Following the Law of Liberty p2 (James 1:19-25)

A Mirror (vv. 23,24) 

 James uses the picture of a mirror to illustrate what he is talking about in at least two ways. First, he talks about the absurdity of claiming to trust and follow God without hearing and applying what God says. Reading God’s Word—hearing it preached and taught—but then not thinking about it throughout the day or week is hypocrisy. It is akin to a man seeing his image in the mirror and not even knowing what he looks like. 

  I recently saw a video where a mirror was set up in the middle of the jungle near a camera. It was quite amusing to see all the reactions of the animals seeing themselves for the first time. If a grown man were to see himself in a mirror and not know who he was looking at, we would assume something is wrong with him. When we watch videos of animals like those in the jungle, or kittens and puppies seeing a mirror for the first time it is cute. But in adults it is disturbing. The same thing is true when we see someone who claims to be a follower of Jesus, who has clearly never been confronted with themselves in Scripture. 

  But just as we do not look in the mirror without straightening our hair or washing our face, reading God’s Word and not taking care of the flaws it shows us about ourselves is silly. Why look if you are not going to benefit from what you learn about yourself and the changes you can make? 

  When we take God’s Word into our lives, it will show us things about ourselves that we need to change. It will show us things that we need to do. It will guide us in life—if we let it. And that is a big part of what it means to be a follower of Christ, a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven. If God is our King, then we had best follow His will. Unfortunately, too many “followers” don’t follow at all. They are their own lord. They determine what they will do with their lives with little to no input from the King they claim to belong to. 

  The Anger of Man (vv. 19,20) 

  The beginning of this passage was a bit of a non-sequitur. James mentions the saving power of the Gospel in verse 18, and picks that thought up again in verse 21. In between, he says “I know you know all of this already, but let’s be quick to listen and slow to retort. Be slow to anger.” Perhaps that is James’ manner of teaching this material. He knows his audience. We religious types are sometimes know-it-alls, and in our smug knowledge we forget the position we are in concerning the Gospel. We have God’s salvation, but we might think we deserve it. We might forget that we need to constantly work to grow in our obedience to the Gospel message. We forget how dirty our faces can be! (And perhaps nowhere will that be more evident in today’s cultural Christianity than when we look at what James will say in chapter two!) 

  The Law of Liberty (v 25) 

  If the Word is like a seed that needs to grow in the soil of our hearts, if it is like a mirror that shows us where we need to change, then it is also very much like an instruction manual. James here is more interested in what we might call the “common sense” wisdom—a series of helpful guidelines—than a set of laws as rules, that bring punishment to lawbreakers. James is talking about the Law of Liberty. This is why James is often referred to as the “wisdom literature” of the New Testament. Like Proverbs more than Leviticus, James spells out a way of life for those who already belong to God’s Kingdom. It is not a description of the sort of sacrifice we need to take care of our sin problem, but rather a picture of what the saved life after the effective sacrifice looks like. It is the user’s manual for the saved life. 

  Once we are saved and living in the grace and mercy of what Jesus has provided, the Law is no longer just a teacher showing us our sin—or a master punishing our rebellious hearts. It is a source of wisdom and a guide to good living. It is a blessing and something that can show us where we can grow in our faith. 

  The Law of Liberty James refers to here is not a religion that solves humanities problem, but the behavior that characterizes the family of God.