Do not be deceived, be doers of the Word, not only hearers!

I have a tough time remembering a person’s eye color. I know the eye color of my close family and friends, but there a good number of people who I do not always remember what their eye color is. Maybe you have the same problem. Whether you are good or bad at remembering other people’s eye color, I am sure all of you know your own eye color. It would be silly if you had to look in the mirror every time someone asked you what your own eye color is. Your eye color is one of your unchanging features, which is probably why they include it on your driver’s license.

God gave unchanging identifiers to his people Israel to make them unique from all the other nations. You might think that it had something to do with their appearance like eye, hair or skin color, but it did not. Israel was different because of what God did for them and the laws he gave them to follow. In Deuteronomy 4, Moses wrote, “7 What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him? 8 And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today?” The response to both questions was, “No other nation.” Israel was unique and it showed. They had the history of God’s miracles in the plagues he sent against Egypt, splitting the Red Sea, his presence on Mount Sinai and providing manna for 40 years among many other miracles. They also had God’s laws one part being the Ten Commandments which shined as the laws that are good and true for all people of all time to follow. When someone entered the nation of Israel and heard what God had done and was treated with the love as defined by the Ten Commandments, they would have described Israel as Moses wrote in Deuteronomy 4, 6 “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” On the other hand, if someone entered the nation of Israel and saw them worshipping idols and false gods and breaking the Ten Commandments by showing anger, hostility and selfishness rather than love, a person would not be impressed with Israel and would see them as the same as the other nations of the world. Because of sin, Israel often turned away from all God had given them to be like the other nations of the world.

You have the same sin as Israel that leads you away from what God made you to be. In the book of James, written by James the son of Mary and Joseph, the half-brother of Jesus through Mary, he addressed this kind of sin. James wrote his letter 1:1 … to the twelve tribes scattered among the nations. James wrote to believers, to the people of Israel, God’s people. He wrote to people like you who have been called to faith in God’s Word and now struggle against turning back to living like the sinful world around them. In James 1, he wrote, 22 “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” Jesus preached the same point in Matthew 7 using a comparison between a wise man and foolish man who each built a house, 24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” Jesus’ point was that a person who believes in him works to leave behind their life of sin. But a person who hears the words of Jesus and then runs back to their life of sin, only carrying the label “Christian,” but not living according to God’s word, is lost and eventually condemned. Jesus made the same point in John 8, 31 “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” You are one of Jesus’ disciples. You know the truth that he died for your sins and rose to give you eternal life. This new life Jesus gave you does not begin in heaven, it has already begun in the new heart of faith he has given you by the power of the Holy Spirit. Your freedom from sin means the freedom to follow God’s law. You are free from sin to show love to God and others, love summarized by the Ten Commandments.

When you turn from God in your heart, then your religion is worthless. God created you with identifying features. Again, I am not talking about physical features, but what God made you to be in your heart as one of his own, a believer, a follower, baptized child of God, one of his kingdom of heaven. In Mark 7, Jesus exposed the hypocrisy of the Pharisees who claimed to worship God, who looked like they were very religious, but their religion and worship were manmade, not from God. Jesus said, 6 … “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: “‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. 7 They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’ 8 You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.” Jesus exposed their hypocrisy and sin by preaching the law to them. He wanted them to be honest with themselves and before God using the commands of God. We do the same when we confess our sins at the beginning of each worship service admitting we have broken God’s commands. We are then reassured of our forgiveness through Jesus. This puts our hearts at peace knowing we are forgiven and have eternal life. This also fills our hearts with purpose as we leave worship and time in God’s Word to leave sinful ways behind in our lives and live according to the commands of God. This was God’s message for you written by James for the people of his day and all believers after him, 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. 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.” Be quick to listen to God and humbly welcome instruction from his Word. Do not get lost in your own sinful, worldly heart and way of thinking that is angry, filthy and evil.

Your God does not change. James made this point to encourage you. He wrote, 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.” God created the lights in the sky, the stars, which seem so unchanging, but still even they move. God does not change. This means what God has done for you and made you to be does not change. God chose to give you birth through his Word. He brought you from sin and unbelief, to forgiven and trusting in him. You are the firstfruits of all he created. The firstfruits were the part of the harvest set aside as an offering to God. You have been set apart from all of God’s creation to be his people. God wanted this to happen. He wanted to make you his own because he loves you. He loved you so much that he sent his one and only Son to give his life to save you.

As one of God’s people, turn away from the polluted world to live for God. The religion of the world is polluted. Many who consider themselves religious are concerned about what they look like and sound like, but God is concerned about the heart. James wrote, 21 … “humbly accept the word planted in you.” God planted his Word in your heart. In Matthew 13, Jesus described the Word of God as a seed. Like a seed, the Word must penetrate the soil, take root, spring up, grow, and produce a crop. James gave three examples of a believer, a heart with the Word in it, someone who hears and does what the Word of God says, 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.” James’ examples were controlling your tongue, visiting orphans and widows, and keeping yourself unpolluted by the world. These examples are still true, and others include regularly worshipping God, get rid of idols, honor your parents, respect marriage, use your time wisely, tell the truth and do not be greedy.

Your eyes are a certain color. If you told people your eyes were one color, but they could clearly see that they are a different color, that would be foolish. God planted his word in your heart. He chose to give you a new life, do not go back to the ways of the world. God and the world see through claiming to be Christian, but not living according to the Word of Truth, the Word of God. James wrote, 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.” You are as a child of God by God’s grace through Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, and the Holy Spirit’s gift of faith. Turn away from the angry, deceitful, worthless, constantly changing, and full of talk that leads to death way of the polluted world. Do not be deceived my dearly loved brothers and sisters in the faith, know who you are by listening to God’s Word, welcome and embrace every chance you have to read, meditate on, listen to, be taught the Word of God, hold nearest to your heart every good and perfect gift from your Heavenly Father, and then do what it says, love God and others. Brothers and sisters in the faith, the first fruits of all God’s creation, those born by God through the Word of Truth do not be deceived, be doers of the Word, not only hearers. Amen.