November 28th

Receive the Ingrafted Word

James 1:21
Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.

Receive with Meekness

The King James rendering of this verse is a little vague and ambiguous to us. A study of the words used in this passage will yield a wording something like the following sentence.

Lay aside all that defiles and dishonors, and put away any profit that might be gained from maliciousness and ill will, and with gentleness of spirit let the instruction of God’s word be implanted in you, which is able to rescue and keep safe your soul, your mind, and your life.

A Teachable Spirit

The word of God must be received with meekness, or with a gentle and teachable spirit. If we feel we already know things, it’s hard to receive anything new into ourselves. So, to receive the revealed truth of God’s word, we may need to come down off our high horse, and approach the word of God as a little child, not knowing so much, but desiring to be instructed.

Hidden in the Heart

The word must be implanted in us to do its work. The sower sows the word, and it is sown into the soil of the human heart. It is hidden in our heart, where it can germinate, grow and bring forth the light of understanding, and the manifested fruit of the word of God in our life.

Able to Save Your Soul

The verse says that the word of God implanted in us is able to save our souls. Yet James is talking to people who are already saved, in the Biblical sense of having salvation in Christ. The word “soul” here is speaking of the mind. The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Romans, exhorts the church to not be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of the mind. The word of God, implanted in the heart, will renew the mind, and will bring a supernatural transformation of thinking, a mind that is renewed to think in line with God's truth.

Receive the ingrafted word into your heart today. Let us humble ourselves and recognize that we don’t know very much, no matter what level we have arrived at in our understanding of the word. There is always more. Let’s not make the mistake of thinking that we have somehow arrived at our destination of divine knowledge. Feed on His unfathomable word today and every day, and grow in the knowledge of God.