Receive With Meekness The Implanted Word
“Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves”
James is known for his wisdom. We recognize that this wisdom is God’s wisdom. Wisdom and folly are often contrasted in Scripture. Only fools despise wisdom and instruction (Prov. 1:7). It is only the Lord who gives wisdom. From his mouth comes knowledge and understanding (Prov. 2:6). Solomon urges us to “get wisdom” and “get insight” (Prov. 4:5). Solomon further says that “the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight” (Prov. 9:10). Wisdom is said to be too high for a fool (Prov. 24:7).
The foolish person, on the other hand, “flaunts his folly” (Prov. 13:16). Even the devising of folly is said to be sinful (Prov. 24:9). The fool, of course, says there is no God (Ps. 14:1; 53:1). Atheism is folly and displays the brutish ignorance of a person gripped by his sin. To the foolish person, sin appears as wisdom, but it always bites and stings. So foolish is the foolish person that he does not consider that the consequences of his sin (which always brings trouble) are a means used by God to drive him to God. He stubbornly persists in his ways and reveals himself to be a fool. So much for folly! But wisdom leads to contentment and peace. It must do so because God is wise.
James tells us that if we lack wisdom, we should ask God (James 1:5). Why should we ask God for wisdom? We would ask because he is the source of all wisdom and generously gives wisdom to us. We also ask God for wisdom because we know that we are foolish in and of ourselves. This is why we are to ask “in faith” (James 1:6). We must believe that God can and will impart his wisdom to us. The person who doubts is said to be like a storm-tossed wave-driven this way and that (James 1:7). Such a person is double-minded and unstable in every way (James 1:8). Such a person might be classified as foolish. Nobody likes to be thought of as a fool or called foolish, so James explains to us how to be wise. The wise person seeks to fight sin. He stands firm under trial and temptation, knowing the killing power of sin (James 1:12–15).
True wisdom is hearing and doing the Word (James 1:22). Hearing the word must result in action. If we hear only, we are ignorant of what we really are like. The doer who acts, says James, will be blessed in his doing (James 1:25). The Christian does the Word. This implies that we are listening to the Word. God tells us what we must be like and how we must behave; so we are to be like him and do what he says. Listening and doing is obedience. Listening only is doing the first part of what God commands, but it is not a halfway obedience. There is no such thing as partial obedience. You either are obedient or not. This is the essence of discipleship. Discipleship is not about doing what I want or like. It is all about doing God’s Word.
In order to make this practical (James is eminently practical), James gives us actions that we must not do and that we must do. Verse 19 is a famous verse in James: “Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.” These are strong positive commands that are impossible to negotiate or debate. We must do these things because of verse 20: “for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” An angry response can never convey the necessary message that will help a person change. Being an angry person places us far away from the righteousness of God. As Christians, we are declared righteous through justification and become practically righteous through the ongoing work of sanctification. The righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ is imputed to us in salvation. We are clothed in his righteousness (legally and forensically), and, therefore, we can stand accepted before God. As a result of this work, we love righteousness.
But James is focusing more on practical righteousness that flows from justifying righteousness. Practical righteousness is concerned with doing and obeying. We do and we obey because of who we are in Christ. An unbeliever, therefore, would be, according to verse 19, slow to hear; quick to speak, and quick to anger. This would be natural to the unbeliever. A Christian is not to be like that. In verse 21, James gives us the answer to producing the righteousness of God. He says “therefore” and then follows with what we must do. Violent unrestrained self–centered outbursts of anger, bad, hurtful language and an unwillingness to listen can never come from God’s righteousness. These sins translate into the sins of verse 21 that we must “put away.” James connects “filthiness and rampant wickedness” as being the fruit of not listening, being hasty to speak, and being angry. Putting away these sins is to stop doing them (Rom. 13:12; Eph. 4:20–29; Col.3:5–9).
The imagery is of taking off dirty clothes and putting on clean ones. After doing that, who would want to put on dirty clothes again? If the negative of verse 19 is bad, then where it leads to in verse 21 is far worse. The negative of verse 19 is the opposite of verse 20: we produce the unrighteousness of man and this unrighteousness explodes in unclean behavior and an unrestrained madness called “rampant wickedness.”But the positive of verse 19 (doing what it says) produces the doing of God’s will which is practical righteousness.
At the same time, in verse 21, James gives us a theological reason for producing the righteousness of God. We must receive God’s Word with humility or meekness because he has “implanted” his Word within us (if we are Christians). The word “implanted” (vs. 21), suggests something placed within us by either nature or instruction. According to the new covenant (Jer. 31:31–34), God has written His Law on our hearts. His Word is near to us, even in our mouths (Deut. 30:11–14; Rom. 10:8–17). The end result of having and continually receiving this “implanted word” is the salvation of our souls. This saving of our souls is the result of the Holy Spirit’s sanctifying work in us. This entire operation speaks of God’s wisdom, and yet how foolish we are to doubt God.
We all want the sanctifying work done in us, but we fail to recognize that it requires hard work. We are so used to being lazy in spiritual matters due to the onslaught of Satan, the world, and the flesh. We love being pampered and coddled. This amounts to just “hearing the Word.” Discipleship demands discipline and effort. Nothing worth having comes without a price. As Jesus put it: “what would a man give in exchange for his own soul?” (Mark 8:37).
Hearing the Word alone is the easy part. Doing the Word is the hard part, yet we assured that God will help us. We have his Word implanted within us. We have his righteousness imputed to us. A right standing before God with a new nature within is a solid foundation to be a doer of the Word. Verse 22 carries with it one final warning. If we are hearers only and not doers, we deceive ourselves, and self-deception is the worst of all. You don’t even know you are deceived. You think that because you have heard the Word, that alone will be enough. God says, “No! That would be folly.” So be wise.