What's Going On?
James 1:19-25

A Sermon by Dr. Neil Chadwick


Shortly after our daughter came home from the hospital with her first baby, she opened the refrigerator door to look for a particular item. Since being in the hospital, a number of people had been involved with food preparation, so the refrigerator was full, and not at all looking the way my daughter had left it a few days before. Startled and confused, she exclaimed, "Hey, what's going on in here?"

Since then, this question has become a family line, applied to many different situations when there's disarray or, things just don't look the way we might expect to find them. "Hey, what's going on in here?" Open the jam jar and see the crystallized sugar: "Hey, what's going on in here?" Open the cream cheese container and see the fuzzy mold growing on one end: "Hey, what's going on in here?" Pull the light string in the bulging closet: "Hey, what's going on in here?" Open the trunk lid: "Hey, what's going on in here?"

I wonder, when God looks down on this earth, or into our houses, work places, and schools, does He also say, "Hey, what's going on in here?"

I'm afraid to say that one thing God sees when He looks "in here" is that we have nearly lost our ability to think and act ethically.

The problems with ethics begin at an early age.

    Take for example the counselor in Idaho who assigned spelling words to second and fifth graders. The students in two classes were told that anyone who spelled all the words correctly, or made only one mistake, would receive a candy bar. No candy bars were offered to students in two other classes.

    The tests were collected and graded, but no marks were put on the papers. The next day, after the students were asked to grade their own papers, the teacher compared the student's grades with her own. In the classes where no candy bars were promised, only one kid cheated by changing wrong answers to correct ones. In the other two classes, all but three kids cheated - just to get the candy bar. (The American School Board Journal)

    In another school, a teacher tried to cut down on cheating by handing out red pens for students to grade their own quizzes and tests. But one boy tried to get a step ahead of his teacher. He broke off the tip of a pencil, pinched it between his fingers, and used the pencil tip to change wrong answers to correct ones without his teacher noticing.

By the time our children reach the teen years, cheating has become widespread.

    In a 1998 "Report Card on the Ethics of American Youth," it was reported that seven out of 10 high schoolers admitted to cheating on an exam. To many kids, cheating is simply a survival skill in a competitive world. Nine out of 10 high school teachers say that cheating is a problem in their schools.

    In a survey of our 3,123 brightest teenagers listed in "Who's Who Among American High School Students" (Lake Forest, Ill.), 80 percent admitted to cheating on an exam.

    What is also interesting is that while 97 percent of the students say, "It's important for me to be a person with good character" and 95 percent say "it’s important to me that people trust me,"

      92 percent admit having lied to their parents in the last 12 months;

      70 percent admit having cheated on an exam;

      47 percent admit having stolen something from a store;

      45 percent say they believe a person has to lie or cheat sometimes in order to succeed; and

      36 percent say they would be willing to lie if it would help them get a good job. (Michael Josephson, founder and president of the Josephson Institute of Ethics in Marina del Rey, CA)

    Recently the Oprah Winfry show highlighted the resignation of Christine Pelton, a high school teacher in Kansas who had given a failing grade to 28 sophomores because they had plagiarized their semester projects from the Internet, even though they had all signed the course syllabus which warned of the consequences of cheating and plagiarism. At first the principal and superintendent agreed that it was plagiarism and the students should get a zero for the assignment. However, after parents complained, the School Board ordered the teacher to give the students partial credit and to decrease the project's value from 50 percent of the final course grade to 30 percent. (AP - February 7, 2002)

Perhaps God is opening the doors of our schools and saying, "Hey, what's going on in here?"

But let's not think this is merely a problem of the young.

    Chuck Colson reported in "Break Point" that in Potomac, Maryland, when students took a state achievement test, "a fifth-grade teacher and the school's principal pointed out wrong answers and urged kids to 'try again.' The students were given far longer to complete the tests than the rules allowed. Some were even called back later and told to change their answers."

    Joseph Ellis may have won a Pulitzer Prize, but was suspended without pay for a year from Mount Holyoke College after lying to his students about serving in Vietnam.

    Notre Dame University football coach George O'Leary resigned after falsifying his athletic and academic achievements on his resume.

Perhaps God is looking in on our teachers and saying, "Hey, what's going on in here?"

Since the collapse of Enron and other large American corporations, we are all painfully aware that our business leaders have also lacked in the area of ethical behavior.

    Amitai Etzioni taught ethics in the prestigious Harvard Business School (HBS). Recently he published an article in the "New Jersey Star Ledger" (August 11, 2002) in which he gave his explanation as to why many of our business leaders have wandered so far from any sense of ethical responsibility. In 1987, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission personally donated $20 million to HBS to support the teaching of ethics. One might rightly wonder where that money went.

    Etzioni reported that the initial proposal never got to first base due to such arguments as: "we are here to teach science," "students should get their ethics education at home and at church," and the rhetorical question, "Whose ethics, what values, are we going to teach?" A marketing professor worried that the teaching of ethics would shut down his whole department because most of the strategies they taught amounted to lies. A finance professor worried that ethics would hurt his courses - he taught his students how to make a profit by breaking implicit contracts.

    Throughout the Business School, the attitude was promoted that any company which focused on ethics would be driven out of business by another company dedicated only to efficiency. The only time a company should behave ethically would be when they are certain that they would achieve some "good will" - in other words, do it for good public relations.

    A realistic example of this ethical uncertainty was the case study offered to a group of HBS students. A customer wanting to purchase a large number of airline tickets called the president of a struggling airline to ask if the planes would be still flying in a few months. The CEO answered honestly that he didn't really know. The students (and later the entire faculty with the exception of two) concurred that the CEO should have lied - after all, he worked for the shareholders, not the customers!

Perhaps God is looking in on our business and professional leaders and saying, "Hey, what's going on in here?"

But the same may be said of the church.

    Some Christian Sociologists have alarmed us by pointing out that in the American culture, the behavior of people inside the church is hardly different than those outside.

    Take for example this almost humorous story related by a fellow pastor after having been printed in a Tampa, Florida paper. A woman tried to entice an ex-lawman to kill her husband for $600 - she apparently had a life insurance policy on him for $183,000. "She said her religious beliefs prevented her from divorcing her husband ."

God is opening the doors to our homes and churches and saying, "Hey, what's going on in here?"

Ethics may simply be defined as those actions which meet a specific standard, one that is higher than what merely serves what we consider to be our own best interest. Christian ethics takes it to an even higher level and expects that our behavior will meet the standard which is acceptable to the Lord as revealed in His Word.

In James 1:19-25, we are provided with five steps leading to that ethical behavior which will result in our receiving God's blessing ("he will be blessed in what he does" - verse 25).

What are those steps?

1) Step one is suggested in verse 19: bridling the tongue and anger.

    Elsewhere James makes it clear that it is the tongue which often gets us into trouble (3:2-13), and we all know what uncontrolled anger will lead to. The path to ethical behavior begins with the wisdom of knowing when - and when not - to speak, and the discernment between righteous anger and that which explodes when one's perceived rights are violated.

    Also note that this is paralleled to verse 21 which expects that Christians will rid themselves of moral and ethical impurities. It becomes our responsibility, as Hebrews 12 says, to "lay aside the sin which so easily besets us." Of course we understand that getting rid of this dirtiness and "naughtiness" (KJV) is accomplished through the power of the Holy Spirit, but nonetheless, the repentance is our responsibility.

    Some of you have seen the ancient car I drive around town. The plan is to fix up the body of the car, but it would be foolish to think that I can merely find a blue paint to match, and spray over the rust spots. No, I must first peel, scrape and sand away all the rust, taking it down to the bare metal before applying the primer and then the top coat of paint. Ethical behavior requires, first of all, a careful inspection and identification of personal "rust spots", and then applying the cleansing power of the Spirit.

2) The next important step is that of listening to, and accepting God's Word which is able to save us (verses 19 + 21) - we must have faith in this Word.

    We all understand the difference between hearing and listening. The writer of "Revelation" said it in connection with the message given to each of the seven churches, "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says."

    Parents say it to their children, and wives say it to their husbands, "Are you listening to me?" Or perhaps more accusingly it comes out, "You're not listening to me!"

    The fact is, there are so many sounds around us all the time, so much noise pollution, that we fail to even hear the voice of God. It's time for us to take back the quiet so that we may better hear that "still small voice"(I Kings 19:12). Let's turn off the radio, the television, the stereo system, the walkman, pager, and cell phone. Let's see if we might be able to hear God's Word again.

    A couple of months ago I heard someone talk about what it was like to drive one of the new breed of hybrid cars - they have both gas and electric engines. The one thing that bothered this driver was that when he stopped for a traffic light, the car made absolutely no sound. He couldn't stand it!

3) Step three takes it beyond listening to the Word, to studying the Word. ("the man who looks intently" - verse 25)

    What this really means is that the person literally "bends beside, i.e. leans or stoops over so as to look inside." If your boss gives you an important report, instead of quickly perusing it, he probably expects you to "pore over" it.

    What is it that is so carefully inspected? The "perfect law of liberty." Usually we think the law is restrictive and limiting, not freeing. Actually, the law not only gives us the liberty to move about in relative security, it actually frees us to live "the righteous life that God desires" (verse 20).

    In this passage, I love the analogy of the mirror - looking into God's Word helps us see ourselves accurately, but thankfully, the Word is also likened to the water in the sink as well as the mirror over the sink. The Word builds our faith in God's forgiveness and cleansing power so that we understand that it is not by our own means that we are made clean.

4) After ridding ourselves of sin, listening to and studying God's Word, we are then required to take the next step of remembering ("not forgetting" - verse 24) the Word.

    How foolish it would be for someone to look in the mirror, but then walk away, forget what was observed, and not take care of the obvious food particles on his mouth and teeth!

    Apparently, and unfortunately, we have decided that memorizing God's Word is no longer necessary. I used to tell my students at the Bible College that it will be a great day when a Bible computer chip is finally ready to be surgically inserted in our skulls, programmed in such a way that we can bring up any verse instantly. However, until then, students better continue studying for the exam!

    Incidentally, perhaps the first best verse to memorize would be, "Thy Word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee." (Psalm 119:11)

5) The final step is simply "doing" the word (verses 22 + 25).

    It almost goes without saying that no matter how well we listen, or how diligently we study and memorize the Word, it's pretty useless if we are not also "doing" the Word.

    It also sounds contradictory. Normally we want to relate to words by speaking them, but James calls on us not to be speakers of the word, but rather to be doers, or performers, of the word. That may be why he says, "Not many of you should presume to be teachers." If you're not prepared to "do", then you should be reluctant to "teach", "because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly." (James 3:1)

    This of course reminds us of how Jesus concluded the Sermon on the Mount, saying, "Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock." (Matthew 7:24)

God's rich blessings come to those who are: ridding themselves of sin, hearing, studying, remembering, and doing God's Word.

So when God opens the door of your life and peers inside, what will He say? Will He say, "Hey, what's going on in here?"

Thinking about this reminded me of the stark white lettering on the expansive, black, highway billboard which simply said,

"Don't make me come down there." God

Of course we know He is coming down here. But, as Jesus said, "When the Son of man cometh shall he find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8) I guess the answer lies in whether or not we are found to be ethical, that is, doers of the word.

  • - - Return to Top of this Page
  • - Email a Link to this Page
  • - Go To Next Sermon by Dr. Neil Chadwick
  • - Back To Sermons Page or to the Sermons Alphabetical List
  • - - Download This Sermon 
    This Page's Title Is:

                       
    Your Name Is:

                       
    Your Email Address Is:

                        
    Your State and Country:

    Please identify your vocation:

         Senior Pastor.     Associate Pastor.
            Youth Pastor.    Lay Minister.
                  Church Member.

    Which section of this site would you most likely return to?

         Sermons     Articles     Stories   
             Poems     Hymns    Articles for Leaders
               Marriage Articles         A Bit of Humor

    Would you like to receive the free weekly E-mail Circular?

      YES

    If you have a web page, would you like to establish a reciprocal link?

      YES

    Feel free to add a comment or prayer request: