Week 2..."Faith...and You", James 1.17-27

If you remember, last week we considered the rule of faith and temptation...the one, unfortunately going hand-in-hand with the other. True faith results in trials and temptation. But the news is good, because as we read in James 1.2-4, our trials work patience, which works maturity, which works abundant life, which works joy...the real fruit of our faith.
This week, we're going to consider the effect of our faith...on us!
You recall the last verse that we looked at last week...vs. 16 (read...). Well as the saying goes...“To err is human...to forgive, divine”. And that saying perfectly describes the work and the will of God for our sinful selves. We are tempted...and more often that not, we sin...and God forgives us, and that cycle is repeated over and over again in the life of every Christian. But God's greatest wish for His church, is that we not be misled about this, which is a better interpretation of vs. 16, because as we read in vs. 17... ”Every good and perfect gift is from above...”. It's not at all about our problem with Satan...it's all about the solution provided by our great God...and don't ever forget that! Change your focus from you, to Him! So let's read vss. 17-27...
Now then, what is the effect of our faith...on us (See John 1.12-13.. ”to them gave He power...”)? Does faith really result in us becoming new persons, or in being born again, as Jesus put it to Nicodemus in John ch. 3? And if it truly does, what is the evidence of that new birth? Well as James says in vs. 17, if there is to be any change, it must “come from God, the Father of all light”, both literally and spiritually. There is, after all, no greater gift than our salvation...a Father-son relationship with God, is there?! But back to the effect of our faith, on us...
Read Romans 12.1-3, Colossians 2.6-7, 3.1-4...
So here we have the expected result of our new lives in Jesus. The fact of the matter is, although His purpose in coming to us was to save us from the damning effect of sin, He didn't live His life in a vacuum...the example He set during His life here has never been equaled before or since. But the command that God gives us through Paul in these vss. from Romans and Collossians, go much broader and deeper than merely observing and living our lives as Jesus lived His. The effect of our believing and receiving should not only result in our “walking in Him...”, but also in our “being rooted and built up in Him”, and in our becoming “established in the faith” (vss. 6-7). Or maybe, more to the point, having the depth and breadth of faith that roots us firmly in Jesus!
Paul puts it another way in Colossians 3.5-17...put off the old man and put on the new man! Put to death your old ways! Note that the first part of vs. 5 deals with sins of the flesh...the second part of vs. 5 and vss. 8,9 deal with sins of the mind...while vss. 10-17 deal with our spiritual selves. And as you can well imagine, the effect that this new birth, or of wearing our faith has on our lives would be so very obvious to those who come to know us. As my friend in the Salvation Army puts it, referring to his uniform...”I wear my baptism every day!”
Let's go back to James 1.17-27.
So what effect has your faith had on you? Keep in mind now, as James says in vs. 18, we have been re-born...born again, begotten into the family of God by the “Word of Truth”, which in fact identifies two of the most obvious and most powerful and most descriptive Names used of the Savior in all the New Testament...”Word” and “Truth”. And so it is by Him, and by His Name alone, that we become the “begotten son(s) of God”! Now keeping Jesus in view, consider what a “begotten son of God” looks like. He is...
- vss. 19(a,b)...a thoughtful listener and a careful speaker;
- vss. 19(c)-20...he is not easily offended;
- vs. 21(a)...he has forsaken wickedness;
- vs. 21(b)...he humbly receives and plants the soul-saving word of God in his heart;
- vss. 22-24...he is an obedient doer of that word which he has received into his heart, rather than a forgetful hearer;
- vs. 25...he is faithful and obedient to the law of liberty, resulting in blessing on his being and doing (see Romans 14 to contrast the “law of liberty” and the “law of love”);
- vs. 26...he keeps a bridle on his tongue, demonstrating the true worth of his faith;
- vs. 27...he practices pure and honest worship before his God, demonstrated by his care of the orphans and widows of the church, as well as by his resistance to the temptations of this world system.

In fact, true faith results in faithfulness and fruitfulness in the life of the believer. As we have read in Colossians 3.1,2...”If you are raised with Christ into a new life, aim to follow those things which are from above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. And set your mind on, and keep it on those higher things rather than on the things of this life.” When you focus your attention on the glorified Jesus, your faith will take you to where He wants you to be!