Remember the Got Milk? advertisements? they showed people with a “milk” mustache, they didn’t show gallons of milk in the refrigerator. That is because the point was not do you possess milk?

The point was: are you consuming the milk?

Just as a child is supposed to be quick to hear his parent’s voice, and the mother to hear her baby’s smallest cry, so the believer should be quick to hear what God has to say.

In the following verses, James stated that we have three responsibilities toward God’s Word; and if we fulfill these responsibilities, we will have an honest walk with God and men.

Listen to this weeks podcast for a more in-depth study on this subject.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

James 1:17-27

 Receive  the Word

Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.

James 1:19-21

Be Attentive

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

2 Timothy 3:16-17

•     Swift to hear

•     Slow to speak

•     slow to wrath

Be Consecrated

The soil of the heart must be prepared to receive the Word.

 If we have un-confessed sin in our hearts, and bitterness against God because of our trials, then we cannot receive the Word and be blessed by it.

Be Submissive

We must have an attitude of “meekness” (James 1:21). Meekness is the opposite of “wrath” in James 1:19–20. When you receive the Word with meekness, you accept it, do not argue with it, and honor it as the Word of God. You do not try to twist it to conform it to your thinking.

 Practice  the Word

But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:

James 1:22-23

•     It is not the hearing but the doing that brings the blessing.

•     Too many Christians mark their Bibles, but their Bibles never mark them!

Gaze carefully (not glance casually) into the Word

For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

James 1:24-25

Study the word

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

2 Timothy 2:15

 It is not reading the Bible that makes a person happy; it is obeying what it says.

 Share  the Word

 True response to God’s Word

1.   involves  outward activity

•     Ministry to orphans and widows was the outward activity.

2.   involves inward control.

•     Separation from the world was evidence of inner control.

 Pure religion (outward practice) means practicing God’s Word and sharing it with others

 Through speech

It is the tongue that reveals the heart

O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.

Matthew 12:34-35

Through service

In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.

Isaiah 6:1-8

Isaiah first saw the Lord, then himself, and then the people he would minister too

Through separation from the world.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Romans 12:1-2

The best way to minister to the needs of the world is to be pure from the defilement of the world.

Does your life demonstrate that you Got Bible?

Have you  Received  the word?

Are you  Practicing  the word?

Do you  Share  the word?

Our hope at Irvington Bible Baptist Church is that this podcast provided some encouragement and has helped you to develop a closer relationship with the LORD Jesus Christ.