Diligence in our obedience to God’s Word
But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. James 1:22-23
God is very much concern on how we are living. This is why He gave us His Word for in it we have His instructions on how to make the most out of life despite the adversities that come our way. We need to seek God’s wisdom and to maintain a positive attitude towards Him for such attitudes will provide us proper perspective when difficulties come our way. These difficulties can and should be used to help us to mature spiritually. We find strength to face trials through the Word of God! The Word preached to us that saved us was still available. But availability was not enough. The Word of God would not infuse its strength into our lives apart from our own diligent efforts. From our text, James so clearly declares that we have to be diligent in applying God’s Word. Listening to the Word of God is important. We must always begin there. Let us be always clear on this: we cannot possibly succeed in the Christian life apart from the regular intake of the Word of God. Refusal to do this indicates that we have no spiritual life in us! But while we must always begin with hearing the Word of God, we must not stop there. We must apply what we have heard. James writes, “But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says” (v. 22). His meaning is quite plain. Just as the person who has no interest in hearing the Word of God is horribly deceived about his or her spiritual condition, so is the person who is content to hear and not obey. Though we cannot obey God fully, but every Christian should have a desire to obey God and is exerting every effort to do so and is grieved by failure. To drive home the importance of this matter of obedience, James likens the Word of God to a mirror. Anyone who has any familiarity with Scripture knows that James is correct. It is indeed like a mirror! We cannot look into it very long without seeing ourselves for what we are! God wants us to tune our ears exclusively to the word implanted by Him in us and, even more importantly, to allow that word to govern the way we live.
Blessings
