My God and My Country

The General Epistle of James the Apostle Chapter 1:19-27

19 Wherefore my dear brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath.

20 For the wrath of man doth not accomplish the righteousness of God.

21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness, and superfluity of maliciousness, and receive with meekness the word that is grafted in you, which is able to save your souls.

22 And be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

23 For if any hear the word, and do it not, he is like unto a man, that beholdeth his natural face in a glass.

24 For when he hath considered himself, he goeth his way, and forgetteth immediately what manner of one he was.

25 But who so looketh in the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he not being a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, shall be blessed in his deed.

26 If any man among you seem religious, and refraineth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.

27 Pure religion and undefiled before God, even the Father, is this, to visit the fatherless, and widows in their adversity, and to keep himself unspotted of the world.

Cross references:

James 1:22 : Matt. 7:21; Luke 6:47; Romans 2:13

Verses 19-20; These are needed traits to put to use during hard times.
Be very slow to anger and show wrath towards both believers and non-believers. Take your time in thinking what you wish to say, and say with all gentleness and love. To use an old saying; "put brain in gear before engaging mouth" or to use a more poetic quote attributed to A. Lincoln; " Better to be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt"

Brethren, when we speak harshly, and without thought to what we're saying, we simply do not show the righteousness of God that He has now placed within us. (Right now, I am speaking to myself.)

This as we shall see in a later verse below, encourages the worldly man, the man of sin to be no more than what Christ had once referred to as a white washed sepulcher. Pristine looking on the outside, but within filled with death and decay.

(Read Matthew 23:27)

Verses 21-25; Being doers of the word

We must at all times be the face of Christ, His proxies here on this temporal plain of existence. The world needs to see us as what God has a desire to see us be; doing the work of the Father.

If we hear only, we can be likened to those that attend church or fellowships for appearances only. We immediately return to the world of carnality, afterward. There is no profit in this for the believer, nor does it bear any good fruits for the community of Christ. Therefore friends, be active in your community, or job or wherever you might be in life. Let others, in particular, those in need of hearing the Gospel, see how God's Holy Spirit can manifest itself in you.

Verse 26: Reining in your tongue

First, as noted above, being slow to speak, and even slower to anger, that is to say, gives way to wrath, this one will be in accord with God's word. Conversely, the person that does not do so, then said person exists in a world of self-falsehoods.

Secondly, as James writes, in a later chapter, the tongue is a fiery flame, that when improperly used, can cause a conflagration of unlimited proportions. (Read Psalm 34:13; James 3:1-11)

Verse 27: Read Matthew 25:34-36, Isaiah 1:17, Romans 12:2