Jas 1:22 But you should be on the road, and don't just listen to the road and deceive yourself.
Jas 1:23 Those who listen to the word but don't act are like people looking at themselves in the mirror.
Ya 1:24 saw him and left, and then forgot what he looked like.
Why do Christians walk the streets?
Just look at verse 22: "Just do what is right, don't just listen to what is right and deceive yourself." The reason is the same as what we usually say:
We have always been used to thinking that Jacob thinks the same way as us. Just like a Christian, if he only listens to the word without doing it, his words and deeds will be inconsistent, resulting in false faith, hypocrisy, hypocrisy and so on.
However, we should pay special attention to Jacob's ideological logic. Jacob didn't say, "You just take the road, don't just listen to the road and deceive others", but said, "Don't deceive yourself".
Words and deeds differ, hypocrisy, hypocrisy, false faith, etc. In fact, they all come from external senses and all refer to the act of deceiving others. But Jacob's focus is whether we have the problem of "self-deception".
So, what is "self-deception"?
If the above words are deducted, Jacob means that some people think that they have heard the word well, can make it clear, even have done a little, and sometimes they are furious (angry). This false spiritual feeling, if not compared with Jacob's teaching, will often unconsciously have the effect of self-deception, thinking that if you "get the Tao", you will be saved and live.
It turned out that Jacob was worried about this-there are such a group of people in the church who are vague about the truth, but they think they fully understand it. Not only did they not listen to other people's advice, but even the priests and elders did not listen. They are characterized by being too slick and self-righteous, but they don't know that they are just deceiving themselves. When he not only delights in this kind of self-deception, but also commits this kind of self-deception in the church, we can see how much harm it has brought.
Jacob has a warning to Christians who think they are enlightened. In fact, they just live in the feeling of enlightenment: "God's truth is not based on your self-righteous feeling, and you are not self-righteous living in the feeling of enlightenment, walking on the road of self-feeling" as the principle of "listening and acting". This performance in Jacob's eyes is that he has not really understood and mastered the truth.
Why do you see it? Because these people don't really practice the truth.
Obviously, Jacob didn't mean that they couldn't be saved because they didn't keep the word or didn't keep it completely. But if they don't act out the truth they have heard (foolproof salvation) seriously, they won't really understand the truth, thus proving that they don't really grasp the truth they have heard:
Jas 1:23 Those who listen to the word but don't act are like people looking at themselves in the mirror.
Ya 1:24 saw him and left, and then forgot what he looked like.
Jacob uses the common sense of looking in the mirror to compare those who don't listen to what he says, but Jacob's example is common sense, but the conclusion is not common sense. For normal people, after looking in the mirror, even if they leave, they are unlikely to forget their appearance soon. It can be seen that the implication of Jacob's metaphor is obviously ironic.
For those who listen to Tao (look in the mirror), they know some truth principles through Tao (see), but because they can't walk (walk), their attitude towards Tao is always vague, half-baked and even distorted (forget what it looks like)-on the other hand, Jacob means that if you haven't walked, you haven't really got it.
From the principle of truth, all the "true faith in Christ" that you have never really practiced, no matter how pure it is literally, is just a set of religious theories that you "imagined", and it must not be the initial and real revelation from God.
Only those who faithfully follow the way of God in real situations can truly understand how the way of God is strikingly different from all human religions. In this way, you will be unswerving, unswerving, faithful and firmly believe in the end.
Of course, our salvation depends on faith, but you must hold and strengthen your faith with practical actions (deeds).
We should always remember that it is not other folk religions or idols that hinder us from accepting the true word of God, but the false words covered up by the religious nature produced by human will. Faced with these false appearances, if you only follow God by imagination instead of truth, you will never be able to tell the truth from the false. Such a person can't remember his appearance even if he looks in the mirror every day. He can only live in the feeling of self-deception, and the final outcome will be extinction. Therefore, the street is for self-help.
Jas. 6: 5438+0:25 But he who carefully examines the perfect law that sets men free and always does it does not forget what he has heard, but actually does it, and he will be blessed in what he has done.
Jacob has been expounding the relevant words of truth before, but here he suddenly connects truth with the "law that makes people free" Of course, Jacob is not asking us to follow the old humanistic road of "legalism" and "behaviorism" of the Pharisees, which is obviously inconsistent with his speech at the Jerusalem Conference in Chapter 15 of Acts.
Jacob's description is very artistic. He didn't mean to "obey only fully equipped and owned laws", but "look closely at fully equipped and free laws".
Jacob obviously doesn't want to stick to the law just by looking at the provisions, but to teach readers to look at the law in detail and understand its essence with unique insight and confidence. Don't stick to the law, but be familiar with its essence and learn to use it flexibly.
Chapter 25 of James is a bridge carefully arranged by James. He elaborated the real way to save people for readers, and skillfully and naturally combined the teaching of the balance of confidence and behavior through the concrete discussion of listening to Tao and doing street work, so that readers became an inevitable part of Jacob's logic when facing the topic of doing street work, and naturally accepted it.
At the same time, before Jacob began to teach the following code of conduct, he introduced God's "law that makes people free" to let readers know the importance of God's law when facing the Christian code of conduct.
All these facts prove that Jacob is not only a person who pays attention to truth and belief, but also a person who pays attention to behavior and law, rather than opposing and refuting them. In Jacob's time, he was definitely a theologian and won the essence of Holy Spirit revelation.
So, how to use God's "law of making people free" flexibly? Almost all the works after James 1: 25 are written.
In fact, it is not the legalism and behaviorism in James' book that explain James' book from different directions, or even make a big mistake, but the limitations of readers themselves and their obsession with the shadow of behaviorism-it is the inherent morality of readers that makes them subjectively think that walking in the street is very important, essentially because "behavior itself is very important." And "behavior itself is very important" because people always regard "objective effect and influence" as very important. In this way, the core truth of Christian balance, "act according to faith, act according to faith", has finally become a moral expression, a so-called witness need, which is not the life expression brought by faithfulness at all. So Christianity has become a moral religion (it doesn't matter what you believe, the key is to be a good person), truth and confidence are no longer the foundation of Christianity (it doesn't matter whether you listen or not), but it is very important to memorize laws and external behaviors, because these are immediate and visible to everyone. Therefore, Christianity and folk religion belong to the same category, and it is not the truth of God but human morality that really exerts the influence of faith. Obviously, Jacob didn't mean it at all.
If we think that the Book of James is a bunch of so-called practical behavior guides and a feasible way to improve the world or society, then it is fabricated out of context in the hope of creating meaning, which is not Jacob's original intention.
When we return to the Bible, we will clearly find that the real purpose of Jacob's exhortation is to fulfill what we have heard, so as not to waste it on us. First of all, this is not to save others, but to save yourself.
Jacob has repeatedly warned us to do the right thing, not to always misunderstand the right thing without knowing it, and delude ourselves into thinking that we must be saved and eventually perish, which is even more tragic than people who have never believed it.
Finally, Jacob once again reiterated that the blessings brought by the Tao only belong to those who can receive the Tao. The Tao can not only prove that we are the true recipients of the Tao, but also greatly help us to receive the truth, so that we can enter a virtuous circle and benefit a lot.
And this kind of blessing, Jacob has shown its richness in the previous scriptures:
(1) makes us the crown of life (1: 12)
(2) Let us have a life reborn by truth (1: 18)
(3) Save our souls (1:2 1)
The blessing expressed by Jacob belongs to personality (the subject of personal belief) and refers to the spiritual level of Christians, which is directly related to God. It is not manifested in the material level and moral level. This is what makes Jacob extraordinary. He walked between truth (gospel) and law, faith and behavior, but there was no rude disharmony at all. He was able to navigate between two theological topics, but he was unscathed. It is really worth studying and studying again and again.
? (To be continued)
Welcome to James' research. Persistence is an important step in growth. Please continue to learn lesson 11. Come on!