June 9 – Do the Word (James 1:22-25)

“Do not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”(James 1:22)

IN WORD:
Who sees the behavior of Christians? First of all, God. God is interested in the motivations that guide our decisions and the thoughts that fill our minds. But He is interested in more than a people who will think right. His desire, expressed repeatedly throughout Scripture, is for a people who will do something about what they know.
Who else sees? Other Christians. We do not encourage one another primarily by our words but rather by our actions. A brother or sister in need may need to hear a kind reminder of the love of God, but he or she may need a visible illustration of it more desperately. Faith that says only “God bless you, I wish you well,” grieves the heart of God, as James implies later on (see 2:16). It accomplishes nothing that God can use. It must result in action, in prayer, in something. Otherwise, it is wasted faith.
And an unbelieving world watches too. It does not care about the intricacies of our theology, and apart from college philosophy majors, no one will really ask the questions we want to answer. Unbelievers want to see what faith looks like, and the only way to speak on those terms is to act. When Jesus told His disciples that the world would know them by their love for one another, it was not a sentiment hidden deep within. He called for acts of love. Faith, love, hope, and every other spiritual virtue remains invisible to a lost world — until we act according to our beliefs.

IN DEED:
Listening to the Word is immensely profitable, but it can be dangerously deceptive as well. When we hear the Word, mull it over, and let it become a part of our thinking, we often make the mistake of believing it has become a part of our lives. That’s an illusion. The Word is only ours when we have acted on it. It is only effective when we’ve allowed God to move it from our minds into our hearts, and then outward into our actions. Anything else will lull us into a false sense of security. Do not be deceived. “Do what it says.”

“Faith without works cannot please, nor can good works without faith.” -The Venerable Bede-