Be doers of the Word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves

Have you ever been listening to a talk or a sermon and thought “I wish Joe was here, he really needs this!” Or you heard preaching on the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, and you dismiss any application of this to yourself, since you are not a Pharisee. What I’m saying is that there are number of ways we can hear the Word without becoming doers of it. In particular with regards to the Pharisees, I have come to the place where if I don’t see how easily that could be me, then I have not understood that part of the Scripture. The point is there is a Pharisee in all of us.

It’s easy to be deceived, part of our fallen human condition is to rationalize what we want to do (or not do). Even if we know something is wrong, it is too easy to minimize the severity of the sin. In the context of the above quote from James 1:22, James compares someone who hears the Word but does not do it, to seeing our reflection in a mirror, and then going away without adjusting what needs to be adjusted (verse 23). Perhaps you have a smudge on your forehead, or the remnants of a piece of cake on your lips. It would be silly, not to clean your face. In the same way, because there are negative consequences to sin, it is quite silly to hear, and then to do nothing about it.

In the same context, James tells us that the one looks into the perfect law of liberty and who does it and continues in it will be blessed in the doing (verse 25). As I write this morning, I have recently received a false accusation, and my first inclination is to blow my accuser out of the water. But drawn to this passage, I am reading “Be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.” And I need to resist the Pharisee in me who would rather that I apply this command to my accuser, rather than to myself.

Father, in this very same passage James tells us that temptation begins when we are drawn away (verse 14), and I believe he is talking about being drawn away from your presence. Wrath and anger can do that. And I want to thank You this morning Lord for Your timely reminder of this command. I’m reminded of a an old song “He’s still working on me.” It took You just a week to make the moon and stars, the sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars. When You can do all that by just speaking a Word, how very patient You must be with me in this ongoing battle to make me more like You. Thank You again this morning Lord for Your patience Your love and Your Word in Jesus Name Amen