Eating BBQ ribs can be a messy endeavor. Especially if you have a beard. Sometimes a napkin isn’t enough to do the trick; you need to go find a mirror and check for BBQ sauce hiding in all the crevices on your face and places where the sauce is deeply embedded in your beard.
But imagine going to the mirror — realizing you were even sloppier than you had imagined. Somehow, it’s not only your mouth area but your forehead that is covered with sauce.
Any sane person — or at least someone who desires not to look like a weirdo slathered in BBQ sauce — will do the proper thing and wipe off the sauce.
But imagine that such a person looks into the mirror, acknowledges the problem, gives their image a kind nod, and then goes about their merry way without having removed the problem. Nobody does that.
You looked in the mirror to help you know where to remove the offending sauce; only a fool would see the problem and not remedy it.
But this is precisely what James says happens when we only “hear” the word but do not “do” the word. “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says” (James 1:22).
But what does it mean to be a “doer” of the Word?
James is very concerned with authentic Christianity. If you have experienced the new birth through this living Word (v. 18), then it should be accepted into one’s life through the doing of that Word.
The one who has been changed by God — through the implanted Word — will have it expressed through a lifestyle of obedience.
We are to be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger (James 1:19). But the premium that James places upon hearing should not lead one to the conclusion that all that is required is to merely “hear” the Word.
What leads to being redeemed of angry hearts and tongues is the active “putting away” of the “filthiness and rampant wickedness” (v. 20). Though we must be “quick to hear,” to really listen will lead to action.
James is saying the same thing that Jesus said in Luke 11:28, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it,” and later Paul in Romans 2:13, “It is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.” The point here is simple — do what the Word of God tells you.
But we like specifics, don’t we? We would like a list of specifics that says, “Do this.” But that’s not the image that James gives us. It’s not a distant, codified, stale, and lifeless list of dos and don’ts. It’s a mirror.
Mirrors show reality — but the image in them changes as we change. That’s not to say that the Word of God changes, but our experience with the Word is living and active.
The point, then, is that whenever and whatever we see in the Word, we must come to the place where we respond according to what God’s word is saying to us.
Is it calling you to repent? Then repent. Is it calling you to be encouraged? Then be encouraged. The Word is what dictates our response. This is what Kierkegaard meant when he says this:
“God’s Word is given in order that you shall act according to it, not that you shall practice interpreting obscure passages. If you do not read God’s Word in such a way that you consider that the least little bit you do understand instantly binds you to do accordingly, then you are not reading God’s Word.”
I don’t know what your mirror is telling you today. But I know that your response to the mirror of God’s Word should be obedience. This is James’ point. Whatever God’s Word tells us, we do.
Perhaps it will be helpful to share both a negative and a positive example of being a doer of the Word.
The Book of James is known as the Proverbs of the New Testament. It is a letter that is filled with practical instruction for Christian living.
It’s a manual for those who are dispersed throughout the Empire to help them live out their faith in a hostile environment. Living out the call of the gospel would eventually claim the life of the author of the Book of James.
The outcome of the author of the Old Testament Book of Proverbs is a bit different. It’s likely that Solomon was a younger man when he wrote many of these Proverbs.
Solomon was the guy who said, “Can a man carry fire next to his chest and his clothes not be burned” (Proverbs 6:27). But he was also the man who apparently said to himself, “I think I can hold fire to my chest and not get burned.”
Solomon did get burned, though. He ended up losing the kingdom. He didn’t follow his own advice, and it cost him dearly. Bruce Waltke says it well:
“If one should ask, ‘If Solomon is the wise author, how could he have died such a fool?’ let it be noted that he constructed his own gibbet on which he impaled himself — that is, he ceased listening to his own instruction. Spiritual success today does not guarantee spiritual success tomorrow.”
To put that into the words of James, Solomon was not a “doer” of the Word but only a hearer. But I suppose in Solomon’s case, he wasn’t just a hearer — he was an author.
Which goes to show that you can even write Scripture and end up not following it. What a tremendous warning this serves for us today.
Solomon looked into the mirror and saw the truth. But he stopped there. He did not apply the truth or live the truth. And it caused him to fall mightily. But there are those who did respond positively to God’s Word, the Apostle Paul is one of those.
We read of Paul’s conversion in the Book of Acts. In Acts 9, we read that Paul was breathing out murderous threats against Christians. On his way to arrest (or kill) any of those found in Damascus following Jesus, Paul was suddenly struck by a blinding light, and the Lord Jesus spoke to him.
Paul heard the Word of God. And it transformed him. The voice told Paul that he would “rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” Paul listened and obeyed.
And through his obedience, he regained his sight. But he not only regained physical sight but he was also given spiritual sight. He now saw the worth and beauty of Jesus Christ.
Paul then dedicated his life to following Jesus. He did not simply hear the Word of God, but he responded positively. He obeyed Jesus even to the point of death.
Paul was captivated by Jesus. Throughout all of his letters, it is obvious that Paul is a man who takes his marching orders from the Lord Jesus and will do whatever Christ tells him to do.
Paul is an example of a doer of the Word. He looked into God’s Word — he looked at the Holy One — and it blinded him. But it also became, to him, a mirror.
He saw that all of his righteousness, which he had been acquiring, were nothing but a “loss” compared to the “surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:2-9). He not only saw the beauty of Jesus, but he responded accordingly.
In Matthew, Jesus spoke of those who would assume that they were in a right relationship with Him, but in the end, they would be rejected.
“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. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness’” (Matthew 7:21-23).
These folks were “doers,” but they were not doers of the Word. James 1:22 is not a call for mere activity. It is a call to obedience. It is a call to look into the mirror of God’s Word and do what it says. According to Matthew 7, our eternity depends upon it.
For further reading:
Why Is Faith Without Works Dead?
What Does it Mean That Good Works Are the Result of Salvation?
What Does James 2:26 Mean by 'Faith without Works Is Dead'?
Photo Credit: ©iStock/Getty Images Plus/artplus
Mike Leake is husband to Nikki and father to Isaiah and Hannah. He is also the lead pastor at Calvary of Neosho, MO. Mike is the author of Torn to Heal and Jesus Is All You Need. His writing home is http://mikeleake.net and you can connect with him on Twitter @mikeleake. Mike has a new writing project at Proverbs4Today.