INTRODUCTION
A common accusation that I often hear is that the church and Christians are a bunch of hypocrites. Unfortunately, the sad reality is that there are followers of Jesus who are hypocrites. There are followers of Jesus who say “here is the message and teachings of Jesus, and you need to follow them, but I am not going to follow them”. And hypocrisy in the life of a follower of Jesus incredibly hinders our ability to live on mission. So how do we as followers of Jesus address the accusation of hypocrisy by followers of Jesus and the church? In James 1:19-27, we see James reveal for us a timeless and true principle that Living on mission requires that we live lives of integrity. In order to embrace and engage in the mission that God has given us to be the vehicles that reveal and reflect Jesus to others, we must live lives of integrity that reveal and reflect Jesus to others. Now to fully understand this timeless and true principle, we first need to wrap our minds around that the word actually means. The word integrity does not mean perfection. Instead, the word integrity literally means to be whole and undivided. Integrity is a consistency between attitudes and actions. Integrity is a consistency between character and conduct.
Integrity is a consistency between what we say and what we do. Integrity is a consistency in what we strive for and what we call others to strive for. Integrity is walking the walk and not just talking the talk.
And in this section of this letter, we see James reveal for us four different ways that we live lives of integrity as we live on mission. First, in James 1:19-20, we see that we live lives of integrity when we respond to others the right way. As followers of Jesus we live lives of integrity that reveal and reflect Jesus to others when we are swift to actively engage others by actively listening to others. We live lives of integrity that reveal and reflect Jesus to others when we are slow to express our opinions to others and instead take the time to listen to their opinions. We live lives of integrity that reveal and reflect
Jesus to others when we are slow to express our displeasure and disapproval of others. Second, in James 1:21, we see that we live lives of integrity when we accept the message and teachings of Jesus. As followers of Jesus we live lives of integrity that reveal and reflect Jesus to others when we accept the message and teachings of Jesus by not being full of ourselves, but by humbly placing ourselves under the authority of the message and teachings of Jesus. We live lives of integrity that reveal and reflect Jesus to others when we accept the message and teachings of Jesus so as to rid ourselves of the moral corruption and wickedness that can cause us to stumble in our relationship with Jesus. And we live lives of integrity that reveal and reflect
Jesus to others when we accept the message and teachings of Jesus in a way that results in our lives reflecting God’s transformational activity in our lives as we become more like Jesus.
Third, in James 1:22-25, we see that we live lives of integrity when we obey the message and teachings of Jesus. As followers of Jesus we live lives of integrity that reveal and reflect Jesus to others when we respond the message and teachings of Jesus by obeying them. We live lives of integrity when we respond to what the message and teachings of Jesus expose in our lives by addressing those areas in our lives so that our lives are aligned and following the message and teachings of Jesus.
Fourth in James 1:26-27, we see that we live lives of integrity when we worship Jesus with our words and our actions toward others. As followers of Jesus we live lives of integrity that reveal and reflect Jesus to others when we worship Jesus with our words to others. We live lives of integrity when we worship Jesus with our actions towards others that reveal and reflect
Christ in our character and our conduct toward others.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1.
Introduce yourself and finish the sentence: The problem with hypocrisy is…
2.
Read James 1:19-20. How do you respond to others? How can our response to others impact the issue of integrity?
Do you respond to others in a way that reveals and reflects Jesus by being swift to listen and slow to speak and anger?
3.
Read James 1:21. How do you respond to the message and teachings of Jesus in your life? How can our response to the message and teachings of Jesus impact the issue of integrity? Are you submitting your thinking to the message and teachings of Jesus? Or are you submitting the message and teachings of Jesus to your thinking?
4.
Read James 1:22-25. Are you obeying the message and teachings of Jesus? What is the difference between hearing and following the message and teaching of Jesus? Between knowing a lot about Jesus and knowing and following
Jesus?
5.
Read James 1:26-27. How can our view of worship impact the issue of integrity? Do you worship Jesus with your words and actions toward others? Or do you view worship as something that occurs for an hour on a Sunday?
MOVING FORWARD
What do you need to do this week to move closer to living a life of integrity?
“But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves." James 1:22 NASB