Faith That is Real

An imperfect or dishonest assessment of ourselves distorts our view of all the rest of the world. Those people, including Christians, who are righteous in their own eyes cannot understand God’s Word well or obey it faithfully. They have beams in their eyes and are prevented from seeing or doing anything well.

Here is a time for self-examination by class members. However, public confession of guilt can easily become self-defeating and get out of hand. Also it can promote a negative kind of self-righteousness that glories in the number or extremity of sins one confesses. But there is a place for the public urging of private self-examination and confession.

Do not let the whole session be negative. Devote a good portion of the time for discussing the tests of true religion. To introduce the theme of genuine faith, bring to class a number of visual aids to illustrate unreality and illusion. You might want to bring drawings that incorporate optical illusions or some plastic molded and colored objects to look like fine wood.

Often things appear to be what they are not. Fakery, deceit, and phoniness are prevalent all around us.

Unfortunately, they are sometimes characteristic even of people who call themselves believers in the Lord Jesus.

James emphasizes the importance of dealing with the Word of God honestly as it reveals our true character. He says that the man who does not see himself honestly as the Scripture reveals him is like a man who looks in the mirror but does not remember what it has shown him to be. Such a man reveals himself to be in that condition when he does not obey God’s Word.
Neither one’s own view of him nor that of others is reliable. Only the mirror of God’s Word can give us a true picture of ourselves.

There are two ways to view ourselves and determine what we are like within ourselves. One is to judge ourselves by others or by any other artificial standard, and that gives us a deceptive view of ourselves’ and stimulates pride. Viewing ourselves by those wrong standards, we will see such things as beauty, worldly success, praise, and flattery. (Write the words on the transparency as you name them.) Can you think of other outward signs that people use to judge themselves and others?

The other way to view ourselves is the correct way: by the mirror of God’s Word. Viewing ourselves properly, we will see in ourselves things like sinfulness, failure, our limitations, and hypocrisy. (Write these words on the transparency as you say each one.)

Of course, unlike a mirror, the Bible does not stop with merely revealing us as we are; it is able to cleanse us as we respond to the truth. No one can measure up to the standard set for us in God’s Word. Perhaps that is why we so often use others as the standard of judgment to compare ourselves with. We can always find someone who falls short of us by comparison. But that kind of self evaluation produces only self righteousness and pride; it does not give us accurate pictures of ourselves, either.’ . God judges us by His standards; should we not do the same?

James gives us three tests to check ourselves with to see if our religion is real.

A BRIDLED TONGUE
The first test James names is that of the tongue. “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” (James 1:26). Remember that in the portion of Scripture we studied last session, James said that we are to be slow to speak. Now he says that if you want a standard by which to judge yourself, your tongue is a good place to begin. Is your tongue under control?

AN UNDERSTANDING HEART
A second test deals with the concerns of your heart. Are you interested in the needs of people? “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this; To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction” (James.1:27). By saying what true religion is, James is not saying that doing those things is the way to get to heaven but rather that if we truly have salvation,’ we will be concerned with people’s needs.  

 
A SANCTIFIED LIFE
The third test James gives is that of sanctification. A Person with true religion, says James, is sure to “keep himself unspotted from the world” (James 1:27). A person who is worldly knows little about true religion. What is worldliness? James will talk more about it, and we shall discuss it in future sessions, but it is enough here to say that worldliness is a concern more for temporal things than for eternal things.