1.6 Doers, Not Hearers Only

As I began to study and listen carefully, I noticed a theme, and so I made a list for that theme. We cannot simply hear God's word - we must obey and allow ourselves to be transformed by it.

• James 1:22
• 22 But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.
• Romans 2:13
• 13 for it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified.
• 2 John 6
•   6 And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it.

I want to go ahead and include the context for the first verse - James 1:22-27

 22 But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.

23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror;

24 for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.

25 But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.

26 If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless.

27 Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

I have linked verse 27 to a blog post I recently read that discusses this same theme. Bible study is not simply to fill our heads with knowledge or to check off a list that we have heard God's word, but is for us to act upon. If the Bible isn't changing us, we need to change how we study.

Think about the illustration given here in James. If I look in a mirror and see that I have hairs out of place or dirt on my face, then the mirror has shown me something about myself that I need to change. If I walk away without fixing those things and think that I still look fine, I'm deluding myself. If I read the Bible and see what Jesus's life is like, and see that my life is not yet like His, then God's word has shown me something about myself that I need to change. If I walk away from His word without changing my heart and my life, then I am forgetful - I am deceiving myself into feeling righteous when I am not.

When we look at God's word, we have to then decide to abide by it. We have to decide to change our lives to look more like Jesus's, and to change ourselves to look more like God - to live holy, righteous, pure, and godly lives. Those words are all defined by God. God's word perfects us when we are transformed into His image.