Many people say James is a practical book, and in verse 21 he gives us really practical advice. I turned to a commentary by Barclay, who offers four points of practical advice. You might want to write them down to remember them.
Jam 1:21 Therefore, rid yourselves of everything impure and every expression of wickedness, and with a gentle spirit welcome the word planted in you that can save your souls.
He explains the first part of the verse: Therefore, rid yourselves of everything impure and every expression of wickedness,
1. Get rid of all that soils the spirit. In other words, get rid of sin. Sin will make us deaf to truth, to hear from God. Again, the importance of listening -- This is a key point. When we harbor sin (we may not even be aware of it), we can listen to sermon after sermon in church, the radio or even watch it on TV, but somehow the message isn’t getting through to us at all. Yet, if we aren’t listening, there can be grave consequences to our sin. A good Biblical example where this happened is King David. He committed adultery, had the husband of Bathsheba, Uriah, killed on the front lines, had a child by her and proceeded to live his life, seemingly oblivious to the sins he had committed. Was God not talking to Him? Had God not even said David was His friend? What happened that David continued in his life of sin? Was he not talking or listening to God? Earlier in James 1 it says:
Jam 1:14-15 But every man [or person] is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
Verse 14, it says that every man is tempted when he is drawn away of HIS OWN LUST. So David was drawn away. He lusted after Bathsheba & they conceived a son out of this adulterous (sinful) act. Read this in 2 Samuel 11 & 12. David was not convicted of his sin until much later when Nathan came and told him what he had done through a story. As a consequence of his sin, David’s son died and the sword never departed from his house. But in spite of David’s sorrow, he never justified himself & hardened his heart against God – rather, one of the most beautiful prayers of repentance found in the Bible is David’s response to the Lord in Psalm 51. A couple of important points about David’s repentance was that he was truly sorry for what he had done – he repented from the deepest part of his soul – he wanted his heart changed (read Psalm 51). He didn’t just mouth the words, and then continue in sin. We need to follow David’s example.
Psa 51:6 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. [Sometimes God reveals things that are deeply hidden to us.] Psa 51:7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Psa 51:16 For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. [These are often works of the flesh we give to God to try to appease Him.] Psa 51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
David’s repentance was true – Repentance means sorrow from sin and then turning away from it. A hardened heart is broken along with repentance from sin. But if we truly haven’t repented, then no change will be evident and likely our hearts haven’t changed at all. So the first thing we do is get rid of all known sin and ask the Lord to reveal the sins that are hidden.
2. Secondly, in order to avoid sin in the first place, we need to remember to never ignore the prompting of the Holy Spirit. His promptings will protect us from what is evil and potentially harmful to us. For example, I have ignored promptings when it comes to business dealings and have regretted it each time, losing money and just having a bad business experience, which caused me great stress and duress. Basically I set up my own personal trial because I ignored the warning from the Holy Spirit. Sometimes promptings will also be nudges for us to do something wonderful for others, or simply to do what needs to get done. Depending on what the Lord asks you to do, this can be a very scary thing or it can be an exciting thing. [Like preaching this sermon for example – both scary & exciting.] Other times I’ve been prompted to give away Bibles in public restaurants to complete strangers. I’ve been prompted to write articles and books that others have told me have helped them. But we must be very careful not to confuse the Lord’s prompting with Satan’s. He is subtle & whispers little white lies mixed with the truth, and he makes us think that those thoughts are our own and that sin is ok. His promptings are always mixed with reason and a little bit of truth. But the prompting of the Holy Spirit always leads us away from ourselves and anything that even remotely leads us to sin. The Lord would have us listen and obey Him wherever we are and in all situations – and many times we will be in a place with no access to even a Bible, so listening to His promptings are extremely important and can save us from a lot of grief later on.
The second part of the verse: and with a gentle spirit welcome the word planted in you that can save your souls.
- Gentleness means feelings and emotions are under perfect control. This, of course, is only possible when we give them over to the Lord. And the real problem is -- we want control instead of letting the Lord have His way. We can decide to let our emotions rule or our flesh rule, or we can ask God – Are these emotions in line with your Word? Are these thoughts from you Lord? Then pray that He’ll remove every thought & emotion that is not from Him. I like the verse:
2 Cor. 10:5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
The next part of the verse -- The ingrafted Word is the Lord Himself living within us. He changes us and sets us apart from the world. When we read His Word, it cleanses us and gives us life. This is what saves our souls from all the death and destruction of our fleshly nature, the world and all that is not of God. The “ingrafted word” can sometimes hurt – in fact it is a two-edged sword.
Heb. 4:12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
There is a poster I once had with this verse and sword and shield – what a powerful image of victory – we are victorious in God’s army with His sword & shield as our weapons.
- This next one is extremely important – it is the whole key to prevent a HARDENED HEART FROM HAPPENING IN THE FIRST PLACE -- be docile and open to receive instruction. This means to have a teachable spirit.
As a student, I have learned that there is a discipline to learning. That’s how I obtained two bachelor degrees. It wasn’t easy. It took many hours of hard work and research. I gave up weekends, five summers, trips to the beach, movies, weekends away, lunch with friends and so on. I had to put aside my own ideas and listen to new ones. I was stretched tremendously as a thinker and as a person. I had to fight the temptation to be seduced by laziness. But I have to ask myself, do I put this much effort into my personal study of the Word and this much time into my personal devotions? And how much more important is this time in God’s Word? For I am promised a complete transformation of my life will take place. This is found in Romans 12:2:
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
These are the four points. But I’d like to summarize and reiterate them: First, we get rid of sin, then we never ignore the prompting of the Holy Spirit so that we can avoid the path of sin, then we put all our thoughts and emotions under the control of the Holy Spirit. Finally, we receive His Word that is able to change and transform us. We do these things on an on going basis, so that we can avoid the pitfalls of trials, which if not handled properly, lead to hardened hearts. Most importantly, whether we go through trials or reach the mountain tops, we seek to completely yield ourselves to God in every area of our life, so that our hearts will always be open to Him. So starting today we need to examine our own hearts – Where are we at? Are our hearts pliable? Are we open to hear from God? I challenge us today to open our hearts and our ears to the Lord of Glory. He has wonderful and good things to say to us and show us, like He does to all of His children when they finally stop running and come to Him with all their heavy burdens and lay them down at His feet.
For example, Job, at the end of his trial, has an amazing spiritual experience. This is what he concludes:
Job 42:1 Then Job answered the LORD, and said,
Job 42:2 I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee.
Job 42:3 Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.
Job 42:4 Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
Job 42:5 I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.
Job 42:6 Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.
Note that Job did NOT HARDEN HIS HEART in the face of his trials. In fact, he drew even closer to the Lord – In seeing the Lord, He saw himself more clearly and repented in dust and ashes. And what he has only previously heard about the Lord, he now sees and understands. He understands how phenomenal the Lord is. He’s in awe at the majesty, love and grace of the Lord. Was his trial worth it? I believe that Job would say that, yes, it was. For now he sees and understands the Lord – a priceless treasure he never would have experienced otherwise.
But if we have hardened our hearts and turned away from the Lord because of trials, then our road ahead will be much longer and harder. If we don’t have a hardened heart, then we will have a heart that the Lord can work with – one that’s loving, pliable and gentle; one that draws a hurting world to Him so that they can know Him as we do. There are many rewards to a softened heart. We will experience a tremendous growth in our walk with the Lord – we will discover a new level of intimacy with God. As our heart softens, paradoxically, we will be much stronger. And the more we learn to handle trials (count it all joy) and turn to the Lord, the less frightening future trials will seem to us. We may even learn to appreciate them, knowing that the Lord will more than see us through.
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