(Read v. 19-20)

The tie-in with the things James has been talking about is there in verse 19: "This you know, beloved brethren…."

What is it that his readers already knew? They knew what he had just stated in verse 18, that "In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth…"

If you write in your Bible, you might lightly underline those words, "brought us forth by the word of truth."

What that means, if you are a Christian, is that God's word was involved in your conversion. Someone, somewhere taught you what the Bible says about being saved and you responded positively to it. As a result of hearing God's word, you were "brought forth by the word of truth." You were "born again" as other Bible writers put it. This is what James' readers already knew.

Incidentally, Peter said nearly the same thing in 1 Peter 1:23: "You have been born again… through the living and abiding word of God."

Hearing God's word gave us new life, but the effect of the word on us isn't supposed to stop there. We don't cease our need for God's word once we are converted. We need continued wisdom and guidance to face the trials that come after our conversion. The book of James was written to Christians, not unbelievers. Thus we must continue our intake of God's word, or, as James puts it in verse 21, "…receive the word implanted which is able to save your souls."

That is the backdrop for James' instruction here in our text. We need the continued input of the word and if that is going to happen, we are going to have to be quiet enough to hear it.

James has two things in mind here.

	We must quiet our speaking ("slow to speak")
	We must quiet our spirit ("slow to anger")

Quieting our speaking is important because we can't listen while we are talking. Quieting our spirits is important for the same reason. We cannot hear when we are fired up in anger.

Remember that the context here is trials. A common response to trials is anger. "Why is this happening to me? This isn't fair! I don't like this! I'll get back at whoever is causing this!"

James is saying, "Slow down! Cool off! Chill! Stop talking and start listening!" An angry response to trials overwhelms the input of the word. The "noise" of anger drowns out our ability to "hear" the word of God.

There's an old Arabic proverb says: "Anger blows out the lamp of the mind." James' point here is that it also blows out the lamp of God's word!

According to verse 19, three things hinder our hearing of the word of God:

	Listening too little
	Talking too much
	Clouding our perception with anger

A few years ago a teenage girl named Marcy Thompson was touring the United States warning other teenagers about the dangers of hitchhiking. Marcy looks like a normal teenager . . . except that she has a brace on her leg that causes her to walk with a pronounced limp . . . and her right arm is paralyzed, hanging slack by her side. Marcy did not always have these handicaps, but she is learning to deal with them.

A couple of years before, after a fight with her parents, in anger, she ran away from home. Although she had been told all her life about the dangers of hitchhiking, she was mad at her parents so she ignored their advice, went to the highway and thumbed a ride. Subsequently, she was raped, beaten, robbed and left for dead on the side of the road. She survived the attack, but for the rest of her life she will have a crippled leg and a paralyzed arm. Now she is going around the country telling her graphic story . . . saying to other teenagers: "Don't hitchhike! It's dangerous! Look what happened to me!"

She concludes her remarks by saying: "I had been warned all my life. People had told me that hitchhiking was a risk, but I didn't listen. I was angry, so the warnings fell on deaf ears. Now, I'm just lucky to be alive!"

Had this young lady been quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger, she probably would have been spared her terrible ordeal.

Marcy Thompson will limp for the rest of her life. She will have to deal with the awful emotional scars she carries until she leaves this world. Yet as terrible as these consequences are, they pale to insignificance when we consider the eternal consequences of not listening to the word of God!

Interesting, isn't it, that instead of telling us to brush up on our Bible study skills for the intake of God's word, James says we need to learn to quiet down, listen up, and control our spirits? An unbridled tongue and emotions that are out of control cancel out even the best Bible study habits and the best preaching and teaching.

Secondly, according to James, if we want to get the most from God's word, we need to be:

(Read v. 21)

The operative word here is humility. "In humility receive the word implanted…."

In his book Modern Times, Paul Johnson notes that Joseph Stalin was short, just five feet, four inches tall. Furthermore, a childhood accident had left his left arm stiff and his hand slightly misshapen. So when the dictator commissioned his portrait, he instructed the artist to paint him from his best angle - from below, a perspective that made Stalin seem to tower over the artist. To add to the image, Stalin folded his hands over his stomach, making them appear firm and powerful--more like the pseudonym he had chosen for himself. Stalin means, "man of steel."

Probably none of us have an ego problem as pronounced as Joseph Stalin, but the tendency to put ourselves in the best light possible and not admit our lack is a trait we all have in common. Spiritual growth, however, cannot come if we are unwilling to humble ourselves and admit that we need instruction from God. One who is humble is teachable. One who is proud or arrogant is not.

You can often tell just how deeply the message of the gospel has penetrated into a life by watching to see what is resorted to when trials come. Is there a continued, humble seeking for the will of God, or is there simply a resorting to the old, pre-Christian tactics that have always been used?

"I know how to deal with this situation," says the once-again-arrogant believer who slips back into his or her old ways. And once again, nothing is learned. It takes real humility to admit you don't know how to deal with issues on your own and to acknowledge that you have new things to learn. You may have been a "mover and shaker" in the world when you were an unbeliever, but those tactics don't work in the spiritual realm. If you're going to succeed in the new life, you have to start the learning process over again and you won't do that until you humble yourself.

"Here I am, Lord, ready to learn. Tuned in. Ears on. Mouth shut. Spirit calmed. Humble. Ready to hear whatever You have for me."

As an example, can you imagine the difficulty Saul of Tarsus had as a new believer? Here was a man who was a leader in his profession who suddenly, as a new believer, had to admit he had been wrong and start all over. It takes humility!

James also mentions some preparation for receiving the word in this verse. He says that we should put aside "all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness." The word in the Greek text that is translated "filthiness" is an interesting one. It was used in James' day to describe what we call "earwax." I know it isn't a pleasant subject, but earwax builds up in our ears and shuts off the sound. So it is also when moral filthiness creeps into our lives. The evil builds up and cuts off the sound of God's word. If there is persistent, secret sin going on in our lives that goes unchallenged, our spiritual "ears" will soon be plugged up tightly so that we cannot hear God's truth.

It is a good idea prior to a session of studying or hearing God's word to "clean out" whatever has built up in our lives that would hinder our hearing and understanding. We need to confess any sins that we have done and turn away from them. We need to turn to God with our whole heart so that our hearing isn't hindered.

O.K. We've turned up our hearing. We've slowed down our speaking. And we've put a governor on our emotions. We've humbled ourselves before God. We've confessed our sins. We're ready to benefit, right? Not yet.

There is one more thing we must do. If we want to get the most from God's word, we must be:

3. Diligent Enough to Do What the Word Says.

(Read v. 22)

A deluded hearer is one who thinks that the job is done when the sermon is over or when the Bible study ends. The notes, if there are any, are tucked away in the Bible case. The session is closed.

"Not so!" says James. There is another step - a doing step. We don't stop at hearing. We only stop when we are doing.

(Read v. 23-24)

James likens the deluded hearer (the one who hears but doesn't do) to someone looking in a mirror. I'll bet you looked at yourself at least one time in a mirror after you got out of bed today. If you're a teenager you probably did it more than once. J We do that to get an assessment of what we look like so that we aren't embarrassed when others see us. Some of you ladies carry around tiny hand-sized mirrors and can occasionally be seen, before you venture into a public place, making a quick check to be sure you look OK when others see you. That's really nothing new. People living in James' day used mirrors, too.

However, the "mirror" experience of first century people was a little different than our experience today. Our mirrors are made from spraying a very shiny metallic paint onto one side of a piece of glass. It provides a reflected image that is highly accurate - so accurate, in fact that we have a saying: "the mirror doesn't lie."

Mirror technology was primitive in James' day. Their mirrors were made from polished metal. The image they saw looking back at them was much harder to make out. If you have ever used one of those metal "camping" or "backpackers" mirrors available today, you'll have a better idea of what it was like for them. With such a mirror, if you wanted to know what you looked like, you had to really concentrate on the image looking back at you. James "forgetful hearer" is one who put forth the effort to study the image, then walked away and forgot what he had learned about himself. The whole exercise ended up meaningless, except for the fact that the person thought there was progress. As James says in verse 22, such people are "hearers who delude themselves."

Contrasted to that futile exercise with the statement in verse 25:

(Read v. 25)

God's word is like a mirror in that it tells you what you really look like before God. It exposes the imperfections and the things that are out of place. The aim, of course, is that once you see these things, you do something to correct them.

Remember that the context is trials. If we wish to have God's blessing in our trials we must use them as an opportunity to learn God's will and God's ways rather than just retreating back into our old ways of coping.

Perhaps this is the point where the tension really develops. Under the pressure of trials, the temptation is to stop doing what God says to do and start doing what we think is best. It's hard to keep putting one spiritual foot in front of the other - to keep doing what God says is right - when we think we know better. But James tells us there is a blessing that comes when we push the truths of God's word all the way through to the level of our actions.

"And just what does this 'doing' look like, James?" Glad you asked!

(Read v. 26-27)

How do we know when there is a consistency between the truth we are learning and the life we are living? There are three examples here:

	There will be a consistent control of our tongues. James uses the picture of "bridling." You bridle a horse to control and direct it. A horse that isn't broken to a bridle is worthless. So is a religion that all talk and no action.
	There will be a consistent concern for others. Orphans and widows were people in that day that could not help themselves. Look around you. Surely there are people in that condition today. What are you doing about them?
	We will be a consistent concern for personal purity. Why would a Christian choose to avoid things that violate the teachings of Christ while others indulge in without even thinking? A concern for personal purity.

Is your tongue out of control? Do you care nothing for anyone other than yourself? Do you get mad when people suggest that the activities you involve yourself in do not befit your profession of Christ? Then your religion, my friend, is worthless. That's what James says here.