Posts Tagged: James 1:22-25

“Stop Watching Yourself Live!”

On August 2, 2024 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

“Contemplation often makes life miserable. We should act more, think less, and stop watching ourselves live.” (Nicolas Chamfort)

Ҧ But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

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.

For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.

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.” (James 1:22-25, English Standard Version)

Sometimes, I find myself observing my life instead of living it. Don’t get me wrong. Observation and contemplation have their proper place in the world and in my life. On the other hand, my 12-step sponsor often reminds me “JKDTNRT,” which is text-speak for “Just keep doing the next right thing.”

But I struggle with this a lot. I recently found myself convinced that I should stop overthinking things. However, I soon discovered that I was overthinking overthinking. (Think about it, but not too much!)

A website that I sometimes visit is associated with “The Center for Action and Contemplation.” It seems somehow significant that action comes first. In a sense, action is the raw material for contemplation. Without action, our contemplation is merely daydreaming.

James reminds us that faith without works is like contemplating ourselves in a mirror. It may show us who we are, at least briefly. However, it doesn’t change who we are. While we are human beings and not human doings, it is only be doing the right things in the right way that we become truly human. I need to remind myself daily to stop watching myself live. At the end of most 12-step meetings, we say, “Keep coming back! It works if you work it and give a lot of love.”

Amen to that!

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“Persistent Scatterbrain”

On July 26, 2023 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

“22 Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear!

23 Those who hear and don’t act are like those who glance in the mirror,

24 walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like.

25 But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God – the free life! – even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action.” (James 1:22-25, The Message Bible)

I bet you didn’t know the expression “distracted scatterbrain” was in the Bible, did you? Of course, it isn’t in the original Greek of James 1:25, but I think that Eugene Peterson has captured what James is driving at here. James is talking about people who may listen (sort of) to God’s Word, but who don’t follow through by doing what God’s Word says.

Too often, that would be me unfortunately. It doesn’t even have to be God’s Word. My wife asks me to do something, and I say, “Of course, sweetheart!” And then I forget.

In some areas of my life, I’m persistent, but it is a struggle. Unfortunately, I am sometimes persistent in doing the wrong things—or at least things that don’t matter. But when I am persistent in doing good things, I do indeed, as The Message says, “. . . find delight and affirmation in the action.”

I have to do things over and over to get the hang of them. Probably, everyone does. Focus doesn’t do it for me. For this scatterbrain, persistence is the only thing that works. Some experts on the matter speak of “muscle memory”. I think that’s a wonderful expression. Sometimes our muscles remember things that our conscious minds do not. I need to develop my spiritual muscle memory!

Perhaps God doesn’t so much seek consistency as He seeks persistence.

God, help me, help us all, to not worry so much about being scatterbrained. Instead, help us be persistent, even if we’re more than a little scattered.

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“Trifling with Truth?”

On October 28, 2019 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

“Prov. 19:27   Cease to hear instruction, my son, and you will stray from the words of knowledge.” (English Standard Version)

Translating from one language to another is not a science; it is an art.

Take, for example, Proverbs 19:27.  If you check this verse out in different translations, you will find lots of differences.  The individual Hebrew words are straightforward and clear enough.  The problem is that they jostle one another in a most undignified and confusing manner.  Concerning Prov. 19:27, Yoder notes the “puzzling” nature of the proverb.  “That it blatantly contradicts numerous exordia and proverbs urging attention—“Stop, my child, listening to discipline, to stray from words of instruction—suggests it is probably ironic (e.g., 19:20).”[1]

Of course, irony is always hard to detect.  If it is not hard to detect, it is probably sarcasm, rather than irony.

Kidner has a slightly different take on the verse.  “The AV contains two improbabilities: (a) that instruction, unqualified, should have a bad sense in Proverbs; (b) that to err should mean ‘to cause to err’ (for which Heb. has an appropriate expression). RV, RSV seem justified in taking it as an outcry against trifling (RV: Cease … to hear instruction (only) to err from … knowledge). Cf. 17:16; 2 Peter 2:21.”[2]

Perhaps we could combine Kidner with Yoder.  Perhaps this proverb is an ironic warning against trifling with the truth.  If so, the proverb may warn its hearers about a danger that the New Testament also acknowledges: the danger of hearing, but not doing anything about what we’ve heard.

Take the book of James, for example.  This book has often been compared to the Old Testament book of Proverbs.  Perhaps Proverbs 19:27 should be compared to a passage in James.

“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 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. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 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.”  (James 1:22-25)

The writer of James says that we are blessed in the doing, not in the listening (English Standard Version).  What will I choose to do today—only listen, or bring my listening to life by my living?

[1] Christine Roy Yoder, Proverbs, Abingdon Old Testament Commentaries (Nashville: Abingdon, 2009), 207.

[2]Derek Kidner, Proverbs: An Introduction and Commentary, TOTC 17; IVP/Accordance electronic ed. (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1964), 128.

https://accordance.bible/link/read/Tyndale_Commentary#26434

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