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

The emphasis of James' teaching about the man and the mirror is that the man quickly forgot what he saw while looking in the mirror! Let's understand that the mirror is not the problem. It simply tells it like it is! The mirror shows us what we really look like. The problem is with the man. James says, "for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was" (James 1:24). In the following verse, James calls this man a, "forgetful hearer" (James 1:25). As a result, he does nothing about the problems he saw. In describing this man as a "forgetful hearer" James is not talking about a person with a memory problem, but rather a person with a priority problem! The man is a "forgetful hearer" because he does not regard what he saw in the mirror as being important! He regards the other things of life as being more important and that's his flaw. This man has made a serious spiritual miscalculation...he has deceived himself! James tells us that unless the Christ follower acts promptly after hearing God's Word, we'll forget the changes and improvements that our reflection showed us we need to address. There's an inherent danger in attending a house of worship where the sound doctrine of God's Word is given and we hear the Word, but do not put it into practice. The danger is that we deceive ourselves! Where is God trying to move us? He's trying to move us to the place where we're, "hearing and doing!" James reminds us that the person who hears the Word and becomes "an effectual doer" of that Word, "will be blessed in what he does" (James 1:25). How awesome is that? It just doesn't get any better than that! Notice that the blessed hearer and doer is one who looks intently at God's Word. In verse 25, James says, "But the one who looks intently at the perfect law" (both the Old Testament and the New Testament). This is not a casual glance. The word means to "stoop and look carefully at something." It's the same word used of John and Mary stooping and looking carefully into Jesus' empty tomb after He rose from the dead (John 20:5, 11). It speaks of pondering the passage and waiting on the Lord to reveal what it means. I have read a passage of Scripture many times, but missed something that seems very obvious once I see it. This is why I like reading the sermons of brothers like J.C. Ryle and Martyn Lloyd-Jones. These men make practical observations about passages that seem so obvious that I think, "Now how come I didn't see that?" It was probably because I didn't take the time to look intently as they did! Praise God forevermore! James tells us that the person who hears and does the Word is blessed! Your move. Be encouraged!