29 | 08 | 2021
DO THE WORD!
James 1:17-27
Listening and Doing
19 Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. 20 Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires. 21 So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls.
22 But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. 23 For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. 24 You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. 25 But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.
26 If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless. 27 Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.
New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved
Questions[i]:
- What might it look like to be “quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to get angry” (1:19)?
- What qualifies as evil? What might it look like to “So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives” (1:21)?
- Why might it be very important to “humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts” (1:21)?
- Who have you known who was a “doer of the word” (1:22)?
- What about the “perfect law . . . and don’t forget what you heard” helps us experience blessing (1:25)?
- Why do you think James advocates “controlling” the tongue, without which their “religion is worthless”?
- Are you surprised by how James characterizes “religion that is pure and genuine”? Why or why not?
- What might God be calling you to do as a response to this passage?
[i] With thanks – https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/ -small-groups