19-20 Remember this, my dear friends! Everyone must be quick to listen, but slow to speak and slow to become angry. Human anger does not achieve God's righteous purpose. 21 So get rid of every filthy habit and all wicked conduct. Submit to God and accept the word that he plants in your hearts, which is able to save you.

22 Do not deceive yourselves by just listening to his word; instead, put it into practice.  23-24 If you listen to the word, but do not put it into practice you are like people who look in a mirror and see themselves as they are. They take a good look at themselves and then go away and at once forget what they look like.  25 But if you look closely into the perfect law that sets people free, and keep on paying attention to it and do not simply listen and then forget it, but put it into practice - you will be blessed by God in what you do.

26 Do any of you think you are religious? If you do not control your tongue, your religion is worthless and you deceive yourself.  27 What God the Father considers to be pure and genuine religion is this: to take care of orphans and widows in their suffering and to keep oneself from being corrupted by the world. James 1:19-27 Good News Translation paraphrase. (English Standard Version link)

In a world where there's much unfairness, and with people striving for possessions and to get their way, it can easily lead to bitterness, angry exchanges, and hurtful words. A natural response is to fight for our corner. But how does James urge believers to respond, and why? (vs 19-20)

We need to realize that hasty words and aggression never produces the kind of result that is in step with God's righteousness. In fact, if we are known for frequently losing our temper and saying hurtful things – what does that suggest about our relationship with the Lord? (vs 26)

Strong words! If we call ourselves a Christian but have a foul mouth our religion is worth nothing. What does James say is the big reason why some Christians can have such a bad reputation and cause people to think that Christianity is worthless? (vs 23-25)

It's the problem of not hanging on to what we see, even if we've had quite a careful look. He uses the illustration of how, after even a careful look in a mirror, we soon forget what we look like. The same can be true of reading God's word or hearing it preached. We may spend a while thinking about what we've read or heard (which is an excellent thing to do) but then rush into the day and not put it into action in the situations we meet and the people we interact with.

There’s a sense in which God's word is like a spiritual mirror that shows us what we are really like. It will help us to do what James says in vs 21. Just as a physical mirror shows if we need to wash our face or lose some weight, so God's word teaches us of wrong things we need to clean from our lives. But two things need to happen. The first is to receive God's word with humble submission. We need to embrace what God spoke through prophets and apostles, and even through His beloved Son, Jesus Christ. (vs 21) And then we need to put His word into practice daily. (vs 22 & 25)

Remember the setting of this first chapter of James. He has spoken about the tensions there can be between the 'haves' and 'have nots', and he's spoken about how our words can be destructive. So what’s the nutshell definition he gives of the sort of religion that God approves of? (vs 27)

We're called to be a serving and giving people rather than self-centred greedy ones. And we're called to turn away from the sort of behaviour and lifestyle that is common and acceptable in the world, but which corrupts the soul. And it's not enough to just know these things – we must put God's word into practise. We mustn’t forget what we are by nature - and how much we need His word planted within us to lead us to salvation.