James 1:19-27
King James Version (KJV)
19 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:
20 For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:
24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
26 If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.
27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
Pastor Bryan Speroni:
One reply on “Listening”
This was very interesting. I agree with you that listening to man (while courteous and helpful), is secondary to listening to God – I think that is at the heart of what James has in view based on the preceding verses. The description of the 4 kinds of listeners does raise an important question – were 3 of them just bad listeners who are not all they could or should be? Or, more precisely, are they bad soil that does not produce true saving faith? Can there be such a thing as a “fruitless Christian”?