Surviving While Scattered: 3 Principles for Handling God’s Word [Bible Study James 1:21-27
A father of three kids stands on his porch, waiting for the mailman. He provides for his family of five by working as much overtime as he can, while balancing his duty to provide with his duty to be a present father and husband. His heart skips a beat when he hears the footprints sloshing in the puddles toward his house. Finally, the vintage baseball card he saved up for for three years was about to arrive in his hands. “Please don’t be mad” the mailman mutters as he extends the envelope to the eager card collector. “I dropped it in that puddle, right there”.
The hard-working father grabbed the envelope and stared grimly as it dripped onto his porch. He closed his eyes firmly in sorrow as each drop falling to the ground taunted him for wasting $7,500. If only the person delivering and handling this precious item could have taken better care of it. If only he had interacted with it in such a way as to reflect how precious it was to our beloved card collecting father.
How we handle things shows how much we value them. We must understand what items have value and what these items are meant for. My laptop, for instance, is expensive. It has value. I interact and handle it differently than I do a plastic fork, which is very cheap and serves a purpose one time before being discarded. While interacting with my laptop, I first prepare myself and wash my hands. I don’t eat pizza and hot wings and then open up my laptop. If I did, it that would show I either didn’t value it or I don’t know how to handle it properly. Then after it’s charged up in my hands are clean, I am ready to use It. I perform with it as it is intended. I type with it correctly. I do what it is capable of to produce the results I need and want. I use it to produce blog posts, do my job, and many other things. Things that we value demand that we handle them properly. Otherwise we don’t really value them at all.
Now I submit to you that is Christians, we should value God‘s word enough to handle it properly. The Bible has all we need in this life to know Him, follow Him, and love others. A result of not handling His word correctly can have detrimental results on our lives. So now let us examine James 1:21-27.
Prepare
James 1:21
“21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.”
God‘s word will help us be able to produce the righteousness of God, which is mentioned back in verse 20. We must understand that God’s word is precious and it must be handled with care and reverence. The word of God can change us from the inside out. We see in verse 21 It is referred to as the implanted word. This word is able to save our souls. So it makes sense to fully prepare ourselves when interacting with something so precious, sacred, and powerful. Just as Moses was told that he was approaching holy ground at the burning Bush, we should be ready to open up God‘s word with care and attentiveness.
We need to interact with our Bibles with the understanding that the words are the words of our creator. We may not keep our Bibles in museums and glass displays under lock and key, but that doesn’t mean we don’t treasure the words in our heart more than gold or silver. We must put away the filth of our sinful selves as we prepare to interact with God‘s word. This is not only out of reverence, but it will help us receive His word better.
When we are full of the Spirit and our hearts are tuned to sing His grace, when we avoid being blinded by our sins, we can be more sensitive to His words. (Romans 13:12, Ephesians 4:22, Colossians 3:5-8) We must approach God’s word in repentance. His word is spiritual. The Holy Spirit will help us learn, but we hinder Him from helping us when we have no regard for our sin. We must approach God’s word with spiritual glasses and take off the carnal glasses that we so often view our lives through. When we do not put off the filth of our flesh, it causes a rift between us. He is too holy to subject Himself to fellowship with us when we are too prideful to go to Him seeking cleansing. He will resist us when we are proud. However, He will open our eyes to scripture and lift us up when we are humble
Perform
James 1:22-24
“22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.”
A doer is always a hearer, but a hearer is not always a doer. At this point in handling God‘s word we must start using it, studying it, and applying it as it is intended. You don’t prepare for a job and then sleep on your first day. A basketball player doesn’t prepare for the big game just to sit down and not play. A band member doesn’t prepare for the concert just to turn his instrument off and walk away during the show. After preparation comes performing. The Bible tells us that we shouldn’t just passively read the word, and then just do nothing. God wants us to actually do something with what we read. (Romans 2:13, Matthew 7:21, 24-27, John 13:17)
This could be making a change in your life, studying out, something important, or even simply praising God for how amazing He is. The point is whether it provokes a dramatic change in your life, or causes you to pause for moment and lift up a prayer to God, it causes you to do something with what you just read. Notice the phrase “looks intently”. This is referring to deep personal reflection of ourselves in the light of God‘s word. This isn’t just a casual glance. This is God’s word confronting us to our face and causing us to internalize every ounce of our being, to better conform to who God wants us to be. I constantly evaluate myself while reading the Bible and see that I have much work to do. With all my heart, although I don’t always prevail, I do make an effort to fix the things that are broken in my life in order to be the man God wants me to be for my wife for my kids, and also for the benefit of others. What we do with God’s word, the results from His word changing us, are a crucial aspect of carrying out God’s purpose. God wants us to perform and do things we read scripture not only because it benefits us and our own walk with God, but it also can help the world around us.
Produce
James 1:25-27
“25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
26 If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. 27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”
All the preparation and performing of God’s word means nothing if we do not use it in a way to produce something. Our careful handling of God’s word should lead us to produce results of our faith. A major aspect of being a Christian is service to others. Our main objective after salvation is keeping the royal law which ultimately means loving God, and loving others. Because of the law of liberty, the gospel, we have the ability to serve Christ. We are no longer slaves to sin, we are slaves to Christ. We are now servants of goodness and light, and not sin and darkness. (John 8:34-36, Galatians 2:4, 5:1, 1 Peter 2:16, 2 Peter 2:19)
Our objective should be to love others. We can’t do this when we are cutting people. (Ephesians 4:29) This doesn’t mean rebuke or abrasiveness is never needed, but it should come from a spirit of really trying to build others up. It needs to be fueled by true love for others. Handling God’s word is serious. In these three principles, you will get so much more from your Bible reading. I have to keep these principles in mind as well, so often to I find myself reading the Bible to simply check it off my list of things to do, without actually keeping in mind how to handle it properly. We must handle it with more care than we would silver or gold. Now, with these principles in mind, let’s help others experience God’s love like we do.
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