Keep oneself unspotted from the world.

Keep oneself unspotted from the world.

     What does this scripture in James really mean?  Before this verse he mentioned the issue we all have with the tongue.  Your tongue always gives you away.  What’s inside always comes out.  Whether it be good or bad.  A golfer often will take a few blades of grass and throw them up in the air to see which way the wind is blowing.  The grass with the golfer becomes the tongue with us.  We can always tell the state of a person (at peace or in turmoil) by seeing which way the tongue is going.

     Also, before this verse he talks about true religion.  True religion is helping those who can’t pay you back.  It all comes down to self or selflessness. 

     How do these two concepts tie in together?  To look at it in a positive manner I think the writer is asking us to examine ourselves.  Are we too connected and thereby affected by this world.  Look at your giving and your speaking. 

     Let us be honest.  Living in this world is like living in a garbage dump.  There is (or was) something called “Smoky Mountain” in Manilla, Philippines.  People actually lived there in little huts.  They would go through the garbage and salvage what they could sell.  There really was smoke coming out of that mountain.

     We all live in that garbage dump.  It’s called the world.  I’m not speaking of the physical but the emotional and spiritual garbage that we all are exposed to.  It can stick to our mind and our spirit.   And through fear and coveting we tend to hold on to what we have for ourselves and not freely give from what we have been freely given.  So too concerning our tongue.  We have been wronged so many times we build up walls and thick skin so we cannot be hurt again.  That heart of flesh can become a heart of stone.

     Guard your heart and keep it clean.  You know the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.  Who can bridle this tongue and cleans this wicked heart.  Oh praise be to God.  He alone can do it.  But we have to surrender and allow him.  Detach often and draw near to Him.  Read and pray and meditate on His Word.  Allow it to cleanse.  It’s the only thing that can.  Don’t look for substitutes.  Prayer and meditation alone won’t do it.  It’s the Word that cleanses.  Read His Word and meditate on it. 

One thing that I, desire of the Lord, that, will I seek after.  That I may dwell in the House of the Lord, all the days of my life.  To behold the beauty, the beauty of the Lord.  To inquire of His Temple, the Temple of the Lord.

      When He comes back He is looking for a bride that is spotless.  Without blemish.  I want to be that bride.  I want Him to look at me and see my pure heart.  Yes, we live in this world, and we all are affected by it to some degree or another.  But with His help we can keep our hearts clean and as Jesus spoke of Nathaniel, …”an Israelite in whom is no guile.”

     The heart He is looking for is a heart full of compassion and mercy, of understanding, and faith and thanksgiving, of inner joy unspeakable. And a bride anxiously awaiting His return.

That’s a heart unspotted from the world.

Come, Lord Jesus, Come.