Combating double-mindedness with the word of truth
James is trying to show us how to mend our divided hearts and lead us toward singular devotion to God. Where does that start? It starts with the word of God.
Today, we continue our study of the book of James. If you’d like to follow along in your Bible, I invite you to turn with me to James chapter 1.
Briefly, I’ll remind you that James, the Lord’s brother, is writing to primarily Jewish Christians scattered throughout the Gentile world. He refers to them as “the twelve tribes dispersed abroad,” or “the twelve tribes scattered among the nations” (Jas 1:1). Some Bible translations use a more technical term for Jewish people living among the Gentiles, referring to “the twelve tribes in the Dispersion.” And James is writing to these Christians relatively early in church history—probably in the mid-forties AD.
And James has noticed several problems among these Christians. However, all these problems appear to be symptoms of one underlying problem. Whether it’s how they speak or how they act, everything can be traced back to a lack of integrity. It’s an issue James calls double-mindedness. Literally, he’s referring to a person with two souls. To be double-minded is to be a two-souled person.
But, of course, we weren’t made to have two souls. The implication is that these souls are moving in opposite directions. The Jewish Christians to whom James is writing knew the Shema of Deuteronomy 6 very well since they would have all memorized it as children. And it says, “Listen, Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength” (Dt 6:4, 5).
In other words, Yahweh is a God of integrity, so his people should be people of integrity. God is undivided in his character and purpose, so we should be undivided in our character and purpose. We must love the LORD our God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our strength (Dt 6:5). We should not have competing devotions for anything else.
According to James, divided hearts or double minds constitute spiritual adultery. In chapter 4, he says, “You adulterous people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God” (Jas 4:4).
So, at the heart of this letter, James is addressing the issue of double-mindedness. He sees a lack of integrity among the people. He sees them saying one thing and doing another. They have one foot in heaven and another foot in the world, and he doesn’t want anyone to take this matter lightly. That’s a strong indictment in chapter 4. “You adulterous people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God?” (Jas 4:4).
But as we’ll continue to see throughout this letter, there is a solution to the problem. There’s an antidote. In his book, Radically Whole, David Gibson writes:
We’ve been wrestling with our genuine love for God and the strong pull in totally different directions. The diagnosis on offer here is very deep because it reaches right into the core of our identities, but there is also a cure on offer that is beautifully simple. There is a way to be whole, one person, inside and outside.
With that said, let me read from James chapter 1. I’ll read verses 19 through 27.
My dear brothers, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger, for human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness. Therefore, ridding yourselves of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent, humbly receive the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like someone looking at his own face in a mirror. For he looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of person he was. But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer who works — this person will be blessed in what he does.
If anyone thinks he is religious without controlling his tongue, his religion is useless and he deceives himself. Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained from the world. (James 1:19-27)
Now, chances are, your Bible has a division or a paragraph break between verses 18 and 19. In fact, you probably see a subheading between the two. My Bible says, “Hearing and Doing the Word,” which tells us something about the passage that follows—verse 19 to the end of the chapter.
Now, as you probably know, this division did not exist in James’s original letter. When his original audience first received this letter, they read it from start to finish without any obvious breaks at all. So, let me back up and read a portion of the last passage, starting with verse 16. James says:
Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. By his own choice, he gave us birth by the word of truth so that we would be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
My dear brothers, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger, for human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness. Therefore, ridding yourselves of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent, humbly receive the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. (James 1:16-21)
Now, reading it this way shines a slightly different light on the passage, doesn’t it? This is especially true for verse 19. When we hear James say, “Be quick to listen and slow to speak,” we immediately think of this in the context of interpersonal relationships (Jas 1:19). We think about how we communicate with other people. And while this verse can certainly have that application, that may not be James’s primary point here.
You’ll notice how verse 19 has these bookends if you will. It comes between James talking about being born again by the word of truth in verse 18 and receiving the implanted word in verse 21 (Jas 1:18, 21). And while James may not be the most systematic or linear author of the Bible, I believe verse 19 has a more direct connection to this talk about the word of truth than we may notice at first glance.
But we’ll come to that.
You see, James is leading us on the path to wholeness. He’s trying to show us how to mend our divided hearts and lead us toward singular devotion to God. And where does that start? It starts with the word of God. It starts with the word of truth, as he says here (Jas 1:18).
But I also want you to notice the parallel lines running through this passage. On the one hand, James is giving us clear instructions. And if I were to summarize his instructions here, he says, “Here’s God’s word. Now, do it.” Verse 22: “Be doers of the word” (Jas 1:22). That’s simple enough.
But notice that James doesn’t believe we can be made whole by sheer willpower. He says, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (Jas 1:17). So, he points up. “Look up,” he says. “This whole thing starts with God.”
Then, he says, “By his own choice, he gave us birth by the word of truth so that we would be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures” (Jas 1:18). We’ll talk about this more in a moment, but you see here that God has not merely dropped his word from the sky and said, “Alright. You have my word. Now, do it. Obey it. Get it done.” No, he uses his word as an instrument to dramatically and profoundly change us, but the text doesn’t say, “He gave us the word of truth.” It says, “He gave us birth by the word of truth.” That’s a much different thing.
Then, in verse 21, James says, “Humbly receive the implanted word” (Jas 1:21). So, on the one hand, we have an exhortation here to do the word. But there’s a significant parallel line running through the text that reminds us that God is at work in all of this. While it may seem James is merely telling us to pick ourselves up by the bootstraps and get to work, the truth is that God implanted the word in us, and we’re simply called to humbly receive it.
By the way, this is something you’ll hear me come back to over and over again. You see, James has the reputation of being a book about doing, and it is that, but it’s more than that. If we think James is suggesting we rely on ourselves to achieve spiritual wholeness, we will get discouraged every time. We will fail every time. Look closer. James doesn’t believe we’ll find the answer in ourselves. It’s too simplistic to say he believes we’ll find the answer by merely doing. He continually, though it is sometimes subtle, points us back to God. As he says later in the book, “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you” (Jas 4:8).
So, yes, there is doing to be done. James lays out our responsibilities. But our doing is always in the context of God’s gracious giving. The first step, then, is not to do this. The first step is to submit to God and simply receive what he gives. We saw that last time. Are we struggling to endure our trials with the right perspective? Well, James says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God — who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly” (Jas 1:5).
Now, here in the latter half of James 1, the primary instruction is pretty clear. “Be doers of the word” (Jas 1:22). But again, that’s not where James begins this lesson. He begins by looking back at the gracious work of God. Verse 18: “By the Father’s own choice, he gave us birth by the word of truth so that we would be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures” (Jas 1:18).
Okay. Why is that significant? Well, before James launches into his practical exhortations here, he wants us to remember that as we strive to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect, we are not striving alone (Mt 5:48). In fact, we couldn’t even begin the Christian life on our own. Never mind reaching wholeness. We wouldn’t even be Christians apart from God’s gracious and sovereign work.
In John 3, Jesus said, “You must be born again” (Jn 3:7). Why? Ephesians 2: “You were dead in your trespasses and sins” (Eph 2:1). We were not sick. We were not divided in heart. We were spiritually dead. We had no life in us at all. But by God’s own choice, he gave us birth” (Jas 1:18). He gave us life. Your translation might say, “Of his own will,” or “He chose to give us birth.” Ephesians 2 says, “God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses” (Eph 2:4, 5).
Jesus said:
Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again. The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit. (John 3:6-8)
So, the Christian life begins with the gracious and sovereign work of God. Motivated by his love for us, he gives us life. He transforms us from the inside out. And this is a radical transformation. We go from dead in sin to alive in Christ. We are born a second time. And speaking to first-century Christians, James says, “You are only the firstfruits of his creatures. There are many more to come. And every one of them will begin the same way. God will bring them to life through his gracious, sovereign work” (Jas 1:18).
“But,” someone argues, “I became a Christian when I believed. Jesus said, ‘God gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life’” (Jn 3:16). And that’s right, but James wants us to remember that our faith in him is because of him. Why? Why is that important? Well, first of all, apart from him, we would have no faith. And second, we can’t possibly combat our double-mindedness and achieve wholeness apart from him. We rely on him and his grace daily, moment by moment.
You know, there were people in the first few centuries of the church who struggled to accept James as a legitimate part of the biblical canon. Even in the days of the Reformers, there were men who struggled with James. And I think one of the primary reasons they struggled is because they missed the subtle emphasis James places upon the necessity of God’s grace. Again, they perceived the book to be all about doing rather than trusting in Christ. They saw the apparent tension between Paul’s teachings on justification by faith and James’s teachings on justification by works and said, “I don’t know how to reconcile them.”
But again, I say, look closer. “Every good and perfect gift is from above … By his own choice, he gave us birth … humbly receive the implanted word” (Jas 1:17, 18, 21). By no means is James ignorant of God’s grace. Even while he tells us to get to work doing this or that, he reminds us that we rely completely on God’s grace.
But as I said, we see parallel lines running through this text. God is certainly gracious. He is certainly giving. Namely, he gives us spiritual birth, but he’s not operating in a vacuum. “He gave us birth by the word of truth” (Jas 1:18). What is the word of truth? As Alistair Begg has said:
It is the gospel. It is the story that Jesus told. It is, if you like, the great, comprehensive, wonderful tale of an initiative-taking God who is seeking to save men and women when they’re not looking for him at all.
Now, we could very well say the word of truth encompasses all that God has said and revealed to us through his word, and there’s some truth to that (Jas 1:18). But the gospel message is at the heart of the word of truth. Colossians 1:5 says, “You have already heard about this hope in the word of truth, [comma] the gospel that has come to you” (Col 1:5, 6). So, Paul very specifically defines the word of truth as the gospel.
In Ephesians 1, Paul uses the expression again, saying, “In him you also were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, [comma] the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed” (Eph 1:13). As Paul says in Romans 10, “How, then, can they call on him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about him? And how can they hear without a preacher?” (Ro 10:14).
The gospel message is God’s instrument for bringing about new birth in his people. We must be born again, right? Well, James says, “He gave us birth by [we might even say through] the word of truth” (Jas 1:18). The apostle Peter says it this way: “You have been born again — not of perishable seed but of imperishable — through the living and enduring word of God” (1Pe 1:23). Then, he says, “And this word is the gospel that was proclaimed to you” (1Pe 1:24).
Actually, let me go just a bit further with what Peter says about it. That’s what he said at the end of 1 Peter chapter 1. Then, as he moves into chapter 2, he says, “Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all slander. Like newborn infants, desire the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow up into your salvation” (1Pe 2:1, 2).
So, we don’t just enter into the Christian life through God’s word. We continue to grow by it. It saves us, and then it continually transforms us. We believe it in the beginning, putting our trust in the Savior it proclaims, and then— What? James 1:19:
My dear brothers, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger, for human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness. Therefore, ridding yourselves of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent, humbly receive the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. (James 1:19-21)
I’m beginning to think James and Peter spent a lot of time together. They convey very similar messages here. They both say we are born again by or through the word of truth. They both insist we repent of our wickedness. And they both insist we desire the word. Peter says we’ll grow by it into our salvation. James says it’ll save our broken, divided souls if we humbly receive it.
So, James is writing to believers here. God has given them new birth through his word. James refers to them as “my brothers” (Jas 1:19). He’s speaking here to his family in Christ. He sees their disturbing lack of integrity. He wants to lead them to wholeness. And he says, “Understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger, for human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness.”
“Pay attention,” he says. “Take note of this. Don’t miss it. You need to listen. You need to hear.” Hear what exactly? Well, this is reminiscent of the Shema. Do you know what Shema means? It means to hear or listen. That passage from Deuteronomy 6 gets its name from the first word of it: “Listen [Shema], Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one” (Dt 6:4).
Now, James may have in mind our communication with one another here, but I also believe he has a greater point to make regarding the bookends of this passage—that is, the word of God. In verse 21, he says we are to receive this word. In verse 22, we are to do this word. And, of course, receiving and doing will begin with hearing this word.
When we get to chapter 3, we’ll see that many of these early Christians were a little too anxious to do all the talking. And what I mean by that is that too many of them wanted to teach. They didn’t want to sit back and merely learn from others. They wanted to do the teaching themselves. James says, “Not many should become teachers, my brothers, because you know that we [the teachers] will receive a stricter judgment” (Jas 3:1). When he talks about them controlling their tongues, when he talks about the dangers of the tongue, that’s the context. Evidently, many of them were fighting for teaching positions. They wanted to do all the talking.
So, James says, “Everyone should be quick to listen and slow to speak” (Jas 1:19). I believe this includes teachers, by the way.
You can imagine a scenario in the church, especially in the early days of the church, when all of these well-educated Jewish men—and I mean educated in the Scriptures—are all fighting for prominence. They’re fighting to show off their knowledge and wisdom. They all think they have something to teach. They’re all a little too proud in that regard. Perhaps that’s why James tells them to humbly receive the implanted word (Jas 1:21). And you can imagine the conflicts this might create, especially if these men are not submitting to established pastoral leadership.
So, James wants everyone to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and therefore slow to anger (Jas 1:19). He says, “For human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness” (Jas 1:20). If you want to be made whole—we might say made righteous—you’re not doing yourselves any favors by always striving to be the one talking. You need to listen. You need to hear. Specifically, you need to hear what God’s word says.
And do you know what happens when we listen? We learn, and what we learn changes us. “Therefore, ridding yourselves of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent, humbly receive the implanted word, which is able to save your souls” (Jas 1:21).
You see, we don’t even realize all of the filth and evil around us and in us when we don’t take the time to hear what God’s word says. God’s word is our measuring stick, if you will, which we’ll talk about in just a second. I get the impression that James’s original audience doesn’t see their hypocrisy. They’re blind to their double-mindedness. And they’re blind to it because they’re always talking, always teaching, always sharing their opinions and ideas. So, what does James say they need? They need to listen. They need to hear God’s word. And they need to receive it.
God said through the prophet Jeremiah, “I will put my teaching within them and write it on their hearts” (Jer 31:33). Deuteronomy says, “The message is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, so that you may follow it” (Dt 30:14). If you are in Christ, his word is in you, so receive it. Accept it. Take it. Learn from it. Submit to it. Obey it.
And that’s precisely what James says next—verse 22:
But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like someone looking at his own face in a mirror. For he looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of person he was. But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer who works — this person will be blessed in what he does. (James 1:22-25)
So, James says listen, receive, but also do. Hear what God’s word has to say, accept what it has to say, and obey what it says. Anything short of that is double-mindedness.
Obviously, we don’t know everything going on in these early churches, but a picture is starting to form. We have lots of people anxious to talk and teach, though they aren’t necessarily teaching sound doctrine. Later, James says, “The tongue stains the whole body, sets the course of life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell” (Jas 3:6). Whatever they were saying wasn’t good. It was destructive.
So, there’s lots of teaching going on, and at least some of it wasn’t sound. Too many of them were not listening to what God’s word actually says. Then, there’s the problem of them not accepting and obeying what God’s word says. They may have loved to hear it, nodding along and occasionally shouting, “Amen,” but they would walk away completely unchanged.
You know, soon after I was saved and became a Christian, I was really excited to read and learn from the Bible, so I set out to form a small Bible study group. I wanted to discuss the Bible with others. I wanted to learn from others. The only problem was that I belonged to a very small church, and there was no one my age. Like me, everyone my age had gone the way of the prodigal son and left, and I was the only one who came back. So, I invited some of my non-Christian friends to join the Bible study.
Let’s just say it was interesting. It won’t surprise you to learn that most of our conversations centered around very specific ethical issues. What does the Bible say about drinking alcohol? What does the Bible say about smoking marijuana? What does the Bible say about fornication? Is it fornication to do this or that? How far am I allowed to go with my girlfriend or boyfriend? It wasn’t the most edifying experience, but everyone in the group always seemed so receptive. No one ever argued against the Bible. We would read it together, discuss it, and everyone would agree. Okay, that’s what it says.
But it never changed anyone. Those who drank continued to drink. Those who smoked pot continued to smoke pot. To my horror, one member of the group even committed murder a few years later.
Now, that’s obviously not the same situation James is contending with. He’s writing to believers, but you see my point. We need sound, qualified teachers. We all need to learn from the word of God. We all need to accept it wholeheartedly. And we all need to obey it. We need to do it.
Now, David Gibson has a helpful way of breaking down this passage and explaining what the word of God is. He says, “The Bible is [1] an implanted word; it is [2] a revealing mirror; [and] it is [3] a freeing law.”
So, the Bible is, first of all, an implanted word. Gibson says:
Implanting things in the body can save it. The pacemaker to regulate the heart. The plate to fuse the bone. The stent into the artery to allow the blood to flow freely. But did you know that implanting the Bible can save you? The word of God, implanted in your heart, in your bones, in your very being, can save you.
A little later, he writes:
James is asking us to do an input/output self-evaluation. The verbs required of the believer here are passive: receive, take, accept the word; we depend on the input of God’s word to us. But what do we love doing instead? Output. It’s how we roll: by the output of words, anger, and activity unguided by the necessary input.
Now, we’ve talked about the output of words and anger, but what does he mean by activity? Well, look down at the last two verses of this chapter.
If anyone thinks he is religious without controlling his tongue, his religion is useless and he deceives himself. Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained from the world. (James 1:26, 27)
In other words, these people are religious in their appearance and activities, but to some degree, it’s a false religion. There’s a lack of integrity, a lack of purity. There’s hypocrisy in it. These people are double-minded.
So, James is confronting us with a test of sorts. Before we even think about doing—Gibson calls it output—we need to pause long enough to reflect on input. Are we humbly receiving from God and his word what we need?
Second, Gibson says the Bible is a revealing mirror.
As I said before, the Bible acts as a measuring stick for us. It teaches us something about ourselves. James says:
If anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like someone looking at his own face in a mirror. For he looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of person he was. (James 1:23, 24)
Imagine looking in the mirror in the morning and seeing what you’re like, seeing what needs fixing: the stubble to be shaved off, the makeup to be applied, or the hair to be combed. Imagine going away and ignoring what the mirror reveals. Who does that? Who listens to the Bible, hears it, understands what God is saying, and goes away and doesn’t do what he says?
Well, the answer is the double-minded person. He continues, “To be spiritually whole, we must listen to God. And to be spiritually whole, we must not only listen. We must do.”
Third, the Bible is a freeing law.
Here’s what James says: “The one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer who works — this person will be blessed in what he does” (Jas 1:25).
And here’s what Gibson says:
When you look in the Bible and listen to it, you’re not just seeing who you are, as in a mirror, but you’re seeing who God is, coming face-to-face with his character, his loves, his standards, his law. That is what law does: it reveals the nature of the one who gives it.
James says God’s law is a perfect law. Do you remember that word from last time? That’s a word that means completeness. It means wholeness. God is whole. His law is whole. And his law leads us to wholeness.
Think of it this way. Let’s say I make a rule for my children. Let’s say I tell them, “Stay in the yard. Don’t walk out onto the street.” Who knows. Maybe my kids think that’s an arbitrary and unnecessary rule, but that’s not really the case, is it? That rule says something about me, and it says something about my relationship with my children. It says I love my children and don’t want them to get hit by a car. I want them to be whole and healthy.
Now, when they grow up to be teenagers, they just might push back a little. They might accuse me of infringing upon their liberty with all of my rules. After all, rules restrict us. They limit our freedom, don’t they? Yet, James says God’s law is not only perfect but a perfect law of freedom (Jas 1:25). Isn’t that a contradiction? How can a law ever be a law of freedom?
Well, imagine what might happen to my children if I didn’t enforce a rule that says no playing in the street. They might want the so-called freedom to play wherever they want, but I know their version of freedom could get them hurt or killed. What freedom would they have then? No, true freedom actually requires rules to keep us healthy and well.
Here’s what Gibson says, and I’ll end with this:
We have the Bible; we love his word; we look in the mirror—and we ignore it. There are few greater tragedies in life than this, for acting on God’s word by doing what it says is the only route to living in the power and blessing for which we have been created: “but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing” (1:25). Doing the word makes you flourish. It will make you content. Whole. Righteous. The posture of the believer is to delight in the law of the Lord, both day and night (Ps 1:2).
So, the Bible is like a seed implanted inside you which can grow and give life. It is like a mirror that can tell you the truth about yourself and show you what you need to do. The Bible can set you free and give you the kind of life that is blessed by God.