- 2 days ago
The Common Sense Bible Study crew discusses James 1:19-27. Humility, controlling your speech, perfect law, law of liberty, and perfect religion.
From Jay Carper at Common Sense Bible Study (https://CommonSenseBibleStudy.com) and American Torah (https://www.AmericanTorah.com).
This content is free, but I accept contributions via Paypal at https://jaycarper.com/paypal.
Send me a friend request on The Torah Network: https://jaycarper.com/ttn
Follow me on X: https://jaycarper.com/twitter
Follow me on Facebook: https://jaycarper.com/fbat
From Jay Carper at Common Sense Bible Study (https://CommonSenseBibleStudy.com) and American Torah (https://www.AmericanTorah.com).
This content is free, but I accept contributions via Paypal at https://jaycarper.com/paypal.
Send me a friend request on The Torah Network: https://jaycarper.com/ttn
Follow me on X: https://jaycarper.com/twitter
Follow me on Facebook: https://jaycarper.com/fbat
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00:00Welcome back to Common Sense Bible Study, and we're continuing our discussion of the
00:00:07letter of James.
00:00:09In the previous two sessions, we talked about the book itself and the structure, the general
00:00:15overall theme of James, and then we covered the first part of chapter 1, verses 1 through
00:00:2318.
00:00:24Today, we're going to look at verses 19 to 27 in chapter 1.
00:00:28So, we'll start by reading it, and I don't know if you noticed, I posted in the portal
00:00:34about how not only is James connected to Proverbs 3, but it's also very heavily connected to
00:00:43Leviticus 19 and 20, especially Leviticus 19.
00:00:47Once you see the connections, they're everywhere, and it's even much more obvious with Leviticus
00:00:5419 than it is with Proverbs 3.
00:00:56So, keep that in mind, and you might want to reread Leviticus 19 and 20, maybe read it
00:01:04a couple of times as we're going through this book.
00:01:07And this is one of the few passages, the pericopes in James, that doesn't have strong connections
00:01:12to Proverbs 3.
00:01:14Of course, they all have connections to all over the Proverbs, because James is discussing
00:01:19wisdom in general, which, you know, I'll say obviously the same topic as Proverbs.
00:01:24So, you can expect to find a lot of connections.
00:01:27Just like last time, as I'm reading through, we'll read it slowly, and I want you to be
00:01:34writing down words and phrases, ideas that stand out to you, words that James uses over
00:01:41and over again, or ideas that seem to be central to what he's saying.
00:01:46Just write those down as I'm reading, and then we'll talk about that before we get into
00:01:51the text itself.
00:01:54Know this, my beloved brothers, let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow
00:01:59to anger.
00:02:00For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
00:02:05Therefore, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted
00:02:11word which is able to save your souls, but be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving
00:02:17yourselves.
00:02:19For if anyone is a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently
00:02:25at his natural face in a mirror, for he looks at himself, and goes away, and at once forgets
00:02:31what he was like.
00:02:32But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no
00:02:38hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
00:02:42If anyone thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart,
00:02:49this person's religion is worthless.
00:02:52Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this, to visit orphans and
00:02:57widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
00:03:02All right, so let's talk about the significant words and phrases in this passage.
00:03:10What things did you notice first?
00:03:13Well, I was just thinking about like the contrasting that was happening, like where he's like, if
00:03:19you do this, but you don't do this, you know, it's worthless.
00:03:24Like that, that's sort of like he's contrasting stuff for people.
00:03:29The doing versus not doing.
00:03:32But, but also the doing of one thing versus another.
00:03:35Yeah, with the doing being whatever is the right thing to do or not do, not doing something
00:03:41is part of doing.
00:03:42You know, if you're doing the law of God, then you are not doing some things that God
00:03:46said not to do.
00:03:48You mentioned speech, you know, bridling your tongue.
00:03:52So that's an important issue here.
00:03:55The first thing I noticed is that we must be quick to listen.
00:03:59Or here or whatever.
00:04:03Listening isn't a talent that we have much in our world.
00:04:10I mean, it's an important one for just communicating and understanding each other.
00:04:15Lots of us don't listen well.
00:04:17There was also deception, deceiving yourself.
00:04:24Hearing not doing is the bigger overarching thing.
00:04:28Mm-hmm.
00:04:30He also talks about if he's religious, but he doesn't write on his tongue.
00:04:33I talked about that, but it talked about the fact that his religion is futile.
00:04:38Mm-hmm.
00:04:38So he's pointing out, like, it's worthless.
00:04:42And then, of course, he defines pure, undefiled religion.
00:04:47So there's that.
00:04:49And how does he define pure and undefiled religion?
00:04:53Careful orphans, widows, and keep yourself unstained by the world.
00:04:59A lot of it is just predicated on, like, keeping yourself from the world and then, like, humility.
00:05:05Like, it just kind of, like, the humility comes from being, like, from looking at the word and looking to the word.
00:05:16Because if you look at God's word, like, you can't not be humble.
00:05:19So it's, you know, if you're studying the word, if you're looking to the word, it's inevitable that you're going to be humbled in the face of righteousness.
00:05:31Yeah.
00:05:31Yeah, it's definitely true.
00:05:33He also uses that analogy of the mirror.
00:05:37Like, a man who hears and doesn't do is like a man who looks at himself in the mirror and then walks away and forgets what he looks like.
00:05:45Talked about the, I think, the law of liberty.
00:05:50Filthiness, or I think, the ESV says filthiness and rampant wickedness.
00:05:57I think the King James is a little more colorful.
00:06:01A, all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness.
00:06:05We'll stick with wickedness because naughtiness is just weird.
00:06:11Yeah, and received with meekness, there is that humility that you mentioned.
00:06:15Okay, so these are some of the concepts that James is focusing on in this pericope or this segment of his letter.
00:06:25Out of these words here, doing, speech, listening, hearing, without doing, deception, religion, pure and undefiled, orphans and widows, unstained, mirror, law of liberty, wickedness and humility.
00:06:40What do you think, from those concepts, what do you think James' main topic here is?
00:06:47Or what kind of thing is he focusing on?
00:06:51Definitely how we treat other people.
00:06:52So how we treat other people.
00:06:55That's a big part of what he's talking about here in the idea of hypocrisy, you know, hearing the word and maybe preaching the word, but not actually doing what it says.
00:07:07He also seems to be echoing Paul's mention of people who are always learning and never arriving at the full truth.
00:07:17But James' emphasis here seems to be on doing rather than just the idea of learning and trusting God.
00:07:26I mean, trusting him is, of course, important because you have to trust him in order to know what to do.
00:07:32But the actual doing is the important part and what James is trying to get to here.
00:07:37So let's move on to the actual text.
00:07:42So looking at verses 19 to 21.
00:07:46Know this, my beloved brothers, let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.
00:07:51For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
00:07:54Therefore, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
00:08:01Kind of like what we did with Romans, I have some passages here that I think I'd like to read because they they connect with the verses we're going to be reading.
00:08:14I'm going to put these in the chat.
00:08:17So these are all connected to verse 21.
00:08:22Let me go back to verse 19 first.
00:08:26Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.
00:08:30I probably should have grabbed the passage where God talks about how he is slow to anger.
00:08:36And that would be a good illustration here.
00:08:39But I think it's you know, it's obvious.
00:08:42I think we're all aware of that, that that is one of the.
00:08:45One of the things that Paul points out in the first couple of chapters of Romans is that he's been God has been patient with the nations that for millennia.
00:08:56He didn't overlook the sins of individuals, but most of the time he just let nations do what they were going to do.
00:09:03Because they just didn't know any better or even though they should have.
00:09:08They should have known better.
00:09:09They didn't know the details and they were taught.
00:09:11And since they inherited that generation after generation, God withheld judgment.
00:09:19But eventually judgment catches up with you.
00:09:21You can't avoid it forever.
00:09:24That's an example of God being slow to anger, quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.
00:09:30And because God is that way to us, we should be that way to other people.
00:09:34I mean, consider what Yeshua said about forgiving other people.
00:09:38The example of the servant who was forgiven a great sum, who then turned around and demanded other people pay him back that what they owed him and turn them over to the jailer or torture or whatever, whatever word you want to use to translate that concept.
00:09:56Essentially, essentially debtor's prison.
00:10:01And so when the master found out, he said, you know, I was patient with you.
00:10:05And then you turn around and demand payment from people who owed you much less than I forgave you.
00:10:13And so he took back his forgiveness.
00:10:17This is God's example for us.
00:10:19Since he is patient with us, we ought to be patient with other people.
00:10:23People are always saying things that they don't necessarily really mean.
00:10:29They let their emotions get away with them.
00:10:33And I know that we like to say that when people are caught off guard, they say what they really mean.
00:10:39I don't think that's really true.
00:10:40Because when we get emotional, we really do.
00:10:43We emphasize the negative things and we let that take over our tongues.
00:10:47And when we're more rational, when we allow our mind and our spirit to control what our tongue is saying, to control our emotions, then the entirety of our being, our souls, get to express itself rather than just our flesh.
00:11:06When we let our emotions run loose, then it's just our flesh talking.
00:11:10And that's only a small part of us.
00:11:12It's not all of us.
00:11:14So it's important to keep that flesh under control and not let it run your life and especially not let it run your mouth because people will remember that.
00:11:24This is one of those things that connects really well with Leviticus 19, because that passage talks about not taking your brothers to court, not making accusations and not returning offense for offense.
00:11:41And that's really what James is talking about.
00:11:45If you, you should listen to what somebody is saying and ask questions.
00:11:51Don't assume, you know, if it sounds like they're saying something negative, if maybe they let their emotions run their tongue.
00:11:57Okay.
00:11:58Maybe make allowances for that.
00:12:00And when things cool down, ask questions, find out what's really happening.
00:12:05This is what the same meaning behind turn the, turn the other cheek.
00:12:09If somebody offends you, you don't have to respond in kind.
00:12:14It doesn't mean you have to be a patsy, but maybe they didn't really mean what it seems like they mean.
00:12:19So give it some time, back off, let things cool down.
00:12:22And then ask questions.
00:12:24Don't get angry about things too quickly.
00:12:27So in verse 20, when he says, for the anger of man.
00:12:31Wait a second, Jack.
00:12:32Yeah.
00:12:32What does, what do you assume quick to hear means?
00:12:37It's an odd statement.
00:12:38Quick to hear is be listening attentively or how would you translate it?
00:12:44Well, I think that really means like eager to hear, eager to listen.
00:12:49Quick is probably, it's probably a literal translation, but probably doesn't really convey the full meaning of what he's trying to say.
00:12:56I say this from experience, but I would say quick to listen, right?
00:13:04That's what he said.
00:13:05Too many times in our head, when someone's talking and we're like, and we're not quick to listen, we can quickly assume or we can have negative thoughts intrude.
00:13:20And someone can mean something in some way and you're not showing charity because what you're doing is you're just formulating beliefs on more of assumptions or more on the way you feel.
00:13:39And so, and also I would say that being quick to listen, you're keenly intent on trying to understand what that person is trying to communicate.
00:13:54And instead of saying, no, no, no, you're wrong or whatever it may be, it's like chill out, let the other person speak and then find a good way to like not interrupt people.
00:14:10Because a lot of times that does happen, especially when people are heated.
00:14:15Yeah, that's true.
00:14:16I think a good way to understand this quick to hear idea is the opposite of quick to hear is quick to assume or quick to take offense.
00:14:27So being eager to hear is the opposite of being eager to be offended.
00:14:34And you can see examples of that on the internet.
00:14:36I mean, just get onto any social media platform and you see people who are eager to be offended.
00:14:42They're looking for reasons to argue with people.
00:14:45And that's not what we should be doing.
00:14:46We should be looking for what people are really trying to communicate instead of the anger or the frustration that comes out on the surface.
00:14:56I think of hearing people out, like when they're making an argument or trying to explain something or asking questions so that you can get more understanding.
00:15:10Yeah, exactly.
00:15:11So then in verse 20, when he says, for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God, the implication is that the anger of man produces wickedness.
00:15:24In the next verse, he says, therefore, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness.
00:15:30So if you let your anger dictate what you're going to say, then it's going to be wickedness that comes out.
00:15:38Accusations and curses, insults, these kinds of things.
00:15:41Right.
00:15:42And I think it's also important to remember that there are different kinds of righteousness.
00:15:47There is a righteousness that is imputed by Yeshua's death.
00:15:52His sacrifice, his shed blood because he is perfect and sinless.
00:15:57I don't understand the mechanism, but somehow that is applied to us so that in the final judgment, when God looks at us, Yeshua's righteousness, his perfection is imputed to us.
00:16:08And it removes our guilt.
00:16:10But that's not what James is talking about here.
00:16:14He's talking about the righteousness of everyday behavior.
00:16:17And that's illustrated all throughout scripture, that there is a righteousness that earns eternal salvation.
00:16:27And that takes perfection, which we don't have.
00:16:30And by perfection, I don't mean the biblical concept of maturity.
00:16:32I mean, absolute perfection, never a sin.
00:16:36None of us will ever be there because all of us have sinned.
00:16:41But there is another righteousness.
00:16:43You know, Abraham was righteous because he obeyed God.
00:16:46And what James is talking about here is restraining from anger, being patient, being slow to speak, slow to anger.
00:16:57This does produce the righteousness of God.
00:17:00And that righteousness is what is described in Leviticus 19.
00:17:06Treating your neighbor well, not abusing the poor, leaving the corners of your field unharvested, giving people the benefit of the doubt.
00:17:15This is a form of righteousness.
00:17:18And it's God accepts this righteousness.
00:17:20I saw somebody on.
00:17:22On X recently yesterday or this morning, I can't remember which, who said God doesn't accept anybody's righteousness except Yeshua's.
00:17:33Well, in the context of eternal salvation, at the final judgment day, that may be true.
00:17:40He doesn't accept anybody's obedience or righteousness in payment or in atonement for sin.
00:17:50You can obey all the commandments you want, but if you have broken even one of them, then you are infinitely short of the perfection required to earn your way into God's grace.
00:18:01So, God gives us his grace instead because of Yeshua's sacrifice.
00:18:08Obviously, God does not accept our obedience for that.
00:18:12But he does accept our obedience for day-to-day righteous behavior.
00:18:16And this pleases God.
00:18:18It really does.
00:18:19You will hear people say that you can never please God.
00:18:23Nothing you will ever do can ever please God.
00:18:25So, just forget about that.
00:18:28Only Yeshua pleases God.
00:18:30Well, that's nonsense.
00:18:32Only Yeshua pleases God to the extent that it can remove all of our sins and earn our way into eternal life.
00:18:40Okay, but what about today?
00:18:42God is pleased with righteous behavior.
00:18:45He is pleased with us when we treat each other well.
00:18:48And the anger of man, living by anger, responding to people with anger, doesn't accomplish that.
00:18:57So, the opposite does.
00:18:59Living by patience and humility.
00:19:01This does produce the righteousness of God.
00:19:04I can probably just find that comment because I replied to it.
00:19:08His righteousness is the only way that, you know, by his righteousness leads the path to salvation.
00:19:17I guess you've got to define words.
00:19:21There's only one person's obedience that God has ever accepted.
00:19:24The person is Jesus Christ.
00:19:26God doesn't accept anyone else's obedience.
00:19:29That's why believers are only acceptable to God by virtue of their union to Christ by faith.
00:19:33Now, in a certain context, his statement is true.
00:19:42That's why we trust God for our eternal salvation and never obedience.
00:19:48Believers are only acceptable to God by virtue of their union to Christ by faith.
00:19:54Well, okay, I think that's true.
00:19:58But that doesn't mean that God doesn't accept their obedience.
00:20:00Those are two different things.
00:20:01Once you are acceptable to God by virtue of your union to Christ by faith, now your obedience is accepted by God.
00:20:11It's not like obedience after you have put your faith in Yeshua doesn't matter.
00:20:17Of course it matters.
00:20:19Why would God bother giving us commandments if they didn't matter?
00:20:21So, but people will take things like this and if you, if you tell somebody you should keep God's law, they will respond with things like this and it becomes a meaningless platitude.
00:20:35Well, God doesn't accept your obedience.
00:20:38Well, do you, did you commit a murder today?
00:20:40Because if God doesn't accept your obedience, maybe he'll accept your disobedience.
00:20:44I don't know.
00:20:46What is it you think God is looking for?
00:20:48Well, it begs the question, why try?
00:20:51Yeah.
00:20:51He's not going to accept my obedience anyway.
00:20:54So, time to party, man.
00:20:56Yeah.
00:20:57And that is, that is another thing that comes out of this.
00:21:00And we'll talk about that a little bit later this evening.
00:21:02Uh, because James addresses that, that very idea kind of obliquely.
00:21:08I mean, I don't think that he meant to address that, but the things that he says address that idea.
00:21:13And I've, I've been told that by people I have a lot of respect for that.
00:21:16If you are trying to obey, then you're doing it wrong because that's not faith.
00:21:22Like, well, why did God tell me to obey then?
00:21:27Why not just say, just, just trust me and I'll make you obey.
00:21:32Um, I mean, coming from an antinomian perspective, I don't know how the antinomians, um, how, how, how they reconcile James.
00:21:45Cause when you read James, it literally is self-explanatory.
00:21:50Um, but, um, but like this, this is a servo I've had all my life is.
00:22:02You know, you know, you know, your obedience doesn't get you in and it's like, no, duh.
00:22:07Like, but you know, it's kind of like, yeah, I know.
00:22:12But now that Jesus has, uh, saved me, why wouldn't I want to follow his ways instead of my own?
00:22:23Um, and it is very discouraging to a person who believes in law.
00:22:31Um, we follow the laws here in the land.
00:22:34And I would say some, a little too closely, like, you know, got to wear this, got to wear a mask, got to do all this stuff.
00:22:42It's like, but we don't, we, we, we, we submit to that.
00:22:47But when we, when it's God's law, we try to make excuses and say, no, we don't have to do this.
00:22:54We don't have to do that.
00:22:55And I do believe there's freedom in Liberty in, in the law.
00:23:02Um, and to, to that point, there could be a way that your family does the Sabbath or my family does the Sabbath.
00:23:12Um, as long, I mean, cause you know, we could always add more things to the law, just like people add things to their, their traditions.
00:23:24But for the most part, it, it is very discouraging because, Hey, all you need to do is believe in Jesus.
00:23:32You believe in Jesus, you're good to go.
00:23:35And I just don't understand what type of gospel that is.
00:23:39According to the guy that you've quoted, he believes in extraordinary gospel, which I didn't know there was an extraordinary gospel, but you know, that's the kind of stuff that I'm saying.
00:23:51It's like, well, it's just the gospel, you know, it's good news.
00:23:56Yeah.
00:23:58It's extra, extra good news.
00:24:00It's just like, okay, like, so yeah, it, it, it's funny that, you know, it's, it's good that you brought it up because it is according to James, James doesn't say that we just live by faith without works.
00:24:16So it, it just baffles me, um, about that.
00:24:23Yeah, I completely agree.
00:24:24And actually verse 21, we're going to get into that.
00:24:27That's, that's the verse I was actually thinking about earlier.
00:24:30I was thinking about what you were reading and thinking about this idea of like, um, can we please God?
00:24:38And it's like, we wouldn't like, even in, in earthly parenting, if a child does something wrong, but then like you are even a child like disowns you and then comes back into your graces.
00:24:52It's like, it's like, can they not please you after you've like accepted them again?
00:25:00Can they never please you again?
00:25:02Like, it just doesn't make any sense.
00:25:03Like, and I think there's some correlation there that even as humans, we can understand is that we would never say that a child could never please a parent ever again, because they displeased them once.
00:25:18It seems insane.
00:25:19Yeah, I think that's a really good analogy.
00:25:25Let's, let's go ahead and look at verse 21.
00:25:28It says, therefore, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
00:25:36Before we talk about that, I put those three verses in the chat.
00:25:40I picked these three verses specifically because of the Greek word behind filthiness.
00:25:46The word is ruparia, and it refers to grime, dirt, soil, you know, stuff that has defiled something, messed it up.
00:25:58And the same word is used in all three of these verses, or at least a variant of the word.
00:26:03In Job 11.15, it's puron, and in, same word in Isaiah 4.4, and then in Zechariah 3.4, it's, sorry, I got my P's and R's backwards, rupon.
00:26:18The Greek word in James 1.21 is ruparia.
00:26:24In Job and Isaiah, it's rupon, and in Zechariah, it's rupara.
00:26:30So, they're all forms of the same word.
00:26:33They all mean filthiness or defilement.
00:26:36So, go ahead, read Job 11.15.
00:26:39Well, mine says, then you will lift up your face without reproach.
00:26:42You will stand firm and without fear.
00:26:45Yeah, it's that word reproach in your translation.
00:26:48That's the word that is puron, or rupon.
00:26:53The Greek R looks like a P, so that's why I keep pronouncing that backwards.
00:26:57It's puron, or rupon.
00:27:02See, there, I did it again.
00:27:04Rupon.
00:27:06I think you're trying not to say rupal.
00:27:09Yeah, trying not to say rupal.
00:27:12Yeah, speaking of filthiness and all that, in Job 11.15, the context here is repentance.
00:27:22In the verse before, it says, if iniquity is in your hand, put it far away, and do not let wickedness dwell in your tents.
00:27:31Then, indeed, you could lift up your face without moral defect or without reproach, and you would be steadfast and not fear.
00:27:38So, putting away your sin, repenting from it, this allows you to lift up your face without the defilement of the sin.
00:27:49You can look up at God and not be guilty.
00:27:52So, another way to think of this word is guilt.
00:27:55It's a spiritual defilement.
00:27:58Okay, and the next one, Isaiah 4.4.
00:28:03When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and rinsed away the bloodshed of Jerusalem from her midst by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning.
00:28:14Yeah, and again, this one, this is in the context of repentance.
00:28:17The daughters of Zion, you know, depending on who you ask, this is either, you know, the Israelites, the women of Israel, or the cities around Jerusalem.
00:28:27People have different ideas, but that's not the important part.
00:28:31The important part here is that this is repentance, and the repentance, or through repentance, God washes away that guilt, the defilement of sin.
00:28:42And the last one, Zechariah 3.4.
00:28:47Okay, this is talking about the high priest.
00:28:50His name is actually Yeshua, but it's translated as Joshua in most English translations, I think.
00:28:56I'm going to go back to verse 3.
00:28:58Now, Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, standing before the angel.
00:29:03He spoke and said to those who were standing before him, saying, remove the filthy garments from him.
00:29:08Again, he said to him, see, I have taken your iniquity away from you and will clothe you with festal robes.
00:29:14So, the high priest repents, says, remove the filthy garments from him.
00:29:21And this is, you know, in this vision or the vision that God is showing Zechariah of the high priest, Yeshua, people are helping removing his filthy clothes from him.
00:29:34And I think this is just a picture of people helping him remove the defilement from his life.
00:29:40And that's another thing that James talks about in this letter, is that, you know, we're supposed to confess our sins to each other and help each other repent from sin.
00:29:48And because he repents, God removes the filthy garment.
00:29:53God removes that, his iniquity.
00:29:56So, this is a cooperative thing.
00:29:59Put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness means you have to be involved here.
00:30:05God is the one who removes your guilt, but you have to get rid of the sin that brings the guilt.
00:30:09God's not going to force you to be, to behave.
00:30:16He's going to help you.
00:30:18That's why he sends his Holy Spirit to help convict you of sin, which, if you listen to that conviction, that's what helps you remove the sin from your life.
00:30:28He sends the written word to teach you what right behavior is.
00:30:32And if you do what the written word says, that is the same as repenting from sin.
00:30:37Hear the word, hear the spirit, do what it says.
00:30:42And because of your repentance, and because of the blood that Yeshua shed, God removes your guilt.
00:30:49You didn't earn it.
00:30:51You didn't remove your guilt.
00:30:52God does that.
00:30:53But he does it in response to your repentance.
00:30:56And the repentance is prompted by faith.
00:30:58You trust God that this is going to be his response.
00:31:01But even then, this really isn't what, James isn't talking about your eternal salvation here.
00:31:06He's using this same concept of removing filthy garments and replacing them with clean ones as the process of sanctification.
00:31:20And, you know, I said that this entire book connects back to Leviticus 19 and 20.
00:31:25And the Hebrew name for Leviticus 19 and 20 is Kedeshim, which means holy wounds.
00:31:32You be holy because God is holy.
00:31:34And that's repeated multiple times in that Torah reading.
00:31:38And that's what James is describing here.
00:31:41The process of sanctification, of becoming holy, put away your filth, the sin that causes your guilt and the wickedness in your life and receive with meekness the implanted word.
00:31:57This is the law written on our hearts and the clean garments that God promised to Yeshua.
00:32:02That's what these are, the high priest Yeshua.
00:32:05I don't mean our Messiah Yeshua.
00:32:08And that those clean garments, what God does for us, that's what is able to save our souls.
00:32:15But this also requires our perseverance.
00:32:18We have to keep being faithful.
00:32:22It's not enough to just declare your faithfulness.
00:32:24You have to maintain your faithfulness, which, as I've said many times, I don't mean that you have to have to be perfect.
00:32:32You don't have to get everything right and never sin again.
00:32:35What you have to be is committed to your king.
00:32:41I'm going to do his law.
00:32:42Yeah, I know I'm going to fail sometimes.
00:32:44I'm going to screw up.
00:32:44I'm weak.
00:32:45Sometimes I'm just plain stupid.
00:32:48But this is the direction I'm headed.
00:32:50And I'm going to move closer and closer to the image of Yeshua.
00:32:53And I'm going to do that with God's help.
00:32:55That's what James is describing.
00:32:58What's rampant wickedness again?
00:33:02The Greek word for wickedness is hakeia, which means depravity, evil, malice, just bad behavior.
00:33:15He's making a...
00:33:15Is he quoting?
00:33:17Not quoting exactly.
00:33:19But he says, with meekness, the implanted word.
00:33:23Like, is he referring to Jeremiah?
00:33:27Like, implanted means, you know, he said he would write the law on your heart.
00:33:35Is there a correlation there?
00:33:37Yeah, I think that's exactly what he's talking about.
00:33:39The law being written on our hearts.
00:33:41And I don't think that that's an instantaneous thing, that that's a process.
00:33:47And it won't be complete until the resurrection.
00:33:50But before then, we participate in that process, you know, according to what Paul describes as the predestination to the image of God's son.
00:34:03The image of God's son is that would be us with his law written on our hearts.
00:34:09Well, that's the end goal.
00:34:11You know, just a few verses later, Paul says that Christ is the end of the law.
00:34:15What he means is Christ is the aim of the law.
00:34:17So by hearing and doing the law, as James is describing, we engage in a process of having the law written on our hearts and we become more like Christ.
00:34:28Yeah, so he's basically telling us exactly how to do that.
00:34:34And I think in scripture, there's many.
00:34:38Yes, I don't know if it's Colossians or Corinthians, but it says put off this and this and this, but then put on this.
00:34:47So it's basically he's, you know, is basically telling you to put on these things.
00:34:52But in a sense, it's not through the power of you yourself, like you have a helper, like you were saying, the Holy Spirit.
00:35:03And if the Holy Spirit is doing the work in you, I mean, I do believe the Holy Spirit will convict you of what you're doing.
00:35:14Because, you know, a lot of people think, well, we're Christians, so we're just perfect people.
00:35:19And that's just like not that's furthest from the truth.
00:35:23But we should never be a people who are just complacent at all, like in anything, and especially with our sin.
00:35:35You know, there are struggles that I deal with on the daily.
00:35:38And my biggest thing is, you know, people that do me wrong, it's like I see them and they're just not like, like, it's okay.
00:35:49Everything's okay.
00:35:50And, you know, people that are my enemies.
00:35:54And it's really difficult.
00:35:56But everything is laid out in God's word.
00:36:01And to handle something, he gives us everything for life and godliness.
00:36:05And so it's just really cool to see, like, him telling us, okay, you've got to put this away.
00:36:13But here's how you do it.
00:36:15And, you know, receive the meekness, the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
00:36:22So there is a way.
00:36:25And he didn't say, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and go be a better you or a better person.
00:36:36It's like, you know.
00:36:39A better life for yourself.
00:36:40Yeah.
00:36:41Yeah.
00:36:41And your wealth will, you know, will save you.
00:36:45But, yeah, so it's, the word is living.
00:36:49And too many times we just, as believers, it's rough, man.
00:36:57It's rough because it's hard to find people that are so pumped up about reading God's word and hearing what it says.
00:37:04And, you know, just, we're supposed to encourage each other to, you know, how do I say it, encourage each other in a good way.
00:37:18And, like, just being here is encouraging, right?
00:37:20It's like, oh, it's encouraging.
00:37:21And that's kind of what the purpose of fellowship is.
00:37:28Yeah.
00:37:28He does actually say it in verse 25, that the person who is a doer of the word is blessed by his doing.
00:37:36But you're right that that's not necessarily material wealth or comfort, those kinds of things.
00:37:43It's the blessing of being in God's favor.
00:37:53And I know that that's another concept that a lot of people will get upset about, that we can be in God's favor by being obedient.
00:38:02But he says we can.
00:38:04So, I mean, you can never get there without faith.
00:38:07But once you have faith in forgiveness, then you really can gain more of God's favor by being obedient.
00:38:16And that's the whole point of Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 30 and passages like that where God says, if you keep my commandments, all of these great things are going to happen.
00:38:26And those do include material wealth, but they're predicated on the nation being obedient.
00:38:33But that only happens if the individuals in the nation are obedient.
00:38:36It's a critical mass kind of thing.
00:38:42If nine people in Sodom are righteous, well, that's not enough for Sodom to be blessed.
00:38:49As that number gets higher, Sodom gains more blessings from God.
00:38:54If Sodom had repented, they would have been spared.
00:38:57And they would have gained the material blessings first of their lives being spared and their souls being saved, just like Nineveh later.
00:39:10And I don't necessarily know what happened to all those people in Nineveh, but they were at least spared God's judgment for a season.
00:39:16But those blessings are real.
00:39:19Even if they're not always material, there are blessings.
00:39:23You know, I was saying that Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 30 are talking about the nation.
00:39:28But just as a national obedience is made up of lots of individuals being obedient, those national blessings are made up of lots of individuals being blessed.
00:39:40And that starts with just being at peace with God.
00:39:45I mean, that in itself is a blessing.
00:39:47Being at peace with your neighbor, which is a big part of obedience, that's a blessing.
00:39:51And as more and more people are obedient and at peace with God and their neighbor, people naturally become more prosperous because that's the that's just the natural law.
00:40:03If you're being at peace with your neighbor, then you can have trade and you can have relationships and you can have people not stealing from you.
00:40:12All of these things are material blessings that extend first from inner spiritual blessings.
00:40:19The antinomian spirit really hates James.
00:40:21Because he says, do, do, do, do, and they don't want to do, do, but I noticed just being in different denominations in my life.
00:40:31There's a lot of denominations that focus primarily on certain scriptures, certain letters of the Bible and the antinomian is they, they like to focus on Galatians.
00:40:50Galatians and Colossians and Colossians and Colossians and Colossians and Galatians are the same.
00:40:56So they kind of go over Galatians and they go over these, these books, but it is refreshing to hear a messianic perspective on the, on the book of Galatians.
00:41:10Um, and I've been doing a personal study just on those things and it seems as though it takes a lot of study and thought and understanding Paul and his writings because they are so complex.
00:41:30Uh, not, not, not, not, not in a sense of like, he's, he's, he's not easy to understand.
00:41:36And because we're Gentiles, there's a lot of things that we're missing.
00:41:42And I'm, every time I just go, wow, like I didn't know about this.
00:41:46I didn't know about this.
00:41:47And, and it makes sense.
00:41:51And it, it, yeah, it's just good that there are, there are a lot of good literature out there to supplement what someone like me, myself, like, okay, yeah, I read the word.
00:42:02I believe the word and I believe it's this way, but then there's also people writing books about it or, or things like that.
00:42:08Cause the book that you referenced, I have in my bookshelf, didn't read it yet, but I'll go check it out.
00:42:18Yeah, that's good.
00:42:19Um, you're talking about the James adjust.
00:42:23Yeah.
00:42:24Okay.
00:42:24Yeah.
00:42:25Yeah.
00:42:25It's an interesting book.
00:42:26I thought it is pretty insightful, especially when he makes those connections to, to Leviticus 19.
00:42:32And I think the secret to reading Paul is if you read the letters of Paul, just as a standalone thing without a solid basis in the rest of scripture, you will come away very confused with lots of wrong ideas.
00:42:50But if you read Paul with the assumption first, that he is a Torah scholar and he is not teaching contrary to anything else in scripture, then he, everything falls into place.
00:43:03And he becomes a very pro Torah teacher and you have to read it for what it says within that context.
00:43:10You can't, you can't read it with any Christian dogma.
00:43:16Um, what's the word?
00:43:19Yeah.
00:43:19Laid over it.
00:43:21Like you can't read it with eisegesis, assuming reading things into the text.
00:43:28Take Colossians as an example, you know, when we first started Romans, I think, um, Carlos and I did, uh, a session on the problem with Paul and the specific, we really focused on Colossians too, where it talks about, uh, weak and worthless elementary principles and days and seasons.
00:43:50And, you know, all this kind of stuff, uh, I may be conflating that a little bit with Galatians cause you're right.
00:43:56Galatians covers much of the same territory, but if you read it specifically for what it says and not assuming any external doctrines other than what's in the Bible, you will immediately see that Paul defines these weak and elementary principles of the world.
00:44:15And the, the days and months and seasons as man-made things, these aren't God's commandments that he's talking about.
00:44:26These are man-made traditions, rules of asceticism and man-made holidays and rules about the Sabbath that God never intended.
00:44:35Don't let people judge you for keeping God's commandments the way that he said to command, to do it.
00:44:41Don't let them impose their own rules on top of God's.
00:44:45You just do what God said and don't worry about all that stuff.
00:44:48Don't get bogged down in all of this, these non-essential things.
00:44:52And that seems to be Paul's main message in Colossians and Galatians.
00:44:57Not, don't go back to keeping God's commandments, you Gentiles who have never kept God's commandments before.
00:45:02But don't go back to keeping man-made commandments, which the Gentiles most definitely were keeping before.
00:45:11Hopefully that made sense.
00:45:13Let's move on to the next part here in, in James.
00:45:17In verses 22 to 25.
00:45:21Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
00:45:24For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.
00:45:31For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.
00:45:34But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
00:45:44And that's the blessing I was referencing earlier.
00:45:46And in this one, I think with verse 23, I want to go to 1 Timothy 3.7, which I actually referenced earlier, but just to read it out loud.
00:46:00Oh, 2 Timothy 3.7.
00:46:01I think I said 1 Timothy.
00:46:04Well, I don't know what I said, but I meant 2 Timothy.
00:46:06Going back to verse 6.
00:46:09For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.
00:46:21I have.
00:46:22I have seen this a lot in the Torah movement and people who will latch onto the Sabbath or the feast days and learn all about it.
00:46:32They want to learn about the tabernacle and the priests and, you know, the Levitical, all the stuff about the temple.
00:46:39They want to learn about all the symbolism in the feast days and the prophetic implications, but they don't actually want to do anything.
00:46:48And even then, the feast days are, they're great.
00:46:52They honor God.
00:46:53But are you actually doing anything useful?
00:46:56If all you're doing is keeping the holidays, what is the point?
00:47:00You can't just do the things that make you feel good.
00:47:07You can't bring your tithes to God without also bringing your tithes to the local storehouse.
00:47:13You can't bring your firstfruits to God without also bringing, um, uh, what's, what was I looking for?
00:47:23Um, without leaving the, the, the edges and the corners of your field for the landless and the widows and the orphans.
00:47:31All it, God requires all of this.
00:47:33Remember that, um, God is a God of, uh, of relationship.
00:47:41In this passage here, let me go back to the beginning here, being doers of the word and not hearers only.
00:47:47I'm sure you're familiar with the Shema.
00:47:50Hero Israel, Lord your God, the Lord is one.
00:47:53And Yeshua pointed to this and said, this is the greatest commandment.
00:47:56But this word Shema, when, um, when God presented his proposal to Israel at Sinai, he said, you know, will you be my people?
00:48:07And they said, we will, we will do, and we will hear.
00:48:11So they're going to do what God says.
00:48:14They're going to hear him and obey.
00:48:16And they put the emphasis on do because hearing without doing is kind of pointless.
00:48:22Why, why do you want to hear God's commandments?
00:48:26Maybe you learn something about God's character and that's great.
00:48:28But if you don't put it into action, who cares how much you know about God's character?
00:48:33Because if you don't do what he said to do, you don't really trust him.
00:48:37You don't really believe what he's saying.
00:48:39So there is no point in learning about God.
00:48:45If you then don't take what you learned and put it into action in the real world.
00:48:50Yeah, this is really good.
00:48:52And we do have a lot of people that will read the Bible, the scriptures.
00:48:58And they don't do anything just, you know, but at the same time, you got the other camp that are saying, well, stop.
00:49:09You're reading the Bible.
00:49:10You really don't need to read it.
00:49:11You just got to show love, you know, and it's like love is the name, the main thing.
00:49:17And, but you got one side saying love is love, you know, and we're saying, okay, well, what is love?
00:49:23And so people have, I would say the love is probably the miss most, most misunderstood concept.
00:49:30And the one that Satan truly attacks because the world thinks love in one way, but God, the way that God prescribes love is, is a different way.
00:49:42And so my point is that when you do have people that just study the scriptures, but they're not really doing like, they're not, they're not obeying God.
00:49:57And they're kind of just being godless.
00:50:01That's one side of the coin.
00:50:02But then you have the other side where they really don't think reading the scriptures is that important.
00:50:12And theology does not matter.
00:50:14And I've ran across a few people like that and think about this.
00:50:21I love God's word so much and I love God so much.
00:50:26I know I'm going to fail.
00:50:28I know I'm not going to do everything and I'm going to, there's going to be some bad times, hard times.
00:50:34But that doesn't mean that I should not hear his word, which, you know, I believe if you have the spirit of God, you will hear the word and you will do what it says and you will be corrected.
00:50:53You do wrong, you repent, you know, there is that.
00:50:57But does that make sense?
00:50:58Because there's that other side that says theology is bad.
00:51:01And it's like, how is that bad?
00:51:05And I understand that there are people out there that put a priority on theology over doing.
00:51:15And so they have all this knowledge.
00:51:18But then you have like, I think Stephen Furtick is one of the guys that really is, does not like God's word and stuff like that.
00:51:27Does that make sense?
00:51:28Because there's two sides of the coin.
00:51:31Yeah, on one hand, you have people who make up their own idea of what it means to love.
00:51:37But don't, you know, they will, I see that this is another thing I see on social media a lot.
00:51:44You know, I post a lot about what does this verse in Torah mean?
00:51:49What is it really trying to say here?
00:51:51And sometimes it can be kind of obscure, you know, talking about the meaning of a specific word or who is this person being talked about.
00:52:00And this week I've been posting about Romans 16 and all the people that Paul is talking about.
00:52:06Like some people will get upset about that.
00:52:08It's like, why are you wasting your time with all these meaningless details?
00:52:11It's all about loving your neighbor.
00:52:14It's like, well, that's true.
00:52:17Loving your neighbor is really important, but it's not all about loving your neighbor.
00:52:20Part of loving God is knowing who God is.
00:52:24And that means getting into some theology.
00:52:26I mean, that's what theology is, is understanding God.
00:52:31I mean, if you love your wife or your husband, don't you want to know who they are?
00:52:37Don't you want to get to know that person?
00:52:40Yeah, I'm going to bring my wife chocolate-covered peanuts for her birthday.
00:52:46Is she allergic to peanuts?
00:52:47I don't know.
00:52:48I don't care.
00:52:49I'm just doing something.
00:52:49I just want to love her.
00:52:50So I'm going to bring her chocolate-covered peanuts.
00:52:53Well, maybe you should find out because it could be important.
00:52:57I know that seems kind of silly, but that's really what people seem to be saying.
00:53:02You know, studying God's word, learning about who God is, and keeping the feast days.
00:53:06These are part of how we learn who God is and what he likes.
00:53:11But then when we study his law, we also learn that he really likes it when we treat each other well,
00:53:17when we're kind to people.
00:53:19And this is what people usually think about when they say, love your neighbor.
00:53:23It's like, be nice.
00:53:23Yeah, but, you know, rebuking your neighbor is sometimes being loving, too.
00:53:31Executing the neighbors who behave in certain ways, that's loving your neighbor, too.
00:53:36So it's not always being nice.
00:53:38Being nice is the 11th commandment.
00:53:40The 11th commandment.
00:53:41Yeah.
00:53:42Yeah.
00:53:43Be nice.
00:53:45This process that James is describing in these verses, being a doer of the word and not hearers only.
00:53:52You have to hear and you have to do.
00:53:54And this is a reinforcement process.
00:53:56And everybody who's gone through school to learn something, you know, learning how to do something, understands this.
00:54:03You can learn about something all you want, but until you've actually done it, you really don't understand it.
00:54:10Like, I can learn all about how an engine works.
00:54:14You know, my car has a continuously variable transmission.
00:54:18And so I was watching videos and reading about how that works.
00:54:21I have a good conceptual idea of how a CVT transmission works.
00:54:26But I don't really know.
00:54:28I don't really understand it.
00:54:30I've never taken one apart.
00:54:31I've never tried to fix one.
00:54:33And until you really get into doing it, you'll never really understand it until you get your hands on it.
00:54:39And it's the same thing with keeping God's commandments.
00:54:43Until you have a field and you have harvested your crops but left the edges in the corners for people to come and harvest for free,
00:54:52you don't really understand what those commands are about.
00:54:56And when you do that, you'll learn a whole lot about human nature, too.
00:55:01And you might not like necessarily all that you learn.
00:55:04But that's another one of those things where loving your neighbor is sometimes just accepting that they're not always the people you want them to be.
00:55:13And you deal with that.
00:55:16Oh, verse 25.
00:55:18There are a few things here that I want to focus on real quick.
00:55:21I put three more passages in the chat.
00:55:26And we're going to get through these fairly quickly because we don't have a ton of time left.
00:55:31Psalm 19.
00:55:33James says,
00:55:34The one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres.
00:55:38So, what is the law of liberty?
00:55:41What is the perfect law?
00:55:43Well, if you look at scripture, it defines the perfect law.
00:55:46And I'm going to read this because this is eight verses here.
00:55:49The law of Yahweh is perfect, reviving the soul.
00:55:54The testimony of Yahweh is sure, making wise the simple.
00:55:57The precepts of Yahweh are right, rejoicing the heart.
00:56:00The commandment of Yahweh is pure, enlightening the eyes.
00:56:03The fear of Yahweh is clean, enduring forever.
00:56:06The rules of Yahweh are true and righteous altogether.
00:56:10More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold.
00:56:14Sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.
00:56:17This is Psalm 19.
00:56:18Moreover, by them is your servant warned, and in keeping them there is great reward.
00:56:24Who can discern his errors?
00:56:25Declare me innocent from hidden faults.
00:56:28Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins.
00:56:31Let them not have dominion over me.
00:56:33Then I shall be blameless and innocent of great transgression.
00:56:36Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Yahweh, my rock and my redeemer.
00:56:43There are several connections in this passage to what James is saying.
00:56:46First off, he talks about the perfect law.
00:56:50The law of Yahweh is perfect.
00:56:52He talks about the blessings of obedience, which James also talks about here.
00:56:57The person who does the commandments will be blessed in his doing.
00:57:01He talks about, oh, where is it?
00:57:04Who can discern his errors?
00:57:05Declare me innocent from hidden faults.
00:57:07This is what we talked about in a previous verse, the filthiness and the wickedness.
00:57:18David is talking about, you know, God helped me remove this stuff from my life, just like James is talking about here.
00:57:24So I'm certain that this is what James means when he says, look into the perfect law.
00:57:30And this is the law of liberty.
00:57:32This is the thing that sets you free.
00:57:34Remember what Paul said about how we are set free from the law.
00:57:40We died to the law so that we could be free to marry another spouse, which who is Yeshua.
00:57:46It's not that it's not that the law no longer applies.
00:57:51It's no longer our master.
00:57:52That's not our master.
00:57:54Now, Yeshua is our master.
00:57:56And so we've been set free.
00:57:57We've been changed from slaves to sons or slaves to a bride, depending on which analogy you want to use.
00:58:04Paul uses all kinds of analogy to illustrate this point.
00:58:08This is what the law of liberty is.
00:58:11It's the law, it's obedience to the law, repentance from sin, which sets us free and obedience to the law, which maintains our freedom.
00:58:21And if you persevere in it and don't don't be a forgetter who who doesn't do what he hears, but do it and you will be blessed in the doing.
00:58:32You will be transformed, made into the image of God's son.
00:58:36Let's go on to the next verse, just to reinforce the idea that what James is talking about here is the law of God.
00:58:45Remember, Psalm 19 says that the law of Yahweh is perfect.
00:58:50So what is the law of Yahweh?
00:58:52Because this is a point of controversy with a lot of Christians.
00:58:55They will say that the law of Moses isn't the law of Yahweh.
00:58:59That's just, you know, a temporary thing that he gave the Jews.
00:59:02Well, what does God actually say?
00:59:05So I want to go to Exodus 16.
00:59:09Then Yahweh said to Moses,
00:59:11Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day that I may test them whether they will walk in my law or not.
00:59:20On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.
00:59:25That's because the seventh day is the Sabbath.
00:59:28So the Sabbath is the law of God.
00:59:30Then in Deuteronomy, was it Deuteronomy 4, verse 5, I think?
00:59:37Moses says, These are the commandments that Yahweh gave me to give to you.
00:59:44And in 2 Chronicles 34, 14, in this chapter, starting in verse 8, they're doing some renovations of the temple.
00:59:51And the priest finds a book, or the workers find a book, hidden in the walls of the temple.
00:59:58And they look at this scroll, see what it is, and they bring it to the king.
01:00:03And he says, in verse 15, Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan, the secretary, I have found the book of the law in the house of Yahweh.
01:00:14And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and then Shaphan brought the book to the king.
01:00:20And this is the book of Yahweh.
01:00:23Well, that means that the law of Yahweh says the book of the law of Yahweh.
01:00:28That means that the law was something that was written down.
01:00:33It's not some esoteric thing that you can only know about through the spirit.
01:00:38It's something that can be written.
01:00:40And most scholars believe that this is actually the book of Deuteronomy that they found in the walls.
01:00:44And over and over, in Nehemiah, in Ezra, in Kings, Chronicles, all of these books, Jeremiah, over and over again, talks about the law of God, the law of Yahweh.
01:00:55And every time, it refers back to the law of Moses.
01:01:00The Bible defines the law of Moses as the law of God.
01:01:04They are the same thing.
01:01:05So, when David says the law of the Lord is perfect, the law of Yahweh is perfect, he's talking about the law of Moses.
01:01:15The law of Moses is perfect, and it will help transform you into the image of God's Son.
01:01:21That's the law of liberty, the perfect law that James is talking about here.
01:01:26And those who hear it and then do it will be blessed in the doing.
01:01:32Let me move on to the next slide here.
01:01:34This is actually the last slide.
01:01:36So, verses 26 and 27.
01:01:40If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless.
01:01:46Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
01:01:56The first thing I want to point out here is that James is talking about religion.
01:02:01There is a religion that is worthless, and there is a religion that is pure and undefiled.
01:02:08Sorry, I got an itch on my nose.
01:02:12We've all heard that saying, I have a relationship, not a religion.
01:02:16And I understand what people are saying, what they mean when they say that.
01:02:20They usually mean that I don't have empty ritual, and that's the religion they're referring to.
01:02:25But they often put obedience to God's commandments, like the Sabbath, and tithing, and all the stuff that God said to do, like what to eat, what not to eat.
01:02:37They put that in this box of empty ritual.
01:02:41Well, those things are God's law.
01:02:42If you're not obeying those things also, are you really obeying God's law?
01:02:47A religion that is all relationship and no obedience is a really vile religion.
01:02:55That's bad.
01:02:56That is not a good religion.
01:02:58God wants obedience.
01:03:00He accepts your obedience, and in fact, he demands it.
01:03:02But a religion, on the other hand, that is all ritual, all obedience to the letter, without the relationship, I'm just doing what God said to do.
01:03:12That's it.
01:03:14You know, I'm bringing in my tithes.
01:03:16I'm leaving the edges of my field unharvested.
01:03:20I don't actually care about any of these people.
01:03:22I'm just doing it because God said to, and that's it.
01:03:24Well, that's empty, too.
01:03:26That's worthless.
01:03:28Because love is at the heart of these things.
01:03:31And love is certainly doing, but love is also being merciful and kind and caring about people.
01:03:38If you're not keeping the commandments because you love God, and you're not keeping them because you love your neighbor, you're not really keeping them.
01:03:47You have to have both sides of it.
01:03:49You have to have the obedience, and you have to have the heart.
01:03:52If you don't have both, then you have half of a religion.
01:03:54And the whole pure, undefiled religion before God is to keep the commandments and to love God and your neighbor.
01:04:03How do you know that you love God and your neighbor?
01:04:06Well, John told us, 1 John 5.
01:04:08He told us, you know that you love the children of God if you keep his commandments.
01:04:12Because if you love God, you keep his commandments.
01:04:18Yeshua said the same thing.
01:04:19If you love me, keep my commandments.
01:04:24Does that make sense?
01:04:26Any questions from those who are left or any thoughts to share?
01:04:29Yeah, so, sorry, my battery said 10%.
01:04:40Okay.
01:04:41Oh, better be quick.
01:04:44This person's religion is worth, okay, religion that is pure and undefiled.
01:04:51So, I've always struggled with this verse just because it's talking about orphans and widows.
01:04:57And I'm, like, a little caught off guard on why that's being brought up.
01:05:05So, do you have any insight on that?
01:05:07Yeah, well, he's really focusing on Leviticus 19.
01:05:10And that's one of the big deals in that chapter is talking about the poor.
01:05:15How do you take care of the poor?
01:05:17You know, talking about harvesting and not abusing them because they're poor,
01:05:22not bribing the judges to rule in your favor, those kinds of things.
01:05:26Now, James is specifically writing to the 12 tribes in Diaspora,
01:05:30which means that he's writing to people outside the land.
01:05:34So, the laws about how to manage your land don't apply directly.
01:05:38And most of the people he's writing to don't actually own any property.
01:05:41So, those laws don't apply to them in their word-for-word, you know, as I say the letter of the law doesn't apply to them.
01:05:52So, he's taking it and applying it in the spiritual sense or the spirit of the law.
01:05:57In the spirit of the law, you find those people around you who are in need and you take some of what God has given you and you set it aside for those people.
01:06:06To visit orphans and widows here doesn't necessarily mean to go spend time with them.
01:06:12I don't think that's the point.
01:06:13I think it's to help care for them.
01:06:19And, you know, going to visit with them, spending time with them, you know, that's good too.
01:06:23And I'm sure that they appreciate that.
01:06:25But really, what they need is help.
01:06:27And this doesn't mean outsourcing that help to the government.
01:06:30This means that you go do it.
01:06:32You take some of your resources and go help people.
01:06:37You invite those people into your feasts.
01:06:41This passage in Leviticus also includes instructions on Thanksgiving offerings or peace offerings.
01:06:47Same thing.
01:06:49And which is really a community festival.
01:06:51It's a barbecue where you invite everybody in.
01:06:55And one of the rules at the beginning of Leviticus 20 is that anything left over until the third day must be burned up.
01:07:02And if you eat any of it, then God doesn't accept any of that offering.
01:07:05It's all null and void if you keep it and keep eating it past the second day.
01:07:12And one of the big reasons for that is that if you bring a goat or a lamb or a bull, you have to invite enough people to your sacrifice to consume it.
01:07:22Or you have to burn the rest up.
01:07:24But ideally, you bring enough people.
01:07:25So you don't just bring your rich friends.
01:07:27You bring everybody who's in your community.
01:07:30You invite the poor, the widows, the landless, the orphans.
01:07:34And you share your bounty with those people in a Thanksgiving celebration in God's honor.
01:07:42And, you know, talking about the law of Yahweh.
01:07:48Yahweh is a name that is used for the God of covenant.
01:07:54And covenants are formal descriptions of relationships.
01:07:58So when scripture talks about the law of Yahweh, it's talking about the law of the God who wants to have a relationship with his people.
01:08:06And if you're going to have a relationship with your creator, well, he created all your neighbors too.
01:08:13And you don't have a covenant yourself with Yahweh.
01:08:18You are part of a people.
01:08:21And the people have a covenant with Yahweh.
01:08:23Yahweh didn't make a covenant with every individual Israelite.
01:08:27He made a covenant with the houses of Israel and Judah.
01:08:29So if you're going to participate in that covenant, you are participating in it with all the people around you.
01:08:36And especially those people who don't have anything material to contribute to you.
01:08:41You take what God has given you and share it with those people because you are all in this relationship together with Yahweh.
01:08:49We are all together the body of Messiah.
01:08:51And so part of our job is to make sure that the rest of the body is healthy.
01:08:57And if they're not healthy, that detracts from us.
01:09:00We become unhealthy too.
01:09:03So I think that's really what James is getting at.
01:09:06Visiting orphans and widows doesn't mean necessarily to go and visit them at their home.
01:09:11But it does mean to be kind, to make provision for them, to share your resources.
01:09:17Does that make sense?
01:09:19Yes.
01:09:20Okay.
01:09:21All right.
01:09:21That is the end of this pericope in James.
01:09:25And next week, we're going to start with, or in two weeks, we're going to start with James chapter 2.
01:09:30Alright.
01:09:30So next week, we'll be going to start with, or in two weeks, we'll be going to start with James.
01:09:34There's a good one.
01:09:35So, we're going to start with James.
01:09:36He's going to start with James.
01:09:36Yeah.
01:09:36You're going to start with James.
01:09:37So, you're going to get going.
01:09:38Yeah.
Recommended
49:08
|
Up next
1:26:46
1:19:11
1:08:07
53:57
5:06
4:07
5:08
7:58
13:03
16:00
1:09:04
8:55
10:42
6:54
8:37
3:29
13:20
52:20