God's Desire for Human Anger - Part 3
James 1:21
...and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.
In this final installment of "God's Desire for Human Anger" we find a change, a turning away, from a sinful use anger. Here in James1:21 we see the path to the righteousness that God desires. God wants to redirect our focus from self toward His Word.
James begins with a change of attitude. Humility is proposed as the proper attitude in place of human anger. Human anger is emotionally charged by the sin of selfishness. A good example of this is the Presidential election of 2016. Many who consider themselves Christians have chosen to express their personal feelings about the two candidates. Hateful speech, vulgar language, double-meaning phrases, protests, and physical violence have erupted across the country, one group attacking the other. One side expressing anger at the loss of their candidate, the other expressing anger in defending their candidate's victory. If only such passion and emotion were directed toward glorifying God.
Humility is a God-given trait to every believer. It is very similar to the concept of "meekness" depicted in the list of the Fruit of the Spriit in Galatians 5:22-23. To be humble is a demonstration of power and self-control, a trait God wants to develop to its full potential in each of us. Consider Paul's exhortation on humility in Philippians 2:2-8:
To be humble is to be Christ-like. Consider the times you have become angry when someone offended you, mistreated you, or misjudged you. Now, consider Christ, who was falsely accused, beaten, humiliated, found guilty by an illegal trial, and condemned to death unjustly. Jesus had the power to stop those attacking him at any moment, but instead chose humility, and surrendered his own feelings in servant-hood to God the Father. This is the power of humility. This is the power God wants to develop in you.
James wants us to humbly "accept the word planted in you." He uses an interesting word to describe how God places His word in believers. According to Ezekiel 36:2-27, the word of God has been planted your heart where the Holy Spirit, who has also been put in you, moves and persuades you to obey God’s Word.
In the time of James most people understood farming. "There are estimates that about 90% of the people in Palestine were what we might call peasants", made up of "small land owners", "tenants who worked other people's land and paid rent", or "landless people who worked as day laborers." They needed to farm in order to survive" (Murphy, 2007, p. 120). Therefore, James used a farming term they were very familiar with.
The word implanted means "engrafted" and describes the process of connecting a shoot (branch) to another stock to create differing versions or healthier versions of produce. Paul uses the grafting of wild olive shoots onto a healthy olive tree (Romans 11) to describe how the Gentiles have been included with the Jews to become one body in Christ. Because of God’s love and kindness, we were grafted into the olive tree of Christ.
James begins with a change of attitude. Humility is proposed as the proper attitude in place of human anger. Human anger is emotionally charged by the sin of selfishness. A good example of this is the Presidential election of 2016. Many who consider themselves Christians have chosen to express their personal feelings about the two candidates. Hateful speech, vulgar language, double-meaning phrases, protests, and physical violence have erupted across the country, one group attacking the other. One side expressing anger at the loss of their candidate, the other expressing anger in defending their candidate's victory. If only such passion and emotion were directed toward glorifying God.
Humility is a God-given trait to every believer. It is very similar to the concept of "meekness" depicted in the list of the Fruit of the Spriit in Galatians 5:22-23. To be humble is a demonstration of power and self-control, a trait God wants to develop to its full potential in each of us. Consider Paul's exhortation on humility in Philippians 2:2-8:
"...make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus, who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross."
James wants us to humbly "accept the word planted in you." He uses an interesting word to describe how God places His word in believers. According to Ezekiel 36:2-27, the word of God has been planted your heart where the Holy Spirit, who has also been put in you, moves and persuades you to obey God’s Word.
In the time of James most people understood farming. "There are estimates that about 90% of the people in Palestine were what we might call peasants", made up of "small land owners", "tenants who worked other people's land and paid rent", or "landless people who worked as day laborers." They needed to farm in order to survive" (Murphy, 2007, p. 120). Therefore, James used a farming term they were very familiar with.
The word implanted means "engrafted" and describes the process of connecting a shoot (branch) to another stock to create differing versions or healthier versions of produce. Paul uses the grafting of wild olive shoots onto a healthy olive tree (Romans 11) to describe how the Gentiles have been included with the Jews to become one body in Christ. Because of God’s love and kindness, we were grafted into the olive tree of Christ.
Note how we are to accept the Word planted in us. Only through humility can we truly grasp the power of God’s Word, which is able to save us from an eternity in hell. You might be saying, "How can word save me?! I thought I had to confess my sins, and believe in Christ, accept His death, burial, and resurrection to be saved?"
In John 1:1 we are told, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He (Jesus) was with God in the beginning." More confirmation comes in John 1:14, "The Word became flesh (Jesus' birth) and made his dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." James is describing salvation through Christ as the Word, just as the apostle John described Jesus as being "the Word".
In John 1:1 we are told, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He (Jesus) was with God in the beginning." More confirmation comes in John 1:14, "The Word became flesh (Jesus' birth) and made his dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." James is describing salvation through Christ as the Word, just as the apostle John described Jesus as being "the Word".
The Lord does not want us to become angry when we do not like what the Scriptures are telling us, but instead, he desires us to humbly accept His Word. How is your integrity? Are you quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry? Have you allowed pride to influence your speech and your testimony as God's child... soiling your clothes… showing yourself as filthy to those around you? Is it time to shed that filthiness and return to humility and allow the Spirit of God to work within you once again? The answer is a simple prayer away.
References:
Murphy, C. M. (2007). The historical Jesus for dummies. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
