Hearing and Doing

James 1:22-25 (NIV) “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and,after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.”

There is a blessing in the follow-through of obeying God’s word. It is not good to stop part-way through doing what God says. John the Baptist told the Pharisees to “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.” In other words, don’t stop the work of repentance until your behavior actually changes. The characteristic of those who are following Christ (as opposed to those who only claim to follow Christ) is their follow-through. You can’t be a follower of Jesus if your feet don’t do the walk. Jesus highlighted this in the parable of the two sons. One son said he would go work in his father’s vineyard but never got there. The other told his father that he wouldn’t work in the vineyard but later had a change of heart and did eventually go. The point that Jesus was making was that our actions, not our words, show whether or not we are doing what he tells us.

The commands of the Lord are not limited to what we read in scripture. Jesus said, “My sheep know my voice and the voice of another they will not follow.” Following Jesus’ voice refers to being in relationship with him. Now the Lord will speak through his written word to us, but he will also speak to our hearts in prayer and through circumstances and others by the Holy Spirit. Being doers of the word also includes his words, commands, directions and corrections to us in our relationship to him. The best way to obey is to do so immediately. Delayed obedience is not obedience at all and it makes obedience more difficult. We must take the example that James gives us to heart. Once we turn away from the mirror, the risk is that we will forget what we look like. So at the point that we see and understand Jesus’ word to us, that is the moment that we need to be doing the word. It is always a blessing to be a doer of his word.