James 1: 19-27 Quit Kidding Yourself

The last nine verses of this chapter pack a wallop!  My commentary entitles them “Quit Kidding Yourself” and says, “If a Christian sins because Satan deceives him, that is one thing.  But if he deceives himself, that is a far more serious thing.”

We have three responsibilities toward God’s Word, it says:  Receiving it, practicing it, and sharing it.

Receiving it:

We need to be swift to hear, it said, like a mother running to her new baby’s cry.  We need to be slow to speak and slot to wrath, and have a prepared heart, also.  We prepare our heart by first confessing our sins and asking the Father to forgive us, then meditating on God’s love and grace and asking Him to plow up any hardness in our hearts, then have an attitude of meekness – accepting it, not arguing about it, and honoring it as the Word of God.

Practicing it:

Practicing the Word means doing and obeying what it says.  “Too many Christians mark their Bibles, but their Bibles never mark them!”  We are to use it for examining ourselves, restoring ourselves by letting God wash away our defilement from sin, and “transforming us so that we will grow in grace and not commit that sin again … to conquer self and sin.”

Sharing it:

Once God’s Word has impacted us and transformed us, we are to share with unbelievers what God has done so that He can also do the same with them. 

But it all begins when we stop kidding ourselves and deceiving ourselves!

Father, I don’t want to just be a good reader of Your Word or hearer of Your Word.  I want it to change me and remake me so that You shine out of me and draw others to Yourself.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford