Becoming More Like HIM
ENTRY ONE
Hey everyone, previously I have used this website for running content. But I have graduated last spring and I am no longer running competively. So I figured that I would use this cite to type out my thoughts in a different subject matter. And that is what the title of this blog means, conforming to the image of Jesus. So if you are not into the religous type of writing, I apologize for the change, but if you’d like to read what I write I’d greatly appriciate it! What this writing will look like is a small chunk of the Bible and then me typing out my thoughts on it.
James 1:19–25
(19) Know this, my beloved brothers: let ever person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; (20) for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. (21) Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. (22) But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. (23) For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, her is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. (24) For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. (25) But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of libety, and persevers, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
OVERVIEW
This text is one that I have spent a lot of time thinking about while I have been going through life these past couple of years. The first two verses I actually have memorized for ocasions when I get angry. But if you ask the people that are close to me, mainly my wonderful wife Joanna, I am still prone to the anger that wrecks my heart. In my foolishness I memorized verses 19–20 and did not take the time to look at the following verse. It just goes to show how much maturity I need to acclumate and grow in. Listening and reading the Word is so important, but when there is no action it is pointless. Here is more of an in depth look at this section of scripture.
Verse 19
So James wants his readers to know that a very important thing in the body of believers is communication. Moreover he wants them specifically to know that listening is more important than speaking and getting your opinion bashed over the head of the person you are conversing with. And in this short statement he describes things that would be considered counter-cultural today. He calls EVERY person first to be quick to listen. I don’t know about you, but being quick to listen to another person means having a character marked by paitence. For those who know me well you know that I am not very good at waiting at all. The next thing every person is called to is to be slow to speak. That directly is affected by the first thing James calls us to in this text! You can not be quick to speak, and also be quick to hear. The last action James calls us to be is slow to anger. In the next verse James unpacks this idea in more detail. James makes some big asks of Christians in this first verse, and the only way that we are actually able to come through and achieve these actions is the Cross of Christ.
Verse 20
The first two ideas that are explained in verse 19 are not specifically called out with more detail to them. It makes me wonder why James goes further into explaining the anger bit. Part of me wants to think it is because of this idea that communication problems do not lead me to sin. This however, is the wrong mindset to have. James in verse 19 shows us that communication should be marked more by listening than speaking. Now we come to the verse where James put the emphasis on our outward anger. This verse is scary, because this promises that the anger that is in us (man) does not line up with the nature of our Father (God). So this leaves us in a weird place of how we are actually supposed to fight the anger that does not line up to Gods character.
Verse 21
So the first word in this verse is therefore. That word directly links this idea from the previous verse of our human emotion of anger relates to this current verse. So because our anger does not produce Gods righteousness, we need to put it away. Now if we stop with just putting away the bad, we never truly have victory because we aren’t filling that space with something good. To drown out the bad that seperates us from God we have to fill ourselves with something better, which is the Word. And it has the power to do amazing things in our lives. It drowns out the anger and filth that seperates us from God and gives us the ablility to fight and kill sin. This is where maturity comews into play in my life. I know that I have to be filling myself with something good to weed out the bad nature that I have. But often times I get lazy and do not want to do the things that I know I should. When I do however, I find that it gives more life than being neutral in my reading of the Bible.
Verse 22
James calls us to action in this verse. Now it seems like he called us to action in the last verse. But if we are honest with ourselves how many times have we heard or read scripture and have it not move us towards action. James here is not calling us to passively read our Bible and say to ourselves, “Wow, that’s great!” and not do anything about our action. He is calling us to read with an active mindset and change the way that we act because of what Gods word says! The usage of the word deception here is perfectly divine.
Verse 23
This illustration here is one that is funny to me. To not apply Gods word to your life is like staring at yourself in a mirror. Now when doing this one would assume that you have a pretty good understanding of the way that your face looks. I know when I look into a mirror I see what is wrong and I work to change it to the way it should be. The word intently used here is notable, we are not just looking and recieving Gods word on a whim, but we are intently looking at it to see how it moves us to action.
Verse 24
I don’t know about you, but this verse completely exposes the real condition of my heart. I spend time reading my Bible, being in prayer, and meditating on what God says about me. When I close the scriptures, I go right back to not letting myself live according to the beautiful promises that I see in scripture. I am the person who leaves the mirror and forget what he looks like, even after intently looking into the mirror. What is the answer, how do we push ourselves toward a lifestyle that is Christlike.
Verse 25
This verse seems like a different way to say what was covered in the last couple of verses. But there are two words that make it vastly different. But first it is interesting that the word is described in a different way here. “The perfect law, the law of liberty” is a reference moreso to the finished work on the Cross that Christ acclomished! And the difference in this hearer of the word is this “and perseveres”. When looking at the Cross, all the believer can do is be joyfull and try to remind themself of that finished work often.
CONCLUSION
My anger problem can only be solved by looking at Jesus dying for it and moving forward to be more like him. In the world we live in we get so overwelmed with so many modes of entertainment that it is so easy for us to forget the gospel of Jesus Christ. And James tells us here that the answer is to remind yourself of the finished work often and have it move us to action.
Thanks for reading if you got this far. I will try to post a few times a week. Always feel free to reach out if you would like to talk about anything I write. I love talking about my rescue story.
-Gabriel
