Remaining Unstained

Already in this short chapter the Holy Spirit speaks to us about several evidences of faith that will be true in the life of a real follower of Christ Jesus. Perseverance is one mark of Christian faith – perseverance in trials, including temptations to sin – and perseverance in DOING God’s commandments, not merely hearing them. That’s why he writes: “But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.”

 

Paul wrote to Titus about the hearers and doers his young protégé faced in the church on the island of Crete. Some there did a lot of ‘hearing’ without ‘doing’ God’s commandments: (Titus 1:16) “They profess to know God, but their actual behavior denies their profession, for they are obviously vile and rebellious and when it comes to doing any real good they are palpable frauds.” (JB Philips)

 

Of course, human nature being as it is, the contrast between hearing and doing has been going on for a long time. Listen to what God said to the prophet Ezekiel: (Ezekiel 31:32-33) “They come to you as people come and sit before you as My people and hear your words, but they do not do them, for they do the lustful desires expressed by their mouth, and their heart goes after their gain. Behold, you are to them like a sensual song by one who has a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument; for they hear your words but they do not practice them.

 

Christian – guard your heart. Routinely seek God’s help to be more than simply a hearer of God’s word, but to DO what He commands of us.

 

Now, to today’s text. After challenging his readers to be more than passive hearers of God’s word, James then writes: “If anyone thinks himself to be religious and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives 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. (James 1:26-27)

 

I want us to look at three points in these two verses: (1) Control the tongue (see next chapter), (2) Help those in need, and (3) Walk with God in holiness.

 

First, Control the tongue. If anyone thinks himself to be religious and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless.’

 

We’ve all heard the children’s rhyme “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never harm me.” And we ALL know – many of us from personal experience – we all know how wrong those words are.

 

God tells us, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.” (Proverbs 18:21) That certainly could be one reason the Lord Jesus warns us: (Matthew 12:36-37) “But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

 

In her essay, When Words Kill, Clinical Therapist and author Lisa Ferentz writes: Those of us who work in the mental health community have long understood the incredible impact of words. The way others talk to us profoundly influences our emotional states, our subsequent thoughts, and many of our behavioral choices. Unkind or abusive words can literally be used as weapons . . . Clients in their 60’s and 70’s can still recall the exact words and phrases that belittled and hurt them in childhood . . . And when they do, they are still overcome with sadness, helplessness, self-doubt, or self-loathing. The messages remain powerful because they were spoken by people who were supposedly safe, trustworthy, and loving.” 

 

As many of us who are familiar with James’ epistle, we know he will come back to this point later in his letter: (James 3:5-6) ^“The tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell.”

 

Richard needs to learn this lesson well: If you have nothing good to say to someone or about someone, then don’t say anything. And what I need to practice applies to every person here: If you have nothing good to say TO anyone or ABOUT anyone – then don’t say anything. God makes it very clear in this epistle and elsewhere in Scripture, if we don’t bridle our tongue, we deceive ourselves about our walk with Christ and we defile ourselves and give place to hell in the destruction of others.

 

Listen to the Lord Jesus (Luke 6:45-46) “The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart. “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” 

 

Here again is Solomon: (Proverbs 16:28) “A perverse person spreads strife, and a slanderer separates intimate friends.”  And once more: Proverbs 20:19 ‘[The one] who goes about as a slanderer reveals secrets, therefore do not associate with a gossip.”

 

Continuing in the next verse, James tells us: “Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress.” In other words, help those who are in need. James returns to this critical point in chapter two, and we do well to pay close attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place: “What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith, but he has no works? Can that faith save him?”

 

That was NOT a rhetorical question. It’s one on which true Christian faith is founded. The answer to James’ question is a resounding ‘No.” Such faith is NOT the faith that saves.

 

“If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. But someone may well say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works . . . But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?” (James 2:15-20)

To demonstrate his point, James reminds his readers of faithful Abraham and faithful Rahab: (Verse 21) “Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected; and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” and he was called the friend of God. You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. In the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.

 

But some might quickly counter: “Paul tells us, “Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, (Romans 5:1). To the Christians at Ephesus, “By grace you have been saved through faith” (Ephesians 2:8).

 

True; Yet at the same time we dare not overlook what Paul continued to say to the Ephesians two verses later, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10).

 

And it is important to also note that Paul wrote in his short letter to Titus no less than five times that the Christian is RESPONSIBLE to God to perform good works. So, Paul and James are not at all in conflict. Indeed, they harmonize with each other.

 

Abraham’s faith compelled him to DO SOMETHING with his faith. Rahab’s faith compelled her to DO SOMETHING with her faith. And if OUR faith does not compel us to do likewise, then we have good reason to question if our faith is purely theoretical or is it actual.

 

Solomon writes: “Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. If you say, ‘But we knew nothing about this,’ does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it? Will he not repay everyone according to what they have done?” Proverbs 24:11-12

 

Listen also to the apostle John: “But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?”1 John 3:17

 

A week or two ago I cited the text near the end of Mathew chapter 25 wherein the Lord commends the righteous dead for having helped the poor, the sick, the prisoners, and so forth. But it is important to this point about faith and works that we hear the rest of that text in Matthew 25:41-45 –

Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’ Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’ Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

 

Scripture cannot be any clearer: Faith, if it has no associated works, is NOT true Christian faith, and it will not saves us.

 

Which brings us now to the third point James makes in these last two verses of chapter one: “Keep oneself unstained by the world. In other words, walking in holiness is not optional for the Christian. (Hebrews 12:14)

“Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification [holiness] without which no one will see the Lord.”

 

Christian, we must each heed this dire warning of Scripture, perhaps especially in the culture in which we live. God doesn’t tolerate negotiation with the world. James is uncompromisingly blunt when he writes: (James 4:4) "You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God."  

 

Charles Spurgeon, in illustrating this text on one of his sermons, spoke of the white petals of a flower planted in the countryside that remain white, but the white petals of the flower planted in the city soon become stained by the surrounding pollution.

 

Spurgeon’s analogy ought to be instructive because it is impossible to remain pure when we surround ourselves with the pollution of this world – whether it be our entertainment, or friends with whom we spend the bulk of our time. Scripture asks what a believer in Christ has in common with an unbeliever. (See 2 Corinthians 6) The answer is, ‘Nothing.’

 

Whether it be our perspectives on morality, or the Church, or the Scriptures, or the authority of God over our life – what do we have in common with those who do not believe in the full authority of God and His word and routinely scoff at His commandments? There is good reason Paul warned the Christians at Corinth: “Do not be deceived: Bad company corrupts good morals.” (1 Corinthians 15:33)

 

Keeping ourselves unstained has very little to do with following a list of dos and don’ts. Rather, keeping ourselves unstained by the world is inextricably tied to our reverence toward God, and we reverence Him when we live in profound and humble awe of His holiness, His inexpressible greatness, and His absolute authority over our entire lifestyle. How then can we not turn away from anything that displeases Him?

 

We keep ourselves unstained by the world when we hold a holy and reverential FEAR of God. When ANYONE encounters God’s utter holiness, they’re immediately confronted with their own utter sinfulness. When Isaiah saw the Lord on His throne, “high and lifted up,” he cried out, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” (Isaiah 6:5)

 

When Peter recognized who Jesus was, he said, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” (Luke 5:8) When the apostle John saw a vision of the Lord Jesus in His glory, he “fell at His feet like a dead man.” (Revelation 1:17)

 

It should not surprise us – indeed, it should be expected that those who are close to God recognize their profound sinfulness when held up to the light of God’s unspeakable holiness. And the more we recognize our sinfulness, the more grateful we are for God’s love and mercy to wipe away our sins with His precious sacrificial blood.

 

We keep ourselves unstained by the world when our reverence for God causes us to take His commandments seriously: “What does the Lord your God require from you, but to fear [reverential fear] the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.” (Deuteronomy 10:12)

 

We keep ourselves unstained by the world when we demonstrate reverence for God by never taking Him causally. It ought to drive the Christian to distraction when we hear professing Christians use the Lord’s name as a sort of punctation mark in conversation or hear them say “O-M-G” – meaning “Oh, My God” – as if the phrase has no more significance than the word, ‘wow.’

 

Christians might not intend to be irreverent when they say such things, but make no mistake – it IS irreverence, and the unbeliever hearing it from the mouths of churchgoers recognizes the irreverence, whether consciously or unconsciously.

 

Listen to the Psalmist speak in awe of God’s name: (Psalm 138:2) “I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word.” (English Standard Version)

 

The Lord Jesus was serious when He taught us to be reverent toward the Father AND toward His name: “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed (holy) is Thy name.” (Matthew 6:9)

 

There are one or two more points to make about reverence for God, but I’ve run out of time to deal adequately with it, so I leave it for next time.

 

Christian, do you want to draw closer to Christ? Of course you do. How, then, can we do that? He tells us how repeatedly from Genesis through Revelation, and the entire book of James is only one set of instructions. We looked at this one today: “If anyone thinks himself to be religious and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives 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.”

 

We’ll continue studying God’s instructions in this letter next time.