True Faith Involves Sowing Consistency

CONSISTENT IN OUR TALK

One obvious mark of genuine Christianity is having one’s conversation be consistent with biblical standards and Christian beliefs. James emphasized how important it is to say the right thing in the right way and to be “swift to hear” as well. Consistency in talk for James meant that we actually listen more than we speak. He called upon us to be “swift to hear [and] slow to speak” (James 1:19). He didn’t say we shouldn’t speak, but that we should think before we speak. (I don’t think it’s any coincidence God gave us two ears and only one mouth. He could be subtly telling us to listen twice as much as we speak.)

Too often too many of us reverse James’s order. We are often slow to listen and quick to speak. And problems result: “In the multitude of words sin is not lacking, but he who restrains his lips is wise” (Proverbs 10:19). Jesus warned that “every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified and by your words you will be condemned” (Matthew 12:36–37). Credible Christian living demands we be cautious in our conversation and that our words are consistent with God’s Word and character.

James admonished us to also be “slow to wrath,” to “lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness,” and to “receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.” Although God chooses us and calls us to Himself, there is something for us to do: we are to take off our old coats of sin and strip away all filth. This is not a requirement for salvation, since only the blood of Christ can cleanse us of sin. James was writing to believers like you and me who already know Christ. Knowing and therefore representing Jesus, these people need to be consistent in their conversation as well as their conduct. James did not back down: if we are going to show the world a credible Christ, then we must know Christ and sow consistency in our lives—beginning with our talk.

CONSISTENT IN OUR WALK

We now come to some of James’s most famous and most often repeated words: “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only.” Then comes a promise: he who “is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.” As a pastor for several years, I would rather see my people do one sermon than hear a hundred of them.

The desire to have my congregation do one sermon is supported by a process we have all experienced many times. How did you learn to ride a bicycle? By reading the manual, watching others ride, or listening to instruction about keeping your balance? No. You’ll never learn to ride a bike until you get on it and try—over and over and over. How do people learn to play the piano? By listening to the teacher play or learning to read sheet music? No. The only way to learn to play the piano is to practice those scales over and over again.

James likened the one who only hears God’s Word but does not do it to “a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.” His message is all too clear. A mirror doesn’t lie; it tells the truth. The Bible is like a mirror. When we look into it, we see ourselves as we really are in God’s eyes, not who we say we are or who others might think we are.

Have you looked at yourself in the mirror of the Bible lately? Oh, I don’t mean a passing glance. Stand there before it. Look at yourself in the mirror of Psalm 51 or Psalm 139. Take a good look. See yourself in these words: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23–24). James talked about a man who “looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work.” James spoke of one who—every day—opens the Word and looks intently into it. As a result, this person stays on the Lord’s course and is “blessed in what he does.”

But God’s blessings are just beginning when we hear biblical truth. Greater blessing comes with doing it, putting its truth into practice. We are not blessed in our stewardship and tithing, for instance, by studying what the Bible teaches, but in doing it.

James challenged us to “receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls” (James 1:21). It’s quite possible that James had Jesus’ parable of the sower in mind when he penned these words. Jesus had compared His Word to seed and our hearts to soil. Some of the soil was fertile and received the seed. When we humbly receive God’s Word in our hearts, it has a supernatural way of leading us to “be doers of the word and not hearers only.” True faith involves not just knowing Christ, but also sowing consistency between what we read and hear and our conversation and our conduct.