James 1:21b

New American Standard Version

Therefore putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.

Pastor’s Paraphrase

          Let us instead accept with all humility God’s truth which has been planted in our hearts and grows in our lives as we daily give evidence of the salvation that is ours through Him.

 “How does this help me become more like Him?”

          One of the most common excuses that I have heard through the years from cynical unbelievers to explain why they don’t attend church is that, “The church is full of hypocrites!”  While this is an incredibly unfair generalization, it is painfully true that there are some in our churches who portray a certain Christian image and speak a Christian vocabulary but do not live in a way that matches what they portray.

          While all of us have weaknesses and inconsistencies in our walk with the Lord, the Scripture teaches us that our lives must match up with the words we say and the images we project.  I believe that hypocrisy can grow like a spiritual fungus in our lives when we inadvertently try to wear our Christianity from the outside-in rather than letting it grow from the inside-out. 

          When we came to faith in Christ, the Lord planted His truth and His Spirit inside of us in the form of His Holy Spirit.  His presence in our hearts and minds to comfort, convict, instruct, and enlighten us comes not as a result of any compliance to some set of religious rules or laws – He is present because the Lord promised that He would send Him to us.  The issue is not whether He is present with us or in us but to what degree we give Him the freedom to do His work in our hearts.

          Just as John used the word picture of Jesus standing at the door of the church in Laodicea in Revelation 3:20, the Holy Spirit stands knocking at the various rooms of our hearts.  He will not gain access by force but awaits our invitation to come into the various areas of our will and our minds.  He will make Himself at home and do His transformational work only in those parts of us that we allow Him to have His way.  When we open these “doors” to Him and He begins to change and grow us, then we are in the process of being “transformed by the renewing of our minds” (Romans 12:2).

          This inner transformational process produces a continuing series of outward changes that are not things that we conjure up or put on – they are the natural blossoms of true inner spiritual growth.  Unless this process is the true cause of the spiritual actions of our lives, these acts, however noble they may seem on the surface, can become an artificial substitute for true spiritual growth.  Attending church, working in some ministry, singing in the choir or any other external act that we might name that should have a spiritual value – unless they spring from an inner transformation of our heart and spirit, they can turn into “spiritual camouflage”.  Hypocrisy can grow from nothing more than having layer after layer of external actions that have no spiritual root.  Our growth in spiritual things must come from an inner change brought about by the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

          I am glad that you are reading these daily Scripture paraphrases and devotional thoughts.  But for this to have any real value in your Christian life, you must do it only because you desire the Lord to do a deeper work of change and transformation in your heart.  To do this or anything else in your Christian life to ease your sense of guilt that you haven’t done more or because you feel it is expected of you by anyone will not produce any lasting fruit.  He wants to change you from the inside-out.  That’s the only way it really works!

“How should I pray for Him to change my life?”

Thank the Lord for His constant presence in your life through the Holy Spirit and that He desires to constantly change and grow you from the inside-out.  Open wide all of the doors of your heart to Him and invite Him to come in to clean out and rearrange however He chooses.  Pray that you will recognize those times that you are tempted to just “go through the motions” without having your heart focused on Him.

END

James 1:22

New American Standard Version

But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.

Pastor’s Paraphrase

          Don’t you see – if we merely hear the truth of God as it is taught to us without putting it into practice, we are fooling ourselves concerning what the Christian life is really all about! Our actions are to match up perfectly with what we have been taught!

 “How does this help me become more like Him?”

          This is the time of year that football teams are holding extended practices and scrimmages in preparation for the beginning of the season.  Coaches are spending countless hours trying to teach their players the structure and function of their offensive and defensive systems.  From Junior High School to the NFL, each team has a system they are trying to teach and execute.  Some systems and some coaches are better than others but in each case these coaches have specific assignments for each player that must be carried out in order for their team to be successful.

          This paradigm applies not only to athletic teams but almost any other cooperative effort as well – businesses, government, charitable and social organizations, and a host of other joint enterprises involving a group of individuals.  Their common goal is to win games, make money, or even to help other people in need – none of which are wrong.  In every case, the individuals involved must learn their role and carry it out as they have been taught for their team or organization to be successful.

          The same thing is true in the body of Christ – in order for us to be the church all over the world, we must put into practice what we have been taught.  Only then will we accomplish something far more significant than athletic or financial success or even social assistance – the spreading of the eternity changing story of God’s grace through Christ Jesus.

          However, the problem we often encounter is the same problem that causes athletic teams to have losing seasons or businesses to go bankrupt – we fail to execute what we have been taught.  To take the athletic analogy a step further, it has often been said that our times of worship and Bible Study are just the huddle and then we must go out onto the playing field of our daily lives and execute the plays.  A team may huddle so long that they are penalized for delaying the game but if they don’t execute the plays called, they will fail miserably.

          Most often, our failures to live more like Him are not caused because we have not been well taught but because we fail to execute what we know we are to do.  The great difference is that the Christian life is not a game.  Far more important than any team’s won-lost record are the eternal souls of those around us that will never come to faith in Christ if they do not see with their own eyes a flesh and blood incarnation of what a Christian is supposed to be.  For us to know but not live the principles of Scripture in our lives is to make the old saying, “You may be the only Bible some people ever read” painfully convicting.

          To live more like Him is not just to make our lives more joyful or even to deepen our walk with Him – there are lives and souls at stake for us to carry out what we have been taught.  It is a heavy responsibility but we are not alone in living up to it.  The same Holy Spirit who instructs us in the meaning of Scriptural truth is the One who will give us all the strength we need to live it out.  We have but to yield our mind, heart, and will to His control.

“How should I pray for Him to change my life?”

Pray that He would give you all the understanding as well as all the spiritual strength that you need to live out what you are taught in His Word.  Thank Him that you do not have to live the Christian life in your own strength.  Ask Him to make you aware today of your privilege and responsibility to let Jesus be seen by others in your life.

END