THE LORD’S WORK
JAMES 1:19-27

“Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations…” (Matthew 28:19). Our Lord has given us work to do. It happens to be the most important and one of the most challenging responsibilities Christians have. In James 1:19-27 we find 3 ways to help us to do the work more effectively.
First, we must know what to do (James 1:19-21). We must “put away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls” (James 1:19). Before we can get to work, we must “receive the implanted word”. We cannot do a good job for the Lord if we do not know how he as told us to do it. We would not drive without knowing the laws of the road (such as the speed limit), and we should not try to serve the Lord without knowing what he wants us to do.
Second, we must actually do what we learn (James 1:22-26). James said, “But be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (James 1:22). Knowing we have a dirty house isn’t going to do any good if we don’t clean it. Knowing that we have a job to do as evangelists doesn’t help us, the church, or the lost if we do not practice evangelism. So James also said, “But he that looketh into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and so continueth, being not a forgetful hearer but a doer that worketh, this man shall be blessed in his doing” (James 1:25).
Finally, we must get to work (James 1:27). God tells us what he wants to be doing. He wants us to spread the gospel by shining our Christian lights and helping others both physically and spiritually. So James said, “Pure religion and undefiled before God the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unspotted from the world” (James 1:27).
Now that we know what we must do and how to do it, it is time for us to get to work doing the Lord’s work as effectively as we can.