God wants us to read His Word, but He wants more than that. This daily devotion looks at how the Word of God should be a mirror that we do more than just gaze at.
Nuggets
- We must go from head knowledge to heart knowledge regarding the Word of God.
- God uses His Word as a mirror to show us where we are and and where He wants us to be.
Devotions in Living Out Our Faith series
James had just been telling his readers that sin is to be replaced with meekness and salvation, which is gained through the Word of God. The Word of God is able to save us — but not without something on our part. Salvation isn’t a gift that is automatically given to all.
We each have to choose to accept the gift of salvation. We not only have to accept it to be true, but we must also allow it to change us.
James continued to stress this point. In this passage, he talked about how the Word of God should be used as a reflection of Who God is and who we need to be.
Let's Put It into Context
Here is a running list of nuggets for the series.
Being Transformed by What We Do
“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (Jas. 1: 22 ESV)
We must go from head knowledge to heart knowledge regarding the Word of God.
It is easy for some to think that James was talking about our living out Matthew 25: 35-36. We need to physically be doing all this stuff to earn God’s love.
I don’t think that is what James was talking about here.
Instead, James was talking about our response to the Word of God. Once we hear the Word, we must accept it into our lives and allow it to change us to be more like God.
Remember, James has been talking about growing our faith and patience through trials so that we become mature disciples. He isn’t talking about just giving a cup of water to the thirsty.
James was talking about doing both of the greatest commandments. “‘And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these” (Mk. 12: 30-31 ESV).
We can do without the love being involved. We can also do because we love but not love God.
That isn’t enough.
I like what Adam said. He wrote, “The doers of the Word are those who are ruled by it, who practically comply with its requirements, who not only read, understand, and believe it, but submit to its authority, regulate their tempers and lives by its precepts.”
Doing the Word is about submitting to God, not the physical acts that we accomplish.
Resource
James’ whole point is it is great that you come to church. Come hear the Word!
Don’t leave it there.
Faith and patience have to grow so that we become spiritually mature. We don’t do that by coming once a week for an hour, having some words wash over us, and do nothing else until we come back to the same bat time, same bat channel.
We have to use God’s Word to make the changes within us to imitate God’s character. We have to get the doing down to the heart level.
“I incline my heart to perform your statutes forever, to the end” (Ps. 119: 112 ESV). Doing this is the only way we show God that we love Him.
The blessings are in the obedience. Knowledge isn’t obedience.
Yes, we made the choice to sit there and listen. We haven’t made a choice to do anything with what we are hearing.
How would we deceive ourselves? One way would be to make a profession of faith but not turn from our sins.
Saying we believe Jesus is our Savior without doing what He told us to do would just be flapping our gums.
Unfortunately, I think there are going to be too many people who think they have done well and won’t get the outcome they are planning. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Mt. 7: 21 ESV).
The Mirror
“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. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like” (Jas. 1: 23-24 ESV)
God uses His Word as a mirror to show us where we are and and where He wants us to be.
James made an interesting analogy to show what he was meaning. He talked about looking into a mirror. The kicker is the memory of what we see is fleeting.
We sit in the church service, intently listening to the Pastor Steve-types. We’re right there with him, saying our “Amen” as loudly as the next one.
We hit the door to the church — and it is gone. We have no clue what Pastor Steve said. Couldn’t even tell you the passage of Scripture he used.
For all of our intended attention, it was gone because we didn’t take it to heart. It just tickled our ears.
But isn’t this talking about something worse? “For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like” (Jas. 1: 24 ESV).
Being in a family where both sides have loved ones who have dealt with Alzheimer’s, forgetting oneself is real to me. Losing self would be one of the most terrifying things to go through, I would think.
I can’t stop thinking that the looking intently but then losing it means we are really looking with the wrong motivation. Are we looking for the warm fuzzies rather than transformation?
The warm fuzzies aren’t going to last long. They won’t last for eternity because they have nothing to do with character change.
We do have want to change from who we formerly were to be the men and women that God wants us to be. However, we only do that by doing God’s Word.
Spurgeon brought up a good point. God’s Word is a mirror. He wrote, “The Word of the Lord is a revealer of secrets: it shows a man his life, his thoughts, his heart, his inmost self.”
Resource
Looking into the glass isn’t wrong. The sin comes when we look into the glass and turn away or not allow transformation.
We can’t just look at the surface of God’s Word. We can’t just hear it or read it. We have to study and meditate on it. In other words, we have to genuinely seek God.
Searching for and Seeking God
Hearing His Word (Rom. 10: 17).
Reading His Word (Rev. 1: 3).
Praying to Him (Heb. 4: 16).
Studying His Word (Ac. 17: 11).
Meditating on His Word (Ps. 1: 1-2).
Memorizing His Word (Ps. 119: 11).
We also can’t leave God’s Word in His house. We have to take it with us into our houses for the rest of the week.
We have to look at God law (Jas. 1: 25 — in the next devotion). That is what God’s Word is all about.
Making the Connections
In the last devotion, we said that the Word of God is able to save us — but not without something on our part. Two things about that.
In Gifts for Remaining Steadfast in the Faith, we talked about how God chose to send us His word of truth (Jas. 1: 18 ESV).
- “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (Jn. 1: 1 ESV).
- “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’” (Jn. 14: 6 ESV).
What are we to do? “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you” (Ps. 119: 11 ESV).
We have to look into the law and See God’s love for us. Then we have to follow His law.
How Do We Apply This?
- Don’t be deceived — and don’t deceive ourselves — when hearing the Word of God.
- Practice that which God says in His Word He wants from us.
Resource
Father God. We praise Your name for sending Your Son — Your Truth — to redeem us from our sins. We pray that we change so that we are imitating Your character. We want to be transformed to be like You. Amen.
What do you think?
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