Receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. (James 1:21)
In his sermon on Sunday, Michael reminded us of the word God spoke at creation. God spoke, and light appeared, water and land separated, plants grew, animals sprang forth. (Every parent wishes that he or she only had to speak for toys to return to their bins and children to be at peace!) But now by his word of truth—by the Word of God, Jesus Christ himself—God has “brought us forth…that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures” (James 1:18). We were created by his word, and have now been redeemed his Word, and so James calls us to receive his word, implanted deep in our souls, which will bring about salvation in our lives.
This is the power of God’s word. If it sinks deep in us, it doesn’t remain alone. Like a seed, a grain of wheat buried in the earth, it begins to grow and bear fruit, and we end up transformed, healed, and saved. As Isaiah 55 reminds us, God’s word never returns empty, without causing the effect for which it was sent. The command is thus simple: receive with humility God’s word—let it be planted deep in your heart—and it will bring your soul health, safety, and salvation.
Many of us know this and can testify to it! We can point to moments in our life when the word of God pierced us deeply, bringing healing, peace, and forgiveness. We can point to moments when the word of God freed our hearts from overwhelming shame, burdens, and captivity. The word of God is powerful, and many of us can testify to this!
Yet the call to receive it is not easy. We want to, we acknowledge we should, yet who has time to stop and linger over the word till it is implanted in the depths of our heart? Who can even hear the word above the din and distractions of ordinary life? Who is still awake enough when all the day’s duties are done to listen to the word?
As I listened to James on Sunday, I felt a sense of identification with the nameless deaf man we encountered in our Gospel reading (Mk. 7:31-37). My ears are stopped to the word of God—stopped by the noisy and busy world, stopped by my own sinful inclinations, stopped by cell phones and the news, stopped by “I just need to get this one more thing done”—and I need Jesus to put his fingers in my ears and say, “Be opened!” I need him to open my ears, so that I can hear the word of God yet again, so that I can receive it and allow it to be planted deep within.
Let us pray that the Lord Jesus would open our ears so that we would hear and receive the implanted word, which is able to save our souls!
Steven+
Devotional
Something interesting happens whenever we meet someone who comes from our birthplace—there is an immediate assumption of comradery, a sense that “we are on the same side.” I’ve bumped into people in foreign countries who came from the same state as I did, and the eager conversation reveals the belief that we must have lots in common, and would certainly be friends if we met back home.
Of course, our hometowns, high schools, and colleges were full of people with whom we had nothing in common! People who get under our skin—with whom we most certainly wouldn’t be friends!—lived in our dorms, attended our classes, were born in the same hospital. But in those brief moments in an airport or at a party, we assume a commonality with the stranger.
The same tendency holds true in the Christian faith! When we initially meet someone who is also a Christian, our common faith excites us and makes us eager to talk. But in any given church you will find people at odds with one another, irritated over personality quirks and thoughtless words. In other words, being on the same side doesn’t necessarily mean that we like each other!
On Sunday, in Psalm 15, we heard that the one who dwells in God’s presence, “makes much of those who fear the Lord.” The previous Sunday, in Psalm 16, we heard David pray, “All my delight is upon the saints who are on the earth.” These verses call us to a particular inclination of the soul, an inclination that honors and delights in others, simply because they worship the same God as us. We all know how easy it is to be annoyed with other Christians, but these verses point to something important—the people who look like Jesus Christ strive to honor and even delight in other followers of God, simply because they are followers of God.
That this should be our perspective isn’t hard to prove. After all, if God loves that person who bothers us, we should love them, too. If they are “in Christ,” just as we are “in Christ,” hating them or gossiping about them is hating Christ or slandering Jesus! Jesus says that whatever we do to the littlest member of his body we actually do to him (Mt. 25:31-46)!
It doesn’t take much effort to honor and delight in the other Christians we enjoy. But there are people in all of our lives who are not so delightful! Yet the call is the same—we should honor them, delight in them, submit to them. This is what love looks like, and Jesus said that we would be known as his disciples by our love for one another (Jn. 13:35).
Pray with me that we would grow deeper and deeper into being people who honor, delight in, and submit to other Christians, simply because they also are in Christ. Pray that this love would shine forth in the world, revealing Jesus to those who are in darkness.
Steven+
Scripture Reflections
You shall show me the path of life; in your presence is the fullness of joy, and at your right hand there is pleasure for evermore.
Our Shepherd takes us on paths of righteousness, for his name’s sake! As Jesus did for his disciples and the crowds, he makes us sit in the green grass and feeds us abundantly—even our Savior’s own body and blood. As we walk the path through the shadow of death, we are following our Lord to the cross and he comforts us there. These paths of righteousness, this path of life through death—daily death to our own desires and inclinations, the death and decay we experience in this fallen world all around us, and someday our own physical death—as we walk these paths with our Shepherd, he leads us to himself, into his presence. And with him there is fullness of life and joy, and goodness, boundless goodness forevermore!
How do we walk with our Lord? In the Old Testament reading on Sunday, Joshua warns the people of Israel that they cannot serve Yahweh, because they have other gods in their midst; with their words they choose Yahweh but in their daily lives they choose the gods of Egypt and of Canaan (Joshua 24:14-25). As Jesus says to his disciples in the Gospel reading, “the flesh is of no avail” (John 6:63). We cannot walk with the Lord in our flesh or by our own strength. This seems hopeless, and with Paul we might ask, “Who will rescue us from this body of death?”
His answer comes immediately: “Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!” In the victory given by Jesus, we can walk with the Lord. With David we can take refuge in our Lord, turning from all else that promises safety and looking to him for all we need; “You are my Lord, I have no good apart from you” (Psalm 16:2). Jesus tells his disciples, tells us: “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is of no avail. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” Through the Spirit, as we feed daily on our Bread of Life in his Word and come together weekly to share in his body and blood, in this way we are made into his body and share with him in his life, and so can walk with him.
Let us, like Peter, cling to Jesus! “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:68-69) Or as John later says in 1 John 4:16, “[W]e have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.” In the victory of Jesus, through the Spirit, we can walk with the Lord! Our Shepherd loves us; we shall not want.
Rebekah