Hearing and Doing

The Tension

Where Temptation Comes From

¹³ When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; ¹⁴ but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. ¹⁵ Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

This picks up the caution from the last note: peirasmos can mean an outside trial or an inward temptation. In verse 2 the trial is something that happens to us. Here James is clear that when the pull toward sin comes, God is not the one doing the pulling. Say this plainly if someone asks whether God is sending their hardship. James is not saying that nothing hard comes from outside us. He is saying that God is not tempting us to sin.

The source James points to is our own epithymia, "desire". Two of his verbs come from hunting and fishing. Being "dragged away" (exelkomenos) is what happens to a fish pulled from its hiding place, and "enticed" (deleazomenos) is being caught with bait. The desire sets the hook. Then James switches images from fishing to birth: desire "conceives" and "gives birth" (apokyei) to sin, and sin, fully grown, gives birth to death.

Hard Truth: It is much easier to blame our circumstances, our upbringing, our spouse, or even God for the temptations we give in to than to admit that the pull starts inside us.

Be honest with the group about how uncomfortable this is. James is not shaming anyone here. He is tracing a path that starts with desire and ends in death, and the point is to see it coming.

Where New Life Comes From

¹⁶ Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. ¹⁷ Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. ¹⁸ He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.

Verse 17 is the counterpoint to the "wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind" from last time. The double-minded person is unstable. God "does not change like shifting shadows". Whatever you are facing, the one who gives good gifts is not going to turn into a tempter.

Notice also the word James uses in verse 18. It is the same verb as in verse 15, apokyeō, "to give birth". In verse 15 desire gives birth to sin and sin gives birth to death. In verse 18 God "chose to give us birth" through the word of truth. That contrast is our reading of the text, not something every commentary spells out, but it is hard to miss when you read the two verses side by side.

It also matters for tonight's tension. Before James asks anything of us, he says that new life began with God's choice. Hold on to that, because the rest of the passage is about how a life that has been given birth like this behaves.

Quick to Listen

¹⁹ My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, ²⁰ because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.

This is the verse most people know, and it is easy to hear it as general advice about manners. In context it is about how we receive the word. If we are quick to speak and quick to be angry, we are not listening to what God is saying. You do not need to spend long here. Connect it to the Opener: the things we forget are often the things we were too busy reacting to in order to hear.

Receive the Planted Word

²¹ Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.

The image is of getting rid of dirty clothes and humbly receiving something. The word for "planted" (emphytos) appears only here in the New Testament, and lexicons connect it to something rooted or engrafted. Many readers hear Jesus' parable of the sower here (Matthew 13:1-23), where the word is a seed and the heart is the soil. If the group needs the connection, read that parable aloud.

Two things to point out. The word is planted in you, so it is something we receive, not something we produce. And James says it "can save you". Do not skip over that phrase, since it sets up the next section.

Doers, Not Just Hearers

²² Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. ²³ Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror ²⁴ and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. ²⁵ But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

It would be easy to say the man at the mirror only gave a casual glance. That is not quite what the text says. The word for his looking in verses 23-24 (katanoeō) means to observe carefully, and he is not described as careless. His problem is that he goes away and forgets. The one who is blessed in verse 25 looks "intently" (parakypsas, literally to bend over and look into) and then continues in it. The difference is what happens after the looking.

Notice too that the law is "the perfect law that gives freedom". James is not describing a checklist. He says the word gives freedom.

We all know and love the verses that tell us all we need to do in order to be saved is to have faith (Romans 3:28; Ephesians 2:8-9), but James says the person who does what the word says is blessed. Jesus, in Matthew 7:21-23, warns that many who call him "Lord" will be told

²³ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

Different denominations of Christianity have landed differently on this exact tension. Some say that faith expressed through works is what saves; others stress faith alone. Do not shy away from the tension here, but instead let there be permission to struggle with this. Remind the group of verse 18: James has already told us that new life is God's choice, so he is not asking us to earn it. He is asking what a life that has been given birth by the word looks like. This is a thread he will pull on harder in the next chapter.

Religion That Costs Something

²⁶ Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. ²⁷ Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Thrēskeia, "religion", is about outward practice, the visible things a person does as part of their faith. James is saying that what shows from the outside matters. He gives three marks: a bridled tongue, care for the vulnerable, and keeping oneself unstained by the world.

"Orphans and widows" are a pair that appears throughout the Old and New Testaments for people who had no husband, father or advocate to protect them. The verb for "look after" (episkeptesthai) means to look upon, to visit. It is not charity from a distance. It is going to see someone.

Hard Truth: It is possible to be generous with our opinions on Sunday and careless with our tongues the rest of the week. James says that kind of religion is worthless.

Do not use this to pile guilt on the room. Put the weight where James puts it: on a faith that has legs.

Bringing It Home

Close by naming what James is and is not asking. He is not asking us to blame God for our temptations or to earn the new life God has already given. He asks us to be honest about where the pull comes from, to receive the word he has planted in us, and to stay with it after we close the book. Consider closing in prayer, asking God for one specific, small way to do what the word says this week.