Daily Bible Readings-Week 8
Starter Question
What’s your favorite Bible passage and why?
October 25
James 1:22, Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
We come to our final week and theme in the book of James. This is the theme for which James may be best known. We can attend worship every week, we can participate in studies, we can read and reflect on Scripture, we can memorize and know the Bible backward and forward, and yet it is possible that we are being deceived.
How so? We treat the word of God as a document to be studied without allowing the Word of God to transform our lives. We falsely believe that information is all we need. It becomes a substitute for transformation.
We recently talked about how this happened in the early days of Methodism. We were a movement who met weekly in groups to ask each other, “How it is with your soul?” There was an expectation for everyone to be honest and share where they were finding spiritual success, where they were struggling, and where they had failed.
They met to keep each other encouraged and accountable to living out their daily faith. As the class meeting was eventually replaced with a Sunday School/Bible Study format, the focus changed from how the Word was being lived out practically to a more abstract, less personal, discussion of the meaning of the words of the Word.
Please hear me: There is nothing wrong with studying Scripture because we need to know it in order to do it! However, rather than combining the former way with the new, this approach distanced themselves from the accountability of living a transformed faith. As a result, Methodism began a gradual spiritual descent.
Moses said it this way in Deuteronomy:
Deuteronomy 32:45-47, When Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel, he said to them, “Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words of this law. They are not just idle words for you—they are your life. By them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”
God’s Word are not idle words. They are your life. We must allow them to grip our souls.
Questions to Consider:
Is God’s Word your life? How are you preparing yourself to put into action what you read and hear?
Weekly Memory Verse:
James 1:22, Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
October 26
James 1:23-25, Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 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.
James gives us an illustration of one who listens to Scripture but does not apply it to their lives. It is like the person who looks in a mirror and quickly forgets what they look like. I sometimes wonder who is in the mirror when I am looking and would like to forget!
Some days, I read my daily devotions and Scripture passages, but then, I, hurriedly, get on with my day without considering how the message of my readings can be translated into my life. When I, mistakenly, think that going through the motion of my devotion without any application is all I need, then I have become deceived.
We must engage our whole mind and heart in the Word. We must not hurry in or hurry out. A prayerful attitude of asking the Holy Spirit to speak into our hearts and empower us to live out the Word is needed to faithfully engage God in His Word. The Apostle Paul wrote to the young pastor, Timothy, about the power of Scripture,
2 Timothy 3:14-17, But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Scripture gives us the path for salvation through faith in Jesus. Scripture teaches us the way, truth, and life. Accompanied with the Holy Spirit, Scripture rebukes and corrects us when we have sinned or gone astray. It is our training manual for living in a right relationship with God. It equips us to live out the good works that we have been created to do as believers in Jesus.
James says the blessing then comes when we actually do what Scripture teaches.
Questions to Consider:
What specific instances can you share where you found Scripture useful to teach, rebuke, correct, or train you? What is the blessing you have found in doing the Word of God?
Weekly Memory Verse:
James 1:22, Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
October 27
James 1:26-27, Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. 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.
In James’ discussion concerning an alive and active faith, he briefly returns to the power of speech. James wanted to make it clear that authentic faith influences what we say. One of the measures of our growing or waning faith is what comes out of our mouths. If we are more careful and thoughtful in using words to build others up, then we know our faith is genuine and growing. However, if we notice more negative, critical, and unhelpful words flowing from our mouths, then it may be time to do a heart check to see what is going on deep inside.
When Jesus confronted the Pharisees with their hypocrisy he quoted from Isaiah,
Matthew 15:8-11, “‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’” Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand. What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.”
The mouth eventually tells on the heart. Listen to what you say so you know where you are spiritually.
That is why James says that true faith that God accepts is that which keeps oneself from being polluted by the world. Our faith is a matter of the heart. What we do morally matters. What we do privately matters. What we bring into our mind matters.
Genuine faith will battle in the power of the Holy Spirit and refuse to indulge the sinful nature and accommodate evil that has invaded the many systems and structures within our world. As authentic followers of Jesus, we humbly surrender ourselves to the Lordship of Christ so that we can be transformed into His likeness.
The Apostle Paul said it this way,
2 Corinthians 5:17, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
Questions to Consider:
What is your speech saying about where you are spiritually? Is there an area of your life that needs to come under the Lordship of Jesus?
Weekly Memory Verse:
James 1:22, Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
October 28
James 1:27, 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.
James 2:14-17, What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
James says that authentic faith, also, has to do with caring for those in need. In this biblical time period, they did not have the social support network of the government that we do today. Though there are greater resources now than there were then, we know they still do not cover every need or situation.
Throughout the Bible, the message is clear that we are to care for each other’s needs. Those who have been blessed with much are called to be generous with what they have for those who are in legitimate need. I love the imagery of this verse:
Proverbs 19:17, Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward them for what they have done.
In the James 2 passage, James says the same is true for us in the family of God. If we see a need in our church but only speak blessing without doing anything practically to assist them, then our faith has failed. James states it rather bluntly: faith not accompanied by action is dead.
To generously live out our faith may not always be giving of funds but of time and help. Sometimes, what is most needed is a listening ear, your personal presence, or physical help to accomplish tasks that cannot be done otherwise.
James asked a startling question, “Can a faith that has no deeds save them?” Can a faith that supposedly trusts in Jesus not have a lifestyle and a heart to help and serve others as Christ himself did? We will have more to say about this tomorrow.
Question to Consider:
How does your faith show itself in helping others through the generosity of giving, of time, of service, and of prayer?
Weekly Memory Verse:
James 1:22, Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
October 29
James 2:18-26, But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder. You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone. In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.
James said it plainly. If you, merely, state belief in God, your faith is not any greater than the demons whose belief causes them to shudder at God’s holy presence.
James offers evidence of an authentic faith with Abraham who was willing to offer his son in total trust to God. He had genuine faith because he obediently acted upon God’s message to him. His action was the completion of his faith. Such faith was credited as a right relationship with God and gave him the designation as God’s friend.
Rahab was a Gentile who covered for the Israelite spies who were preparing to invade and take the Promised Land. In spite of her past, she was deemed to have real faith because of her courageous action in protecting God’s people.
James’ statement that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone seems to be in tension with Paul who says it is by faith alone that we are saved. They were writing to two different audiences so they had two different perspectives.
James was combating a superficial faith that was showing no fruit in the life of the professing believers. Paul, on the other hand, was refuting the belief that one may earn salvation by good deeds. So, Paul insisted that salvation is not by works but by faith alone. However, after making that declaration, Paul went on to say, “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works.” (Ephesians 2:10)
Paul and James would agree that a faith without action is not genuine discipleship.
Question to Consider:
What are some specific ways you have seen the fruit of faith at work in your life?
Weekly Memory Verse:
James 1:22, Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.