Word In You

James 1:18-25 (NIV)

He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created. My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20for 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.
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.

As Christians we are often encouraged to 'be in the Word'... and I see no problem with that.

I've usually read this passage thinking it was encouraging us to be in 'the Word'... you know... the 'Word Of God'... the 66 books we call the Bible.

However there's another way it can be read, and we may miss out on some truths if we don't consider this interpretation.

Was James talking about the 66 books we call the Bible? Likely not considering the book of James was probably written before any of the other New Testament books. In context I don't think he was referring to the Old Testament writings. He may have been referring to partial written works circulating at the time, but certainly not the OT + NT Bible we usually think of when we hear 'Word of God'.

What else could James have meant by "the word of truth", "the word implanted in you". What 'word' was James saying we should listen to?

Was James use of 'the Word' similar to the use in John 1:1 & 14 (NIV):

1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
14. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Jesus is 'the Word'.

The 'Word' is implanted in us, Jesus lives in us (or the Holy Spirit... I'm not clear on a difference here)

Listening to the Word could mean listening to the Holy Spirit, or Jesus who is living in us.

And of course... don't just listen to what the Holy Spirit tells you... but do it.

So don't just be 'in the Word', but learn to recognize and listen to 'the Word' that is in you!

P.S. I am not stating here that the Bible is not also the Word (or words) of God. I'm not debating here whether the writings in the Bible are inspired by the Holy Spirit... and therefore also 'the Word of God'.

Funny Link - are you a Calvinist?

purgatorio: Help! I'm Going Hyper!

A humorous way to discover if you are Calvinist. :)

Let Your Alms Sweat In Your Hands

From Chapter 1 of the Didache:

" it has been said, Let your alms sweat in your hands, until you know to whom you should give."

http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/didache-roberts.html

Interesting.

I'm guessing for the early church alms giving was different than putting money in a plate that gets passed around on Sunday morning. We may sweat over how much to give, but do we sweat over who to give it too?


Related passage - Matt 6:1-4 (NIV)

"Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."

Good Works

What is required for salvation? Works? Faith?
Can you be saved if you have faith but not works?
Can you be saved if you have works but not faith?

It may help to define what we mean by being good, or doing good works.

Is being good adhering to a list of do's and don'ts?
Is being bad breaking that list, or breaking those laws?

Or

Is being good doing whatever our Father, our Lord asks of us.
And being bad (sin) is not doing what our Father, our Lord asks of us... but doing what our selfish hearts want.

Without knowing God's will for us, is it possible to know right from wrong? To really do good?

If doing good is defined as doing God's will, then it is impossible to separate good works from faith... or faith from good works. You can not believe Jesus is Lord of your life without letting Him be Lord.

Yes it is possible to do things that look good, but do them for selfish reasons. It comes down to who is Lord of our lives. Us or God?

Romans 10:9
That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Does that make any sense?

Related Posts:

• Sola Fide
• Irony of works vs faith divide

Pharisees

(Note: In case someone reads this thinking I'm directing this at you - I wrote this last week after watching a video - so it likely isn't you... unless the person who made the video is reading this... which I doubt)

Over the years I've heard an accusation about the Pharisees of Jesus day.

That they took the law, and kept adding more and more to it. They believed that it was their duty as interpreters of the Mosaic Law to come up with a right and wrong answers to every scenario that could arise.

What have we learned from this?

Has Christianity stuck to the same simple message that Jesus came to share?

Or throughout the centuries, have we taken the Bible and built a system of beliefs and doctrines based on it to the best of our abilities?

Do we hold tightly to our doctrines or to the Jesus of the Bible?

Do we spend more time teaching and defending our doctrines than we do introducing people to Jesus?

The Pharisees thought they were doing well. They had taken the message that they had been given, and created a complex system of beliefs that they believed fit well with the original message.

Whenever I read some doctrinal belief, I always wonder... if this was the message God wanted us to believe, why didn't He have the Bible written this way? When we have to pick snippets from all over the Scriptures and string them together with some logical argument, I'm frequently becoming suspicious. Why wasn't the Bible written like a list of doctrinal beliefs?

I used to wish the Bible was written as a clear list of beliefs.

Now I suspect it wasn't written as a list of doctrines because then we would take it and use it as a rule book to create some legalistic religion... Where what God wants is a relationship with Him. If all the answers to life's questions were clearly listed, we may not feel the need to seek Him personally for guidance.

Yes I believe many Christian doctrines are true. I think the Apostle's Creed could be considered a list of doctrinal statements... and I'm not questioning those. But is there a point when we have gone too far? Have we created too many? Have we given them too much emphasis?

What do you think? Have you ever wished there was less room for interpretation in our Scriptures? Is it our duty to take the Scripture and create a Biblical system of beliefs from it? Or is the Bible primarily stories introducing us to a God that wants a relationship with us?

Who's The Man

The man was given life by God.

The man was loved by God, every detail of his life was made just the way God saw best.

God made sure the man's environment was also an excellent place for the man to live.

God made provisions to take care of all of the mans needs.

God had great dreams and ambitions for the man.

But the man also had great dreams and ambitions for himself.

The man was faced with a choice.

Should he do what he wanted, or what God wanted.

The man wanted to be in charge of his own life, he was confident he'd be OK on his own.

So the man did what he wanted.

This was a mistake, there were consequences to follow.

The man no longer got to live in the perfect environment God had set up for him.

The man had to work harder to take care of his own needs.

Work was hard for the man.

God still loved the man, and provided for the man, but over the years the man frequently chose to do what he wanted and ignore what God wanted.

The man and God had an on and off relationship. Things always worked out best for the man when he did what God wanted, but the man often let his own desires get in the way of God's desires.

.... and they lived happily ever after. :)

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So the question is: Who's the man?
There is a similar story in Genesis where our Bibles translate 'The Man' to the name 'Adam'.

However the man in this story also tells my story.

Is the story in Genesis a story of a man that fell from being good to being evil... and now the rest of us are now born in this evil state.

Is it the story of the fall of just one man? Or is it also a story that all of mankind repeats over and over again?

Unfortunately I often choose to be 'The Man'.