But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
James 1:22
There are two vital elements to the life of a Christian; one is hearing the word of God and the other is applying and/or doing the word of God… We cannot hear and be satisfied, the word of God must not only be heard, but be rooted within so that it can sprout and bring forth fruit from the lives we live and the examples we display to others… You deceive nobody but yourself when you think that you have done enough by being able to say that you faithfully attend church; you deceive yourself when you put on your Sunday’s best and display the worse example of a Christian each and every other day of the week… Applying the word of God is what leads to positive fruits and results in ones life… The word of God being heard without being applied is the same as instruction being received and not carried out…
You wonder why you fall short over and over again, you wonder why your life continues to spiral out of control as you attend church faithfully and the answer may be in your application of what God is providing to you verses what you have heard and have chosen to demonstrate… This passage taken from James so often reminds me of how many people will leave a church service and speak of how powerful and moving it was… You ask them how the Pastor’s sermon was and they immediately say “Oh, pastor did a wonderful job, he was so powerful!” The next question you ask is what was it that he or she preached about, and they don’t have the slightest clue and began to think back to the service. How can we be of God if we do not listen and act upon what He has given us? James is calling for us to not talk a good game, but walk a Godly life. In order to walk a Godly life we must first get away from ungodly things! These things could be people, places, or habitats, it could be a relationship that you are struggling to hold onto, a (n) addiction you just can’t give up, or a place that you find comforting enough to please your earthly desires. When something is heard it is not necessarily received, when it has not been received it will soon disappear from your memory!
When we are given a task on our job we act as soon as possible to complete it so that we don’t forget it… As a child of God we must act as soon as possible when it comes to edifying the body of Christ! To often we play church and wonder why we don’t see any advancement in our church; we smile and clap, but never put in the sweat and energy that God truly desires from us… Every person that encountered Jesus on this earth was given a task to complete (the rich young man) to show their faith and that they understood what the Lord has said! Before he left the earth He said (to all the disciples) that we must take up our cross, that we must hate our fellowman (those who oppose the gospel) and that we must keep in mind that they hated Him first… Faith takes actions, it takes commitment and it takes desire to be doers of the word and not just hearers…
The proof is in the pudding, the question is “how does your life taste?”
ALL FOR HIS GLORY!
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