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22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
In our circles, we highly value learning God's Word, both its story and its system of doctrine. And the importance of learning God's Word can never be overestimated. God does command, "be quick to hear." Conversely, he laments, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" (Hos. 4:6). But at the same time God warns us to make sure that we don't content ourselves with accumulating knowledge as abstract information. "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves." Genuine orthodoxy always leads to faithful orthopraxy! A genuine grasp of sound doctrine always leads to faithful living.
If, however, it does not, then that's a sure sign that it is counterfeit, not genuine. If you merely learn sound doctrine in an abstract way, where you grasp it in your head but it never grips your heart or drives your life, then you are "deceiving yoursel[f]." You are "like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like" (vv. 23–24). Picture him. He gets out of bed and gets dressed for work. Before he leaves, he looks in a mirror. He sees that his hair is unkempt, his face is unshaved, his shirt is buttoned askew and is untucked, his pants are wrinkled, and the colors and patterns clash. (Translate that image into a feminine version if it helps.) Then he completely forgets and leaves for work like that. What's his excuse? He has none! How much more inexcusable are those who are blessed with sound teaching and who do not permit it to penetrate their hearts and transform their lives. They are living a lie. And just as God won't answer double-minded prayer, neither will he bless double-minded doctrine. No, he will hold you accountable for what you have learned. "Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required" (Luke 12:48).
Are you living a lie? Or are you instead "walk[ing] in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called" (Eph. 4:1)?
Search me, O God,
and know my heart today;
try me, O Savior,
know my thoughts, I pray.
See if there be
some wicked way in me;
cleanse me from ev'ry sin
and set me free (J. Edwin Orr).
Click here for background on the author of Are You For Real?: Meditations in the Epistle of James for Secret or Family Worship.
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