- Is it safe to say that we are doers of the Word?
- Do we set in motion what we hear and read from God's Word?
- What's our reaction when we hear the Word of God lectured?
- Do we actualize the Word into our life, or do we say so be it and go our way?
James 1:22-25
22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror
24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.
25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.
To hear the word and not do it prompts deception, however to hear the word and do it prompts blessing.
In James 1:21, he discussed accepting "the word embedded, which can spare your spirits." In 1:22-27, he proceeds to stress doing the word. In 1:22-24, he demonstrates that meeting the word without doing it prompts deception. In 1:25, he demonstrates that consulting the word joined by doing it prompts blessing.
In 1:26 he talks of the man who professes to be religious, however who does not harness his tongue. He beguiles himself and his religion is useless.
James 1:26
Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless.
In 1:27 he talks about orphans and widows; and, keeping oneself pure from the world's stain.
James 1:27
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
Realize that James is tending to church going individuals. He isn't talking about pagans, yet to the individuals who normally hear the word of God. Perhaps they think they are better off because they often hear the word. That put them a score over those pagans who never go to chapel! Some perhaps invested wholeheartedly in the recognition of specific ceremonies in church. They had been sanctified through water. They took communion. They went to chapel. They didn't steal or kill etc. Be that as it may, James is saying otherwise.
The Word of God possibly benefits us if we set it in motion in our day to day lives. Hebrews stated that,
"For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it"
Hebrews 4:2
The Word of God possibly profits us if we blend it with faith,
"In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead."
James 2:17
Jesus stated,
"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven"
Matthew 7:21
The issue of overlooking God is a regular theme in the Old Testament. Moses cautioned Israel
Deut. 6:12
be careful that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery
Just two chapters later he reminds them
Deut. 8:2
Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.
Mal. 4:4
"See I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes"
Israel didn't have a memory issue. They had a priority issue. God's instructions simply weren't too essential to them. They had other things that were all the more pressing.
So hearers just take a quick look in the reflection of the word, yet they don't effectively fix the issues that they see. They overlook what they see on the grounds that other things are progressively Imperative.
The blesses hearer and doer applies the word so that it changes his conduct and his character in the sight of God.
James doesn't need us applying the word to others. He doesn't need us underlining every one of the directions in the Bible in blue. He needs us to apply it to ourselves. I ask you"Do you need God's blessing in your life?" If you do, then James' answer is clear: Don't be an absent minded listener to the word. Turn into a useful practitioner and you will be honored by God.
God bless you!
