JAMES 1:22-25
BE AN EFFECTIVE DOER OF THE WORD
[Luke 12:41-48]
If the implanted Word is received it will work itself out into actions. It is never sufficient to simply hear the Word we must take into heart and do it. Simply hearing a good sermon or Bible study will not make you grow and receive God’s best blessings. The implanted Word be accepted & then put into action. It is in the doing of God’s Word that spiritual growth and the blessings of God come. Too many Christians mark their Bibles but their Bibles never mark them! God wants His people to put His Word into action (CIT).
I. OBEY THE WORD, 22.
II. FORGOTTEN REFLECTION, 23-24.
III. BLESSED ABIDING, 25.
Verse 22 is a command to obedient action to the Word of God. But prove yourselves doers of the Word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.
In biblical culture, the word hearers identified those who attended a lecture without becoming disciples. People who demonstrate by their actions, or might I say lack of actions, that hearing alone is enough, God says are deceiving or are only kidding themselves. And that deception may be betraying the ultimate spiritual danger, the danger of not truly being saved. Scripture does not teach a salvation by works, nor does it teach a salvation for those who do not obey God by obeying His Word. Christ’s sheep are marked on the ear and on the foot, they hear His voice and follow Him (Jn.10:27).
An authentic believer is one who receives the implanted Word and continually strives for more and more practical obedience to the Word. They submit to the Word’s authority and comply with its directions. God wants a listener to become a disciple, an obedient follower of Jesus. One who listens to the Word without intending to obey it, becomes elf-deceived.
It is common knowledge that the doctor’s most ANNOYING PATIENT (except for the one who doesn’t pay his bills) is the one who doesn’t follow his orders. Such a person comes into the doctor’s office with a complaint, submits to an examination, hears the diagnosis, and is told what to do. But that’s as far as it goes. The patient either cheats on the recommended diet, doesn’t take the prescribed medicine, refuses to exercise, continues to smoke, or doesn’t return for a checkup. In so doing, he not only frustrates the doctor but also may hasten his exit from this world.
God has "problem patients" too–Christians who hear His Word and understand what they should do, but who don’t follow through. And the consequences may be very serious.
One man after many years of being in church regularly became involved with another man’s wife and began to talk about divorcing his mate. Friends tried to talk him out of it. Although he admitted that his contemplated action was wrong, he did it anyway. Today he’s a very unhappy man. He has cried hot, bitter tears, saying over and over, "If only I had obeyed God! If only I had obeyed God!" He has confessed his sin, and God has forgiven him, but he still lives under a burden of deep regret. How he wishes he had followed God’s clear biblical instructions on marriage.
Unless we obey God’s Word, we cannot experience spiritual health. If we are doers of the Word, we will not be God’s "problem patients." Obeying God is the best prescription for spiritual health.
The Lord hasn’t made His Word available just to give us interesting reading. He is preparing us for action. The implanted Word only flourishes in the enriched soil of true obedience. To think otherwise is to delude ourselves.
Growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ calls for more than simply putting new information into the computer of our brain – important as that is. When we listen to a sermon, read a devotional message, or gain new insight from a book, we must determine to put into practice what we have learned. Only then can God’s truth become a personal possession.
I’ve read that when EDWARD VI, the king of England in the 16th century, attended a worship service, he stood while the Word of God was read. He took notes during this time and later studied them with great care. Through the week he earnestly tried to apply them to his life. That’s the kind of serious-minded response to truth the apostle James calls for in today’s Scripture. A single revealed fact cherished in the heart and acted upon is more vital to our growth than a head filled with lofty ideas or dreams about God.
Do you feel as if you’ve reached a spiritual plateau? Check and see if there is any biblical promise you’ve not claimed, any command you’ve not believed. New light is not given unless you are walking in the light you already have. The growth equation for the Christian is always hearing + doing = growing.
If we would be initially saved or continue to be sanctified, it will be because we hear and obey. Those that have ears to hear will obey. True hearing and receiving must result in obedience. One step forward in obedience is worth years of hearing about it. The Bible contains the stories of people performing or living out the Word of God. It’s obedience that pleases God and proves our love for Him (Jn 14:15).
No truth of God stored in the mind Will ever meet our needs,
Until that truth gives birth to faith And faith gives birth to deeds.
II. FORGOTTEN REFLECTION, 23-24.
James continues with an unforgettable illustration of the difference between hearing and doing. In verses 23 and 24 he first gives the negative example and then in verse 25 the positive example. Verse 23, 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; (24) For once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.
The main purpose of a mirror is so that you can see yourself and make yourself look as clean and neat as possible. As we look into the mirror of God’s Word we see ourselves as we really are. The illustration is about a man looking somewhat carelessly at himself in a mirror, leaving, and then immediately forgetting the representation of himself which he saw in the mirror. The mere hearer of the Word does something similar to this. He hears the Word, but it is soon forgotten and has no abiding influence on him. The point is that hearing without doing is of little or no benefit.
It is implied here that the Word of God is the spiritual counterpart to the mirror. It presents a correct and complete delineation of the face of the soul. It shows the man who looks into it what needs to be cleansed and made right in his life, even as the mirror does in regard to our bodies. But this mirror reveals not only what we actually are; it shows us also what we can become by the grace of God.
A MIRROR does not lie to you. It REFLECTS YOU exactly as you are. And the Word of God does that, too. We see ourselves as we are in the Word of the Lord. If we do not do anything about it, we are like the man who looks in the mirror and sees what he ought to do, but he just goes on and forgets about it. For example, he looks in the mirror and notices he ought to shave, but he does not shave. He looks in the mirror and sees he needs a haircut, but he does not get his hair cut. Or he notices that his face is dirty, but he does not wash it.
Two boys were talking and one said to the other, "I know what you HAD FOR BREAKFAST this morning. The other boy asked, "What?" The first boy replied, "You had eggs for breakfast. I see it on your face." The boy answered," I did not - that’s what I had yesterday morning."
How many church members see the Word of God point out something in their life that needs correction and then leave and never take care of it. How many people learn who they are in Christ and what they can do through Christ and then continue being what they are, and not allow God to transforms them into His image.
III. BLESSED ABIDING (25).
The doer of the Word is described in verse 25. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not becoming a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.
The "doer" of the Word carefully considers what he hears, being mindful of is implication for life. There are four verbs of response here to describe the action of obedient listeners. The word for gaze (parakupto) has the sense of looking carefully, closely, or seriously into a thing, doing a mental and spiritual study. It speaks of stooping down so as to see an object more clearly or to know it better. They listen with a desire to learn what to do.
The mirror that he gazes into is the perfect law of liberty. It seems paradoxical that a law could give us freedom, but contrary to public opinion God’s Word does not put fetters on people, it liberates them. The Word is called perfect because it is without error and provides everything man needs for faith and practice in living the Christian life.
"God’s perfect law gives liberty to those who bring themselves under its authority. Indeed only those who live in accordance with God’s law are truly free" (Vaughan, BSC, James, p. 40). Sanctification frees us from the control of sin, Satan and self.
Only if a musician learns the LAWS OF MUSIC, its notes, keys, timing etc. is he at liberty to play, to make music instead of noise. If you have not learned and practiced the rules you are not at liberty to play.
Only as a motorist learns and follows the rules of driving can he drive without endangering others. Obedience to laws set traffic free to move and obedience God’s Word sets the Christian free from the control of sin, self & Satan. He is then free to serve God. (John 8:31-34).
The doer of the Word not only looks into the law of liberty, He remains, abides or continues in it. He mediates on its precepts and strives to put them into practice throughout life. The phrase emphasizes habitual activity. Those who do not remain or abide become forgetful hearers. The third verb for doers of the Word is that they do not forget what they hear. They do not suffer from spiritual amnesia.
The effectual doer, the man who abides in the Word is blessed in what he does. The blessing is not simply after the deed is accomplished but is received in the course of performing it. The act of obedience carries in it a blessing (John 13:14; Lk. 11:28).
My son Rannon’s Little League BASEBALL COACH was a patient man. During a game he often tried to help them learn what to do. He would yell out to the Yankees as they stood at their positions, "How many outs?" "One!" A couple of them replied. "Where’s the runner?" "On first," one or two others offered. "Okay, if it’s a ground ball, throw it to second," the coach reminded the 9 and 10 year olds.
So, the batter grounded the ball to the third baseman, who seemed paralyzed with the idea of knowing what to do. By the time he decided, it’s too late. Everybody was safe.
Once again, the players were hearers but not doers. Time after time, the coach reminded his players what to do. Time after time, they did something else.
There’s a bit of this tendency in all of us. God has told us what He expects of us, yet we so often fail to do it. And we miss the blessing summarized in Psalm 1:1-3. READ.
Doers will "be blessed" in what they do. That’s a pretty good reason to be a doer of the Word and not merely a hearer. The way of obedience is the way of blessing.
CONCLUSION
Jesus closed His sermon on the Mount with the illustration in Matthew 7:21-27. The wise man built his house upon the rock. Only obedience to the Word builds a life on Jesus, the Rock of Ages.] God’s Word is a mirror. It shows us what our sins are and also what we can be in Christ’s righteousness.
Do you spend as much time preparing the soil of your heart for the Word as you do preparing the soil of your lawn or garden? Do you spend as much time gazing into the mirror of the Word as you do the mirror on the wall? Do you uphold national and city statues but forget God’s commandments? Remember the more time you spend looking into God’s mirror the more you should reflect Jesus’ image (2 Cor. 3:18).
