James

Pure Religion and Undefiled

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Pure Religion and Undefiled

Genre: Sermon

Lesson: 5 of 16

Track: #23

Year:

Dictation Name: RR328M23

[Rushdoony] Let us worship God. The Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him. Exalt the Lord our God and worship at His holy hill, for the Lord our God is holy. Let us pray.

Almighty God our heavenly Father once again we come into Thy house and into Thy presence to show forth our gratitude, to show unto Thee that our hearts are thine. Do Thou use us, make of us what Thou wilt, teach us the way we should go, and bless us in Thy mercy and in Thy grace. As we give ourselves to the study of Thy word oh Lord, grant that we behold wondrous things out of Thy law, in Christ’s name, amen.

Our scripture is James 1:19-27, our subject ‘Pure Religion and Undefiled” James 1:19-27.

“19 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:20 For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. 21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. 22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. 23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: 24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. 25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. 26 If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. 27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”

In James 1:19-27 we are very plainly told that first of all that our Christian faith does not make us into judges over other men, but rather enable us to grow to improve ourselves. James thus begins in verse 19 following “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:20 For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.” Men are quick to spot the evils of others, but not their own. James Moffatt said of verses 19 & 20, and I quote: “when James, like Peter, hastens to urge the moral and spiritual activities of Christians he passes from the idea of the regenerating word to the conception of the word as seed which has to be cared for if it is to thrive indeed, he developed the metaphor more definitely then Peter, give the divine seed a clear soil, a clean soil.” The condition whereby the word of God is properly received, we are told, is humility, with meekness.

James does not flatter his readers, he summons them to lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your souls. Our language, like all languages, tends with time to weaken its force, words become less pleasing in their meaning. For example there was a time when you could say to someone, or to your wife or girlfriend, “how beautiful you stink.” In other words, your perfume is pleasing because stink had a neutral meaning. Well as it was replaced by other words, which then got cheaper, and in the later part of the last century smell replaced other words, and now smell is beginning to depreciate in its meaning, that tells us something about the fact that man is a sinner. Even the language he speaks he cheapens and depreciates constantly. Well naughtiness now doesn’t have a bad meaning as it once did. You can say to a child “you are naughty” it doesn’t convey the idea of being thoroughly evil, but the root of it is naught, zero. Well, Lenski has translated it a bit better because he’s tried to get behind the word. Wherefore by putting away all shabbiness, that is cheapness, low-down, no good, and what there is of a lot baseness, accept with meekness the implanted word that is able to save your soul.

Then second James in verse 22-25 tells the readers how humility is to be used. It is not something that is limited to an attitude, but is rather an active obedience. Again we’ve seen what’s happened to language. We still have something of the meaning of humility, but it’s a “stay put in your place do nothing” kind of meaning that it conveys. But the real meaning is an active, humble obedience. The believers are to be doers of the word and not hearers only, for to be hearers only is to deceive or to cheat one’s own self. Then in verses 23-25 James gives us an unusual illustration, a mirror. Those who are hearers only and not doers of the word of God, are like a man who looks into a mirror to see if he is pleased with himself. Having done this and satisfied himself, his hair is properly combed, his face clean, his necktie straight, his clothing in place, and his general appearance pleasing, he moves on, that’s all he looks into the mirror for, to see if he were pleased with himself, he is not mindful of what manner of man he is.

However the man who makes God’s law-word his mirror tries to conform himself to the image God requires of him. God’s law is the perfect law of liberty and it impels men to be a doer of the word, such a man is blessed in his deed or doing. James thus insisted that our true spiritual mirror is the law-word of God. To neglect this mirror is to reject seeing ourselves as God sees us. We look into the mirrors of this world to see if we are pleased with ourselves, we look into the mirror of God’s word to see if God is pleased with us. If we use God’s law as our mirror we shall be blessed in what we do. This blessing has reference, verse 25, to time essentially. Here and now God blesses those whose mirror is his law because they are the doers of His law.

Then third in verses 26-27 we see the conclusion of the matter, the result of humility and obedience to God’s law, is a morality that is God-shaped and results in social and personal righteousness or justice. The man whose mirror is only glass is wrapped up in himself, the man whose mirror is society may manifest social concerns, but their basis will be humanistic rather than Godly. James insists that the law of God is our only true mirror because it alone sets forth the righteousness, or justice, of God. True religion, James says, easily manifests itself in our speech, how we talk, how we treat people verbally, it is not sound religion to be unbridled or uncontrolled in our speech. In chapter three James has more to say about speech, about the tongue, it is a barometer of our faith, it tells others how seriously or how lightly we take our faith. It’s a sad fact that this passage and then James chapter 3 which goes into the matter of speech in much greater detail, are so seldom preached on now days; and yet I can recall when every year you’d hear a sermon based on these texts and similar ones. Some pastors would use them when they first came to the church before they knew the people so no one would take it to personally, but they all preached on the tongue as a barometer of faith.

James is very much concerned about the use of intemperate or harsh language and he sees it as an important test of the reality and seriousness of our faith. If anyone seems to be religious, he says, or appears to be a devout Christian but does not bridle his tongue, that person deceives his or her own heart and their religion, he says, is vain. This is blunt language, it is intended to be taken very seriously. James says plainly that much piety on the surface is belied by an unbridled tongue, which reveals the heart, and he thereby requires a self-examination that begins with our speech. James then proceeds to divine in verse 27 pure religion and undefiled; he has already incited intemperate language as the enemy of pure religion and undefiled, now he gives us the positive side of his definition. It is to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep themself unspotted from the world.

In Acts 6 verses 1-7 we learn that the early church in Jerusalem had many widows as members. James as a resident there was very familiar with their needs. Acts 6 tells us that these widows were fed, but James goes beyond that to ask or to require that they be visited. The care of widow or orphans is basic to God’s law, and God himself cites it more than once as a test of man. James concern reveals how thoroughly he is a man of the law, a man for whom God’s law is his mirror. This law of God is the perfect law of liberty. Freedom is under God, not man. James summons us as servants of the Lord Jesus Christ to a life of freedom in him. It is Christ who sets us from from sin and death and His law is the perfect law of liberty. The goal of the Christian is to keep himself unspotted from the world, this means to be continually, morally, unblemished; not necessarily perfect, but always growing in the right direction. And James sees two things as essential to this, the tongue & charity. The tongue because it is an easy way to hurt and injure people, and the tongue is used as a means of cutting up people; and James says “such things ought not to be brethren” in chapter three. The tongue cannot be used, he says, promiscuously, both to praise God and to cut down people, and charity. Our concern for one another, helping in particular widows and orphans, types of helplessness often cited by God as a test of His people, this is pure religion and undefiled.

As is very obvious, James is a very down to earth and practical epistle. Perhaps this is why it is no longer popular, perhaps this is why, why James had to say for example on the use of the tongue, once a staple of all preaching, so that ministers regularly turned to that part of the Bible to preach and to deal with problems in the church accordingly. Perhaps now we are too spiritually minded to be of any earthly good, as someone has said, let us pray.

Our Father we thank Thee for this, Thy word. We thank Thee that James deals with the particulars of our daily life. Instruct us in the way we should go, on how to be faithful to manifest humility and grace. Teach us, make us teachable, make us joyful in learning that we might indeed be sons and daughters of the king of kings. In his name we pray, amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson?

Yes?

[Audience member] Rush doesn’t it seem that maybe over the last hundred years or so that conservative churches have tended to downplay charity as though it weren’t really spiritual, whereas in verse 27 it seems to be saying it’s the essence.

[Rushdoony] Yes, first of all it begins with antinomianism. If you are going to be antinomian you’re going to set a different standard of holiness from the law of God so that spiritual exercises replace works of charity. Then, as second, you’re going to divorce yourself from the world around us, you’re going to look to be raptured out of this world rather than to conquer it for Christ. Well with that of course you’re going to neglect a great deal of the Bible and you’re going to give a spiritual interpretation to the rest that takes it out of the realm of practicality. So this is what we’ve seen and the result has been the neglect of vast portions of the Bible. James is one of those

Are there any other questions and comments?

It is interesting by the way that some people have said that James really is not a part of the New Testament, it’s to full of the Old Testament spirit. Well if you go through the words of our Lord you’re going to find the same thing, so people would have to say of our Lord, that he really is an Old Testament character, He’s not full of the Spirit like the New Testament requires us to be.

I always recall with pleasure this very modernistic professor who was an honest man, and he detested the liberal students he had because they were so wishy-washy in their point of view, and he called to their attention and horror on one occasion, that two-thirds of our Lord’s word are what they would classify as ‘harsh” and “intemperate” condemning people, and so on. They didn’t like that.

Any other questions or comments? Well if not let us conclude with prayer.

Our Father again we give thanks for Thy providential care. We thank Thee that in thy grace and mercy Thou hast called out of a world of defeat to a life of victory. Teach us so to walk day by day that in in all things we know that we are more than conquerors through Christ, that in Him we have a peace this world cannot give, that in Him and through Him we have a knowledge about the very nature of all things, we thank Thee our Father for Thy mercy and grace unto us. And now go in peace God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost bless you and keep you guide and protect you, this day and always, amen.