This week, we have been looking at a section of a letter
that is recorded for us in the New Testament of the Bible called the book of
James, who was the brother of Jesus. And James, as Senior Pastor, wrote a
letter that addressed early followers of Jesus when it came to how they were to
live out their relationship with Jesus in their day to day lives, we see James reveal
for us a timeless and true principle that Living on mission requires that we
live lives of integrity. In order to embrace and engage in the mission that God
has given us to be the vehicles that reveal and reflect Jesus to others, we
must live lives of integrity that reveal and reflect Jesus to others.
In this section of this letter, we will see James reveal
for us four different ways that we live lives of integrity as we live on
mission. Wednesday we discovered that we live lives of integrity when we
respond to others the right way and that we live lives of integrity when we
accept the message and teachings of Jesus. Today, as we jump back into this
section of this letter, we see James reveal for us a third way that we live
lives of integrity in James 1:22:
But prove yourselves doers of the word, and
not merely hearers who delude themselves.
Now if you grew up in church or went to church for any
length of time, you probably heard this phrase. But what exactly does this
church mumbo jumbo talk phrase actually mean? This phrase, if communicated in
the language we use in our culture today would have sounded something like
this: Make sure that as a follower of Jesus you are living your day to day life
in a way that actually follows the message and teaching of Jesus. Make sure
that you do not deceive yourself into thinking that hearing the message and
teaching of Jesus is the same as actually following the message and teaching of
Jesus. Make sure that you do not deceive yourself into thinking that knowing a
lot about Jesus is the same as knowing and following Jesus”. James then paints
for us a timeless word picture to drive this point home beginning in verse 23:
For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not
a doer, he is 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.
Now this morning, I imagine that one of the first things
that all of us did when we woke up this morning was to look in the mirror. Some
of us looked in a small mirror. Others looked in a full length mirror. Some of
us even looked at a hand held mirror on the way to church this morning. But,
why did you look in the mirror? We look in the mirror to contemplate and
consider what we look like, don’t we? We look in the mirror because the mirror
exposes what we really look like, doesn’t it? Because the mirror doesn’t lie,
does it?
Have you ever woke up in the morning, only to discover a
new patch of acne on your face? Or a new wrinkle? Or a few more grey hairs? Or
a few less hairs? You did not realize what had happened overnight, until you
looked into the mirror. And then you wish you did not look in the mirror. And
the stronger the mirror, the more it exposes.
Two years ago, when we took the students to New Orleans
for the challenge conference, we stayed in a hotel that had one of those
professional concave mirrors. You know the mirror that exposes every single
pore on your face. That mirror revealed and exposed things that I had
previously never seen on my face. Like how poorly my electric razor shaved my
face. You see, we look in the mirror to either verify that we look o.k. or to
expose the things we need to change before we head out into public.
Now, if you were to look in the mirror in the morning to
see that you had a bunch of toothpaste still on your lips and had only shaven
half of your face and that your hair was all out of place, how would you
respond? You would not respond by leaving the toothpaste on your lips, would
you? You would not respond by leaving half of your face unshaved, would you?
You would not respond by leaving your hair a mess, would you? Would you take
the time to contemplate and consider what you saw in the mirror and then walk
away and do nothing to deal with what was exposed when you looked in the
mirror?
James explains that is exactly what the person who
deceives themselves into thinking that hearing the message and teaching of
Jesus is the same as actually following the message and teaching of Jesus does.
James explains that is exactly what the person who deceives themselves into
thinking that knowing a lot about Jesus is the same as knowing and following
Jesus does. James point is that the message and teachings of Jesus are a mirror
that exposes areas in our life that are out of place and need to be taken care
of. The message and teachings of Jesus are a mirror that exposes areas in our
lives that do not line up with the life that Jesus calls us to live.
However, the person who deceives himself into thinking
that hearing the message of teachings of Jesus is the same as following the
message and teachings of Jesus responds to what is exposed by the message and
teachings of Jesus by walking away from those teachings and doing nothing with
those teachings. James then contrasts the person who deceives himself into
thinking that hearing the message of teachings of Jesus is the same as
following the message and teachings of Jesus with one who actually follows the
message and teachings of Jesus in verse 25:
But one who looks intently 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.
Now when James uses the phrase to look intently, this
phrase is a word picture of one stooping down in order to examine something
from a closer point of view. James is explaining that the person who looks in
the mirror of the message and teachings of Jesus with a focus on not simply
hearing, but actually contemplates and considers what the message and teachings
of Jesus have exposed and are calling them to do, and then acts by following and
aligning one’s life with the message and teachings of Jesus, that person will
be the recipients of God’s blessing, or divine favor, in their lives.
And it is here that James reveals for us the reality that
we live lives of integrity when we obey the message and teachings of Jesus. As
followers of Jesus we live lives of integrity that reveal and reflect Jesus to
others when we respond the message and teachings of Jesus by obeying them. We
live lives of integrity when we respond to what the message and teachings of
Jesus expose in our lives by addressing those areas in our lives so that our
lives are aligned and following the message and teachings of Jesus.
So here is a question to consider when it comes to living
on mission: Are you obeying the message and teachings of Jesus in your life?
Are you deceiving yourself into thinking that hearing the message and teaching
of Jesus is the same as actually following the message and teaching of Jesus?
Are you deceives yourself into thinking that knowing a lot about Jesus is the
same as knowing and following Jesus? Because we live lives of integrity that
are living on mission when we obey the message and teachings of Jesus. James
then reveals for us a fourth way that we live lives of integrity in verse 26:
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.
Now James statement here, if communicated in the language
we use in our culture today, would have sounded something like this: “If anyone
considers themselves to be living a life of integrity with God in their
relationship with God, and yet does not hold in check his tongue, they have
deceived themselves at the core of their being and their worship of God is
empty and lacks truth”. James here is revealing that we are hypocrites when our
worship of God does not match up with our words towards other. James is echoing the words of his brother
Jesus, who said the following in Luke 6:45:
"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.”
James then explains that, by contrast, worship that is
pure and full of truth before God “is to visit orphans and widows in their
distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” Now when James
refers to visiting widows and orphans in distress, this phrase conveys the
sense of exercising oversight and care in order to look after widows and
orphans that were experiencing trouble and distress. In the culture of the day,
as it is today, widows and orphans were marginalized by society and were
especially vulnerable. In addition, James explains that worship that is pure
and full of truth before God results in a life that persists in displaying the
character of Jesus in the midst of a world that is hostile to God and places
itself in opposition to God and God’s kingdom.
And it is here that James reveals for us the reality that
we live lives of integrity when we worship Jesus with our words and our actions
toward others. As followers of Jesus we live lives of integrity that reveal and
reflect Jesus to others when we worship Jesus with our words to others. We live
lives of integrity when we worship Jesus with our actions towards others that
reveal and reflect Christ in our character and our conduct toward others.
So here is a
question to consider when it comes to living on mission: Do you worship Jesus
with your words and actions toward others? Or do you view worship as something
that occurs for an hour on a Sunday? You see, worship, simply put, is a response. Worship is a response
that is focused on who God is, what God has done, and what God has promised to
do. Worship is not simply singing, reading your Bible and prayer, although it
can involve singing, Bible reading, and prayer. Worship is a lifestyle; worship
is a life that is lived in a way that is focused on and that responds to God’s
character and activity in the world.
And the timeless reality is that living on mission
requires that we live lives of integrity. Living on mission requires that we lives
of integrity that respond to others in the right way. Living on mission
requires that we lives of integrity that we accept the message and teachings of
Jesus. Living on mission requires that we lives of integrity that strive to
obey the message and teachings of Jesus. And living on mission requires that we
lives of integrity that worship Jesus with our words and actions to others.
So this morning, how are you doing when it comes to
living a life of integrity?
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