Casting Out Filth

Continuing on with our discovery of counter-cultural passages in James, I want to focus on James 1:19-21: 

"My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for a man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you."

The first thing I wish to point out is that he calls his readers "dear." To me, this implies that the author is well acquainted with the fellowship of believers to which he writes and cares for them. These are no flippant instructions or doctrines, these are "Hints for Happy [Righteous] Living."  But the culturally different piece comes next. "EVERYONE should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry." When I look around my life, society, people, even people I look up to immensely, struggle with this. For instance, even my preacher at church during a sermon will stop and speak firmly to the audiovisual people to "Get to the next slide, please;" or  "Let's move a little bit faster, guys." He stops his sermon almost every week to correct them in a harsh tone. Then he goes back to his preacher voice and everything is "happy love Jesus" again. I think about this in my own life and how this story is reflected. Often times, I am the one that judges my friends problems and tells them what to do. I see that while advice can be good, it is burdensome if it comes when you do not ask, if no one is in real danger. I have taken steps to improve this. 

The next part of the scripture is about "casting out evil/filth." I think that to many non-believers, this is kind of assumed that it is how Christians should act, but don't, so it's a reason to dismiss them. I wish this weren't true, but I can't deny it. There are two things that I think we should do. First, I think that we should try harder to live sinless lives, always reaching toward righteousness, and believe that we can get there. Second, I think that we need to be open about our faults so that we may be encouraged to do something about them. 

This is the question I would like to leave you with, "What would the world look like if we lived a James 1:19-21 style life?" If you can't see the goal, you can get there. Visualize what it could be like; believe that we, someday, can get there if we try.