Old Camel Knees

Tom Shrader works through James 1:19-26, emphasizing that genuine faith must be accompanied by life change, not merely by hearing or studying Scripture. He gives extended attention to pride as the root obstacle to receiving God's Word in humility, drawing on C.S. Lewis and Jonathan Edwards to show how pride distorts self-perception and destroys community. The passage concludes with three marks of true religion: self-control of the tongue, charitable care for the most helpless, and a biblically shaped worldview that separates believers from the world's value system.

“God hates religion. God loves relationship. I want you to be free from sin, free from selfishness, free from religion, so you can enslave yourself to Me.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: Blue Jean Theology (2011)

Recorded: 2011 at East Valley Bible Church

Duration: 50 min

Themes: pride, humility, self-control, caring for the poor, faith and works, hearing and doing, tongue, worldliness, struggling with pride, new believer, feeling self-sufficient, young adult, navigating conflict, mentor, parent, struggling with anger

Scripture: James 1:2, James 1:3, James 1:5, James 1:17, James 1:18, James 1:19-27, James 1:22, James 1:23, James 1:25, James 1:26, James 1:27, James 4:6, Proverbs 17:27, Isaiah 6, 1 John 2:3, Galatians 5:1, Galatians 5:13, Romans 12

Theological Themes: sanctification, becoming holy, true religion, biblical authority, James, faith without works, spiritual maturity, the word of god

Full Transcript

Welcome and Review

Open your Bibles, if you would, to the book of James. If you need a Bible, raise your hand — you can take it with you. If you get a Bible from us, it's page 654. Take a look at the book of James.

If you've been with us, you know we've spent three weeks working our way through the first 18 verses, looking primarily in the context of trials. We're told in chapter 1, verse 2, that these trials have a "when" component — they're inevitable. Then there's the word "encounter," which implies in the Greek the idea that they're unexpected. And then there are "various" trials — multicolored, all shapes and sizes.

So if you go to the doctor and you get a call, and he says, "We've got the results of the scan, and there are some spots — we need to do a biopsy," and they do the biopsy and say it's malignant, that's clearly a trial. But what I want you to see is that if he calls and says the scan is clear, that's a trial too. And you're much more likely to respond to the first one by drawing near to God than the second one. It was Thomas Carlyle who said that for every hundred people who can pass the test of adversity, there's only one who can pass the test of prosperity.

Trials, Wisdom, and God's Good Gifts

These trials come, and they come for a reason. Verse 3 is the key: you can count it all joy because you know the testing of your faith produces endurance. These trials are spiritual aerobics — some of your translations will say "steadfastness." When you say, "I want to grow deep in my faith, I want to break the tape, I want to go all the way to the very end of my life — fought the good fight, finished the race, kept the faith" — it's trials that are going to get you there.

In the second week, we looked at verse 5 in particular and said that if anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask, because in the midst of trials we can lose perspective. We can define wisdom in all sorts of ways, but the definition I use most often is this: it's the ability to connect the dots. It's to see things out there and be able to see how they are working in God's plan. And if I can't see the specifics, I can at least say, "God either caused it or allowed it for my good and His glory — let's see what He's going to do."

We don't always need more knowledge. We're teaching Jonah right now through the week in Priority Living, and we see that when the word of the Lord comes to Jonah in chapter 1, verse 1, it says, "Go to Nineveh" — and he goes exactly the opposite direction, to Tarshish. It was clear: he knew what to do, he just didn't want to do it. And often in our lives, that's our case. We know exactly what we're supposed to do; we just don't want to do it.

So in come these difficulties, and they start to crowd in, and when they do, oftentimes I get distracted. I lose my perspective and need to recalibrate and refocus. In the midst of this — and this is what we looked at last week, Justin did a great job while I was in Arcadia — what we receive from God are not bad things but good things. Because in the midst of trials, here's what can happen: we can start to blame God.

That's exactly what happened in the garden. Adam sins, God comes to him and says, "Why did you do this?" and Adam says, "It's the woman — the one you gave me," implying, "God, it's your fault." And God comes to Eve, and she says, "It's the serpent" — again implying, "That you created, God — this is all your fault." But James says no. Listen: verse 17, "Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above" — it is from God. And the perfect example of that is verse 18: "In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth."

We were saved and redeemed by Him. Our salvation is utterly, completely, entirely a work of God from beginning to end. Salvation is a gift — it's not something I earn. I am saved by grace through faith, "that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God — not as a result of works, so that no one may boast." We intuitively, humanly, want to do something for God to earn His approval, but Scripture says there is nothing we can do to earn that approval. It is given freely to those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose — His people, His children.

Introducing James 1:19–27

As we look at today's passage — verses 19 through 27 — there's a flow to this, at least I think there is. Verses 19 and 20 fit together, and there's a little speculation here, but he appears to be dealing with a problem that may have been happening in some of the churches: a lot of grumbling, a lot of talking, a lot of sniping, a lot of judgment going on. He's trying to address that. He also has a group of people that may represent, honestly, a good number of us — people who love to learn but don't want to do anything with it. So we're going to address all of that. Really this week and the next two weeks, we're dealing with this idea of faith and works — the idea that if I am indeed a follower of Christ, I will show it.

"This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God."

Now notice, from verse 21 down through verse 26, he is connecting thoughts. Look at the first word of each verse. "Therefore, put aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls." And here is the key — this is the key verse to the whole book of James. You cannot possibly understand this book if you don't grasp chapter 1, verse 22: "But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves."

merely hearers who delude themselves. James is addressing a real problem: people who loved to listen but did not want to act, and in that gap they became self-deceived.

He illustrates the point this way: "For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in the mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But the one who looks intently at the perfect law, that is the law of liberty, and abides in it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does. If anyone thinks himself to be religious but does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is worthless." And verse 27: "For pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit the orphans and the widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world."

Quick to Listen, Slow to Speak

In verse 19, James uses the phrase "my beloved brethren." He uses that phrase throughout this book — fifteen or sixteen times — and often it signals that he is about to deliver something difficult. He is reminding his readers: I love you, you are one of us, and because I love you I am willing to tell you the hard things.

With that foundation of affection laid, he delivers the exhortation: be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger. That is the exact opposite of our natural tendency. The natural tendency is to be slow to hear, quick to speak, and quick to anger.

Proverbs 17:27 speaks directly to this: "Whoever restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding. Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent." The point is blunt: you may not be very bright, but if you keep your mouth shut, at least you will not confirm it.

James is talking about communication — the whole discipline of listening carefully before responding. Be very quick to listen, very slow to speak, and very slow to anger.

The Hard Work of Communication

This lesson about communication turns out to be more work than it first appears. Early in marriage, a husband can walk in, ask "How are you doing?" and receive the answer "Fine," and take that entirely at face value. From his perspective, she said everything is fine. He knows she is not a liar. Then he discovers that everything was not, in fact, fine.

The lesson learned is this: if you say "fine," I am going to assume you mean fine. If something is wrong, tell me. And then communication shifts entirely — instead of monosyllabic answers, suddenly there is a full accounting that requires sitting down. The art of real communication is giving the other person the benefit of the doubt and working to understand what is actually being said.

That same dynamic plays out within the church. The call is to listen to one another rather than firing off unsigned, critical letters. An unsigned letter is the product of someone who is not reflective, not meditative, and unwilling to have a real conversation. It is not the fruit of someone who is quick to listen and slow to speak.

The damage such communication causes is significant. A critical, anonymous complaint spreads from one person to another until it produces division within the body. Jesus and Paul both give clear prescriptions for dealing with sin: go to the person, confront them face to face. Divisiveness is treated with the utmost seriousness in Scripture. But none of that redemptive process is possible when the complaint is unsigned and the person is unwilling to be known.

This is the deeper problem with so much modern electronic communication — whether email, social media, or anonymous letters. It is face-to-face in format but not person-to-person in nature. People will type things they would never say out loud, and they send without pausing to think. James's counsel is simply: take a breath. Listen. Be slow to anger.

Putting Aside the Old Life

Therefore — and this is where James lands — verse 21 calls his readers to "put aside." That word is not a gentle suggestion to set something off to the side. The image behind it is a snake crawling out of its skin and shedding—

Receiving the Word in Humility

Get rid of all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness. Filthiness is any sort of moral defilement or impurity; wickedness is much the same idea — evil, corruption in general. Set that stuff aside. Displace it. But having done that, receive in humility the word implanted.

The word implanted here doesn't simply mean something dropped into soil. It means something dropped into soil and then nurtured, cultivated — taking the seed that is planted and putting it in the best possible environment for it to sprout, grow, and produce fruit. So receive the word of God, implant it in your heart, and put it in the best possible environment for it to grow. There is one key ingredient for that, right there in the text: humility. Some translations will say meekness.

The Virtue of Humility

Chapter 4, verse 6 of this same book says God is opposed to the proud and gives grace to the humble. Love is a huge virtue, and I put humility right there with it. Let me read a couple of quotes on this.

One author writes: "Humility is honestly assessing ourselves in light of God's holiness and our sinfulness." So it is comparing ourselves not to other people, but looking at God — who He is and what His word says — and evaluating ourselves in that light. It is the Isaiah 6 experience: I see God for who He really is, and I immediately see myself for who I am. I am not playing the comparison game, looking side to side at other people.

Another author writes: "Pride is when sinful human beings aspire to the status or position of God and refuse to acknowledge their dependence on Him." That goes all the way back to the garden. What Adam and Eve did had little to do with the fruit and everything to do with the question of who holds absolute authority. God said not to eat it, and that is what made it wrong. When Adam ate, here is what he was saying: "God, thanks for the advice, thanks for the input, thanks for the counsel — but I'll be calling the shots from here on out. I'll seek your input every now and then, but if I don't like it, I'm not going to do it. Your word will submit to me." The sovereign God will have no part of that.

What Pride Does to the Soul

John Stott writes that pride is more than the first of the seven deadly sins — it is the essence of all sin. He goes on to say: "At every stage of our Christian development and in every sphere of our Christian discipleship, pride is the greatest enemy, humility is our greatest friend." Jonathan Edwards writes: "Pride is the worst viper that is in the heart; it is the great disruptor of the soul's peace and sweet communion with Christ." Edwards adds that pride is the most hidden, secret, and deceitful of all lusts.

This is exactly what James is dealing with. Notice the word "deceived" in verse 16, "deluded" in verse 22, and "deceived" again in verse 26. He is addressing people who are deceived — people who think more of themselves than they ought and have dismissed God's word. His answer is to receive that word in humility.

I came across a list — I cannot recall where I found it — of fifty fruits of pride, describing what it looks like when a person is operating in a prideful rather than a humble way. I will read through a dozen or so of them. A prideful person tends to be self-sufficient in the way they live their life. They are anxious about their life. They are overly self-conscious. They fear man more than God. They often feel insecure. They regularly compare themselves to others. They think more highly of themselves. They tend to be self-righteous. When we read about the prodigal son, we tend to identify with the older brother — "Look at me, look what I do. I'm so spiritual; why aren't you?" Pride also shows up as insensitivity to others, ingratitude, divisiveness, and a demeaning attitude toward people.

The Comparison Trap

On a purely human level, we look at each other and say, "I'm doing okay." And the key to maintaining that comfortable feeling is to avoid spending time around people who are doing particularly well. When I was in the eighth grade, we lived in Davenport, Iowa, right on the Mississippi River with Illinois on the other side. There was a Catholic school on the other side of town, and on the first Sunday night of every month they held a dance for eighth graders.

At this dance they had a particular format. Picture a couple dancing together — either four girls or four guys could come and surround the couple, and the person in the middle would have to choose one of the four. It may be the most destructive thing you could do to a thirteen or fourteen-year-old boy. The first night I was there, I was learning to deal with rejection. But I got smart about it. I spent the entire rest of the night trying to find three guys who were less attractive than me, so that when the girl looked around, the odds would be in my favor. That is what the whole night became about. That is what we do — "I'm not so bad compared to them." And before long, I am entirely focused on myself and my pride. I believe pride drives so much of what we do.

When Sarah was in the first grade, she took the Iowa Basic Skills test. Tyler — Tyler Johnson, who runs around here — his mother tells a great story about that same test. One morning Tyler was crying and did not want to go to school. His mom told him he had to go, that he did not seem sick. Finally he confessed: "I don't want to go because we're taking the Iowa Basic Skills test and I don't know anything about Iowa." Sarah took the test around that same time — school was out, sometime in the second or third —

The Heart Behind Our Actions

I got the results that had my daughter's Iowa Basic Skills scores in them. For the sake of discussion, let's say there were eight categories. She was middle to a little above average in six of them, and above average in two. I was devastated. I had to sit her down with a chart and explain what it meant. I told her, "This basically means you're average. Now, I've got bad news and good news. The bad news is it comes from your mom's side of the family, so you're stuck with it. The good news is we can coach you through this. We can work through this. You can improve."

I remember walking away and thinking: what did that moment show? Not about her aptitude, but about my heart. My heart was in the wrong place. I wanted her to do well on the Iowa Basic Skills for one reason only — I wanted people to think she had a great dad.

Pride and the Bondage It Creates

So many of us are in bondage because of pride. Take debt as an example. Many people got into a debt problem out of pride — they had to have a certain car, a certain house, a certain image. Unless there is some specific overriding requirement, borrowing a massive amount of money to send your child to college is simply unwise. Why would you borrow $150,000 to get a job that pays $40,000? That makes no sense, unless you want to say, "My kid is going to Westmont" or "My kid is going to Brown." No one cares. But that is how pride works its way in.

Pride is wicked stuff. It will have you marry someone just so you can say you married into that family. It will have you spend an enormous amount of money on a wedding or a funeral — because if we don't have a fourteen-course meal, what will people think? I'll tell you what I'll think: you're smart. That's what I'll think.

C.S. Lewis on the Ultimate Vice

C.S. Lewis, in Chapter 8 of *Mere Christianity*, writes at length about this. Many of you have that book and probably haven't read it in a while — you should read Chapter 8 again. Lewis writes:

"There is one vice of which no man in the world is free, and which everyone in the world loathes when they see it in someone else, and of which hardly any people except Christians ever imagine they are guilty of. I have heard of people admitting to their bad temper, or that they cannot keep their head about girls or drink, or even that they are cowards. I don't think I have ever heard anyone who is not a Christian accuse himself of this vice. And at the same time, it is very seldom I have met someone who is not a Christian who showed the slightest mercy on it when they see it in others. There is no fault which makes a man more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves. And the more we have of it in ourselves, the more we dislike it in others. It is called pride."

Lewis continues: "According to Christian teachers, the ultimate vice, the utmost evil, is pride. It was through pride that the devil became the devil. Pride leads to every other vice. This is a wonderful definition of pride — it is a complete anti-God state of mind."

Pride Is Essentially Competitive

Lewis makes a crucial observation: pride is essentially competitive by its very nature, while other vices are only competitive by accident. Pride gets no pleasure out of having something — only out of having more of it than the next man. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or more clever, or better-looking than others. If everyone else became equally rich, or clever, or good-looking, there would be nothing to be proud about. It is the comparison that makes you proud — the pleasure of being above the rest.

Lewis illustrates this with money: greed will certainly make a man want money for the sake of a better house, better holidays, or better things to eat and drink, but only up to a point. It is pride that makes a man wish to be richer than some other rich man, or still more powerful than another powerful man. As Lewis writes, it is pride that has been the chief cause of misery in every nation and every family since the world began.

Think of that in the context of something like Super Bowl Sunday. Other vices may sometimes bring people together — you may find fellowship, jokes, and friendliness among people caught up in other sins — but pride always means enmity. It means enmity between man and man, and between God and man. A proud man is always looking down on things, and of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see what is above you.

Receiving the Word with a Broken Heart

The call, then, is to lay aside this filthiness. The way we do that is by drawing near to God — by coming to Him, obeying Him, and following Him. But we will never truly receive that word until our hearts are broken. The beginning of the Christian journey that Jesus lays out in the Sermon on the Mount is this: "Blessed are the poor in spirit" — those who are spiritually bankrupt, those who have an accurate view of themselves.

Doers of the Word, Not Merely Hearers

Hearing the word, however, is not enough. Verses 21 and 22 are direct on this point: "But prove yourselves to be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves." That phrase "prove yourselves" is in the continual tense in the Greek — keep striving, keep proving. You never achieve it once and for all. You continue.

James is addressing a specific problem in his community. People would come to gatherings like this one, or to Bible studies, and hear the word of God proclaimed, and they believed themselves to be deeply spiritual — when in fact they were not.

The Danger of Hearing Without Doing

He is not saying be a doer and not a hearer, and he is not saying it is acceptable to be a hearer and not a doer. He is saying that when you are exposed to the word of God — whether through preaching, reading, or meditation — your life ought to be transformed by it. John writes this in 1 John 2:3: "By this we know that we have come to know Jesus, if we keep His commandments."

Here is the danger in a good church: we can become so focused on hearing the word, studying the word, reading the word, and meditating on the word that we never actually do anything. We have not really let the word of God transform our lives until we see life change. There are two poles here. One is the person who just hears and studies and studies, but never does anything. The other is what you see in certain mainline denominations and among many liberal Protestants — they want to do, do, do, but they never take in or hear the word of God.

What James is saying is that there is a balanced meal here. The word comes in, you meditate on it, and it changes the way you live. According to John, you cannot say you love Christ if you do not follow His commandments.

We must always push back against religion at this point. James is not saying do all these things so that you gain salvation or earn God's acceptance. He is saying that because you are God's, because that relationship is already in place, now start to live like it. You say you love Jesus, you say you know this gospel, you say you believe it — indeed you may be saved — but I should be able to see it. It does not mean perfection, but it does mean that in your life something is going on. You were this; now you are that. At the very least, you are doing the same good works but with a new heart and a new motive.

One author writes: "Our problem comes not from our reluctance to be heroes or heroines, but from our reluctance to carry out the implications of the gospel in its tiny detail in the conduct of our life." In other words, if I am saved, I will look like it.

The Self-Deceived Hearer

To be self-deceived means to set aside reason, to make an incorrect assessment of yourself. You can walk around hauling a big ESV Study Bible — and if you have one of those, you do not need to go to the gym. You are wearing a cross, you have a fish on your car, you have all these things set up, but there is no life change. You are still the same old person. That is not a shot against the ESV Study Bible, a cross, or a fish. It is simply saying those things need to be followed up by action.

Go back to the fruit of pride. If you are constantly in tension with everybody around you, something is probably wrong with you. If you are constantly worried about what men think rather than what God thinks, something is wrong with you. There is a whole reckoning that needs to happen around not being self-deceived and understanding this truth.

Now James illustrates it. Verse 23: "If anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror. For once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was." Here is what that looks like. In my bathroom, the closet doors at the end of the room are full-length mirrors, so that whole wall is mirror. I see myself getting in the shower, getting out of the shower. I have a very accurate view — and I do not look very good. I am a short, heavy, older man and I see it and I know it. But then you go out and someone says, "You look good today," and suddenly you think, well, maybe I am not so bad after all.

That is exactly what James is describing. You come in here, God convicts you, you hear what is said, you agree with it, you understand it, you accurately assess what needs to be done — and then you walk out those doors and do nothing with it. That is what it means to be a hearer and not a doer.

Looking Intently at the Perfect Law

Verse 25 calls us to look intently. That is the same Greek word that both Luke and John use on resurrection morning, describing Peter, John, and Mary as they came to the tomb — as they stooped and looked in, studying every bit of data in front of them. James uses that word deliberately. He does not want you to take a glancing look. He wants you to look intently at the perfect law.

He calls it the law of liberty — the place where we find freedom. The word of God sets us free from the bondage of sin and its consequences, and it frees us to be the people that God loves. Galatians 5:1: "For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery." Galatians 5:13: "For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another."

We were bought at a price, Paul says, so do not enslave yourself to man. When we look intently into this law, we do not find bondage there. We find freedom there.

Freedom Through Enslavement to God

We find freedom to enslave ourselves. See how James starts this letter? Remember back in verse 1, James — he's the half-brother of Jesus, Mary his mom, Joseph his dad — and he identifies himself as a bondservant, a slave. It's the lowest category. They had different categories of slave. This would be the slave that owned nothing: no clothing, no food, no shelter, nothing. Everything this slave had was a gift from the master, and in return, his sole mission was to please his master. He's saying, I want you to be free from sin, free from selfishness, free from religion. God hates religion. God loves relationship. I want you to be free so you can enslave yourself to Me. That's what he's saying.

Seeing Yourself Accurately in the Word

So take this word and look intently into it, and abide in it. As you begin to study it, you see yourself more accurately. Paul identifies himself shortly after he's converted — he's now one of the apostles — and he identifies himself as the least of the apostles. A few years later, he identifies himself as the least of the saints, and in the last written communication we have from him, he identifies himself as the chief among sinners. So Paul begins by saying, I'm the least among this group of 12 or 13. A little bit later, he says, I'm the least among all those believers, and then he says, I'm the chief among sinners.

Paul is witnessing here, I think, what we've said before. The holiest I should feel, probably, is at the moment of conversion, because from that point on, every day God is revealing my sin more and more to me, and His grace corresponds with that. So if you're comparing yourself to those around you and you don't see your sin as devastating as God sees it — if you're just a little sinner — then you really only need a little Savior. But the Word of God opens my eyes to see myself as I really am. Look intently into this law. Study it. It is in it that I'm going to find perfect freedom.

Three Marks of a Transformed Heart

Verses 26 and 27 talk about religion, and I think James gives us three things we should look for if we want to see a transformed heart. We ought to see self-control, we ought to see charity — we'll come back and define that — and we ought to see a biblical worldview.

Self-Control: Bridling the Tongue

Verse 26: "If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet he does not bridle his tongue, he deceives his own heart. This man's religion is worthless." The issue here is not just speech — it's the issue of self-control. When we get to chapter 3, verses 1 through 12, it's the longest continuous passage in Scripture dealing with the tongue. But here James is describing somebody whose mouth is just exploding, firing off, whose words are just going. They can't control their mouth.

So let's do self-examination, and let's resist the temptation to start examining the person to our left or right — to think, boy, Bob should have been here today to hear this. Let's skip all that. Let you look at you. Can you control yourself? "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and" — what? — "self-control."

I did a funeral here this past Friday for a young man, 22 years old. I met with the family — they were terrific — and we talked about all sorts of logistics. But the overarching theme was two goals they had: we want people to understand and see who Will was, and we want people to understand why he was that way. So the family and friends spent time celebrating who Will was, and my job was to say, this is why he was that way. Because the temptation is to say, oh, it's just his nature, that's just the way he's wired. No — it's because he knew Christ.

As they described him, the words the family and friends used stood out. He was so meek. He was so gentle with his sister — he was 22, she was five — so gentle with her, so kind. He had entered the Marines, and there was an element of discipline there, an element of self-control. How did he get that way? The fruit of the Spirit. James doesn't say — and I'm not saying these things aren't good — but he doesn't say, here's how you'll know: Bible study, church, redemption groups. He says the way you're going to know is you're going to see these components in your heart, and they're going to be manifested in your life. Yes, there will be church. Yes, there will be giving. Yes, there will be redemption groups — but you're going to do those as an outflow, as part of receiving who He is, understanding who He is, and living a transformed life.

Charity: Caring for the Most Helpless

Here's the second thing. Verse 27: "Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is to visit the widows and the orphans." It's to visit those who are the most helpless in their culture. They didn't have a welfare system. You didn't get two and a half years of unemployment benefits. There was no social security. A woman who was widowed would fall immediately to the bottom of the economic chain. Orphans were already there.

What James is saying is that you have a sensitivity to those around you who are the most hurting, those who are the most helpless. So it may be orphans and it may be widows — certainly it's that. It's also the people in the Broadway corridor. It's the people who have come up here from Mexico with nothing. But that's an easy kind of charity — you can just hand something over and be done with it. It's also the people in your office. Look at the org chart. You're very concerned, I'm sure, about how the CEO perceives you — but do you care about what the receptionist thinks?

We were at summer camp last year, and it was the first night. We had done the games and had

Seeing the Overlooked

At one of our first sessions together, we were going to eat afterward, and the gym was open with some other activities. There were about 550 to 600 of us, with hot dogs and whatever else, on a big lawn. I noticed one little girl sitting over by herself, so I went over and asked her what was going on. She said her grandma and grandpa wanted her to come, that she didn't know anybody there. I said, "Well, get your stuff, let's go," and I took her over, introduced her to a small group leader, and introduced her to some other girls.

I used that moment to illustrate a point with the students. How can that happen? You're walking around with your Bibles and all your gear, but you're so focused on your own friends that you can't see that girl sitting over there by herself. That's verse 27. You do the same thing — you need to be looking for the person who is the outcast, economically or socially, the person sitting off by themselves.

You don't have to be especially perceptive to see it. If you come in here around 10:00 or 10:23 rather than rushing in right at 10:30, you'll see almost every Sunday somebody sitting alone, or reading the Bible, or looking reflective. Sometimes it's someone preparing for worship, but often it's someone who is really hurting and completely alone.

There should never be an instance where somebody strolls on and off this campus in that condition — especially when you can clearly see it. If you see someone on campus with kids, looking around, obviously here for the first time, you don't need a lanyard that says "Greeter" to walk over and say, "Is this your first time? Let me show you where you need to go." This is not just about big, dramatic acts of service.

Staying Unstained by the World

James also says we are to keep ourselves unstained by the world. As Paul writes in Romans 12, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." We are on a collision course with the world. Our value systems and the world's value systems are, by and large, entirely different.

The very characteristics of humility and meekness that Scripture holds up as ultimate virtues — along with love — were seen by the ancient Greeks as weaknesses. The world sees them the same way today. Living by these values means I take ownership of my life and carefully regulate how I engage with the world around me.

A few years ago I was at a retreat for a church from Newport Beach, up at Forest Home. I got to talking with a guy who was single, then met another who was single. When I spoke that evening, I asked how many in the room were single, and probably a third to forty percent of the hands went up. That never happens — you simply don't see single guys at a church retreat.

So I said to myself, "This means something. I don't know what, but I'll figure it out." The next morning, two guys came through — and these guys were just impressive in every way. They asked if I'd figured out why so many single men were there. I said no. They explained that in Newport Beach, you can get sex or drugs anytime you want, wherever you want. The temptations are constant and aggressive. They said, "We discovered we can't go out there alone, because we're afraid we'll fall."

Now there is real tension here, because God did not call you to simply stay at Forest Home with other Christians and study the Bible. You cannot be an ambassador to the world if you are not in it. But what those guys realized is that if they are not careful, the world will pull them right into it. So you must engage the world, but you must also build constraints around yourself.

The Necessity of Community

That is why we say that if you are not involved in a Redemption Group — a small group — you are genuinely vulnerable. For us as a church, that is the primary way we minister to you. It is striking how many people who come in for counseling, or whose parents bring them in because they are hurting and need help, are not in any kind of small group. When we ask, "Are you in a Redemption Group?" the answer is no. "Are you in a student small group?" No. At some point, part of that situation is your own doing.

Here is what real religion looks like. There is self-control. There is sensitivity to those around us who are the weakest. And there is a separation from the world — that is the whole idea behind what it means to be a saint, to be the church. I am separated from the world. The tension we live in is being in the world but not of it.

Lived Theology in Practice

We have a church brochure that is all over campus. It describes us as gospel-centered and outward-focused, and two panels lay out our seven core values. These are so important that all seven are now displayed on the south side of the commons. Notice how the fourth demonstration ties directly into today's lesson: true theology is lived theology.

We must be doers of the Word, not just hearers. We are an action-oriented church, and everything we do serves to propel our people into acting more like Christ. We evaluate all of our ministries and staff based on how they are helping people enact the gospel in everyday life.

The last sentence of that value reads: "This commitment moves us to cross boundaries in care for the vulnerable and to be courageous in confronting the idolatry and the injustice in the world around you." That is exactly what James is saying. Don't be just a hearer of the Word — be a doer. And here is how you know you are a doer: there is self-control, your heart is breaking and moving beyond just breaking, and there is action toward those who are the weakest.

Removing Ourselves from the World's System

And lastly in this process, I am removing myself from the world's system. Not the world — I don't think like they do. I see things differently. I see them through God's grid, not through some earthly, secular grid or my own selfish grid. All of that flows from the cross.

Father, thank you for these truths. We pray that we would be not just people, but a church who is driven not just to hear, but to do. That our hearts would be transformed and our minds changed. God, we pray that even today — even on a day like the Super Bowl — You may present opportunities for us to be salt and light. It doesn't have to be a Bible verse; we simply look and act and think differently than those around us. God, use that in our hearts. We ask it in Christ's name, amen.