Just Do It
“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” James 1:22
I love discussing doctrine as much as anyone I know, but there is an inherent danger therein; when we assume that by agreeing with a truth, we must be obeying it. Putting most of our energies into knowing and little into doing is dangerous indeed. We are sometimes more zealous for being right than we are for being righteous. I will include an obligatory disclaimer here, we are not saved by doing good works, but we are called to conform to the image of Christ, and obey his commandments.
I have nothing against pouring over scriptures and theological writings, in order to rightly divide the word, it is one of my favorite activities; but we cannot stop with knowing, we must proceed to doing. Why? 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.1 Make no mistake, this is no mere thought of mine. James explicitly warns us of the danger of learning the truth but forgetting to obey it, forgetting to examine ourselves, and forgetting to do it.
When Jesus was ministering he never told anyone to merely understand the truth. He commanded them to act on the truth. His message was consistently “repent and believe”2. We need to take his warning seriously, for “blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”3
1. James 1:23-24
2. Mark 1: 15
3. Luke 11:28
Jeremy Nehf says:
December 16th, 2009 at 1:54 am
You said,”I love discussing doctrine as much as anyone I know, but there is an inherent danger therein; when we assume that by agreeing with a truth, we must be obeying it. Putting most of our energies into knowing and little into doing is dangerous indeed.”
And I was just thinking that the first instance of knowing I can remember in the bible is Adam “knew” his wife. (Haven’t checked the Hebrew so don’t get nit-picky!)
Anyway it is one thing to know your wife. It is quite another to “KNOW” your wife. One implies knowledge that is intellectual. The other implies experiential knowledge. The former is passive while the latter is active. The first is nice, the second is better!
By the way, I LOVE this line “We are sometimes more zealous for being right than we are for being righteous” I’ve decided to plagiarize it as my own!
Jeremiah Dusenberry says:
December 17th, 2009 at 11:32 pm
I might have to do the same thing Jeremy (plagiarize.)