The Perfect Law Of Freedom - James 1:23-25 Series

God did not design His Word to be understood at a glance. It is not a bumper sticker. Each passage of Scripture is like a nut inside a shell. You cannot get to the nourishment until you penetrate the shell. And that takes a lot of thought. There is no shortcut. Think of a lollipop with a tootsie roll center and there is no way to bite through it. You just have to take the time to roll it around in your mouth until you finally get through to the treat inside.

2 Timothy 2:7 Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this.

Think about that. Timothy knew Greek, and the historical context – he even knew Paul personally! And yet even Timothy, in order to gain the insight needed to understand what Paul was saying, had to spend some time to reflect on what Paul had written. God took massive amounts of truth and folded them down with an amazing economy of words so that millions of preachers and teachers and scholars studying this book for 2000 years have not exhausted it. But that folded up message takes some time to unfold.

Psalm 119:130 The unfolding of your words gives light

Most people read the Bible way too fast. If you want to train your heart to be bored with the Bible, just read something you don’t understand, and then the next day move on to something else you don’t understand. Do that every day and you will train your heart to hate Bible reading. Nothing is more boring and useless than looking at words that you don’t understand.

Paul tells Timothy that gaining insight will take some hard work and reflection. But did you catch the promise?

2 Timothy 2:7 Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this.

Do you believe that promise? Do you believe that God will give you insight if you persist long enough? I think a lot of people give up on a passage too soon because they don’t really believe that. They don’t believe there actually is a tootsie roll at the center of every passage of Scripture. They suck on a verse for a little while and then decide, “There’s nothing here beyond the obvious. I’ll move on.”

God wants us to think deeply about His Word. That is what that word reflect means – to think deeply. Explore the passage like a little kid who just moved into a big mansion and you are all excited to go exploring every room.

Review James 1:21-25 from memory word for word three times today.

Prayer:

Go back to the portion you read in Psalm 1 today and talk to God about what you read. Ask Him to show you how to put what you learned into practice in specific ways today.

Doing: Do not be a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the Word (James 1:22-25)

? Write down at least one specific thing you will do to put what you have learned from God’s Word into practice.

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? Check this box when you have done it.

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Fellowship:

Try to have a conversation with someone today about the most helpful thoughts that came out of your time with the Lord today.

Further Study:

One of the most important things you can do with the Word of God is to learn how to interpret it. The Bible does you no good at all if you misinterpret it. Without the skills of interpretation, the truth of Scripture will remain locked up out of your reach. Resources for learning how to interpret the Bible: