Be A Doer!

“But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. 

For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: 

For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.

But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.” James 1:22-25

The most simple way of explaining this topic today is as simple as when someone goes to college to get a degree for a job. For a person who wants to enter the field of architecture, one needs to go to college to learn advanced math. They need to spend hours of time listening to a professor teach them so that they can learn.

But what if a person spent years of their time in a classroom, but at the end, they decided that they didn’t want to pursue that career choice anymore, and decided to do something else with their life. They sat for hours listening to all that information, but they did nothing with it. 

A “doer” is someone who does, performs, or executes some kind of action.

The same way, a person can spend a couple hours every weekend at church, they can spend hours a week reading their Bible, but unless they take that information and apply it to their life, it won’t benefit them at all. 

A prime example is Judas. Look at the opportunity he was given: he got to be with Jesus Christ Himself, the source of all the knowlege that anyone would need. Just imagine being able to speak with the Lord of all things. And look at what Judas did with what he had heard. Nothing. 

Unlike Judas, who betrayed the Lord, Peter and Paul and the other apostles did many, many great things. They went out starting churches, healing the sick, and preached the gospel everywhere. They didn’t “sit on their hands” and do nothing. They didn’t just hear the word of God and then go and do nothing with it the rest of their lives. They had action, they were “doers” of the word.

God sees when we do the things that we have learned and keep His commandments, and He will reward and bless us.

“But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.” Luke 11:28

“For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.” Hebrews 6:10

A horn or a whistle on a train is sounded to alert people that the train is coming through. If a person walking on the train tracks hears that sound, they have the choice of whether they are going to do anything or not. Are they going to stay clear of the train tracks, or are they going to ignore it, and walk right in front of the train? It really is their choice, to choose to live, or choose to die.

When we hear God’s word preached and spoken to us, hearing is only the first part. We need to have an action in our life that goes along with what we have heard and learned. We need to be doers, and not hearers only.

Unless we take heed to what we have learned in God’s word, and do it, we too will perish. 

Don’t sit around and do nothing with what you have learned from the Scriptures. Be a doer!

In Christ,

Andrew