The Regular Guys Bible Study
James 1
Ever wrestled with the tension between faith and deeds? Well, buckle up as Ken and Steve pull back the curtain on the Book of James, where we promise to navigate through scripture with a pinch of humor and a boatload of relatability. We're two regular guys, not theologians, peeling back the layers of this misunderstood text to reveal how our actions are the fingerprints of a faith well-lived. From the trials that shape us to the wisdom that guides us, our conversation is a no-holds-barred look at the transformative power of the Holy Spirit in our day-to-day hustle.
This episode isn't just a rundown of verses; it's a heart-to-heart chat about being 'doers of the word,' complete with personal confessions and some chuckle-worthy moments. Sharing stories from our lives, we tackle what it means to live out your beliefs, and how we've stumbled and grown in striving to align our actions with our faith. So, join us on this journey, as we dissect the challenges of keeping a tight rein on our tongues and the humility of receiving the word. No pretense, just a genuine exploration of what it means to walk the walk – Ken and Steve style.
Ever wrestled with the tension between faith and deeds? Well, buckle up as Ken and Steve pull back the curtain on the Book of James, where we promise to navigate through scripture with a pinch of humor and a boatload of relatability. We're two regular guys, not theologians, peeling back the layers of this misunderstood text to reveal how our actions are the fingerprints of a faith well-lived. From the trials that shape us to the wisdom that guides us, our conversation is a no-holds-barred look at the transformative power of the Holy Spirit in our day-to-day hustle.
This episode isn't just a rundown of verses; it's a heart-to-heart chat about being 'doers of the word,' complete with personal confessions and some chuckle-worthy moments. Sharing stories from our lives, we tackle what it means to live out your beliefs, and how we've stumbled and grown in striving to align our actions with our faith. So, join us on this journey, as we dissect the challenges of keeping a tight rein on our tongues and the humility of receiving the word. No pretense, just a genuine exploration of what it means to walk the walk – Ken and Steve style.
you are listening to the regular guys bible study podcast, the bible study for regular guys by regular guys. We are your host, ken and steve, and we are just regular guys studying the Bible together.
Steve:Not theologians.
Ken:Hey Steve, How's it going?
Steve:Hey Ken, it's going.
Ken:All right, so we've had a short break from our podcast while you were doing some personal things and we finished up, john, so welcome back.
Steve:Thanks, did you have fun on your break.
Ken:I didn't do anything. I didn't have a break. You had a break. Well, you had a break from the podcast. I did.
Steve:I don't know you probably had a chance to read James 1 in like 16 different translations.
Ken:I did read it in my standard three translations NIV, ESV and NLT. Just the NLT I use for the fun of it. So have you. And I did read it a lot of times because we were, I guess we planned on a one week break, right, but we ended up taking a two week break, Yep. Things got in the way, yeah, life happens all right. Um well, this, guys, is our first week of james, the book of james, and um, I learned some pretty cool things about james. Did you do any research on James, steve?
Steve:No, not specifically.
Ken:I was distracted a lot. You were distracted. I will forgive you this one time. Well, plus 70 times, seven more times and then that's it. That is it after that, Anyway. So James really struggled to get any kind of traction in Christian circles for a while in the early Christian church. Why is that? It's because people thought it was preaching works over faith. People still think that. Yeah, but you know what the truth is. If you read it, it's pretty obvious. It's not saying that you're saved by works.
Steve:No, it's just saying works as evidence of your being saved.
Ken:Right, basically. And Paul, you know, says to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Steve:Is that an NLT translation?
Ken:blah, blah, blah, blah um is that a nlt translation yes, that was the nlt. Um no, but the point is, james is really just talking about being transformed. You know, after you give your life to christ, the holy spirit comes in and you, your life, will be transformed. You transformers more than meets the eye uh, yes, I can, I can do this, um, let's see here uh transformers more than these di that's cool I have a few tricks up my sleeve, you've never used that before I haven't used that before because it's just a toy um all right, but even but martin luther um did use it.
Ken:I'm not talking about Martin Luther King. People sometimes forget Martin Luther.
Steve:King Jr.
Ken:No, not him either, even the one before Martin Luther, who is, I guess, the founder of the Lutheran Church.
Steve:The founder of Protestantism, good church. He the founder of protestants product good job, good job, steve protestantism, I don't know is that's it you know what?
Ken:I'm not even gonna try because I don't I don't even know what the word is, anyway, but yes, but he did carry it with him, but he used it sparingly in his messages because people would get confused by what it's saying. But I don't really find it confusing. I find it it's more like the practical way of what living by faith means. So why don't we go ahead and get started?
Steve:Yeah, there's some good stuff in this first chapter. And who wrote it. I'm going to go with James.
Ken:Okay, and who do people think this? James is the brother of Jesus, the actual biological brother. Well, okay, what I mean by biological Half brother? I'm going to say a son of Mary and Joseph. Yes, a younger son of Mary and Joseph named James who originally didn't believe Jesus was the Son of God.
Ken:In the beginning of Jesus' ministry. It says that they did not believe. That is true, all right, steve, why don't you, um, why don't you read first section? No, uh, the first two sections, down through verse 18 all right, let's see if my lips work.
Steve:James, a servant of god and of the lord, j, jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the dispersion Greetings that was the first section, by the way. That's why we weren't laughing about that. Count it all. Joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all, without reproach, and it will be given him, but let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind, for that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord.
Steve:He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation and the rich in his humiliation, because, like a flower of the grass, he will pass away, for the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass, its flower falls and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits. Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him.
Steve:Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire, when it is conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death to sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change of his own will.
Steve:He brought forth, brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
Ken:Awesome. Yeah, your lips did mostly work.
Steve:They mostly worked Better than that word I tried to say earlier.
Ken:Yeah, well, it would help if we knew what the right word is Protestantism.
Steve:Protestant church. Let's just go with that, okay.
Ken:All right. One thing that's really cool about this. I know you were out of town on Sunday, but did you possibly listen to or watch the Our Church service?
Steve:So I have a confession to make. We started it and when we saw that it was the Mission Sunday.
Ken:Oh no, you didn't watch it.
Steve:I said well, I haven't seen the one from last week. Do we want to watch that one instead? Because I was with my sister and my mom.
Ken:Yeah, you know what? I have to admit that my wife and I, when we heard it was Mission Sunday, we said no, but the message was really good. It was the best Mission Sunday message I've ever seen, and it starts off in Acts, chapter 8. Even though we're going through Acts, we're not at our church on a normal Sunday. This was not part of that, but it was still in Acts.
Steve:I was going to say we're in like 6 or 7, right.
Ken:I think we are entering second half of 6 or we're entering 7. But at any rate it starts off in Acts 8, or we started off in Acts, chapter 8, right after the stoning of Stephen that the church was like. Or Saul, who later became Paul, went from house to house, dragging Christians out and throwing them in jail, and Christians scattered. They went all over the world, well, all over the known world at the time, and everywhere they went they preached the gospel. And so here James starts off with to the 12 tribes in the dispersion. So this is that from.
Steve:So dispersion refers to the spreading of Christians or the spreading of Jews, way back when.
Ken:So what I read? A lot of people think it's the dispersion from that event, from Acts, but I don't know. What do people really know, Steve?
Steve:what do people really know, Steve? But it is kind of cool the way God uses persecution to spread people that would have normally probably just stayed where they were comfortable.
Ken:They were sharing everything they had. Everything was great. They were singing Kumbaya by the fire every night.
Steve:Yep Making s'mores.
Ken:Yeah, so making s'mores, yeah, it's a good life, and then, all of a sudden, they get pushed out. All right, so, um. So this one, he's sending this though, this message. James is writing this letter. James is writing to the 12 tribes, which means what is he writing to the Gentiles?
Ken:Sounds like he's writing to the Jews, he's writing to the Jews and it. You know it's unclear, but at this time it's really. This was before Peter had had his vision about. All things are clean and so it was really just Jewish Jews. At this point I'm not at this point, but I mean when the dispersion happened it was, it was about the Jews.
Steve:Do we know in the timeline about where this falls versus Paul making his journey across Asia?
Ken:I'm sure people say they know, do I know? You know, I don't know anything, I didn't look that up, okay, but it did say this might be the of the earliest writings, I think 50 AD, which means if Jesus was 33 at his death, then this is 17 years. Oh, actually our calendar is messed up right, so it's like four years off, so I don't remember which way it is.
Steve:Anyway, I'm pretty sure our margin of error is greater than 10 years.
Ken:At any rate, this was one of the earliest. All right, so what would you like to talk aboutve in this, in this bigger section that you read?
Steve:so you know, as you mentioned, I've been going through some family stuff and reading that I need to count it all joy is really tough but was also encouraging. I mean there were things that went well and blessings along the way. But when you meet trials of various kinds, know that it's going to test your faith and that's going to produce steadfastness. It's hard.
Ken:It is hard.
Steve:But apparently now I'm perfect and complete, so no no, no, no, no.
Ken:I don't think that's what it means, and let steadfast fastness have its full effect, steve.
Steve:Well, it's not over yet.
Ken:No, it's not over. Um, I think your steadfastness is full and complete, the day your heart stops. So one thing that struck me it was, you know, I've always considered this Christian persecution, that is, talking about Christian persecution.
Steve:Trials of various kinds. But Trials of various kinds.
Ken:But it's trials of various kinds. It's not. It doesn't say Christian persecution.
Steve:It doesn't have to be just persecution.
Ken:It does not.
Steve:Because any trial in your life is going to. If you lean on God, it will help you increase your faith and produce steadfastness.
Ken:I think you're right and many, many years I just I misinterpreted what that was saying and only really I mean fairly recently in my life did I realize that when Paul talks about going through struggles, he mentions shipwrecks and stonings and it's like they're all together. It's like he wasn't persecuted through a shipwreck. You know that's something that God put him through. Yeah, and it's a person. You know God puts us through these things to make us better. But to count it all joy, that's something that I think we can do if we have a true realization that God is at work in it. But that's just easy to say.
Steve:It's easier to say yeah, all right. And the next paragraph is almost as hard. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all, without reproach. It will be given him, but let him ask in faith, with no doubting. That's the hard part.
Ken:Yeah, how do you ask without doubting?
Steve:you know I would. I had a thought today as I was walking into work. I was like you know, all this stuff going on it's just a blink in the existence here.
Ken:It's all going to work out in the end that is true and, um, I've, I've, actually, I guess I think it's as I get older, the older I get, the more I realize that I'm really only here for one purpose. Right, if, as a as a Christian, I'm still alive because God can still use me on this earth, right until you know, if I can't be used anymore, if he doesn't want to use me on the earth anymore, then he can take me home. Is that a bad thing?
Steve:No, that's the best thing.
Ken:Exactly. So why and you know, I think about these things when I'm praying for somebody who has cancer and praying for them to get well, it's like. Is that I mean?
Steve:Well, maybe you're praying that God continues to use them.
Ken:That's what I've started doing. I've been praying that God would still have something for them to do.
Steve:I've been praying that God would still have something for them to do. So you know, this whole thought of God hasn't taken you because he's still using you. I visited a lot of nursing homes over the last week. Yeah, and I'm looking at those people and I'm like how is God using them? I don't know, it's so depressing.
Ken:Well, they're not all believers, though, either right. That's true, and I don't know God's plan. I'm not going to pretend to know God's plan, and there might be other reasons. God wants me here, even if I don't have anything directly that I need to do for him maybe there's some indirect reason.
Steve:Yep, it's hard to see. It's kind of like the ant in the anthill. You know the rainstorm comes and it's like a flood, but really it's just rain.
Ken:I don't know what you're talking about, steve. It's too deep. Ken, you mean the rain and the spider, and the water spout. Wash the spider out to the ant.
Steve:It feels like a torrential um flood. Oh, I see what you're saying, but that's because the ant has the wrong perspective yes, the right perspective is our size people that's right. If you're as big as we are and there's a real flood, then that ant is really in trouble that's true, even though I don't know if you've ever been stung by a group of floating ants before oh my gosh, I bet that's horrible, that is a horrible experience I've.
Ken:I've experienced it really yeah floating in an inner tube down the guadalupe river and it was I think it was like a little bit of a drought and the ants were like trying, they would try to get to the water and they do. They end up doing this thing where they like get into the water and they, they become a ball, a floating ball in the water, and if you hit them it's horrible.
Steve:Suddenly you have fire ants all over your body and they're like oh dry land, wait, it's moving, let's try to bite it yeah that's not how ants work, by the way.
Ken:I don't know how they do it. They sting you. The fire ants sting you with a stinger. It's not.
Steve:Oh really, it's not a bite with their mandibles or whatever.
Ken:I don't even know. I think so. Am I wrong?
Steve:Shoot. I think it's off topic, okay.
Ken:Yeah, shoot, I think it's off topic. Okay, yeah, okay, anyway. Um, just like the fire ant, we should have faith, is that? Is that getting us back on topic? Not quite so. Um, at any rate, I you know, I don't know how to encourage someone to have faith and you know what do you do if you doubt. How do you not doubt? Do you know, steve?
Steve:Maybe you need to doubt that you have doubt, doubt in which case you no longer have doubt oh wow, you cancel it out that's right. Two, two negatives make a positive doubt, doubt, doubt cancel it out all right um so those are the things we can do without come on so I'm talking to you, ken come on all right, let's move on.
Ken:Steve, um, I did look up when mirrors were invented, because I was surprised he talked about a mirror. Um, oh right, um, because who? Who had mirrors back then? So was it only royalty. Well, you know who did everybody know what a mirror was?
Steve:well, you can look in a still pond and see a reflection yeah, but he says a mirror piece, shiny piece of metal. But he says a mirror or is it translated mirror?
Ken:yeah, that's a good point. I don't know anyway, um let's. He's pretty negative about the person who, doubts though he is, he says he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. Now the uh nlt, by the way, says um, their, their loyalty is divided between God and the world and they are unstable in everything they do, which you know is still pretty strong, unstable.
Steve:Yeah, they're both equally bad.
Ken:So pray without doubting.
Steve:Yep.
Ken:That is.
Steve:Ask for wisdom and expect to get it.
Ken:No, no, only if you lack it.
Steve:I'm pretty sure you do.
Ken:Yeah, I know All right. Yeah, I know all right. Let's move on um, unless you would like to say more about that, steve nope, I'm good on that all right. Um, then he talks about the low. Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation and the rich in his humiliation.
Steve:I got some thoughts on that.
Ken:What are your thoughts?
Steve:So when I did my notes I thought oh, you know what I'll do voice to text. But I didn't bother to read what it recorded for this note and here's what it said, which I can't figure out what I was trying to say. It sounds like he's bringing up opposites, the lowlier exalted in the rich or brought low. We should put in these things, because our time here is short. What does that even mean? You're the one who said it but siri made it some other translation.
Ken:I don't, I don't get it, had you been drinking steve. No, okay I never drink steve, he's horrible oh okay, I feel like I'm drinking steve, right now and it's not good. Um, all right. So, um, let me think here. Oh, um, my thoughts on this are that the lowly brother boasts in his exaltation when he dies, when the lowest of low dies, he will be exalted because he's going to heaven. Because he's going to heaven, um the rich, when they die, they will have nothing here on the earth.
Ken:I mean, like their body here has nothing, and so that's their humiliation but the reason I say that is because it says because, like a flower of the grass, he will pass away. And it does not say, by the way, it says the lowly brother meaning, and that means to me a Christian?
Steve:Christian, yeah.
Ken:And it says and the rich in his humiliation. It does not say the rich brother. So I believe maybe that is a non-believer and he will be humiliated in his death.
Steve:And fade away in the midst of his pursuits.
Ken:Right For the sun rises in its scorching heat. That could be a reference to hell and withers the grass. Or Texas.
Steve:Oh man.
Ken:I hope we have a better summer. We'll see, and anyway so also. Will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits? All right, let's see, let's see, let's continue.
Steve:Yeah, I think we should move on.
Ken:So do you have anything for this next paragraph there, Steve?
Steve:I don't actually. I was looking at my next note and, well, there's not much there, but it's for the next section, not this paragraph.
Ken:All right. So I mean, he's really talking about standing through the trial again, right, and that's a blessed person who's able to stand, be steadfast under trial, steadfast under trial, so okay, well, in this section he talks about whenever you're tempted, don't say you're tempted by God, because God doesn't tempt anybody. What do you take away from that?
Steve:that the temptations that we see put before us are really just our own evil desires coming out. If you, well, what's a good example? Let's say, a beautiful woman that's not your wife walks in front of you and you lust over her or have bad thoughts in your head. God didn't put that woman there for you to have bad thoughts, your own, sinful desire.
Ken:Yes, okay, that's fine, but I didn't do that, to be clear, steve, I didn't. I did not do that. In fact, I don't know she doesn't listen to this. I don't know of another beautiful woman other than my wife, and it's okay. I just said she doesn't listen to this, right. But the fact is though, god shuns sin, and so God does not tempt you Um, god um, but does God test you under trial? Is that the same as temptation? Is that the same as temptation I don't know, Is it?
Ken:I think it's not. For example, let's go back to Paul and he's shipwrecked and I said God put him through that. I think God puts us through trials to harden us, to improve us, to make us steadfast. But a trial and a temptation, those are not the same thing.
Steve:You know who else has been through a lot of trials. Oh gosh, trump, trump. So he's going to become really steadfast. It's a different trial.
Ken:It's a different kind of trial. Steve all right, um, okay, and then let's continue on um, but it's actually something that I think we often forget. This very last paragraph in that section Did you say you had notes on that?
Steve:No, I only have a few notes in the next section, not the paragraph.
Ken:Okay, so it says Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. So every single good gift we have comes from God. Wow, not just the obvious ones, not just the ones we celebrate, but all of the good gifts that we have. So I don't know, I think that's something that I forget a lot, and I only like to think about what I think of as the really good, good gifts.
Steve:You mean like grace?
Ken:Like grace. Okay, so I don't think about every paycheck I get as being a gift from God.
Steve:Yeah, but money is the root of all evil.
Ken:It's still a good gift from God. All right, let's see. Why don't we move on to the next section? All right, I'll read this section, steve. All right, this is the rest of chapter 1, verse 19 through 27.
Ken:Know this, my beloved brothers let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
Ken:Therefore, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls, but be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror, for he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. Oh, I thought we had already read about the mirror. I forgot, sorry. That's why I mentioned the mirror, anyway, but the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father, is this to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world. Wow, yep.
Steve:All right.
Ken:Wickedness. So I knew when I made fun of your tongue problems that it would come back to haunt me. It always does. Yeah, but I couldn't pass it up, so all right. So you said you had some notes for this one, Steve.
Steve:I had a note to look at Romans 2.13, because in verse 22, it says but be doers of the word. But it's so long ago I made that note, I don't remember why I did it. So let's bring up Romans 2.13. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. So there's another doer.
Ken:And that's from Paul. By the way, romans was written by Paul and he says the same thing there, right?
Steve:And then you can look at Matthew 7, 21. And this is red letter. So that's Jesus. Not everyone who says to me, lord, lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
Ken:All right Ouch.
Steve:There's more. There's lots of them, but we don't have to go over them all you can.
Ken:You can do whatever you want, steve. No, I'm good, all right, all right. Well, let's go to that To be a doer. I want to go back to the first paragraph after this, but be doers of the word and not hearers. Only, how do you feel like you do it that, steve?
Steve:Not as good as I should, but I don't think I'm terrible at it.
Ken:I have become much better than I used to be Um it is a process. Yeah, it is a process, especially in marriage life. Um, it is a process. Yeah, it is a process, especially in marriage life. Um, how many times have you been in a message, in a sermon, and said, oh man, I'm glad my wife is here to hear this.
Ken:Oh I, never say it out loud, no you say that in your head, right, and I don't do that anymore. I really don't, and I don't struggle with it anymore, but I did at a time in my life when I was less mature and more arrogant, More self-righteous yeah more self-righteous about who I was and more arrogant.
Ken:Yeah, more self-righteous about who I was. But you know, the truth is I was not a hearer of the word I I. The words came in enough for me to know what was wrong with my spouse, but that's about it. So I would say I would mark that as someone who's not a hearer of the word. But you know there's I don't know I could beat myself up about you know, what does it mean to be?
Ken:am I really a doer of the word? Do I do all the things that I read? Do I read, do all the things that God, that I feel God calling me to do?
Steve:I'd be shocked if you did yeah.
Ken:And yes, you would be and I would be, but the truth is, neither one of us needs to be shocked, because I do not. So what does that mean for us then? Does that mean that we're going to hell, Steve?
Steve:I don't think so and I think, like I mentioned before, it's a process, we're still growing. That we're going to hell? Steve, I don't think so and I think, like I mentioned before, it's a process. We're still growing. We're not baby Christians anymore, but we're not perfect. We'll always be human. We can continue to strive to do more to be better.
Ken:So I think that one of the things you said is the key why? Why we don't have to be perfect, and it's about striving right. I think it is important that we strive to do right. We strive, you, you know. We strive for perfection even though we cannot, and that's what it means to be a doer that you continue to try to do what's right and to do what God is calling you to do. All right, I want to go back up to the very first paragraph. Yeah, verse very first paragraph. Yes, talking about let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger. Okay, so I know, as a younger believer, I was very quick to speak and pretty quick to anger.
Steve:For the most part, I am not anymore so I think I do pretty darn well slow, slow to anger.
Ken:Whoa watch your language, steve Whoa you said the D word Slow to anger.
Steve:Oh darn Dang, what's?
Ken:better than darn. I'm just joking.
Steve:Um, it takes a lot for me to get angry, uh, but slow to speak. No, I have gotten better, but no, when?
Ken:when do you struggle the most with slow to speak?
Steve:when I have some. No, when do you struggle the most with slow to speak? When I have some goofy thing to say.
Ken:I usually just spout it out.
Steve:But, steve, maybe that's a spiritual gift, because that's actually one of the reasons I wanted you on the podcast so that you wouldn't look like the biggest fool. Exactly.
Ken:I need another fool that's slightly bigger than me so that I can shine. I mean not like your head, your head's shining, you're still bigger than me. Well, yes, I'm taller than you, but I am. You weigh more. I am, yeah, but it's all muscle. I mean, have you seen the size of my stomach? That's all muscle.
Steve:Oh, I've been. But most people get a six pack, but you've got like a whole case down there.
Ken:Yeah, I go with bulk weights, that's why, so I'll do like one sit up. Okay, shut up, let's move on. All right, here's where it talks about the mirror. Where was I? Yeah, whatever, I got confused, obviously. Um you didn't want to talk more about rampant wickiness um, you can put put away filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word. Okay, I do want to talk about that because I think men often struggle with doing anything with meekness what does it mean exactly?
Steve:uh to me. I think of being humble uh, maybe, uh, maybe, let's see what happens when I click on it.
Ken:Hey, Siri, define the word meekness. Mildness, humility, meekness means the fact or condition of being meek Submissiveness, submissiveness.
Steve:I like humility better than submissive.
Ken:Well, sure, but I think you know, and meek has a connotation of being weak.
Steve:Yeah, because it kind of rhymes with it.
Ken:It kind of does. Yeah a little bit. It kind of rhymes yes, Anyway, but basically that means to. You could take that to mean submitting to the word.
Steve:Yes and not fight it. Yes, yes, and could not fight it.
Ken:Yes alright, what else, steve?
Steve:well, you wanted to talk about the mirror.
Ken:Well, I have nothing to say about the mirror now oh, okay, I think we're almost done.
Steve:Then we are almost done, but Well, I have nothing to say about the mirror now. Oh, okay, I think we're almost done then. We are almost done, but we talk about we should talk about bridling his tongue.
Ken:We talk about what?
Steve:Verse 26. If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless.
Ken:Right.
Steve:So a couple of things there.
Ken:They need to marry their tongue.
Steve:Bridle is like a thing you put on a horse.
Ken:No, no Bridle gown, are you saying.
Steve:That's spelled differently, I think. Are you saying that's spelled differently, I think? Um, the word religion in our day and age has has become sort of a bad word. It's got like a negative connotation to it yes I mean, even in our church we're Christ followers. We're not, even we don't say Christian anymore, because now that has some sort of bad connotation to it to certain people. I'm sure Christ follower does to like Muslims or something. But anyway, I digress. Where was I going with that? I?
Ken:have no idea, Steve. You were talking, though. You were talking about bridle the tongue. I wasn't talking.
Steve:And about religion. So if you don't bridle your tongue, you're deceiving yourself. So what does it mean to bridle your tongue?
Ken:It means to control your tongue, control what you say, in other words, go back up to slow to speak. Yep, right, I agree. But what is religion?
Steve:According to James in verse 27, it's to visit orphans and widows in their affliction.
Ken:No, that's a religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father. I think of religion as actions to please God.
Steve:Okay.
Ken:Okay, so Christianity is not a religion. That's because Christianity in itself is undeserved grace, so you could say that Christianity in its basic form is not religion. It is the undeserved grace given to us as believers, however, as Christ followers. However, as Christ followers, we are called to do religious acts of service to others around us.
Steve:You want to hear the definition of religion. Yeah, I'd love to hear that.
Ken:Ceremonial observance worshiping Okay, we do worship, we do worship. I don't know if I like that definition but you know, what does it matter?
Steve:what I like. One thing I don't like about this dictionary that's in my lab. It uses the word to define itself way too often.
Ken:Oh yeah, I hate that. So let's see A pursuit or interest to which someone ascribes supreme importance Consumerism. Let's see, consumerism is your religion, the belief in and worship of a superhuman power, of powers, especially a god or gods. Well, I would say my definition is not really right, so maybe you should not listen to that thing that I said.
Steve:I kind of like what you said, but I'll forget it.
Ken:I don't know. I've always heard of religion as being the actions, but worship's an action? I don't know. I've always heard of religion as being the actions. Worship's an action. It is. Worship is an action. Well, it's also of the heart. It doesn't have to be a physical action. That's true. All right, at any rate. Do you have anything else for James Chapter one? I don't, and I think we're going pretty long today. Yeah, it is pretty long. We ought to wrap it up, all right. So, guys, next week is James chapter two. It doesn't look too long. There's two sections of it. Make sure you read it, be prepared. That goes for you too, steve, be prepared. Yes, sir, all right. Okay, guys, I really appreciate you listening.
Steve:Thanks for joining, yeah.
Ken:All right, see you guys. No-transcript.