Forgotten Promises Resurrected, James 1:22

James 1:22

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 

Where do you fit in?

There are many type of people in the world.  As I have stated before, I grew up with a church family.  My grandmother would pick me up and take me to church from at least the age of or four.  My grandmother was also a prayer warrior and I know her prayers covered me throughout my life.  She was the biggest influence for Jesus, other than Jesus Himself, in my life.  I thank God for putting me in her life and what she instilled in me at an early age.  She went to be with Jesus in 2009 and with her went her prayers.  Even though I could feel that absence, there is no doubt in my mind her prayers still cover me ti this day.  The reason I share that with you is because I thought for a long time that everyone grew up with a grandma like mine.  I thought everybody was introduced to Jesus at an early age.  And, I once thought we lived in a loving world where everybody loved each other.  Then there was dose after dose of reality and my perspective changed and as I became more familiar with the Bible, and the longer I was a Christian, and way into my adult years I was educated about the world and how it operates.  The world is not full of love or righteousness . 

Again, I feel totally blessed that God put me in my grandmother’s life.  I have also realized that the vast majority of people today have not grown up in church, they didn’t have a grandmother that introduced them to Jesus, and they haven’t read the Bible, or know how the Bible is is organized.  That beings me to James  1:22. 

  How can you be a doer instead of just a listener if you are not even aware of the Bible?  It’s hard enough to transition from hearer to doer because that takes a change of heart.  

If you can read, then this article is for you.

From my introduction you can guess that this article is definitely for someone who has never read the Bible or is just slightly familiar with it. Yes, that is generally the case with my articles.  However, I also want to address those  who know the Bible versus this who know and believe the Bible.  So I’m short, if you can read, this article is meant for you.

Knowledge vs Belief

It’s one thing to know the Bible, to memorize and quote verses.  But knowing and believing the Bible is vastly more than knowledge.  You might ask, what is the  difference?  Let me briefly break it down for you.  When you read the Bible for knowledge it’s valuable because knowledge is always helpful, and a life of continual learning is instrumental and is part of the essence of life. Hoses 4:6 makes that clear when God said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…”.  If the day comes, and I hope beyond hope that it does, that when you read the Bible you start applying it to your life and start making decisions based on what the Bible says you’ll have accomplished a huge transition.  Once you apply it to your life then your actions will begin to change to reflect your belief.   Hence the  verse in James 1:22, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves”.  This takes action and faith.  It really boils down to a change of heart and an active relationship with Holy Spirit to take what you read in the Bible, apply it to your life, make it apart of your life and take action to live it out.   That sounds very simply in theory, but in practice it takes dedication, faith, trust and courage.  When you make that transition, life will never be the same and a whole new world of possibilities will be opened up to you.  That is the difference between knowing  versus believing the Bible.

Conjecture???

When James said to be doers of the word instead of just hearers in the same breath he’s also saying, “Of you are reading or hearing God’s word, and instead of just committing to memory or letting it flow in one ear and out of the other, you should be in awe of your creator and not only commit it to memory you should also make it a part of your life and your works and let it become the fruit of your labor”.  Now, let be absolute honest here.  That last statement is not found in the Bible, and are my own words.  And maybe you disagree with my assessment of James 1:22, I’d be happy to hear your view. 🙏

May You Always Walk in the Truth!