If anyone thinks he is religious without controlling his tongue, then his religion is useless and he deceives himself. Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world..
- James 1:26-27
I don't know how many times I have heard James 1:27 quoted, even preached, and I can't ever remember it being used in its entirety. Usually it boils down to pure religion is to care for orphans and widows. or in other words to help and love those who can't care for themselves and have no one to do so. Some use this verse to point out that they do this, so their spirituality is OK, good enough to get by at least. Some use it to inspire people to love and help others more. But as I read these two verses this morning the impact of what usually is left off in the usage of this passage hit me hard.
First James reminds us that it's about the heart and not appearance when he leads into the idea of pure religion by telling us first that if we seem to do things right, to have it together, to follow the rituals and spirituality that we should but don't control our tongue than our beliefs are useless and we're deceived when we say we are in a state of submission and surrender. Does that seem harsh? After all, to truly be in control of the tongue is near impossible. In fact, James himself will write two chapters further into his letter that no one can control the tongue!
So if no one can control the tongue and you have to be in control of your tongue or your belief is useless is everyone deceiving themselves and being foolish to live as Christians? No. It's just that James knows what Jesus said, “A good tree doesn’t produce bad fruit; on the other hand, a bad tree doesn’t produce good fruit. For each tree is known by its own fruit. Figs aren’t gathered from thornbushes, or grapes picked from a bramble bush. A good man produces good out of the good storeroom of his heart. An evil man produces evil out of the evil storeroom, for his mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart.(Luke 6:43-45). Since we can't fully, reliably or constantly control our tongue the secret state and condition of our heart will show as it overflows and comes out of our mouths.
The entire point of Christianity is seeing that we have no righteousness on our own and can not control our carnal nature. When we surrender our hearts to God and give Him control, believing and trusting Him to do for us what we can't do, we receive grace and power from and through the Holy Spirit to walk free from our sinful desires and old nature and are made new. We are given a new heart and taught how to walk according to the ways and desires of the new spirit within us. If our relationship with God is real and progressing in the process of sanctification (being transformed into the likeness of Jesus) then it will start in our heart and what comes out of our heart, our words when caught off guard, reacting without time to think about what we're saying, etc., will show that. If our tongues don't reflect a new heart and being controlled by the Spirit of a loving God, then we've deceived ourselves and the religion we are practicing is useless, empty ritual for show that hasn't produced a change.
Now, before the spirit of condemnation comes and beats us all about the head with a baseball bat, let us remember that this also goes with the standard of being perfect as God in heaven is perfect. The standard is the new heart being completely in control at all times. We all fall short. James is not saying that if you ever lose control of your tongue that you're not saved. What he's saying is that if you never control your tongue Christ does not have control of your heart. The words we say, the way we treat others with them, and our tone of voice reveal our heart and our present level of surrender.
To emphasize that it's about the heart and giving God control to do what we can never do, James goes on to say that pure religion is to care for those no one else cares for, to help them and love them. Oh wait, no he doesn't stop there. He says not to be stained by or effected by the unbelieving world around us. Our level of surrender sometimes ebbs and flows like the tide. One moment we're singing with our hearts that we have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back. Jesus take the wheel, we sing. The next we are screaming by our actions that it's our car and no one is going to sit in the driver's seat but us.
As we go through the next several weeks of the Lenten season, let us keep an eye on what comes out of our mouths when we are not thinking about what is coming out of our mouths. Where does it say we are in our walk and surrender? We don't want to deceive ourselves. We don't want to say that we believe and yet it have no effect on our heart. Let us ask for the grace to more and more often and fully surrender our heart to Him and let what overflows from our mouth be evidence of the answer to that prayer.
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t of despair.
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