Doers of the Word

Do you ever feel sometimes that you need a shake to wake up? Well, I do, and that is why I always go back to the Book of James to read words which have a rude-awakening effect. Perhaps James is addressing issues that he has learned from personal experience. He writes in ch 1:19 that we should be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. What he writes about the tongue later are some of the strongest words in the New Testament. I wonder if he was somewhat vocal against the Lord’s teaching and that is why the Lord specifically appeared to him after His resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:7)?

Every verse in James is packed full of practical truth and wisdom. This morning I was reading verses 22-27 of the first chapter and again I am deeply challenged by the LIVING Word of God:

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Recently when I was in Israel, I heard a missionary report on the Middle East. The speaker pointed out that the difference between believers in the West and believers in the East is the practice of their faith. In the East, they practise Christian principles and then gain a working knowledge of the theory, while we in the West first have an abundance of theory, which we very often do not put into practice.

When James says: be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves…, we need to pay attention! Hearers only are like those who look in the mirror to check that everything is in place and then rush into the activities of the day without giving another thought to their appearance. A mere looking into the Word and then ignoring what is written there does not lead to productive Christian lives.

We can actually deceive ourselves thinking we have attended church/meetings three times in any given week and that is practising our Christianity. There’s so much more to a life of faith!

The practical outworking, according to James, involves visiting orphans and widows in their distress, as well as keeping spiritually pure. We in N. Ireland are so privileged to live in a welfare state, which we should never take for granted, yet James was writing at a time when there was no state support. We may say to ourselves that we do not know needy orphans or widows, but the world has become a smaller place through air travel, providing more opportunity and responsibility.

Oh to see the world through God’s eyes (and I speak to myself)! Brandon Heath sings:

Give me Your eyes for just one second 

Give me Your eyes so I can see, 

Everything that I keep missing, 

Give Your love for humanity. 

Give me your arms for the broken-hearted 

The ones that are far beyond my reach. 

Give me Your heart for the ones forgotten. 

Give me Your eyes so I can see.

When we put the Word of God into practice, God so graciously blesses us, as stated in verse 25. Of course, that should not be our motivation! God blesses those who are moved with His compassion to reach out to others and He is the One who can see the motive of our actions. May we search our hearts as we seek to live for Him!