James 1:19-27

The Word of Truth

Jam 1:19-27

THIS word "wherefore" leads us to inquire what the Apostle has been talking about. What was his last sentence? "Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. Wherefore" but is it not a feeble "Wherefore"? Is there any vital connection between the doctrine of Jam 1:18 and the doctrine of Jam 1:19 ? In the 18th verse we are called to the sublime doctrine of regeneration, or the new birth, the new manhood; in that verse we are reminded that God of his own will begat us with the word of truth; there we touch the point of doctrinal sublimity; this is the very crown of the work of Christ; here is the new race, here is the seed of the Second Adam: but in Jam 1:19 we are told that because this is so we are to be swift to hear, and slow to speak. There is no sublimity in this exhortation; these are the most elementary aspects of discipline, decency, and self-control. How can we connect the new birth with the simple act of hearing well, and speaking slowly, hesitantly, in a tone of dubiousness and uncertainty? Yet there must be some connection, because of this "Wherefore," which the critics have endeavoured to modify a little, and to set in a new angle, so as not to necessitate a distinct sequence, as if Jam 1:19 belonged to James 1:18 . But it does. Jam 1:19 is elliptical. That is to say, it leaves out something which the spiritual understanding can easily supply. If James was not an elliptical writer, he yet wrote so tersely, he packed his sentences so closely, that his Epistle is about the longest letter to be found in the New Testament, not longest in point of number of words, but boundless, endless, in suggestion, in that glimpse power by which a man skims over all the hills to see the lands that roll and fructify in faraway horizons. Let us fill up Jam 1:19 in the spirit of James 1:18 : Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear this word the word of truth by which we are begotten: let him listen with his soul, for the music never ceases; let him be slow to speak, let him keep his opinions a long time until they mellow and ripen, and become sound doctrine, and really seized hold of by the heart, and kept and treasured as the very word of God: do not let him begin too soon to talk, to chatter, to join in the general theological fray, and to speak words he has only heard by the outward ear, and that have not yet got a thorough housing in his heart, his confidence, his love; and especially let us be slow to wrath, and keep ourselves out of those little fuming controversies in which bigots almost frizzle themselves to death, thinking that if they get angry the universe will be kept from tilting over. It is not an exhortation to listen with the outward ear, or an exhortation to speak slowly, or to wait until everybody else has spoken; the injunction directs itself wholly to the word of truth in the 18th verse, and calls upon us to be lifelong students of the word, and when we do speak to speak with our souls' whole conviction and undivided love.

The Apostle gives a reason for the suppression of wrath. "For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God." Yet we think it does. It is sometimes almost comical to see into what uncontrollable paroxysms of earnestness some people will get into about nothing; and it is instructive to notice how much emphasis is thrown away; all the minor parts of speech, the conjunctions and adverbs and prepositions, all-important in their own places, are made to carry such disproportionate burdens. Do give God some opportunity of working in his own universe. Do not fear that the Church is going down because some man leaves it, or because all men leave it. You cannot injure the Church. We have taken occasion in this People's Bible to say that there can be no weak Church, there can be no poor Church. We betray our own worldliness, and narrowness of outlook, and dimness and obscurity of vision, by talking of Christ's Church as in some cases very poor, very weak. Never! Blessed be God, there can be no weak Church; thrice blessed be God, there can be no poor Church. The moment men begin to attach these limiting and patronising adjectives to the word "Church" they fall from heaven, they are no longer stars of the morning. Given two poor creatures that have not a shilling between them who yet truly love Christ, and live in fellowship with him, and they are neither weak nor poor; but the moment they get the idea that they are a weak Church, they are so far lost; then they go a-begging. Let the word "Church" tower out above all words that would limit and define and qualify it. The Church is but another aspect of Christ. His poverty was an element of his influence. But the wrath of man comes to play precisely where we open a way for it by the use of such words as weak and poor. Stand still, and see the salvation of God. "I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree: yet" and say was ever satire so finished, so complete "he passed away, and lo he was not; yea, I sought him, and he could not be found." So shall it be with all the enemies of the Cross, with all the assailants of the kingdom of heaven, concerning Christ, as concerning his type, it shall be said, "His enemies will I clothe with shame: but upon himself shall his crown flourish." Nothing depends upon our anger. Is it worth while getting angry with an atheist? Is it really equal to the occasion, looking at its sublimity and at all its higher indications and uses, for a whole Christian community to be boiling with unutterable rage because the heathen have imagined a vain thing? Peace is an element in our power. Faith is quietness, profound belief is repose: if thou, poor fussy man, if thou wilt go out to shore up God's kingdom, take care lest thine anger destroy thine own character. The wrath of man can contribute nothing to the righteousness of God. Let God have space to work, and when you are tempted to get up and be very indignant, do pray, in the name of history and prophecy, sit down.

How then are we to proceed? Has the Apostle left the word of God? No; he continues the same doctrine in James 1:21 :

"Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls." ( Jam 1:21 )

James is as strong upon the "word" as John is. They may be holding out that expression so as to catch different aspects of it, but it is still the word the word eternal, or the word incarnated, or the word written, or the word spoken: but still the word; the word of truth, the engrafted word. But we can do nothing with this word until we ourselves are clean. We cannot take God's kingdom into our souls along a path that has been unprepared for its coming and its progress. "The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare." So here we have a negative work to do, which is in reality a work of preparation; we must get rid of all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness. Who can hear, if his ears are filled with wax? We must prepare the ear for hearing, lest it can only catch some distant rumble as of inarticulate thunder, and not finer, tenderer, minor music, that whispers its way into the listening and eager heart. We cannot receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save our souls, if we have come to it in the abundance of our prosperity, and in the self-gratulation of our progress, saying, We are men in authority, and can say to this man, Go, and he goeth: and to that man, Come, and he cometh: and we have all things, and are fat with prosperity. Even that disables a man from hearing God's word: but when it is more than ostentation, when it is downright filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, God will not house with the devil. We should have been better students if we had been better men; we should have known more of God, if we had known less of the enemy by way of consort and co-operation. If we had loved pureness we should by this time have been almost in heaven: "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God." Then we have come to meekness, having left wrath. "The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God," but meekness receiveth the engrafted word: "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth": they shall have everything they want, they shall have everything that is good for them; their meekness will deplete their prayers of selfishness, and their very humility of soul will make them rich with God's favours. Yea, there is a filthiness and superfluity of criticism that can get nothing out of God's book: the heart does not proceed in the right way, or does not work in the right atmosphere, or is altogether embarrassed and mocked by the medium whom it has chosen. A broken heart can understand every part of the Bible; tears can silt down through all the rocks of difficulty; the contrite soul sees round all the long words without being able to explain them, and knows the coming of God by a sound in the top of the trees, or by some new stirring in the air that has music in it, and celestial fragrance. O man, put down the wrath of thine head, thy fine criticism, and selfish bigotry, and thy ecclesiastical foolery, and be meek, simple, broken-hearted, and read thy Bible on thy knees, and write out what thou wilt of words about the Bible for the people in secret prayer and heart-brokenness; and whilst men cannot tell the beginning of thy influence, or trace its way, or indicate its termination, what then? This is the power of God. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that wields the mysterious influence of heaven.

Here is the great condition for study; here is the sublimest motto for the college. Lay aside all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness all ambition, ostentation, all intellectual pride, and all spiritual vanity; and sit down meekly, contritely, penitently, and receive. We are so fond of giving in this direction, and suggesting, and taking part in the process; we are so disinclined to be simply negative, receptive, passive; yet this is the only condition in which we can receive the veriest riches of Christ.

"But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty" ( Jam 1:25 ). That is easily done? No. Many men look into the Bible and see nothing; because the Bible will not yield its riches of wisdom and suggestion to the merely casual observer, who says he will glance at it, he will look into it, he will bestow some attention upon it. That is not the meaning of James. Looking into, in this case, means two things: first it means stooping; then it means the attitude of peering, intent looking, never taking the eyes off. You thought it was a casual glance, a "looking in" as we use the expression in familiar conversation: whereas it means the stoop of prayer, the penetrating, peering look that says in its very attitude, I am expecting something, it will come presently; do not disturb me: if I turn my eyes away for one moment I may miss it; do not distract me. All language is pictorial. When the great dictionary is written it will be a dictionary of pictures; there need not be much letter-press. At first, of course, words had to be made and remade, and they were fashioned on the pictorial idea; so here we have a man looking peering ought to be the word "for whosoever peereth." Have we ever peered into God's Book? We have the same idea in this expression "into which things the angels desire to peer." They do not glance at them in the course of some flight to distant regions, paying but casual attention to some transient mystery, but they look with all their might; all their nature becomes a faculty of vision. The true hearer in the Church is listening with every part of his body. He will not know until the process is over how his hands are clinging, clinching, and in what attitude he has been sitting the last half-hour; because his soul has been peering, has been on the outlook, on the watchtower; has been saying to itself, "If I look closely I shall see the beauty of the King." So the Apostle is still on the same subject. We are not dealing with "swift to hear, slow to speak," in the commonplace sense of those terms: the Apostle still fixes his mind on the word of God, called in the 25th verse "the perfect law of liberty."

"And continueth therein." The word "therein" in our version is written in italics, we may therefore strike it out, and read: "and continueth" in the perfect law of liberty? No. Continueth in what? in peering, in looking, in directing to God's testimony a penetrating and undivided look. You have missed much in the Bible because you were not looking just then; you lost one sentence in the discourse, and therefore you lost the whole; you missed the opening prayer, therefore the rest of the service was an embarrassment or a mystery. Blessed is that servant who begins at the beginning, and holds on, persists, continues, peers. Let there be no wavering. "He that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double-minded man," or a man whose mind is trying to do two things at the same time, "is unstable in all his ways." Ministers cannot pick off their sermons from the Bible by an easy effort: they must peer, and piercingly look, and continue, and when we say, Where are they now? the answer must be Continuing. What are they now doing? Continuing. What is their relation to the Bible? A relation of peering, keen looking, expectant watchfulness: for they know not in what verse they shall find their Lord next: he may flash out upon them in Genesis, in Nehemiah; he may not be singing so sweetly in the Psalms as in some unfamiliar book; it may be Habakkuk, not David, that shall be chosen by the Lord for the utterance of his ineffable music. Continuous looking, peering, watching; for at such an hour as ye think not your Lord may shine from any verse, and prove the inspiration of the whole by the glory of the part. "... law of liberty": is this a contradiction in terms? No; it is the perfection of philosophy. There is no liberty without law, and there is no law that does not wisely provide for liberty, consulting the dignity of the subject, giving him opportunity for development, and for the exercise of self-control, and for the display of those moral dignities which separate man from all other parts of creation, There is a freedom that is licentiousness; it is a mere superfluity of naughtiness, it is a species of intellectual filthiness. The stars have no freedom except in their obedience to their central fires: related to the dominant suns let them swing like censers before the altar of God's throne; but if they detach themselves and go to seek liberty they shall find it under the name of ruin. We have a Bible, and we must abide by it; we have a doctrine, and we must understand it with the heart, and exemplify it in the life; we have a glorious liberty "If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed"; this can only be understood by long experience.

...Not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the word (or work)." The Apostle says, "Meditate on these things." How often is that word "meditate" in that connection wholly misunderstood! We quote in connection with that, that Isaac went into the field at eventide to meditate; we think of Hervey's Meditations among the Tombs; we think to meditate means a kind of exclusion of all outward objects, and the fastening of the soul in devout attention upon some profound or metaphysical truth, or dwelling sentimentally upon some blessed aspect of the Gospel; there is a meditation that may take that form of exercise: but that is not the "Meditate on these things" of the Apostle. It should be quite another word in English, if we are to get the Apostle's real meaning. It is, Practise these things: get them into action, test them in conduct, take them down into the market-place, and see how they wear there; bring them out into the battlefield, and see what weapons they make; put them into the fire of experience and try them: meditate on these things; open your eyes, see what the world is, what the world wants; take these things down to the world, and practise the Gospel. What can he do who looks upon a game of skill, and says, I am meditating on this, in the hope that I may be able some day to play the game with some degree of skill? He had better go down and take a hand in the game meditate, practise. How instructive is the case of the man who stands at the water's edge and says, I am meditating upon the ocean with a view to being able some day to swim in it: how long will a man have to meditate with his clothes on before he can learn to swim? The Apostle says, Practise: plunge in, stretch out, trust the ocean as you trusted your nurse; the old ocean can be rough, but oh, it can caress you like a mother, if you commit yourself to it in the right way; and that you will never do by standing upon a rock hundreds of feet high, and meditating. This is how many persons are trying to be religious: they are entertaining every day to tea about twelve different honest doubters; and they are holding conversation over their steaming cups, and talking all manner of unimaginable nonsense to one another. Why do they not go out and practise the gospel? teach the ignorant, lead the blind, help the poor, bless the friendless? Why do they not carry the gospel into conduct? Then they will learn its deeper truths more certainly. "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this" very thing, practised religion "To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." Practise these things; go amongst the very poorest of the poor, and hear their tuneful talk; yes, there is music even in the utterance of their rough experiences. I have often been thrilled by some magician in the use of words, I have felt the power of his spell, and have owned the regnancy of his mind, but never have I been so deeply, thoroughly, blessedly moved, as when some poor dear old mother has been taking the tear out of her eye with the corner of her apron, and telling me what the Lord had done for her when she was left without any help but his own. If any man will follow Christianity down into the market-place and the hospital and the battlefield, and the wear and tear of life, he will see that the chiefest of the miracles of God are being wrought in the world at this moment. The age of miracles past? That golden age is dawning!