RECEIVE THE ENGRAFTED 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.

Sometimes, the Message paraphrase helps us get it in modern language. The Message says the first part of the verse like this, “So throw all spoiled virtue and cancerous evil in the garbage.” The Spirit of God will help us, but we must throw out some garbage in our lives. The NLT says it this way, “So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives.” We really must keep the filth out. When we walk with the Spirit of God, He helps us get all the filthiness out of our lives that we were so used to walking in. It reminds me of people who live in a house with clutter and filth. I know, with some, it could be a sickness that causes this, but with many others, it seems that they just get used to it and begin to ignore it. Instead of taking out the garbage, they just come to accept the mess as normal. We are not to accept the filth of this world. We must take out the garbage in our lives and learn how to keep it out.

Today’s scripture then says, with meekness (humility) receive the engrafted Word. We know Jesus said to come and learn of Him because He was meek and lowly of heart. That meekness must be important in our approach to the Word of God. We know we are to come humbly, yet boldly to the Throne of Grace, and it seems we must do the same with the Word of God. The opposite of this would be to come religiously, or in a proud manner acting like, “I know this,” or “I got this.” We should always approach the Word with humility. When we come to learn, asking the Lord for His guidance, it puts us in a position to receive, and to receive the Word will save our souls.

But let’s back up to where the King James says that we are to receive the engrafted Word. Engrafted means to implant, to incorporate in a permanent way. It is like when you graft skin, and the new skin becomes a part of the old skin. When you engraft one plant with another plant, the two plants become one. And when we do that with the Word of God, our soul, mind, will, and emotions get saved. They go through the metamorphic process, and you become a whole new you. Your spirit is born again and is new and then, if you receive the engrafted Word of God, your soul will be saved.