Discipleship: Transformation by the “Word Implanted”

 

“Therefore putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted which is able to save your souls.” James 1:21

 

While meditating on James 1:2, I wondered what it meant to humbly receive the word implanted. I soon started thinking about the Beatitudes and 2 Peter 1:5–7 and how they might help to explain it. I remembered a chart I had once developed to contrast our human nature with the renewed heart the Beatitudes describe, and I wondered if a third column between the two would help to show the transforming process. James 1:21 tells us our souls are saved by receiving the word implanted, and this made me think of Paul’s similar description of the growth process in 2 Peter 1. Could partaking of the divine nature be the same thing as receiving the word implanted? Perhaps Paul and James simply used different ways to describe the process of absorbing truth and resurrection life into our souls.

 

Below is the chart I put together as a result of my pondering.

 

Original Sin (human nature)	Receive the Word Implanted (the divine nature)	Transformation (a renewed heart)
Pride	Faith	Poor in Spirit
Denial/Pretense	Excellence	Mourning
Independence	Knowledge/Intimacy (surrender)	Meekness
Materialism/Sensuality	Self-Control	Hunger for Righteousness
Stingy/Unforgiving	Perseverance	Merciful
Sinful Desires	Godliness	Pure in Heart
Hiding/Quarrelsome	Brotherly Kindness	Peacemakers
Self-Centered	Love	Persecuted

 

 

So, for example, we start out thinking that our pride and self-sufficiency are what we need to make us happy and fulfilled, but Jesus tells us we won’t be happy unless we are poor in spirit. The gospel explains that nothing we do or bring to God can save us, rather we must receive the gift of faith. Or we use denial to cope and at least pretend happiness, but Jesus tells us blessedness comes with mourning and repentance. Peter tells us we need to partake of the divine nature of excellence rather than pretend self-righteousness.

 

It amazes me, not only how these lists line up with parallel ideas, but also how they affirm some of the ways I interpreted the words in 2 Peter. For example, I believe  knowledge in verse 5 refers to the knowledge of Christ mentioned earlier in the chapter in 2 Peter 1:2&3, and has more to do with intimacy than intellectual pursuit. The surrender intimacy implies easily parallels with the meekness Christ taught. It is our independence and need to control our own lives that keeps us from taking on Christ’s yoke. See Matt. 11:29.

 

In Renewing the Heart, we study how God changes the hearts of characters in the Bible to reflect the Beatitudes, and in Making Disciples in Community, we explore how the changes are worked out in our own lives and communities. Both of them take us deep into the Word so that we not only get into it, but it gets into us. The Word is implanted as we partake of it together and live it out in community.