“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”
–James 1:22
Imagine you’re the parent of a ten-year-old child, and this evening you want your son to go clean up his messy bedroom. You go into the living room and find him and say, “Turn off the TV now, and go clean your room.” He nods, agreeing to do what you’ve said, so you go into the kitchen to start making dinner.
A few minutes later, you listen to the sound from the next room and realize that the TV is still on. Incredulous, you walk into the room and your son is still sitting right where he was when you told him to go clean his room. Raising your voice a bit to get his attention, you say, “I told you to turn off the TV, get up, and go clean your room.”
And he looks up at you and responds, “I know — I heard you,” and turns his head back toward the TV screen again. He sits there confidently, as if you have absolutely no reason to be upset with him.
A little louder now, you say, “Get up now, and do as you’re told.”
“I’m not ready yet,” he says. “I might do it later. But either way, I want you to know that I fully understand what you’re asking of me. You want me to stop watching this program, turn off the TV, and get up and go clean my room. So there is no need for you to repeat yourself, because I was listening closely and I heard you. That’s all that matters, right?” And once again he returns his focus to the television.
How would you respond to that blatant disobedience and rebellion?
Before you answer that, think about this: Is there an area of your life in which you’ve been just like that in your relationship to the Heavenly Father?
You’ve heard God’s commands that you witness to the lost, but are you obeying them?
You’ve heard God’s commands about sexual purity, but are you obeying them?
You’ve heard God’s commands that you give to His work, but do you do it?
You’ve heard God’s commands to praise and worship Him, but do you do so?
James warns us that we can deceive ourselves into thinking we are accomplishing God’s will just by knowing it. “Don’t kid yourself,” he says. “God is not pleased that you merely hear His word, but that you obey it.”
Partial obedience is disobedience. Delayed obedience is disobedience. Understanding God’s word and failing to obey it is sin. It is worthless to know the will of God if you refuse to do it. As one pastor put it, it is far less important how much you mark your Bible than how much your Bible marks you.
If you’ve made it your habit to listen to God’s commands and then pick and choose which ones you will obey and which you’ll ignore, some repentance is now in order.
God is great and glorious. He is our Maker and our Father. He is King of kings and Lord of lords. And He is completely worthy of our immediate obedience in all things at all times. Let us come into His presence with a renewed attitude, saying to Him, “Speak, Lord, Your servant hears with a willingness to know and to do Your will.”
And remember what Jesus told us about His commands: “Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.” –John 13:17
Tag: doers of the word
It’s about Obedience
“Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You.”
–Psalm 119:11
Manifold reasons abound to study the Bible. Not the least of those reasons is the one taught us in the verse quoted above. We must learn God’s word to develop a lifestyle of obedience to the Lord and avoidance of sin.
Sins are the “bricks and mortar” that build the wall of separation between an unsaved person and the God Who wants fellowship with him. In like manner, sin in our lives as regenerated believers can put up higher and higher walls that prevent the increase of our intimacy with Him and usefulness to Him. If we’re going to be Spirit-filled and be used of God for His glory, the walls have to come down. So we need to know God’s word. And, more specifically, we need to read God’s word with a humble desire to obey.
That’s why we hide the word in our hearts. Not just to know God. Not just to feel good. Not just to tickle our ego and make us feel intellectually superior that we understand deep doctrinal truths. But to be transformed, and to be made increasingly holy in our conduct.
How tragic it is when we as Christians don’t act on what God teaches us. We hear a great sermon and say “Amen,” but when the service is over, we don’t do “Amen.” The message is forgotten before we reach the parking lot, because we didn’t approach the word with a desire to obey.
My brothers and sisters, let me speak plainly: If the word of God is not continually changing the way you think, speak, and act, then something is seriously wrong with your approach to it. Because God’s word, when served up by gifted teachers and applied to hearts by the indwelling Holy Spirit, produces not just good feelings, but deeply convicting ones. It is a sharp sword, cutting us to the quick and dividing bone from marrow. It searches the core of our being and brings to the surface every impurity, every falsehood, every evil passion, and every defect in our character. It places before us everything in us that prevents us from being conformed to the image of His perfect Son, and says, “This is the way you really are. Now let God change you.”
The flesh all-too-willingly trains itself to ignore the promptings of the Spirit and the Word. If you look into your heart today and find that you have been so trained, run to God’s word like a man parched with thirst in a scorched desert would run when he catches a glimpse of an oasis in the distance. Kneel at your bedside or in your prayer closet with Psalm 119 open before you, pleading with God to return to you a heightened sensitivity to His word and a broader vision of its value. Allow Him to re-train your mind, so that from this day forward, when He speaks, you listen with an ear willing to obey. That’s why His word is in your heart–so that you will obey Him. “My little children, these things I write to you, that you may not sin.” (1 John 2:1a)
Has church become a place you go each week and unwittingly miss opportunity after opportunity to be changed by God’s correction, encouragement, and instruction? Don’t delay in asking the Lord to remedy the situation. Allow God’s word to awaken you from spiritual slumber this very hour. Then praise Him for this wondrous truth: His word, hidden in your heart, will teach and enable you to “go and sin no more.”
Walk of Faith - Dave Bunnell 