Trailblazin Ministries

Put It Aside - James 1:20-21

Written by LaRosa Johnson
Monday, 25 June 2007

I am really loving the practical nature and application thus far in James' letter; there is a wealth of truth and spiritual application that is made available to us, and it is fully capable of propelling us further in our faith if we allow our spirits to be open to it. We ended our last look at this study looking at being "slow to anger" and what that looked like in the life of the believer. We noticed that it primarily focused on our reaction and reception towards the Word of God, and we will continue to look at that today as we focus on the following two verses, 20 and 21. Let us take a look at them and begin our study.

James 1:20-21 (NASB95) - 20 for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. 21 Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.

Starting with verse 20, we see that it ties in completely with what we learned in our study on verse 19 in terms of being slow to anger. We see here that our anger does not achieve or produce the righteousness of God within us. Again, this anger comes from the Greek word orge (Strong's #G3709) and refers to a deep, internal resentment and rejection, in this case referring to God and His Word. Often times, we read the Word or hear it preached and we do not agree with it, and instead of accepting it, we harbor this anger towards God's Word, which in its essence is rebellion towards God. Thusly, it is this kind of anger that will never produce the righteousness of God (His character) within us, since we are fighting against it. It is when we put aside this anger and everything else that we are then able to receive and apply the Word of God, which is what we find explained to us in verse 21.

Because we know that our anger does not develop God's character within us, we must take heed to the words spoken to us in James 1:21 as it tells us to "put aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness." If we are to receive God's Word in truth, instead of rejecting it in anger, we have to lay aside ll of those filthy things (i.e. sins) that are keeping us from clearly hearing the Word of God. In the Greek, the phrase for "putting aside" is the word apotithemi (Strong's #G659) and literally means "having put off," much like we would do with our dirty clothes. In the same manner that we toss aside our filthy clothes far from us, we must do the same with our sins; we have to put our sins far away from us so that they are no hindrance to our hearing and receiving of the Word of God. It is also worth noting that this is not the only place in Scripture where we find the command to put away our sins, as it can also be found in passages like: Ephesians 4:22-24, Colossians 3:8-10, Hebrews 12:1, and 1 Peter 2:1-2. All of those passages admonish us to put away our sins in order to walk in the path that God has set before us. It is also interesting to point out that the word for filthiness, which comes from the Greek word rhuparia (Strong's #G4507) (which refers to any sort of moral defilement or impurity), is very closely related to a term used of wax in the ear (ear wax). In this context, it seems very fitting, as clogged ears would play an important part in restraining us from hearing the Word of God clearly; therefore, if we are able to lay aside that filth (cleaning our ears), then we are able to clearly hear the Word of God.

It doesn't just end there though, as we notice the phrase "all that remains of wickedness." We have to do something about that also if we are going to hear and accept the Word of God. As we do a bit more word study in this devotion, we will begin to see what this is referring to; the two words that we want to look at specifically are "remains" and "wickedness." We will start with wickedness as it from kakia (Strong's #G2549) and generally refers to evil desires or intent; in other words, sin that is deliberate in its intent, whether it is carried out or not. Then there is the word remains, from perisseia (Strong's #G4050), which refers to an abundance or excess. Putting that together, we see that we must also lay aside the abundance of sin and wickedness that is before us, in order to hear the Word of God. The idea here is that we are continually confessing, repenting, and eliminating any kind of sin that is present before us so that we have nothing hindering us from hearing the Word.

All of that leads us to receiving the word in humility. It is interesting to note that the way this Greek is structured, the word "receive" is the main verb of the sentence and implies that everything preceding it must be done before the receiving can be carried out. Knowing that, we clearly see that we have to eradicate sin from our lives before we are able to receive the word. The idea of humility here is that we have laid aside everything, including self, making ourselves to be like a child sitting before the Word of God to hear it spoken to us. Much like we are to have childlike faith, so also we have to have a simplistic and childlike approach when coming before the Word of God, with absolutely nothing hindering us. I really like the idea of the "implanted word" as it refers to that word that brought us salvation and saved our souls. It can also mean something else though, especially in this context; as we grow and keep hearing the Word it continually grows within us to the point where that word implanted will lead and direct us in our lives. And it is also that implanted word that brings us closer to complete salvation with each passing day, as explained to us by Paul in Romans 13:11, "now salvation is nearer to us when we believed."

It is when all of that takes place that we are then able to clearly hear the Word of God and allow it to take root in us and produce spiritual fruit. If nothing else, we see today that if we are going to clearly hear God speak to us through His Word, we need to make sure that we are putting away any sin that is before us, including our own rejection of the Word. We have to be willing and open to accept what the Bible says as truth, even if it means altering what we have previously believed. Like we find in 1 Thessalonians 2:13, this is not simply the words of men that we are studying, but the word of God. Since it is the word of God, and He is holy, we must take every measure possible to make sure that we are acceptable in His sight before attempting to study His Word. So, confess your sins continually and put them away from you, so that you might always be ready to clearly hear God speak through His Scriptures.