where at night they could be carried away by wild animals or brothel owners to be raised as prostitutes or as slaves. And so the first century church began going around at night collecting and raising these children. Why? Because there's value in human life, because life is the creation of God, and God, by the way, happens to have a father's heart. That's the gospel. It's unpredictable. I wanted to watch Monday Night Football the other week, assumed that I'd have the time to be able to do it, and I did. It didn't matter because all I could get was sound. Nothing on the picture. The television screen stayed dark. I did everything I knew to do. I hit the menu button and the menu actually showed up at the bottom and but no screen, but sound. I didn't want to listen to a football game. I have a radio for that. I wanted to, I wanted to watch it. And so I didn't know what to do. I tried everything. I pushed a few more buttons. It got to the point where it was pushing mine. Do you know what I mean by that? Have you ever been uh talking to your television, thinking it

The TV That Preaches Back

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could respond to something like, come on, let's go to kickoff as well. I finally had to give up, turned it off, asked God to judge it, and went on and did something then else. Then I'm studying the book of James, and one commentator that I've really enjoyed begins his chapter on this paragraph that we're about to study with these words. These are his opening words. To get the maximum enjoyment from your television, you need sound and picture. He missed a football game too. It's bothering him. He's writing commentaries on it. He went on sight without sound or sound without sight just doesn't work. It's not enough to see the picture with no sound or to hear something that have no picture. Television was designed to deliver both sound and picture. I thought, man, this is great theology. This man understands my life. I like where he's going. Then he makes this application. The Christian life is a lot like television. It's not enough for people just to hear what we say. They need to see a picture, too. Our Christianity must deliver both sound and picture as we put our faith into action. How true. Ladies and gentlemen, the book of James understands that the cable box of our heart, which has received the data of God's truth, has daily problems transmitting that data to the screen of our lives where people can not only hear but see a picture of godly Christianity. Maybe you've wondered if there was anything that you could possibly do to show that your Christianity is distinctive or different, that somehow the world would be able to notice a difference. Well, James is going to answer that question in this paragraph, and remember, he's writing this letter to believers, and he's going to deliver three ways for us to show distinctive Christianity. And he's going to challenge us along the way in three areas with respect to our conversation, with respect to our compassion, and with respect to our character. James chapter 1 and verse 26. James writes, if anyone thinks himself to be religious and yet does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this man's religion is worthless. Now you might notice that there are two times in this verse alone that he's going to talk about and use the word religion. It's also going to show up as a word in the next verse. The original word is a rarer word, actually found rarely in the New Testament. It's a word denoting in secular culture someone who was trembling before

Religion Without A Bridle

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their gods, someone who was fearful in the presence of their gods. And over time it came to refer to careful, trembling observance of religious exercises. In other words, a real carefulness to do it right because God or the gods whomever they followed was watching. Now, James is speaking to the first century Jewish Christians who would immediately understand this. In fact, they had been very careful and were, even at this time, in their praying and their fasting, as they attended the synagogue for worship services, as they gave of their resources there in the early church. So you need to know that James is not referring to spiritual slouches. He's referring to people who chair the committees. He's referring to key volunteers. He's referring to the people that show up early to set up and the people that leave late so they've cleaned up and they turn the lights out as they leave. That's the kind of person that is the audience of James' letter. But everybody knows, as he writes here, that this individual has a problem. Their tongue is unbridled. Literally, it is, as it were, a runaway horse. Now, the class condition he uses here, even though he doesn't name the person, he knows who the person is. Or he assumes that the assembly knows who the person is that he's talking about. Their Christianity is being overshadowed by their conversation. Now, for the second time in this chapter, James warns the believer about being deceived. You may remember if you were with us back up in verse 22, he wrote of the believer who looks into the word but doesn't do anything about it. James calls him an auditor who is deceived. That is, he doesn't do anything about it. He listens, but he doesn't put it into practice. He doesn't want the homework, he wants the advantage of hearing the lecture. Now, just a few verses later, here in verse 26, James refers again to a believer who is deceived. The word he uses in this verse is different. He's now talking about someone who is being seduced into believing some kind of error. In other words, here's the Christian who's doing all the right things, attending all the services, he's fasting, he's praying, he's giving, and then at the same time he's being deceived, he's being seduced into believing that those external acts are all that matters. Never mind the runaway tongue. And isn't that the case in the church? We typically don't deal with the internals. We would rather deal with the externals, and so if they show up and pay up and dress up, they're fine. In James' mind, he's going after the heart, out of which issues things from the mouth. The verb tense for bridling the tongue, by the way, deceiving your own heart are in the present tense, indicate, indicating this is an ongoing daily struggle for every Christian, and everyone would know it. Just like earlier, he talked about temptation, an ongoing battle. Just like he talked about being tutored by divine truth, an ongoing willingness. Just like he talked about even before that, the daily struggle with trials and asking God for the wisdom to respond with trust. Now, here, in relation to the tongue, this is a daily, daily battle. I remember being in a home years ago when some friends of mine had some horses, and we were gonna ride them. They were out in a pasture, big pasture, probably 50 acres or more. The problem was the horses saw us coming toward them with bridles in our hands, swinging by our sides. And the horses evidently didn't feel disposed to be ridden upon that afternoon because they ran from us. Can't understand that at all. They ran and we tried everything we could possibly try to get near them, and we could only get so close before they would

Running From The Bridle

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gallop away. Not one of us got near enough to any one of them to slip a bridle over their heads and into their mouth. James is saying, Christianity radically impacts your conversation. Are you running from the bridle or daily surrendering to the Spirit's control and confessing when you don't, and surrendering again and again and again? Now he says here at the end of this text that that man's religion, the one who runs from the bridal, that man's religion is worthless. He doesn't say the man's religion doesn't exist or that he isn't a Christian. He's not only a Christian in this text, he is a devoted, active, busy Christian. But his religion is worthless. James writes the word for worthless or vain is the Greek word Matthias, which means non-productive. It isn't leading him toward the goal that God wants as it relates to spiritual maturity, which fits again the context that James is calling for. He's saying, in a word or sentence, this external religious activity does not automatically produce spiritual, internal maturity. You can come to every service, you can never miss a prayer meeting, you can never miss a morning's devotion, you can never miss putting the five dollars in the plate every time it shows up, and never grow an inch, which, according to the mind of James, can be measured by the quality and control of our conversation. Now I'm gonna get in, I'm gonna get a little more specific as to what James is talking about in a moment, but let me share this with you. I was reading that once John Wesley was preaching. John Wesley was the founder of Methodism in the 1700s. At one time, Methodism was evangelical and basically the church planting denomination in both England and America. He was preaching in an audience that he knew well. In fact, a lady that had a critical attitude and an unkind spirit was sitting on the front row. And through the entire sermon, she sat there on the front row staring at his brand new bow tie. And when the service was over, she came right up to him and said, Mr. Wesley, the strings on your bow tie are much too

The Bow Tie And The Tongue

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long. They are offensive to me. He asked if any of the ladies present happened to have a pair of scissors, and one of them did. He handed the scissors to her and asked her to trim the streamers to her liking. After she clipped them off near the collar, he said, Are they right now? She said, Yes, that's much better now. Wesley said, Then let me have those scissors for a moment, madam. I must say, your tongue is offensive to me. He said, Let me take some of it off. Ever since I heard that, I want to use that. Would you come up and make fun of my necktie or do something? I found a pair of scissors already for you. If you want to measure the depth of spiritual maturity, effectively measure, as it were, the length of your tongue. Now, let me say this. I could go from here into all sorts of uses of the tongue and all the different ways the tongue can destroy and deceive and discourage and come up with a lot more D words, and we can all crawl out of here and go cry on our soup. James never tells us what the unbridled tongue is doing. He leaves it blank. He never tells us what it says. Later on, by the way, in chapter three, James is going to deal with our tongue in detail, so don't worry, it's coming, okay? Because all of us have the same problem. The bridle keeps slipping off. But James has something more specific in mind with the tongue in this context, which I think must be understood. Before I tell you, let me set it up by telling you something else that may be missed here, if we're not careful. It's possible to come to the conclusion at the end of reading, verse 26, that religious activity doesn't matter to God. That's not what James says. In fact, if you know this text well, you know that James is about to introduce to us religious activity that he says is pure. He's not against religious activity. I believe the way to understand verse 26 is to contrast it with verse 27. In other words, religious activity, verse 26, that serves yourself, that promotes yourself with

Worthless Religion Versus Pure Religion

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your tongue, that brags about yourself with your mouth, that constantly turns people's attention to you and what you're doing for God and why you're so important, and on and on and on. James is saying that kind of unbridled speech is fruitless. Yes, you have activity, but the sound doesn't match. On the other hand, verse 27 religious activity that uses the mouth to defend the defenseless. Religious activity that speaks for the needy, religious activity that cares about those who need help. That is pure. So of whom should we promote, should we promote their their welfare? Of whom should we defend their rights? Of whom should we speak? This is fruitless religious activity. This is pure. And James will answer that. Here's of whom you should be speaking. Notice verse 27. Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father. Make note of that, by the way, not necessarily in the sight of man. Mankind may not care, but you're not doing it for them, you're doing it for God. Pure religion and undefiled religion, that is, in the sight of God and our God and Father is this to visit orphans and widows in their pressure, in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. Keep in mind, James is not telling people that if they want to get into heaven, they need to start a visitation program to orphans and widows and keep themselves pure and unspotted from the world. He's not talking to people who need to be saved. He's talking to people who are. But there's a disconnect, as it were, in the cable box. There is sound, but nothing to see. James is saying we need to measure our maturity in light of these things. In other words, if you're growing in Christ, your Christianity will impact not only your conversation with others, you won't be the subject of conversation. It'll also impact your compassion toward others. Now, before we look specifically at that, would you notice this unique description of God in verse 27 where James says, pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is to visit orphans and women. God and Father. Hard to understand as an English reader, these are two singular nouns separated by the word chi or and. And that grammatical construction means that the second noun is describing the first noun. In other words, James refers to God and he says, let me describe him for you. He is God who happens to be a father, our

God The Father Of The Fatherless

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father, which is precious in this context because James is about to start talking about the defenseless and the fatherless. So he is saying God happens to have a father's heart. David the psalmist wrote, a father of the fatherless and a defender or a judge of the widows is God in his holy habitation. So James is basically saying that if you want to pursue Christian activity that really impresses God and reveals you are growing into the likeness of Christ, you will demonstrate parental care and compassion, and specifically in these two areas orphans and widows. In the first century, there was no life insurance, there were no welfare programs. In fact, there were great needs surrounding the early church as soon as it was created. Now, these aren't the only two classes of society that needed compassion. In fact, it's interesting as you trace the history of Christianity. Christianity was the primary influence as it gained acceptance and a hearing in the Western world, establishing hospitals, founding orphanages, starting rescue missions, building almshouses for the poor, opening kitchens for the hungry. It was the Christian who chartered societies for the poor, Christians who chartered societies for the homeless who built infirmaries for the mentally handicapped and the physically

How Christianity Changed Care

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disabled and the elderly. It was the Christian who was passionate about changing laws to free the slave and protect the child from cruel labor at the hands of cruel adults. And on and on and on. Listen, you need to understand that the Western world is what it is because of Christianity. The Western world did not produce Christianity. Christianity produced the Western world. Sure, go ahead. Why not? And you won't hear that in sociology or history either. You'll hear it here, perhaps for the first time. 350 years before the birth of Christ. Plato said, a poor man who is no longer able to work because of sickness should be left to die. He was the great philosopher. 150 years later, another philosopher by the name of Paulus or Plautus argued that to feed a beggar was doing a disservice to yourself because you gave something away you should have kept. And it's a disservice to the beggar, whose life you merely prolonged for more misery. When the city of Alexandria was hit by plagues, the Romans abandoned their children, their parents, their citizens, and fled the contagious disease. It was the Christian who stayed. In fact, Julian the apostate, the Roman emperor, who called Christians Galileans as a way to scorn them. He called Christ the Galilean. He said, these Galileans are the ones who do service in relieving both their own poor and ours. In other words, we can't quite figure out what it is about these Christians so that they actually risk their lives for the sake of people who do not belong to them. When our people leave those who belong to them for the sake of their own health. And the nation that refuses Christianity, you see at the same time a devaluing of human life, and the results are tragic. See, Christianity introduces this stunning concept that life matters. And every single person does to. And no matter what condition, no matter how sick, no matter how healthy, no matter how poor, no matter how wealthy, no matter how disconnected or well connected, mentally capable or mentally unable, no matter what it is, no matter how old or young, they

When Cultures Devalue Human Life

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matter. And Christianity provides this rather radical impact in the culture that accepts it, and that culture changes. Medical historians, whether they're Christians or not, admitted, I'll read from one of them, who said quote, before the birth of Christ, the Spirit Toward sickness and misfortune was not one of compassion. The credit of ministering to human suffering on an extended scale belongs to Christianity. And if this is the first time you've ever heard that, you ought to pick up a book like The Way Christianity Changed the World, and it just traces historically everything from hospitals to orphanages. This issue and this problem of the devaluing of human life belongs to the God of this world who hates life. He's a destroyer, he's a killer, he's a deceiver. The believer loves life, seeks to enhance life, protect life. This wasn't unique in Rome. Travel around the world during the time of Christ, and you'll bump into a Japanese priest who, for instance, maintained they did, as a collective group, because of their theology, that the sick and needy were actually odious to their gods and prevented the wealthy from helping them. In India, in fact, to this day, there are millions and millions of people who are designated to be unhelped because of their class. They are viewed by their false doctrines as simply reincarnated people who live their previous life in such a sinful state that they've now come back in this lower class. They're getting what they deserve. So you don't try to alleviate their suffering, they're getting what they deserve from the gods. So, and it struck me as I traveled through India on a couple occasions, you will see well-fed cattle walking around the street and starving children. The value system with Christianity stands on its feet because we believe in a creator God. Said, and I quote, we drown children who at birth are weak and physically impaired, end quote. It was so common, the killing of children after birth, that one historian blamed the population decline of Greece upon that practice. Infant girls were especially vulnerable simply because they would not be able to care for their parents or carry on the family property through inheritance. The girls, during the early years of the church, until Christianity took root and things changed in the fourth century, they would be left out on the porches where at night they could be carried away by wild animals or brothel owners to be raised as prostitutes or as slaves. And so the first century church began going around at night collecting and raising these children. Why? Because there's value in human life, because life is the creation of God, and God, by the way, happens to have a father's heart. That's the gospel. God is saying through his servant James, he's asking, are you helping those who cannot pay you back? That's a genuine compassion. And that is the gospel because God can say to us, look what I've done for you. And you can never pay me back.