James Expounds on Faith Volume 12

 
Get Rid of our Moral Uncleanness & Receive the Word of God

James 1:21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted Word, which is able to save your souls. KJV Note: NKJV=New King James Version

It is never unclear or poorly stated and described by God what His desire or will is for those of us whom He has adopted into His Heavenly 👪 family, however, we try to mold, manufacture, or massage the Word of God to fit into our fleshly desires instead of bending our knee to His will and allowing God the Holy Spirit to lead us into all righteouness as He declares it in His Word. The Apostle James wants to make it very clear to each and everyone of us who declare that we belong to Christ Jesus our Lord that we must not only say these words, but we must show them to be true by the new life we live for Him by the Power of the Holy Spirit who implanted deeply within our souls the very desires of God that all the writers (the Apostle James here) of the Word of God have 🖋 penned for our edification, education, and enlightenment. Therefore, we read these next words from the Apostle James to steer us clear of our old behavior that was and is detrimental to our well being while we remain pilgrims here on the 🌎 earth, "Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted Word, which is able to save your souls." (James 1:21) (KJV). The little English phrase 'lay apart' is translated by the Greek word apotithēmi which means to put away (literally or figuratively): - cast off, lay apart, lay aside, lay down, put off. The English word 'filthiness' is translated by the Greek word rhuparia (used this one time in the New Testament) meaning dirtiness (morally). The English word 'superfluity' is translated by the Greek word perisseia which means a surplus, that is, an abundance. The English word 'naughtiness' is translated by the Greek word kakia which means badness, that is, (subjectively) depravity, or (actively) malignity, or (passively) trouble: - evil, maliciousness, naughtiness, wickedness. In other words, we are to put away or lay aside all the filthiness/moral uncleanness, depravity and badness in our old 👨 man with all the abundance that was front and center in our lives before we belonged to Jesus Christ. It is not the Holy Spirits job to force our wills to bend to His will, but when we bend our knee to Him and say and mean for Him to take over, then He will do just that, but likewise when we grieve Him, then He will become silent in our souls and our lives and we will revert back to the old 🧓 man we were before we came to Jesus Christ our Lord.

This is unacceptable and we must repent and turn back to the truth of the Word of God as the Apostle Paul wrote of in this manner likening it to one changing or taking off their old clothes and put on some new and better clothes, as it is written, "This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness." (Ephesians 4:17-24) (NKJV). When we humbly welcome the Word of God that has been implanted within our souls when we were regenerated and born again, then we can do exactly what the Apostle Paul declares above and we will be living out our true lives as Christ wants for us and requires for us to do. We must know and understand that the Moral Law of God (the Ten Commandments) were given to Moses to give to the Hebrew Nation outwardly on Stone Tablets, however, through and by the hearing and believing the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Romans 10:9-10) the Moral Law of God is then written in our inner man 👨 and inner woman 👩 just as God promised He would do through the Prophet Jeremiah with these words, "Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more." (Jeremiah 31:31-34) (NKJV). Therefore, with this being our reality, we should watch with all vigilance against the wiles/trickeries of the devil trying to lead us back into sin, but instead we should allow the Holy Spirit to lead us into the truth of the Word of God.

Here is what Albert Barnes had to say of James 1:21, "In view of the fact that God has begotten us for His own service; in view of the fact that excited feeling tends only to wrong, let us lay aside all that is evil, and submit ourselves wholly to the influence of truth. The word here rendered filthiness, occurs nowhere else in the New Testament, It means properly filth; and then is applied to evil conduct considered as disgusting or offensive. Sin may be contemplated as a wrong thing; as a violation of law; as evil in its nature and tendency, and therefore to be avoided; or it may be contemplated as disgusting, offensive, loathsome. To a pure mind, this is one of its most odious characteristics; for, to such a mind, sin in any form is more loathsome than the most offensive object can be to any of the senses. And superfluity of haughtiness - Literally, 'abounding of evil.' It is rendered by Doddridge, 'overflowing of malignity;' by Tindal, 'superfluity of maliciousness;' by Benson, 'superfluity of malice;' by Bloomfield, 'petulance.' The phrase 'superfluity of naughtiness,' or of evil, does not exactly express the sense, as if we were only to lay aside that which abounded, or which is superfluous, though we might retain that which does not come under this description; but the object of the Apostle is to express his deep abhorrence of the thing referred to by strong and emphatic language. He had just spoken of sin in one aspect, as filthy, loathsome, detestable; here he designs to express his abhorrence of it by a still more emphatic description, and he speaks of it not merely as an evil, but as an evil abounding, overflowing; an evil in the highest degree. The thing referred to had the essence of evil in it; but it was not merely evil, it was evil that was aggravated, that was overflowing, that was eminent in degree. The particular reference in these passages is to the reception of the truth; and the doctrine taught is, that a corrupt mind, a mind full of sensuality and wickedness, is not favorable to the reception of the truth. It is not fitted to see its beauty, to appreciate its value, to understand its just claims, or to welcome it to the soul. Purity of heart is the best preparation always for seeing the force of truth. And receive with meekness - That is, open the mind and heart to instruction, and to the fair influence of truth. Meekness, gentleness, docility, are everywhere required in receiving the instructions of religion, as they are in obtaining knowledge of any kind. The Gospel is here represented under the image of that which is implanted or engrafted from another source; by a figure that would be readily understood, for the art of engrafting is everywhere known. Sometimes the Gospel is represented under the image of seed sown; but here it is under the figure of a shoot implanted or engrafted, that produces fruit of its own, whatever may be the original character of the tree into which it is engrafted. The meaning here is, that we should allow the principles of the Gospel to be thus engrafted on our nature; that however crabbed or perverse our nature may be, or however bitter and vile the fruits which it might bring forth of its own accord, it might, through the engrafted word, produce the fruits of righteousness. It is not, therefore, a weak and powerless thing, merely designed to show its own feebleness, and to give occasion for God to work a miracle; but it has power, and is adapted to save."

If you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ and His amazing healing power, pray this from your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ (you speaking directly to Him), Dear Lord Jesus, I confess to You that I am a sinner and I need Your forgiveness. I believe You shed Your Blood and died for my sins. I believe that You rose from the dead proving that You alone are God. I repent of my sins. I want to turn from my sins. I ask You Dear Lord Jesus to come into my heart and take control of my life. I want You to be my Lord, Savior, and my God. Amen...


Sincerely in Christ,


Clifford D. Tate, Sr.


Author of “Silent Assassins of the Soul - Are you Broken by Pornography and Masturbation? You can be Restored by the Lord Jesus Christ and brought into Deliverance, Freedom, and Victory! A Guide for Men and Women in the Enemy’s Crosshairs” e-book available now @ Amazon Kindle, @ Apple I Bookstore for IPod, Barnes and Noble for Nook, Reader Store for Sony Reade, Kobo, Copia, Gardners, Baker and Taylor, and eBookPie…