Verse twenty-two: Many people “hear” the Word of God to some degree. Many have a regular reading or listening program where they partake of God’s Truth on a daily basis. However, as today’s focal passage attests, the Word they ingest is forgotten within minutes as the cares and concerns of the day–the really important things–consume their attention. God and His Word are shelved until mealtime. Afterward They are ignored until t.v. offerings no longer interest them. Forgotten are the Lord’s command that we speak of His Law (Word) when we lie down and when we get up, when we go out and when we come in. In other words, as the Apostle Paul tells us, “Think on these (Biblical) things” as we go throughout our day. Let us allow His Word to permeate our thoughts regardless of what we are doing. Let us never be far away from His Truth. Let us, as did David, hold His face ever before our eyes. WHAT ELSE IS WORTHY OF OUR SUBCONSCIOUS ATTENTION? Let us fill this fleeting moment of time called “life” with the Lord, His Son and His Words. We will have eternity in which to be grateful for having done so. Having filled our hearts with the Word, let us be “do” that Word and not merely “hear” it. For to hear and not do is to deceive ourselves into believing that hearing it is all that God requires. I have been accused of “falling from grace” because I contend that we must obey God’s Words and not merely hear them, that in order to receive eternal life man must “live by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Mat. 4:4). Notice two things about those Words of Jesus: 1) Every Word must be obeyed and, 2) every Word comes directly from God’s mouth. Notice in James 1:22 that we are to be doers of (obedient to) “THE” Word, not those portions of the Bible that our religious organization accepts as God’s truth. We must bear in mind God’s command that not one word is to be added to or removed from His Holy Scriptures, that not so much as a jot or tittle is to be changed in His Law.

Verse twenty-three through twenty-five: If we merely hear the Word of God and fail to obey it we are like a man who looks into a mirror (the Word of God), sees all his blemishes, wrinkles, etc. (sins, weaknesses, etc.) and realizes his sinful condition. As he views himself (hears/reads the Word) he is convicted by God’s Spirit that his life is not measuring up to God’s commanded “walk.” Should the hearer of the Word correct the errors (eliminates the sins) he makes himself acceptable to the Lord and eligible for eternal life by continually looking into the perfect Law of liberty and, being a doer of the Word and not a forgetful hearer, continually applies that Word to his life–he “works” the Word. The Lord tells us that this man, and only this man, will be blessed in his deeds (Word work).

However, he who hears the Word and fails to make the proper changes, walks away and forgets what he has just seen. He then goes to church where he is told that the Words he heard were lies, that, because he has taken Jesus as his Savior, he is saved, born again and rapture ready, that his next stop is heaven where a mansion awaits his arrival. He is also told to ignore all Scriptures that contradict church doctrine, as well as those religious reprobates who speak the rejected Scriptures.

The problem is multiplied by the fact that most church people rarely look into God’s “mirror” (Word).  Being function illiterates relative to God’s Word, they know only what they hear in church. They are never told to “Study (the Bible) to show thyself approved of God” (2 Tim. 2:15) or to “Prove all things” relative to the Christian walk by comparing them to God’s Word (1 Thes. 5:21). Nor are they told to “work out their own salvation” by applying His Word to their lives (Phil. 2:12). Rather, they are told to follow the doctrines of the organization with which they are involved, that their leaders will tell them everything they need to know. The Apostle James was aware that the converted Israelites were falling into the “hear but don’t do” trap and were separating themselves from God (Isa. 59:2). His warning to the church of old applies to the church today. Let us all take heed. L.J.