James 1:19-27
Sermon
I want to talk to you today about doing gospel good. Doing gospel good. What is it?
Gospel good is this. Actions that both people who know you personally and God receive as good.
Actions
Actually good for real people
Genuine, authentic, not hypocritical
And we’ll get what makes this really gospel good later. I want to unpack this today.
I know how hard it is do good right now. Let me give us an example from my past to consider. Family that I worked with for a time. Helped them get food. Helped them to get basic items for life. Worked on projects around the house. Provided Christian guidance. Good relationship. I appreciated the intimacy, the honesty. It was good.
Eventually the whole relationship exploded. There were a number of reasons, but one thing said was something like; “you said one time you were good at working people“. The takeaway, that person thought I was good at manipulating people. That was there takeaway from my words and actions.
I'm not telling you this because I want you to think I’m a hypocrite. I’m not telling you this because I want pity. I’m not telling you this because
I’m telling you this because, if you are a religious person, I can almost guarantee you people don’t think you are as good as you think you are.
What do I mean?
I mean the most basic religion is to say, if I’m a good person, then God will love me and forgive me and accept me and bless me. Religious people almost always say, I feel loved, I feel accepted, I feel blessed. I must be a pretty good person.
I don’t think it’s that hard to prove. Do you know how many people ask me to forgive them or assure them they’re forgiven? You can probably guess. You know how often you’ve told me, pastor, I feel really bad about what I’ve done. I feel guilty. It doesn’t happen that often.
What is that? That’s nothing other than religious people thinking they’re pretty good. That’s not what other people see.
Study by David Kinnaman in the early 2000s. About the way non-religious people perceive religious people. One non-religious person said, “Christianity has become marketed and streamlined into a juggernaut of fearmongering that has lost its own heart.” (David Kinnaman, unChristian, pg 15)
I know you’ve seen that first hand and so have I. I was just hearing from an acquaintance who said a relative was changing religions. That person told Christians, don’t judge me, the bible says don’t judge me. Don’t be a bunch of hypocrites.
And you know what, God agrees. Twice in this lesson, James says, “don’t deceive yourselves”. What’s he saying? He is saying, it’s really easy to think you are doing good when you aren’t.
The Christian idea of doing good is different. Christianity says, God loves me and forgives me and accepts me because of Jesus. He died and rose for me. And because of that, I will do good. I will listen to God and people and do good for both. That is the Christian idea of doing good. That is gospel good.
That happens no matter how bad or crappy or cruddy the times are. A lot of stuff stinks now. Really does. Stuff stunk for James too. Life was a mess. We talked about it a little bit last time
people were scattered
Poverty
Trials
Still James said, “do what it says” (verse 22) He said, don’t just be hearers of the word and deceive, not everyone else, but yourselves, and do what it says. This is the basic premise: The message of the gospel leads us to do good for real people.
There are at least three things to pay attention to or to think about as you try to do gospel good.
First, moral (verse 24)
Moral or morality means determining what is right and wrong and then living out those beliefs
People are generally not immoral. They’re not amoral. They’re hyper moral.
Like this family. You'd think after everything we’d have a lot of cred but we didn’t. People are really picky.
They don’t often have a good foundation. “accept the word planted in you” - he is trying to help people see that most of us haven’t accepted the Word as our foundation for our morality.
We tend to act like an anorexic person.
Verbal (verse 26)
Personal (verse 27)
Words and actions that go together for people.
It’s one thing to say, I want to do something good and then make a post on Instagram. Make the good things you do for specific people so that your words and actions line up.
I know this is asking a lot.
Everything is so confusing right now. Everything is so hard right now. Even the businesses are in the business of telling us what good we are supposed to be doing.
So I want to give you this encouragement. James says, doing good should be kind of like looking into a mirror. It should be that natural. It is just who you are. This is verse 23 and 24.
Then to complete his illustration, listen to God’s Word. And listen to the people next to you. And when you’ve got a chance to do something that both the people next to you and the Bible call good.
He is saying, this is how natural it is. This is how normal it is. You just ask people, how can I help? How can I serve?
And then, its like he catches himself. He says, “look at the perfect law that gives freedom”. (verse 25) What is that talking about?
Let’s take an example like Snow White. When the Queen looks into the mirror all the time, she says, mirror mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all. And her view of herself becomes distorted.
You need to see the good you are supposed to be doing. You also need to see the freedom you have.
What is he saying? He is saying, look at the Bible. Even more than that, the use of the word “law” here. In James, its confusing, its hard. But commentators point out that it basically means the gospel here. It means Jesus great teaching that is filled with the gospel. (“it is necessary to associate ‘the perfect law of liberty’ closely with the gospel”, Douglas Moo, TNTC,
If you want to be great, serve. (Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant – Mark 10:43)
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Emile Cailliet – never saw a Bible. Did some graduate work. Went off to war
"A Bible, you say? Where is it? Show me. I have never seen one before!"
She complied. I literally grabbed the book and rush to my study with it. I opened and "chanced" upon the Beatitudes! I read, and read, and read - now aloud with an indescribable warmth surging within. I could not find words to express my awe and wonder. And suddenly the realization dawned upon me: this was the book that would understand me!
I continued to read deeply into the night, mostly from the Gospels. And lo and behold, as I looked through them, the One of whom they spoke, the One who spoke and acted in them became alive to me.
The providential circumstances amid which the book had found me now made it clear that while it seemed absurd to speak of a book understanding a man, this could be said of the Bible because its pages were animated by the presence of the living God and the power of his mighty acts. To this God I prayed that night, and the God who answered was the same God of whom it was spoken in the book. (histheo-calliet_emile.docx (sharepoint.com))
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You have to have something else to look at. If you’re only looking at yourself, you’re a slave to yourself.
This is what the ancient church captured. Ancient church lived. Epistle to Diognetus, middle of the 100s.
“Christians are not distinguished from other men by country, language, nor by the customs which they observe. They do not inhabit cities of their own, use a particular way of speaking, nor lead a life marked out by any curiosity. The course of conduct they follow has not been devised by the speculation and deliberation of inquisitive men. The do not, like some, proclaim themselves the advocates of merely human doctrines.
Instead, they inhabit both Greek and barbarian cities, however things have fallen to each of them. And it is while following the customs of the natives in clothing, food, and the rest of ordinary life that they display to us their wonderful and admittedly striking way of life.
They live in their own countries, but they do so as those who are just passing through. As citizens they participate in everything with others, yet they endure everything as if they were foreigners. Every foreign land is like their homeland to them, and every land of their birth is like a land of strangers.
They marry, like everyone else, and they have children, but they do not destroy their offspring.
They share a common table, but not a common bed.
They exist in the flesh, but they do not live by the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, all the while surpassing the laws by their lives.
They love all men and are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned. They are put to death and restored to life.
They are poor, yet make many rich. They lack everything, yet they overflow in everything.
They are dishonored, and yet in their very dishonor they are glorified; they are spoken ill of and yet are justified; they are reviled but bless; they are insulted and repay the insult with honor; they do good, yet are punished as evildoers; when punished, they rejoice as if raised from the dead. They are assailed by the Jews as barbarians; they are persecuted by the Greeks; yet those who hate them are unable to give any reason for their hatred.” Letter to Diognetus
This is gospel good.
Action
Listen to someone else, listen to God and find a small act of good you can do.
Ask someone, how can I help? How can I serve? What can I do for you? How can I pray for you?
I know we’re tired. I know we’re confused. I know things seem to keep getting worse.
Bring gospel good. Do gospel good.