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Filling Holes

             Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. (James 1:21) 

Being saved from being mauled by a bear is not the same as being saved from hiring a repair person who has cheated you in the past. Definitions. Once again, it’s all about definitions. There is saved which refers to being granted an eternal and positive relationship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Then, there’s saved which refers to our learning a lesson and being able to say, “Oh no, uh-uh, I’m not going to do that again.” I’m not saying that saved in the first sense has no present value or influence. It’s just that they aren’t the same thing.

In this passage, the type of saving James described is not the first sort. One doesn’t earn one’s salvation, but one can save oneself from dangers encountered during one’s life. There is a story about a person who walked down the street and fell in a hole. The next day, walking down the same street, he avoided the hole. He learned. Better still is the person following him who saw him fall and so avoided doing so even once.

This is one of the uses of Scripture. If we act in accordance with the principles it teaches, we can see the holes others have fallen into and avoid them. But better still, if we see the holes, we can talk to God about them and ask Him with what we should fill the hole. The best answers are: with God and with love, but perhaps this isn’t the right question. It’s not so much with what, as how we fill the hole. 

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