"The Engrafted Word"
"… receive with meekness, the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only …”
— James 1:21-22
Having found in Jesus freedom from the “yoke of bondage” (Gal 5:1) or as Paul called it, the “law of sin and death” (Rom 8:2), the church in Jesus day was in danger of succumbing to idleness. Paul had to address legalism. A belief that the rigorous keeping of all the tenants of the law of Moses and the attending rabbinical midrash would produce righteousness and salvation in adherents. As Paul rightfully pushed Jews converted to Jesus away from this belief, James had to address the fact that their newfound freedom did not mean that they could simply do nothing. Paul and James were not in disagreement with each other. They were addressing completely different matters in the church.
As you read through the book of James, you find that James stresses in a variety of ways the point that real faith produces genuine works. In other words, the person who has truly found the way walks in its paths. If a person makes the claim, “I have come to Jesus Christ and He is my Lord and Savior,” James answers with a profound “Then let your life give evidence of that truth. Let your outward acts reflect what you claim. Justify your faith before others by your good works.”
So, Paul taught that it is our faith that saves us, and James taught that it is our works that give evidence of our faith. When we stand before that great tribunal someday, it is our works that will be examined, not our claims. Not because our works save us but because our works will bear witness to the breadth and depth of our faith. Just like in any modern court of law, evidence must be supplied to substantiate the truth. We can say to the judge we have faith, but what would we bring as evidence of our claim.
Our faith cannot be momentary or fleeting. It must endure. How do we know that we have an enduring faith? It must be tested. It must be tried. In the opening verses of James, he argues that the normal trials that seem to accompany life should not crush genuine faith, they should produce endurance. (James 1:2-3) The Greek word for “trying” is dokimion. It refers to a means of authenticating something. We will be tested and tried. Our faith is constantly assessed as to its authenticity. God is not trying to push us to our breaking points. He is more like a professional trainer who knows how to develop muscles, what diet to follow, etc. to bring about the best results. God’s goal for each of us is not to break our faith, but to stretch and strengthen it, producing endurance because if we endure to the end, we will be held guiltless before the Father. (3 Nephi 12:29)
No faith or a weak faith produces idleness which is a debilitating disease that can cripple the body of Christ. It is far too common in today’s church. If not guarded against, it can affect every believer. Left unchecked, it can neutralize the church’s impact or nullify her testimony. It can make her weak and ineffective. Those are the symptoms. The problem is a rupture between confession and deed, theology and action, hearing and doing. For too many Christians, God’s Word fails to make it from the head to the heart. And for others, His Word gets stuck between the heart and the hands. If His Word does not make it to our hands, then we are hearers and not doers and there are few works that give evidence of our faith.
How do we get beyond our tendency toward inaction? We receive with meekness, the engrafted word (logos), which is able to save souls. (James 1:21) Engrafted is a translation of the Greek emphytos and means “planted.” God’s Word is not innate within us from birth. It is planted there by Him as part of our Christian covenant with Him. In Paul’s sermon to the Hebrews, he reminds them of this reality by quoting Jeremiah, “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people” (Hebrews 8:10)
The repeated failures of Israel to obey the law that God gave to them made it clear that the human heart was not capable of submitting to external rules. Mankind needed a “new heart” so that they could respond truly and obediently to God’s word. So, through baptism God plants His Word within us making it a permanent and inseparable part of the covenant believer, a guiding, commanding and transforming presence within.
By adding the word meekness to the command, James reminds us that we need to be open and receptive to the work of the word in our heart. Christians who have truly been “born again” (v. 18) demonstrate that the word has transformed them by their humble acceptance of that word as their authority and guide for life as exhibited in their works. Alma expresses the exact same thought by comparing the word to a seed and saying that we should “give place” to this seed (word) that it might be planted in our heart. If we nurture the seed then it will swell and grow, increase and strengthen our faith and transform our lives. A seed that is properly nurtured will grow and mature and bear fruit. (works)
Jesus not only freed the Jews from the bondage of the law of sin and death, but He also freed us too. Our freedom gives us the opportunity to look “into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein” (James 1:25) which is the very gospel. The good news that Jesus was lifted up upon the cross where He redeemed (liberated) us from our sins. Jesus says it even better than James, “Behold, I am the law, and the light; look unto me, and endure to the end, and ye shall live, for unto him that endureth to the end will I give eternal life.” (3 Nephi 7:10)
Jesus “gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” (Titus 2:14) Let us receive Him in our hearts with meekness and show the world our faith by our works.