Week 22—Sunday James 1:6-8
James 1:6-8
THE UNDIVIDED IN HEART SEE GOD
Instead of being idealism, the Sermon on the Mount is stark realism—it emphasizes all the way through that the outer and inner must be one—the words of religion must become flesh, or else it all becomes hypocrisy, playacting.
After laying down the central Beatitude: “Blessed are the pure [undivided] in heart, for they shall see God” (Matt. 5:8), Jesus proceeded to point out the areas of inner division which plague and paralyze the life of the religions and keep them from seeing God continuously. The first thing he points out is that anger is murder, setting the sin back beyond the deed to the hatred (Matt. 5:21-22). Then he closes the gap between worship and human relations—“If you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar.” Note—“before the altar,” not on it, for God cannot accept the gift until the relationship with the brother is right (Matt. 5:23-24). Here, right relationships with your brother has precedence over worship—the worship is worthless unless it issues in right relationships. The word of worship is the word become word unless it becomes flesh in right relationships.
Then Jesus emphasizes the necessity of closing the gap between the deed of adultery and the looking with lust at a woman—they are the same, said he. The lustful look and the deed are one (Matt. 5:27-28). Then he made the legal and the moral one. Men thought themselves good if they were legal—give a certificate of divorce to your wife and that makes you good, because it’s legal. But Jesus puts divorce on the moral alone—unchastity by its very nature dissolves the bond between husband and wife and for that reason and for that reason alone divorce is legitimate. The legal had to be moral or it wasn’t legal. In every situation life had to be one—the Word must become flesh.
O Jesus, Lord and Teacher, you penetrate to our depths. But your penetration is not mere probing—it is healing. For our inner divisions are our inner diseases. So probe on until we become inwardly one. For we would be well and whole. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: I can choose to be one, for I can choose to be won—won by him wholly.