James 1, Listening and Doing

James 1:19-27
Listening and Doing

1:19-21 Anger
My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry, for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life 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.

One thing I have been struggling with (over the past year, but particularly in the last few weeks) is the competitiveness and negativity within my field of music education. There are so many tight, harmful gossip circles and it's so easy to get sucked into the negative atmosphere. I try to be a light for God's love in the darkness, but it's often easier (and ever so tempting) to just join the gossip. I've been starting to pray more for guidance through this. Should I leave those social circles altogether (which is hard, because I spend so many hours with these people ever day, and I consider many of them to be my close friends), or do I stay with them in an effort to shut down the hate groups and show God's love?

1:22-25 Don't Just Listen - Do
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 a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it - he will be blessed in what he does.

I know so many who are guilty of this, including myself. I think that's something Christians often get in trouble for, too. We have this great Holy Book that shows us how to live and gives us great life with Christ, but it doesn't do any good if we just ignore it, or forget what it says after Sunday morning. I do my devotions every morning when I get up for school (around 6:30). Sometimes, I'm only half awake, even with the coffee, and I barely remember what I read after hours of lectures and tests and avoiding gossip. I want to know the Word better and be able to accurately recite passages and wisdom from its depth of Truth. I don't want to just read every day - I want to be a walking visual of what's inside.

1:26-27 Basic Religion
If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his 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.

Wow. Just wow. These two verses really sum up everything I want to stand for in my faith, my teaching, and my everyday life (which usually involves faith and teaching). Keeping a "tight rein" on the tongue goes back to the gossip theme for the day/month/year. According to my Bible's footnotes, "To keep ourselves from being polluted by the world, we must commit ourselves to Christ's ethical and moral system, not the world's. We are not to adapt to the world's value system, which is based on money, power, and pleasure. True faith means nothing if we are contaminated with such values." Couldn't have said it better myself.