Scripture: James 1:19-27
James the Just, the brother of Jesus, is accredited with the authorship of the book of James. The book of James is considered by theologians as being among the Wisdom Literature of the Bible.
Hearers and Doers (James 1:22-25).
In verse 22, the command is clear, “Do not listen merely to the Word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” Too many Christians are hearers and not doers. They focus on hearing, reading, and learning the Word rather on doing what God says. They come to church to hear the Word, but do they go home and live the Word?
James says do not just listen, but act upon what you heard. There are many people who sit under the ministry of the Word, but they are deceiving themselves. The deception comes from thinking that they have done all that is necessary to obey God when actually hearing what the Bible says is only the beginning. It is not sufficient to simply hearing the Word of God: we must respond to it in active obedience. Christians must become or keep on becoming doers of the Word. Just as the person who has no interest in hearing the Word of God is horribly deceived about his spiritual condition, so too is the person who is content to only hear what God says and not obey Him. We must apply God’s Word to our lives.
Sometimes when we talk about hearers and doers, we are inclined to think that the hearer is the person who sits in the back row at church. If you ask them to tell you what the service was about, they are clueless. Rather than giving God full attention, they are preoccupied thinking about what they want for lunch. Or maybe it’s the individual who has no idea of what the pastor is preaching about.
This is not what James is saying. He is not saying the hearer is the person who is clueless of what the Word says. Instead, he is the individual who sits in the church and when he hears the Word of God, he sees himself as he really is. He hears the Word of God, he sees himself as he really is. He hears a message and says to himself, “I’m not the Christian that I need to be. I don’t share Christ with my friends like I need to. I don’t love my neighbors as I should.” These are the perfect people to give a testimony. Why? Because they realize something is wrong and needs to change – they should be doing more devotions, they don’t love God and others with their actions, they have any number of things they realize they need to change in their lives. To drive home the importance and obedience and application of God’s Word, James likens it to a mirror (vs. 23 – 24). When you look at yourself in the mirror of God’s Word, What do you see?