"Doers of the Word of God" (James 1:22-25)

Our text says, "But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does." I read a story about a pastor who was teaching the principles of studying the Bible. He demonstrated how to pick out the commands and promises of the Bible, and what to do with them. Lastly, he reviewed and asked, "Now, what are you to do with the commands?" A little old woman lifted her hand and said, "I underline them in red!" Underlining the commands of the Scripture in red will make for a colorful Bible, but the point of the commands is that we obey them! To hear the Word of God preached and or taught only to fill your mind with knowledge, without doing the Word, undermines and short-circuits God's purpose in giving it! We must understand and embrace the principle that whenever the purpose of something is not known or ignored, abnormal use (abuse) is inevitable! God's purpose in giving us His Word is that we'd obey it! Abuse happens when that purpose is not carried out! To hear without doing leads to self-deception! Self-deception or being deluded is the abuse of being a hearer only! The abuse comes because of hearing and not doing. The result of the abuse is being deceived! Deception is a terrible thing! It causes you to believe a lie for the truth. There's no way to stand against the devil while believing lies! There's no way to mature spiritually by believing lies! God hates deception and so should we! James uses the mirror as a metaphor to describe God's Word. The mirror showed the man the problems he needed to see, but he did nothing about it. When we look into God's Word, it reveals to us the very "thoughts and intentions" of our hearts (Hebrews 4:12). It confronts us with our ugly, selfish attitudes. It exposes our pride. It hits our sinful anger and our rotten speech. It uncovers our deception, greed, and lust. It shows us these things because it's "profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16)! Hearing God's Word without applying it to our lives is the default mode of our sin nature. When the Word of God brings us face to face with our issues, we've got to give it more than passing attention! It requires deliberate focus and obedience! Your move. Be encouraged!