How tempting and attractive to anger and frustration! It is
the age of anger and revenge, lack of patience and endurance. In every corner
of our lives, there is the potential conflict of interest which unwittingly and
abruptly provokes antagonism against each other. In contrast, how patient and
enduring the Father is in heaven! “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and
gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining
love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not
leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for
the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:6-7) Why
doesn’t God punish the wicked instantly? If he did, there is no one who is able
to be saved. Our God does not want anyone to perish. He gives, delays, pleads,
teaches, endures, and demonstrates how much he loves the world that he sent the
Son and whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. God is
only One who can righteously and justly judge mankind and he will do in due
time according to what each person has done. He knows not only what we do but
what is inside of us. Prophet Isaiah cries out how much the people are
afflicted and wounded, saying “From the sole of your foot to the top of your
head there is no soundness—only wounds and welts and open sores, not cleansed
or bandaged or soothed with olive oil.” (Isaiah 1:6) Yet, instead of punishing
the people fallen and lost and rebellious, God sympathizes and pities with the
heart of compassion and mercy faithfully.
“My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone
should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because
human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. 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.” (James 1:19-21)
Humanity really needs restoration and deliverance in urgency
from being the continual victim of the devil. All day long our God is waiting
with arms wide open to embrace the sinners. Problem is that humanity cannot see
God who is invisible, so we easily jump into conclusion that we are not being
helped and cared as he promised. So, we give a way to frustration and irritation,
blaming others and even God. But here James says, “Quick to listen, and slow to
speak and slow to become angry.” To what quick to listen? Quick to listen to
the word of God that he loves, love, and loves forever. Slow to speak that he
is not loving and caring because it is not true. Social injustice, slavery, mistreatment,
discrimination, revenge, exploitation, abuse, manipulation, corruption are
rampant and prevalent in our midst. Differences and misunderstandings are
visibly manifested between husbands and wives, parents and children, teachers
and students, sellers and buyers, races, colors, statuses, professions, sexes, countries,
etc. Human anger is seen all over the places—home, school, work place, street, church,
government, market, etc. It is seen not only in physical level, but in psychological
and mental realm.
James says to get rid of all moral filth and the evil that
is so prevalent and humbly accept the word of God planted in us. The ESV
translates this way, “Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness
and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.”
Moral filth and the evil indicate the state of humanity including human anger
which does not produce the righteousness of God. How can we get rid of the
evil? It is impossible for us to put away the evil as long as we remain in
Adam. So, God has provided a way out to put away all filthiness and the evil. Jesus
Christ is the way out. Though he is the only Person who can judge the world, he
didn’t. Rather, he died for the sin of the world. Peter who cut off a servant’s
ear with his dagger and later wrote about the way of Jesus Christ. The cross of
Christ is the way for humanity to get rid of the evil. “When he was reviled, he
did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued
entrusting himself to him who judges justly.” (1 Peter 2:23) Christ was
mistreated, mishandled, accused, misunderstood, and condemned and afflicted to
death without cause. Yet he did not open his mouth. Isaiah foresaw the
suffering servant. “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not
his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that
before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.” (Isaiah 53:7) Christ
died in our place, bearing all our sins and transgressions upon himself. Through
death, he became the way and the life. How can it be? Because we died to sin
with Christ and buried with him and were raised with him from the dead. His
death is our death. His burial is our burial. Most of all, his resurrection is
our resurrection through the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ.
“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive
yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do
what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after
looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 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. Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on
their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. 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 1:22-27)
Obedience is the immediate step to follow after listening to
the word. Not doing what it says is deceiving themselves. The word of God
reveals what we are and who we are and why we are. It is the perfect law which
does not sway to the right nor to the left. It gives freedom because it is the
truth. “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will
know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32) The truth
unveils that we have been born blind and darkened and lost. Humanity is in
desperate need for deliverance and salvation from darkness and confusion. Problem
is that the world does not know the truth. All knowledge and human wisdom do
not know that there is fatal and incurable error and fault in our humanity. Listen
to what the world leaders say. In a phrase, they say, “We can fix our problems
and we will.” It is not true in the first century, nor in the twenty-first
century. A German philosopher, Hagel said, “history teaches us that history teaches
us nothing.” The same mistakes and failures and self-praising words are being
repeated over and over again. The world is a mess. So many problems after
problems are eroding the core fabric of families and communities and the
relationships. Until the truth releases us from the dark forces of evil, we are
not free at all. Until the Lord Jesus Christ delivers us with his blood, we are
enslaved and imprisoned in the dungeon of the devil. Until the Passover, the
people of Israel were under the slavery of King Pharaoh.
Born again by God’s grace and mercy is the end of our old
life in Adam and the beginning of the new life in Christ Jesus. Problem is many
a people in Christ has difficulties and troubles to exercise the power of faith
since they have been delivered. They go back to the old habit of sins and
trespasses again, which quite seriously invokes doubt on whether they are
Christians at all. What is wrong? God’s salvation is perfect and holy. “For we
know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin
might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because
anyone who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we
believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was
raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over
him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he
lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in
Christ Jesus.” (Romans 6:6-11) We have been made holy and perfect in Christ. But
it is in the realm of spirit for we still have the body of sin until the bodily
redemption, being clothed with the resurrection body. It is true that we have
been redeemed and made holy in body, soul, and spirit. Problem is our
experience which is not limited in the realm of body and soul, but limited in
the realm of spirit. We experience depression, misery, downheartedness, unhappiness,
desolation, emptiness, powerlessness, uselessness in our realm of emotional
feelings. But it is not emotionally touchable nor tangible in spirit that there
is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because through Christ
Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin
and death (Romans 8:1-2). That is the perfect law which shines a great light,
revealing the whole thing, the true reality on our humanity. It comes to our
real experience and belief only through the faith in the Lord Jesus Christ God
sent. By faith, we believe and know that we have been made the children of God.
“Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the
right to become children of God.” (John 1:12)
To know and experience what we really are in Christ requires
our active response to the loving invitation of God through the faith in Jesus
the Lord. That is to be doers of God’s perfect law. Obedience is a two-step
process. One is self-denial, putting off our old self in Adam. Second is
putting on the new self in Christ and making ourselves available and offering
our bodies to God. Without the first step, the second is not possible. Jesus
says, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their
cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it,
but whoever loses their life for me will save it.” (Luke 9:23-24) The first
step is in effect to accept the fact that we are lost and ashamed and blinded. It
is the moment for the second “prodigal” son before he headed to his father’s
house. It is the moment of being “poor in spirit” in the Sermon on the Mount. Repentance
begins with the realization of utter impotence in ourselves. Our God is helping
and guiding to come to this point of poor in spirit because it is what we are
in him. We are lost and fallen in Adam, being the victim of the devil who is a
liar and murderer. The lie is that we can handle our lives on our own. The devil
provokes our pride to become like a god, knowing good and evil. The perfect law
says that is not what we are. We have been made dependent on God from A to Z. We
live on his love, joy, and peace. We live in him and we in him. To enter into
the throne of God in Christ is to confess our sins and shortcomings, losing our
old life. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us
our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9) This we shall
keep on doing—put off our old self and put on the new self in Christ Jesus for
our God is looking after the poor—orphans and widows.
May 29, 2017
© 2015-2017 David
Lee Ministries – All Rights Reserved.
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