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Articles, Bible studies, and sermons that contain James 1:22:
James 1:22-25
Excerpted from: Simplifying Life (Part Six)Please turn to James 1, verse 25, where our Lord and Savior's brother equated the law with liberty or freedom from bondage.
The Amplified Edition adds the following clarifying details: But he who looks carefully into the perfect law, and faithfully abides by it, not having become a [careless listener who forgets but an active doer [who obeys], he will be blessed and favored by God in what he does [in his life of obedience]. This verse sits within a passage (James 1:22-25) contrasting hearing God's Word with doing it. Using the image of someone looking in a mirror, likening this behavior to hearing God's Word and not acting on it, James encourages the opposite: the person who truly looks intently into God's Word and acts upon it.
In the phrase, But the one who looks into the perfect law of liberty, the Greek verb parakypto connotes bending down or stooping to look closely, namely, an intentional, careful examination, not a casual glance, but rather a serious, reflective, engagement with God's Word.
The perfect law points to God's will which was fulfilled and revealed through Jesus Christ. It is perfect because it is whole, complete, and leads to maturity (James 1:4). The expression law of liberty seems paradoxical and a blatant contradiction to most professing antinomian, anarchistic Protestants. How can any kind of law bring freedom?
Jesus' half-brother James insists that true freedom can only be found in obedience to God, not in autonomy. When God's chosen saints follow God's Word, containing God's law, they are liberated from sin's bondage and self-deception. We must remember our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ's teaching in John 8:31-32, If you abide in My word. . . the truth will set you free.
In verse 25, James uses the expression and perseveres (ESV), suggesting that the blessing does not come from merely a single act of looking or doing, but from continued, sustained faithful practice. The word suggests endurance and steadfastness. My dear brothers and sisters, we must regard our discipleship as a sustained habit, not just a momentary impulse. When James uses the phrase being not hearer but a doer who acts, he continues his contrast between passive reception and active obedience. The forgetful hearer represents superficial religion, that is, hearing sermons or reading Scripture without transformation.
The doer (that should be us) who acts lives out the Word, embodies faith through conduct. When James uses the phrase he will be blessed in his doing, he maintains that this blessing is not merely a reward after obedience but is in the doing itself. When we obey God's Word containing His holy and spiritual law, we obtain spiritual flourishing, joy, and alignment with our divine purpose, a concept which is echoed in Psalm 1, Blessed is the man whose delight is in the law of the Lord.
James 1:25 forms the thesis or central theme for the entire letter, that authentic faith expresses itself in action, rejecting both legalism (mechanical and rote rule following) and passive religious behavior, asserting that obedience to Christ's teaching is not bondage, but true freedom.
Consequently, we are obligated to meditate deeply, engage in Scripture with attentiveness, reflection, and an ardent desire to apply it to our behavior. We must exercise perseverance, making obedience a consistent practice rather than an occasional response.
We are urged to actively live out faith, realizing that spiritual maturity does not come from information, but instead transformation, converting God's holy and spiritual law into genuine behavior. We must find joy in obedience, realizing that the blessing which James refers to is the inner satisfaction of walking in absolute alignment with God's will.
As God's called-out saints, we must keep God's Word central in our daily decisions, simplifying our choices by asking: What does God's Word say?
James 1:21-27
Excerpted from: Psalm 51 (Part Three): Verses 5-12Now, without naming it, the apostle James provides the meaning for the Feast of Unleavened Bread here. He does not go into the normal symbols of Unleavened Bread. But what he talks about is being delivered by God to live a clean life, to live a certain way of life that is going to please God. We could say, throwing the symbols of the Feast of Unleavened Bread in here, that we have been delivered by God to live an unleavened life before God in imitation of the life of Christ. And we learned this through eating the flesh of the Son of God, as He put it in John 6. You know, He talks about eating His flesh and drinking His blood.
That is why I emphasized the "logos" there. Because Jesus Christ is the implanted Word. Did He not say that He would come and live in us? I mean, that is implantation if you ask me, but there is also the implantation of the revealed Word, the Bible, the instructions of God. And in both ways, by having Jesus Christ in us and by having the revealed Word of God guiding us, we have the tools with the Holy Spirit to live the life of Christ and to have the mind of Christ.
So we have been cleansed through the blood of Christ and now with that cleansing, we have to move forward toward the Kingdom. We have to start walking. We have to be a doer, as James put it. We cannot just sit on the revelation and think that it is going to change us. That is not how it works. We cannot just accept the Holy Spirit and then sit on the couch spiritually and do nothing. That is not how it works. James tells us here, we have got to do. We have got to act. We have got to live the unleavened life.
Like I said, we have to move forward toward the Promised Land, that is, the Kingdom of God, always growing in righteousness. Never lay down the oars, always surge forward. And we do this through gaining knowledge and understanding and wisdom through the Word of God. There is always more that we can understand. We are never going to exhaust the Word of God.
Now, I do want to mention here before we leave James that he says that our religion, our work, the Christian life is two-pronged. The first is in terms of, we think of them as good works, helping others in their need. He talks about the orphans and the widows. Those are just examples of helping others. It could be many other things. Those are just a good way of using shorthand for what we need to do, helping others. The second one is living righteously even in a world of sin. He says, "to keep oneself unspotted from the world."
So, there are two ways that we go about living or worshipping in this life. The first is being full of agape love, helping others in their need, and then the second is more inward, that we do our best to avoid the contamination of this world's sins. Because we have come out of this world, we are still too close to this world, we have to live in this world, work in this world, communicate with people in this world. We cannot help it. We cannot go to the top of a mountain or do like the monks or anything like that. We have to live in this world so our job is to keep us unspotted from the world, even while living in it. Being able to say no. Being a witness for God by doing what is right, even under the pressures of this world to make us do wrong.
James 1:22-25
Excerpted from: Psalm Genres (Part Eight): Wisdom PsalmsThe New Testament writers picked up on this—Paul and James. James and Paul both talk about being doers of the law. Paul, in Romans 2:13, "the doers of the law will be justified," or declared righteous. But let us read what James says in James 1:22. He and the psalmist are in syzygy on this. They are in parallel.
So here is a New Testament expression of the same thing that we are seeing in Psalm 128. The psalmist is saying that if you want to fear God, be a doer of the law, be a doer of the work that God has given you to do. Do not just look into the law of liberty and say, "Hmm, that sounds wonderful," and then go and do nothing, and forget everything that you have learned and what you should be. But instead, look into that law of liberty, and say, "How can I apply this in my life?" And that shows a proper fear of the Lord.
James 1:22
Excerpted from: Psalm Genres (Part Eight): Wisdom PsalmsSo here is a New Testament expression of the same thing that we are seeing in Psalm 128. The psalmist is saying that if you want to fear God, be a doer of the law, be a doer of the work that God has given you to do. Do not just look into the law of liberty and say, "Hmm, that sounds wonderful," and then go and do nothing, and forget everything that you have learned and what you should be. But instead, look into that law of liberty, and say, "How can I apply this in my life?" And that shows a proper fear of the Lord.
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Use God's Word as a Mirror
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Ecclesiastes Resumed (Part Eleven)
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Patiently Waiting for Christ's Return
Lessons on Remembering
Four Warnings (Part Three): I Never Knew You
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