James 1:22-25
~16 min read
💭 Consider this: How much more blessed would you be if you obeyed every bit of God’s Word that you read/heard in the last year? What might the godliest version of you look like?
TRANSCRIPT
I greet all of you in the blessed name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Our text for today's message is taken from James 1:22-25. In our previous message, we have dealt with the question, ‘How do I know for sure that I am a true believer? That I am truly saved? That my faith is real?’ If our faith is real, it means we are born again, and that is to be born with the washing of the word of God and the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. As our Lord Jesus said in John 3:5, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven," which is exactly what James has said in verse 18, that God “beget us with the word of truth” (James 1:18). That is how God has saved us, by sending the Holy Spirit into our hearts, and through the wonderworking of His Spirit, our spiritual eyes were opened. We were convicted of our sins, we turned to the Lord Jesus in repentance and in faith, we were made spiritually alive, we were regenerated, we were born again, and we became the children of God.
And as the children of God, we have this intimate connection with the Word of God, which has begotten us. There will be this genuine love and hunger for God's Word. But there will not only be this eagerness and willingness to receive God's Word, which we have learned last week from verses 19 to 21, there will also be this eagerness and willingness to respond to God's Word. This is what we want to learn today from verses 22 to 25 of the Book of James, Chapter 1. The title of our message is: ‘Be Responsive to the Word of God.’
I. Be A Doer
Our first point is: be a doer. Let us begin with the first part of verse 22, "But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only" (James 1:22). It is essential to hear the Word, but however important and good it is, it is still not enough. Hearing the Word is not an end in itself, but it is the means to an end, and the end is the genuine acceptance of the truth and the faithful application of it. In other words, we must receive the Word and respond to it by obeying it.
The word ‘doer’ means to perform, to obey, or to fulfill. And the phrase "be ye doers of the word" means to keep on or continuously be obeying the Word. You see, it is one thing to fight for a few days, but it is another thing to be a professional soldier whose life is dedicated to warfare. It is one thing to repair and renovate the house, which many of us would do in our houses whenever it is necessary, but it is another thing to be a professional builder. It is one thing to preach an occasional sermon once in a while, but it is another thing to be a full-time preacher, to preach the Word in season and out of season.
The believer is a person whose life is dedicated to being a doer of the Word, to obey and fulfill the Word, it is his lifelong commitment. That is the idea - that is yours as well as mine, lifelong commitment. The phrase "hearers only" are people who sit passively to listen without responding, just like those people who sit in an auditorium to listen to a speaker or a singer. They are not required to respond.
If I can give you an illustration, when I was studying in the Bible College, there was the option to take the class as an audit or as a credit. When we take an audit class, all we need to do is to attend the classes, listen to all the lectures, but we are not required to write papers, do assignments, or take any tests, which means we are not held accountable for what we hear.
What James was saying is you cannot do that to the Word of God. You cannot be a spiritual auditor and think that you do not have to give an account for what you hear. Sadly, this is what many people would do to the Word of God. They hear the sermons, they are exposed to the preaching and teaching of the Word, but they have no desire for that knowledge to change their day-to-day lives. They have no desire to obey what they learn.
Dear friend, how often we see people coming to church week after week. They sit through hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of preaching, yet their lives remain the same. How often we hear people say, ‘That was a wonderful message, I learned something new today,’ but they walk away without applying that knowledge. The question we need to ask ourselves is this: ‘If that is good and faithful preaching, what have we done with the lessons we learn? What are we going to do about it?’
The right listening must lead to the right living. What is the point of spending our entire life listening to sermons, and yet they have nothing or little to do with our lives? Take a moment and consider the messages you have heard last week or the week before, whether in the church or through sermon audio. Surely, you have picked up at least one or two spiritual lessons. What have you learned from those spiritual lessons? One theologian rightly said, ‘If you have not applied the Word, you are just like the sick patient who visited the doctor and received the prescription and just by reading the prescription, he thought he had taken the medicine. No, he hasn't. He's still the same, he's still as sick as he was before, if not worse.’
Let's say you are a hearer of the Word only and not a doer. You have been listening to the sermons for years, but you did nothing about those sermons you heard, absolutely no application. Do you think God will not hold you accountable? Allow me to quote some scriptural verses, first about those people who are doers and then those people who are hearers only. It is not exhaustive because there are so many verses in the Bible.
Joshua 1:8 says, "This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success." If you are a doer of the Word, your ways will be prosperous, and you will have good success as the Lord promised.
In Matthew 5:19, Jesus said, “Whosoever shall do” - my commandments - “and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” If you are a doer of the Word and you teach others to do the same, you are called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.
In John 15:14, Jesus said, "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you." If you are a doer of the Word, you are called a friend of Christ.
In John 14:23 again, Jesus said, "If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." If you are a doer of the Word, it means you love the Lord, the Father will love you, and God will abide with you.
So, if you are a doer of the Word, your ways will be prosperous, you will have good success, you are called great in the Kingdom of Heaven, you are called a friend of Christ, the Father will love you, and will abide with you. Can you see what a blessing it is to be a doer of the Word? But what if you are just a hearer only and not a doer? 1 John 2:4 says, "He that saith, I know him” - that is Christ - “and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." If you are a hearer only and not a doer, you are a liar.
The Gospel of Luke 6:46, Jesus said, "And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" If you are a hearer only and not a doer, Jesus will say to you, ‘Why do you call me Lord if you do not obey what I say? I am not your Lord. Don't call me your Lord.’
Perhaps the most terrifying statement ever made by our Lord Jesus is found in Matthew 7:21, "Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." And then He went on to say, "And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity" (verse 23).
Today, thousands and thousands of men, women, and children come to church regularly. They make a strong profession to be Christians. They listen to the preaching of the Word. They claim to believe it. They call on the name of Jesus Christ as their Lord. But they do not apply what they profess to believe in, and their lives are empty of the transforming Grace of God. And Jesus will say to them, ‘You are deceiving your own selves. I never knew you. Depart from me.’
To depart from Christ is to be eternally separated from Him, to be cast into the lake of fire. Dear friends, it is a very serious matter. A doer of the Word is very serious. We are not just to be hearers only; we are to apply the Word of God into our lives, as Jesus said, "He that doeth the will of my Father" (Matthew 7:21). Do not just be a hearer only and then not apply the Word of God into your life. May the Lord have mercy on us.
II. Be Not Deceived
This brings us to the second point: be not deceived. The original word for deceiving is very interesting. The literal meaning is to come alongside and reason within oneself. In our modern-day language, we will say, ‘He is beside himself,’ or ‘He is out of his mind.’
It is an accounting term which means to miscount, like in mathematics, it means miscalculation, ‘You got the whole answer wrong’. Professing Christians who hear the Word without obeying it, they are making a serious spiritual miscalculation. And when they still believe that they are all right, they are self-deceiving, self-deluded.
Dear friend, if we profess to be Christians, that Jesus Christ is truly our Lord and Savior, and it does not result in a transformed life that hungers and thirsts for God's Word, that desires to obey God's truth, no matter what we say, no matter what we think, our profession is empty and false. Do you know who is most happy? Satan. Satan loves this kind of profession because it is a profession that gives the people the false idea that they are safe, everything is all right. But in reality, it is not. They still belong to him and not God.
In order to better explain this self-deception, James gave a simple analogy in verses 23-24 (James 1), "For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass; For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was." The word ‘beholdeth’ is to look at something carefully. So, this person looks at himself in the glass or mirror very carefully to observe how he looks. But as soon as he is finished looking, he walks away. He immediately forgets what he has observed about himself.
In those days, in the New Testament times, they did not have the mirrors we have today. Their mirrors were mostly made of polished bronze or brass. Those people who were wealthy would have mirrors made of gold and silver. But even the most expensive mirrors were inferior to the ones we have today. So, the people in those days, they would turn the mirror around here and there to find the best lighting in order to get a fairly accurate image of their faces. But even with the careful observation, for whatever reasons, the moment he stops looking at the mirror, he forgets. It could be because of distraction, or he was unhappy with what he had seen, or simply because of a poor memory. When that happens, everything is wasted.
Likewise, a person may look at God's Word carefully. He may observe all the details, he may study the doctrines intensely and try to understand all the things that need to be understood. But all the careful observation, studying, and understanding of the Word could be wasted. Why? Because he fails to apply.
When the Bible reveals to us our sins and the need for confession, repentance, and turning to the gracious provision in Christ for the forgiveness of sin, the need for us to live godly lives, to overcome temptations, to fight a good fight of faith, the need to set our affections on things above and not on things of this world, the need to obey the commandments of God, we see all these truths. But we walk away without responding to them. We are walking away as if we were never exposed to those truths.
We are just like the man who looks at the mirror, walks away, and immediately forgets everything he has seen. The whole point of this analogy is that once we forget the reality of what we see, everything will be wasted. Something must hold back the memory of what we see. Something must take what we see and translate it into reality. Something must make what we say to be effective, productive, and fruitful. And that something is the application.
Without application, everything will be wasted. Dear friends, God's purpose in allowing us to hear His Word is not for us to simply enjoy it or to get excited about it, to be aroused by it, or to be amazed. All those things are good, so far as they can touch our hearts and our lives in such a way that there will be a radical change, that there will be a transformation. Otherwise, it will not accomplish God's sovereign purpose.
God said in Isaiah 55:11, "So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I send it." Take a moment and consider yourself as a believer in this church, whether you are a member or a regular worshipper. You are surrounded with the great resources of God's Word, with the many wonderful opportunities to hear the Word, whether through the Lord’s Day worship services, prayer meetings, discipleship classes, fellowship groups, FEBC online classes, and so forth. Why does God bless us with such great resources? To accomplish His sovereign purpose, to transform and flourish our spiritual lives.
The only way we can do that is not only through hearing; that is just one part of the equation. More importantly, it is true application. If we do not do that, we are deceiving ourselves. Deceiving ourselves into thinking that everything is all right, but in reality, it is not. Deceiving ourselves into thinking that we are safe, but in reality, we are not. May the Lord help us always to take His Word seriously and apply His Word into our lives. Do not play the fool with God's Word.
III. Be Blessed
We do not want to be deceived; we want to be blessed. That is our final point. Look at verse 25, "But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed" (James 1:25)
Here, the word ‘looketh’ is a stronger verb than the previous word ‘beholdeth.’ It means to bend over or stoop down to carefully examine something. Remember the mirrors. The mirrors in those days were not as good as what we have today. They used polished metals. So, the idea is that do not just turn the mirrors around and find the best lightings to get a fairly accurate image. That is not good enough. You must scrutinise and carefully examine to get the most accurate image.
This word ‘looketh’ was also used to describe Peter and the other women on the morning of the resurrection of Christ when they went to the tomb. They bent over or stooped down to look into the tomb. It was not just a glance because the whole credibility of the resurrection depended on the eyewitnesses' account. Therefore, they scrutinised and carefully examined around the tomb whether the body of Christ was there or not. That is what we must do with the Word of God.
The Word of God has the redemptive power to deliver us from the bondage and penalty of sin, to free us from death and hell, to free us from the world and temptations, to free us to live godly lives, to free us that we may worship, serve, and glorify God. That is why it is called the law of liberty.
It is called perfect because it is inherent and infallible. The Bible cannot have mistakes and is incapable of making mistakes. If the Word of God, the perfect law of Liberty, is so powerful that it can deliver a sinner from eternal damnation to eternal life, from a life destined to hell to a life in Heaven's Glory, then it demands our intense scrutiny and careful examination. Don't you think? If it is so powerful that it can save our souls, then we need to scrutinise it, examine it carefully.
So, it is more than just reading the Bible, glancing through the pages. It is not just knowing some truth here and there in the Bible. It requires us to meditate upon it. It is to read about the promise or a commandment or a verse or a passage and to let that thought run through our minds over and over and over again. And when we discover a truth, we are so happy. We continue therein, we abide in it, we apply it because we understand that this is God's purpose in revealing it to us.
God does not simply reveal His Word to be learned but to be obeyed and applied. When we do that, we shall be blessed in our deeds. When we meditate upon the Word of God, when we allow it to flow in and through our lives, to dominate our thinking, to dominate our actions, our deeds will be in tune with the Will of God. And that is why our deeds will be blessed.
Dear friend, this is how as believers you and I should respond to the word of God. So, each time when we hear God's Word being preached, when we read God's Word in our quiet time, we ask ourselves this question, ‘What am I going to do about it? This is what I'm going to do. I'm going to start by taking one spiritual lesson and apply it in the days and weeks to come. And then I'm going to take two or three spiritual lessons and apply them in the days and weeks to come.’
When we apply this principle into our lives, God promises He shall bless all the things we do. Do you believe in His promise? If yes, then you must be a doer of His Word, not just hearers only. May the Lord teach us and remind us always as humans we always forget. We must be doers not just hearers only. Let us pray.
Father in Heaven, we thank Thee for Thy word. Indeed, Thy Word is true and each time, Thy Word will teach us through the wonderworking of Thy Spirit what we lack in our lives. There are many who will hear Thy Word, but hearing Thy Word, it is important, essential, and good. But it is still not enough because there ought to be application. Otherwise, Thou has taught us this morning we walk away like the foolish men who look into the mirror walking away and immediately forgets what he has observed about himself. That is what many would often do through Thy Word. They hear Thy Word, they read Thy word, but they do not apply.
Something has to hold back that memory of what we see and to take it and translate it into reality and to make it effective, productive, and fruitful to the glory of Thee. And that is application. So, help us each time we read or hear Thy Word. We want to take spiritual lessons that Thou will teach us and apply them in the days, weeks, months, years to come. And as we apply this principle, we know that Thou has promised us Thou will bless the things that we do because the things that we do are in tune with Thy Will. Because Thy Word has dominated our thinking and our actions, Thy Word has flowed into our hearts and through our lives. So, teach us to be doers of Thy Word and not hearers only, deceiving our own selves. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
THE BOOK OF JAMESFacing Trials With A Joyful Spirit [Part 1]Facing Trials With A Joyful Spirit [Part 1]James 1:1-4
Facing Trials With A Joyful Spirit [Part 2]Facing Trials With A Joyful Spirit [Part 2]James 1:1-4
The Need For Wisdom In Times Of TrialThe Need For Wisdom In Times Of TrialJames 1:5-8
Trial Is No Respecter Of PersonsTrial Is No Respecter Of PersonsJames 1:9-12
How To Deal With TemptationHow To Deal With TemptationJames 1:13-15
Remember Who God Is And Who We AreRemember Who God Is And Who We AreJames 1:16-18
Be Receptive To The Word Of GodBe Receptive To The Word Of GodJames 1:19-21
Doers of the WordDoers of the WordJames 1:21-25
Be Responsive To The Word Of GodBe Responsive To The Word Of GodJames 1:22-25
Are You Transformed By The Word?Are You Transformed By The Word?James 1:26-27
The Sin Of Showing Partiality [Part 1]The Sin Of Showing Partiality [Part 1]James 2:1-4
The Sin of PartialityThe Sin of PartialityJames 2:1-13
Seminar: The Role of the Sunday School Teacher (Part 2 of 2)Seminar: The Role of the Sunday School Teacher (Part 2 of 2)James 3:1-13
How to Be PatientHow to Be PatientJames 5:7-11
In Times of AfflictionIn Times of AfflictionJames 5:13-18
