Worthless Religion (James 1:19-27)                                                                        2009.07.12        Pastor Richard Yu

The theme for this year’s All-church Retreat is “Love in Action; Love in Truth,” based on 1 John 3:18, “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” For our faith to be genuine, we must practice what we claim to be true. Genuine faith will naturally produce good deeds. If not, then our faith (or religion) is questionable.

A.W. Tozer wrote: “There is an evil which I have seen under the sun. . .  It is the glaring disparity between theology and practice among professing Christians. . . . An intelligent observer of our human scene who heard the Sunday morning sermon and later watched the Sunday afternoon conduct of those who had heard it would conclude that he had been examining two distinct and contrary religions. . . It appears that too many Christians want to enjoy the thrill of feeling right but are not willing to endure the inconveniences of being right.”

According to James our religion can either be valuable or worthless depending upon several factors he describes in this passage:

I. Religion is worthless when we fail to humbly accept the Word of truth (vv. 19-21). The first factor is our attitude towards the Word of truth through which God has given us the new birth (1:18). If we do not allow the Word of truth to be planted deep in our hearts, then our religion would amount to nothing.

James goes on to show four actions that demonstrate the humble acceptance of the Word of truth:  (1) Quick to listen. He urges us to be good listeners – to be teachable at heart and to soak up the Word of truth whenever possible. (2) Slow to speak. One cannot be a good listener if he is talking all the time.  Our natural tendency is to be slow to hear and quick to speak. Not fully understanding because of faulty listening or studying, we are quick to jump to wrong conclusion, quick to judge, and quick to offer advice. (3) Slow to become angry. Anger is a very natural emotion, and clearly it is not always evil. But here James is speaking of “man’s anger.” He is referring to an angry spirit that never listens and is never teachable. (4) Get rid of all moral filth and evil. One of the principal reasons many Christians do not receive the Word of God well is that their lives are too compromised by moral filth and evil.    True religion and moral filth and evil cannot co-exist.

II. Religion is worthless when we fail to live according to the Word of truth (vv. 22-25). Too many Christians mislead themselves into thinking that they have accepted the Word of God just because they listen to sermons, attend Bible studies, or even memorize Scriptures.  John MacArthur observed: “It is a wonderful thing for Christians to hunger for God’s Word and to study it, memorize a large portion of it . . . . but they may become so enamored with their knowledge of God’s Word that they become self-satisfied with that knowledge and forsake the effort to live out the profound truths they have come to know.” James says, the one who merely listens to the Word, but does not put it into practice, deceives himself.

Scripture is a mirror to our souls. It reveals our sin and calls for repentance. The one who sees his sin, realizes how horrible it is; and then he sees God’s grace in Christ through Scripture, realizes how wonderful a provision for the forgiveness of sin it is, and yet continues to live in his sin is deceived.

III. Religion is worthless when we fail to control our tongue (v.26). If the tongue is not controlled by God’s Spirit it is a sure indicator that the heart is not controlled by God’s Spirit either. A corrupt and unwholesome heart will eventually be exposed by corrupt and unwholesome speech.

In sum, religion is valuable only when we humbly receive the Word of truth, when we keep a tight rein on our tongues, and when we practice what we believe to (1) look after orphans and widows in distress, and (2) to keep ourselves from being polluted by the world. We must love with action according to truth. It is so easy to divorce religion from moral living. Religious talk is costless; but practical actions require a self-giving spirit. What James teaches here is genuine devotion to God that manifests itself in the love for His Word and in concrete acts of compassion and righteousness. Have you been born again by the Word of truth? Have you humbly received the Word of truth? Are you living according to the Word of truth?