Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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! Doing the Word (James 1:19-27)
"Now hear this!"
These words ring familiar to many veterans of military service.
Just such a command opens James 1:19-27: "Know this, my beloved brethren" (1:19).
James softened what he wrote with a reminder of his relationship to the readers.
They were "beloved brethren."
Born of the same Father, they shared a fraternal love.
Nevertheless, James used an imperative, a command.
He had reminded his readers of the life-giving character of the "word of truth" (1:18).
Evidently, he feared that some of his readers could not hear that Word.
Nothing physical deafened them.
James sensed that they could not hear because they had too much to say themselves, and some of them were angry about it!
!! Hearing the Word (1:19-21)
Today's Christian has access to countless words from God. Radio, television, tapes, conferences, seminars, films, and books— not to mention church services—all present God's Word.
How should one listen?
James counseled the believer to listen quickly: "Be quick to hear" (1:19).
This demand did not refer to general daily conversation.
In the context, it referred directly to hearing God's Word.
"Quick" translates a word from which the English word /tachometer/ comes.
This instrument measures how fast any piece of machinery operates.
The believer should respond to opportunities for hearing the Word swiftly, not reluctantly.
Closely related to the demand to be "quick to hear" is the exhortation that the believer listen to the Word of God quietly: "Be... slow to speak."
Richard Foster observed: "If we hope to move beyond the superficialities of our culture... we must be willing to go down into the recreating silences."
Perhaps James's readers experienced noisy church services such as those in Corinth.
In such services, everyone wanted to talk, and no one wanted to listen (1 Cor.
14:26-33).
Long before James, another wise writer warned: "Do you see a man who is hasty in his words?
There is more hope for a fool than for him" (Prov.
29:20).
G. B. Duncan observed: "God still comes, where he can find someone quiet enough to listen and alone enough to heed."
James urged his readers to listen to God's Word calmly: "Be... slow to anger" (Jas.
1:19).
The phrase suggests the danger of smoldering resentment or wrath.
When such anger burns in a person's heart, the Word of God cannot share the same quarters.
When believers harbor inner rage, God's Word cannot be heard.
People's anger never accomplishes God's righteous purpose: "The anger of man does not work the righteousness of God" (1:20).
Not only does rage keep one from hearing God's Word, but it also fails to produce God's purposes in the world.
Smoldering, resentful wrath is wrong.
James may have had in mind outbursts among Christians or resentment against persecutors.
Bitter anger falls short of God's standard in one's life and fails to work out God's righteous program in the world.
Such anger may work powerfully in the secular political world, but it is utterly alien to God's kingdom.
Perhaps James remembered Jesus' awesome, stern words concerning anger.
(See Matt.
5:21-22.)
In Jesus' new order, destructive anger deserves the same punishment as murder in the old order.
God wanted Moses to lead the Exodus.
Yet, Moses first tried the right thing the wrong way.
From anger, he murdered an Egyptian for beating a Hebrew (Ex.
2:12).
He tried to perform God's will through human anger.
Moses learned the painful lesson that God will do His work in His way.
Can you remember any occasion when anger furthered God's cause between two believers?
Has an outburst in a church business meeting ever forwarded Christ's cause?
Such a case would be rare if not nonexistent.
According to Will Rogers, "People who fly into a rage always make a bad landing."
Dealing with anger alone is not enough.
James called for decisive disposal of every attitude that hinders the inward work of the Word: "Therefore put away all filthiness and rank growth of wickedness" (1:21).
A person who is careful about his~/her appearance quickly removes a soiled garment.
James's word refers to a resolute removal of a stained garment.
Some attitudes soil the covering of Christian character.
James suggested: Change /clothes/ immediately.
The Christian should remove everything of any kind that suggests moral uncleanness and greed.
James's word denoted various kinds of filth, and it even was used for disgusting earwax.
Such filth plugs up the spiritual ear so that God's Word cannot enter.
Likewise, the believer must strip off "rank... wickedness" or ill will, the desire to injure another.
The thought implies the dangerous capacity of malicious wickedness to overflow the banks of control.
A Christian must not adopt a policy of gradual elimination for the moral monsters that James pointed out.
One must strike a death blow immediately.
God's Word mandates that the believer drive a silver nail through the dark heart of all filthy wickedness.
The human body does just this physically.
With the help of a microscope, Lennart Nilsson captured on film the process by which the body seeks and destroys all impurities.
White blood cells ooze around the impurities and engulf them.
At this point, the process looks like a misshapen, undefined blob.
Then, an eerie glow appears as the cells first absorb and then literally explode the impurity.
The body deals decisively with invading impurity.
James, called on the spiritual life to deal just as drastically with all moral impurities.
!! Implanting the Word (1:21)
When believers decisively eradicate sin, they are preparing for a spiritual implant: "Receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls" (1:21).
In contrast to anger which blocks God's Word, one must welcome His Word with an attitude of meekness.
Often, meekness is misunderstood.
It indicates an attitude of gentle considerateness; it is a receptivity that is the opposite of angry self-assertion.
One hot September evening, a new student rang the doorbell to the president's office at Union Theological Seminary.
"A man in shirt sleeves answered the door and led the student to the dormitory office.
'Are you the janitor?' asked the student.
'No, but I try to be helpful to the janitor.'"
The speaker, who did not identify himself, was the president of the seminary.
Such gentle consideration speaks of fertile soil for the Word of God.
Today, we hope to prolong life with organ implants.
James cautioned his readers to allow God to save spiritual life with a spiritual implant: His Word.
In verse 21, James used an expression that appears nowhere else in the New Testament.
He wrote of God's Word as "implanted" within the believer.
The background of this idea may have been Jesus' parable of the sower (Matt.
13:1-9).
Preaching sows the life-giving seed in human hearts.
James warned that believers must take care to give the seed a fertile reception.
Readers may be familiar with the process by which implants that are grafted into native root stock produce beautiful hybrid roses.
Tyler, Texas, enjoys fame as the rose capital of the world.
The native Tyler rosebush has the finest root system; but it has only a poor, stunted bloom.
When workers implant buds from beautiful hybrids into the native root stock, an extraordinary and beautiful rosebush grows.
God designed human nature with the capacity to welcome His implanted Word.
Such an implant ultimately leads to the rescue of the whole person at the last day.
!! Practicing the Word (1:22-25)
The implant alone is not enough.
The Word that is planted within a person calls for the Word to be practiced without: "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves" (1:22).
The authentic believer continually strives for more and more practical obedience to the Word that already has been implanted.
The "word" indicates particularly Jesus' ethical teachings.
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