God Blesses Doers - 13/31/2023

Society admires and rewards people who are doers; the achievers get the reward. James discusses the need to be more than a “hearer of the word” implanted, they must “prove [themselves] doers of the word” (James 1:22-25).

By using the word “prove,” James is wanting his readers to demonstrate by their actions that they have “the word” implanted in their hearts. The evidence the word is “implanted” is indicated by how a person will daily live their life.

To illustrate this concept, James uses an example of a person looking at themself in a mirror, seeing something that needs to be changed, and walking away making no changes in their life. They have no resolve to make changes. They were not looking “intently at the perfect law,” with the attitude that they will “abide by it.”

By using the word “intently,” James is expressing the idea of giving eager attention to the word of God. The idea is more than just a casual glance at a biblical passage or a look “in passing” of some biblical verse. While a “casual reading” of the Bible has some value, there needs to be time in our life when there is a concentration on the word of God with the goal of first understanding what the text says and then how we can put our reading into practice in our life.

Reading the Bible with no intentions of making application to our life is like walking by a mirror, seeing we have chocolate on our face, and just leaving it there. People may tell us we have chocolate on our face, but we still do not do anything about it. While we might think this is ridiculous and that no one would do such a silly thing, there are countless people who think it is a good idea to read their Bible on a daily basis, but have no plan of putting it into practice in their daily life.

Group studies are a great way to obtain biblical knowledge, but if the objective is to only “know” what the text says, then this passage in James is not being applied. Whether it be a Bible class at church or a study in someone’s home or a gathering at some business in town, if the goal is not to learn something that you can put into practice in your life, then the session is only academic and social in nature.

If a person wants to be blessed by God, then they must not “become a forgetful hearer, but an effectual doer” of the word. God will bless Christians who are effectually doing “the word” because they are daily living God’s way. - cgm

Scriptural quotations from the NASB1995.