James 1:21-25 – “Remembering”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

²¹Wherefore, putting off all filthiness and excess of badness, receive in humility the engrafted Word, the one being able to save your soul; ²²and be doers of [the] Word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves, ²³because, if someone is a hearer of [the] Word and not a doer, this one is like a man observing the face of his birth in a mirror; ²⁴for he saw himself and has gone away, and immediately forgot what he was; ²⁵but the one looking [intently] into the perfect law, the one of freedom, and continues [in it], not becoming a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in his doing.

As I related in my last two posts, this passage superficially calls us to be doers of the Word and not just hearers. However, my contention is that those are effects, not causes. What I mean is that I don’t think we simply choose to be a doer and therefore we will be. Instead, if we do exactly what the passage teaches and “look intently” into its message, we find it actually has everything to do with our attitude toward the Word. Before we’ll ever be the doers we should be, there must be times in our life where we choose to stop everything else and look into its Truth, we must be sure we see it as a law of liberty, and then we must in some way choose to be mindful of its truth as we go on with life.

It is this last element I want to record some thoughts about today. James says, “…and continues in it, not becoming a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, …”   As I also related earlier, I find that, even after I did take the time to “look intently” into the Bible and even though I clearly see its truth as wonderfully liberating, yet still I seem to forget it quickly. It seems to take an extra effort to remember what I’ve learned, to remember to apply it as I face life.

Actually, I noticed studying II Peter that this business of “not forgetting” and “remembering” is a significant theme in the Bible. Peter warns there if we don’t apply the Word to our lives, we become spiritually “near-sighted and blind, and have forgotten that we have been cleansed from our sins … so I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them … I think it is right to refresh your memory … and I will make every effort to see that you will always be able to remember these things” (1:9-15).

In Mark 8:18, Jesus reproved His disciples, “Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember?”

It says of Peter, “When he remembered … he wept bitterly” (Luke 22:61,62).

The writer of Hebrew admonishes us, “And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons …”

Thomas Manton said, “A bad memory is the cause of a great deal of mischief in the soul.”

And, once again, James specifically calls us to not be “forgetful hearers.”

So remembering and not forgetting are common themes in the Bible. Obviously there is something in our nature that makes us easily forget spiritual truth. When it comes to living out faith, we have an overactive “forgetter.”

That certainly describes my personal experience! What then amazes me is to see that this battle is being waged on a much higher level than just my simple mind. There is a war going on between satan himself and the Holy Spirit over this very matter! Jesus warned in the Parable of the Sower, “Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts” (Luke 8:12). Did you catch that? “Takes away the word!” It is startling to me to realize that satan is actually a minister of forgetfulness. If he can’t stop a person from hearing truth, his next strategy is to steal it from them, to make them forget! On the other hand, Jesus said of the Holy Spirit, “He will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you” (John 14:26).

I suspect that my own heart is so wicked, I really don’t need a personal devil encouraging me to be worse. But the fact is there is one. Therefore I need the Holy Spirit all the more if there’s any hope at all I’ll navigate this life with any measure of success. In the case before us, no doubt I would have a problem with forgetting and remembering with or without satan’s machinations. But this explains all the more why it is such a problem. Our enemy, the devil, like a roaring lion, is roaming the earth, moving us to forget! No wonder it’s so easy to “forget.”

But if we’d be “Blessed in the doing” we must somehow not be “forgetful hearers.” We must somehow deliberately avail ourselves of the Holy Spirit’s help. He is our personal minister of remembering!

I guess what it comes down to is like Paul said of satan, “We are not ignorant of his devices …” If we would continue to grow, we need to know our enemy. And this is a point I don’t think I’ve ever pondered deeply myself – this matter that the devil is actually a personal minister of forgetfulness, and that I specifically need the Holy Spirit to be my personal minister of remembering. Satan will do his work regardless of what I want, but, I know that, to some extent, the Holy Spirit will only help me if I want Him to.

For myself, I really do want to be a doer of the Word. I want to be “blessed in the doing.” God help me to stop life and look intently into Your Word. Help me always to see it as my “perfect law of liberty.” And help me to “continue in it.” But today, particularly, help me be aware of this spiritual battle going on in my memory. May I invite, welcome, and embrace the Spirit’s help to not forget, to remember the liberating truth You’ve shown me, and may I “with unveiled face reflect the Lord’s glory, being transformed into His image, from glory to glory, which comes from the Lord, Who is the Spirit.”