Doers and Not Hearers Only

James 1:19-25 ESV

“Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.”

We who claim to be children of God and followers of Jesus Christ are to be those who are quick to hear the word of the Lord and to do what it says to do. We are not to be those who are dragging our feet and who don’t take seriously God’s words to us. We are not to be slothful. We are not to be those who take in the word of the Lord with our physical ears and then let what we heard “go in one ear and out the other” without retaining what we heard and without responding to what we heard with obedience.

In general we should be those who are good listeners and who are not quick-tempered and who do not jump to wrong conclusions because we didn’t really listen to what was being said. Now, I don’t believe we should entertain lies, especially if they are lies we have heard spoken multiple times. We don’t need to be good listeners when it comes to the lies of the enemy. And I am not suggesting that we be rude to people, but that we can refute the lies of the enemy with the truth, and we don’t have to entertain the lies.

Now, as followers of Jesus Christ and as those who claim him as our Lord and Savior, we are also to put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness from our lives. Sin is no longer to be our master. Sin is no longer to be our habit, our practice. We are to be those who have been delivered out of our lives of slavery (addiction) to sin who are now walking in holiness and in righteousness, in practice, in the power of God. We are now to be those who are obeying the Lord and who are no longer obeying sin, in practice.

For we are not given God’s word for intellectual exercise or so we can show how knowledgeable we are about what the Scriptures teach. And we are not to take in God’s Word as part of religious practice and routine without it having an impact on our lives in practice. For we are given the Word of the Lord and the commandments of God (New Covenant) to put the Word into practice in our daily lives. But we are not under the Old Covenant, but we are under the New Covenant, and that is what we are to obey.

Now if we are those who do hear the Word of God with our physical ears but who do not retain the Word that we heard, in practice, then we are like someone who stands before a mirror and who looks at himself but then just walks away and forgets what he saw. And I have seen this take place in some people’s lives, some of whom know the Scriptures intellectually but who just walk away and willfully forget what they heard, if it is something they do not want to put into practice in their daily lives.

But we are to be those who not only listen with our ears but who listen with our hearts and who heed (obey) what we hear. Again we do not have to obey the Old Covenant liturgical, ceremonial, sacrificial, purification and dietary laws and restrictions. We do not have to obey specific instructions given to specific people at a particular time in history which do not apply to our lives today. We do have to obey the commands of Jesus given to all his followers and the teachings of the apostles which are intended for all of us who claim Jesus Christ as Lord and as Savior of our lives.

Thus, we are to be doers of the Word of God and not hearers only who walk away and forget what we look like, from a spiritual perspective. And we are to be those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, the gospel of our salvation, but the full gospel message, and not this half-truth gospel which is permeating the American church today. For the true gospel teaches us that we must deny self, die daily to sin and to self, and follow the Lord Jesus in obedience to his commands, in practice, or we don’t have salvation.

For it is not those who profess faith in Jesus Christ with their lips who are saved from their sins and who have the hope of eternal life with God in heaven. But they are those who put the word of God into practice, who obey the Lord, in practice, and who walk in holiness and in righteousness, and not in sin, who have true hope of salvation from sin and eternal life with God. For Jesus said that not everyone saying to him, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of God but only the one DOING the will of God the Father.

[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]

Seek the Lord  

An Original Work / July 20, 2012

Based off Isaiah 55

“Come to Me all you who thirst; come to waters.

Listen to Me, and eat what’s good today,

And your soul will delight in richest of fare.

Give ear to Me, and you will live.

I have made an eternal covenant with you.

Wash in the blood of the Lamb.”

Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him. 

Let the wicked forsake his way, in truth.

Let him turn to the Lord, and he will receive mercy.

Freely, God pardons him.

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,

Nor are your ways My ways,”

declares the Lord, our God.

“My word that goes out of My mouth is truthful.

It will not return to Me unfulfilled.

My word will accomplish all that I desire,

And achieve the goal I intend.

You will go in joy and be led forth in peace.

The mountains will burst into song… before you, 

And all of the trees clap their hands.”

https://vimeo.com/379408296