Know this, my dear brothers and sisters:
everyone should be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger
for anger does not accomplish
the righteousness of God.
As followers of Jesus we are called to a posture that is fundamentally one of listening, one that listens first and completely before rushing to speech. This posture is meant to define the way that we listen to the word of God that has been planted in us and is able to save our souls. It is also, in turn, meant to describe our conversations with others.
Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves.
For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer,
he is like a man who looks at his own face in a mirror.
The word God plants in us acts as a mirror to reveal us to ourselves. We come to realize that our very being is a gift from God, that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. And at the same moment we see the defacements of that gift that are the results of our negligence, lack of fidelity, and sin. We need to fully hear what the word is saying, to fully take in the sight visible in the mirror. If we hear the word only in passing or glance at the mirror for only a moment and then rush back to life as usual without being changed we do not gain anything. Yet we might imagine that we had a profound religious experience and are therefore now 'religious' or 'spiritual'. We must do more than hear the word, we must provide the disposition of listening hearts to welcome it.
But the one who peers into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres,
and is not a hearer who forgets but a doer who acts;
such a one shall be blessed in what he does.
When we keep looking and listening we eventually discover something greater than our own imperfections and limitations. This gaze does not make us fall into introspection that narrows us and makes us hopeless. Instead, we find our focus shifting outward to God himself and what he desires to make possible within us. We see that the word itself becomes a power to live and persevere in lives that are free from sin. This happens specifically when our listening is tuned in to the word, and not to the protests of our flesh, protests that, 'I can't' or, 'It's too hard', or 'It's not fair.' When we rush to respond in those merely human ways we risk missing the point.
If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue
but deceives his heart, his religion is vain.
Thoughts, unchecked, become words. Words spoken become habitual ways of thinking. These patterns of thought finally come to shape how we will act. This can work for us when our own words stem from listening first to God's word. But it can also frequently work against us when we rush to rash words of our own. We may not always manage to interrupt this pattern at the level of thoughts, but we must at least be conscious of our words. We must learn and train ourselves to speak based on God's view of the situation as best we understand it. Rather than boastfulness, pride, or anger, rather than fear, or doubt, or despair, we must align our words with the words of promise, of hope. When we agree in speech with God's declaration that it is possible we will discover that we are able to actually keep ourselves "unstained by the world."
Looking up the man replied, “I see people looking like trees and walking.”
Jesus knows that our healing will not always be all at once and immediate. We try to gaze into the mirror mentioned by James but we don't see clearly enough to freely navigate life by the law of freedom. We want to see ourselves as we are but something more akin to trees is all we can discern. The point for us is to keep looking, to keep listening. Jesus himself is still in the process of recreating us. If he chose in us to do so over many steps or multiple iterations it must be because, for us, that way will yield the best results. Let us trust him enough to stay with him until our sight is more and more restored and we too can finally see everything distinctly.
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