Topic: The Engrafted Word [DCLM Daily Manna 27 July 2019 Daily Devotional]
Text: James 1:16-27 (KJV)
16 Do not err, my beloved brethren.
17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
18 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
19 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:
20 For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:
24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
26 If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.
27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
Key Verse: “Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls” (James 1:21).
MESSAGE:
If we are going to be free from error, falsehood and deception in this age, we must take in the purest form of the word of God. The engrafted word is God’s word as energised by the Holy Ghost, received and internalised by the believer.
Our text reveals beautiful benefits we derive from God’s word only by being the doers of the Word. The word of God is capable of changing the nature of man; that however bitter and vile his nature seem to be, through that engrafted Word, it might produce righteousness.
We are begotten of the Father by the word of truth. It is a potent fountain that cleanses us from all defilement. When received with meekness, God’s word rids our life of filth within and without, thus giving our soul desired salvation and eternal hope.
The issue of the engrafted word is central and critical to our continued victory in Christ. We must discreetly pursue the Scripture of truth and diligently appropriate the rich knowledge, lessons and blessings garnered therefrom. Those who hear and fail to be doers of the Word deceive themselves as the word of God profits them nothing. However, true wisdom is to adopt methods, positive measures that would enable us read, reflect and constantly remember this word, thus making it functional in our life and experience like Ezra who prepared his heart to seek, do and to teach God’s word (Ezra 7:10). We are reminded in James 1:25, “But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein … this man shall be blessed in his deed”. The fine result we get from God’s word is entire freedom from sin, its depravities as well as its guilt.
Thought For The Day: God’s word is the only potent fount for our soul-cleansing.
The Bible In One Year: 2 Chronicles 30–33
DCLM Daily Manna was written by Pastor William Folorunso Kumuyi; is the founder and General Superintendent of the Deeper Life Bible Church situated at KM 42 on the busy Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Nigeria.
