“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.” (James 1:22-25 NASB1995)
There are people living on this planet earth who give lip
service to the Lord Jesus, but whose hearts are far from him. They fake their
Christianity to make others think that they are good Christians, but while,
behind closed doors, they are sinning in secret, and they are plotting evil
against others, some of whom are those who are walking in obedience to the Lord
in holy living. Just like Jesus’ opponents, they are jealous of the truly
righteous, and so they hate them, and they want to destroy them any which way possible.
These are people who are, by nature, liars, manipulators,
the addictive, the unfaithful, and abusers who put on a mask (pretense) to
cover up who they really are and what it is they are really doing when no one
else is watching. So they perform for an audience, and they may even be people
who lie to get the sympathies of others, posing as though they are the victims,
but they are the perpetrators. For these are people for whom lying, trickery,
and deception are what they practice, to present a false image of themselves.
In character, many of these people are morally corrupt,
malicious, liars, egocentric, opportunistic, cunning, crafty, and predatory,
who catch people in their webs of deceit. And many of them are those who are
teachers of the Scriptures and ministers of “the gospel” who are altering and
diluting the truth of the gospel to make it more appealing and acceptable to
human flesh and to the ungodly. And so they teach God’s grace as though it is a
free ride to heaven with no requirements for death to sin and obedience to God.
Many of them are chameleons who blend in with their
environment and who wear many “different hats,” i.e. characters. For they like
to be approved of others, and they seek attention, and they want praise. And so
they feed off the attention and the approval of others. And so if someone comes
along who confronts them with their sinful practices, and who calls them to
biblical repentance, and to walks of obedience to the Lord, and who can see
through their façade, they may find a way to try to discredit those people.
Now the people being spoken of here are not generally those
who make no professions of faith in Jesus Christ, but they are among those who
profess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of their lives, and some of them are
pastors. Some of them know the Scriptures well, and were and/or are teachers of
the Scriptures. But they are those who look at their own characters, as talked
about in the word of God, and at what they should be like, instead, but then who
just walk away and willfully choose to forget what they look like.
They know the right way. They know that they are not walking
on the right path. But because they do not want to let go of their sins and
their pride and their sinful rebellion against God, they willfully choose to
play ignorant. But they are not ignorant. They just choose to block out what
they do not want to accept, like the man who sees what he looks like but then
who just walks away and willfully chooses to forget the truth about himself, so
that he can keep on living in deliberate and habitual sin against God and other
people.
So, what is this perfect law that we are to look into? It is
the law of God’s grace and mercy which sent Jesus to the cross to die. But in
his death he put our sins to death with him so that, by faith in him, we will
die to sin and we will now obey him and his commandments. For this is not liberty
to now live however we want, without punishment, but this is liberty from our
slavery to sin so we will now serve God with our lives. We are now to be those
who listen and who obey, who not just hear, but who do what God requires.
[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John
6:44; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 2:6-8; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1
Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32;
Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 12:1-2;
1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:5-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10]
My Sheep
Based off John 10:1-30 NIV
An Original Work / June 24, 2012
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love
My sheep hear me.
They know me.
They listen to my
voice and obey.
I call them and lead
them.
They know my voice,
so they follow me.
They will never
follow strangers.
They will run away
from them.
The voice of a
stranger they know not;
They do not follow
him.
So, I tell you the
truth that
I am the gate, so
you enter in.
Whoever does enter
Will find
forgiveness and will be saved.
Nonetheless whoever
enters
Not by the gate;
other way,
He is the thief and
a robber.
Listen not, the
sheep to him.
Oh, I am the Good
Shepherd,
Who laid his own
life down for the sheep.
I know them. They
know me.
They will live with
me eternally.
The thief only comes
to steal and
Kill and to destroy
the church.
I have come to give
you life that
You may have it to
the full…
They know my voice,
so they follow me.
Hearers Who Delude Themselves
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