Doers of the Word James 1:22

James, the “servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ”, exhorted his readers of “the twelve tribes scattered abroad” to “lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness” and rather “receive with meekness the engrafted word which” was “able to save” their “souls”. In chapter one and verse twenty-two of his letter, James told them to “be doers of the word” and not just to hear it where we read:

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

The verse begins, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only,...” James began with the word, “But” which is a disassociation conjunction that means what is about to be written takes precedence over what was just stated, “be doers” or “makers, producers and performers” “of the word” which refers to “the speech, utterance, conception, decree, mandate, discourse or idea” of the scriptures, “and not hearers” or “one who listens and hears the sound of” “only” which means “alone, but and solely”. The readers of James' letter were to put into practice the “concepts and ideas” of the “word of God”.

The verse goes on to say, “...deceiving your own selves.” James continued, “deceiving” or “reckoning wrong, deluding, circumventing, discounting and cheating by false reasoning” “your own selves” which refers to the “men and women” who were part of the “twelve tribes scattered abroad”. If the people to whom James wrote would not put into practice the ideas of the scriptures, they were “deluding and cheating themselves” by “false reasoning” as to what they read.

When we think through these words of James, we should be inspired to practice the ideas and concepts of the Holy scriptures rather than simple reading or “hearing” them. God's ideas are to be “engrafted” or “put into” into our lives, and the manner in which we conduct ourselves should thereby be altered. If we only “hear” God's words and do nothing about them, we only bring “deception” to ourselves concerning our state before Him. All who come to Jesus Christ in humility and repentance are submitting themselves before Him as Savior and Lord. In other words, what He instructs, we will do. There is no place for only “hearing” the word of God and doing nothing about it. May the Lord help us to be “makers and producers” of His ideas

Next time James shares about “a man beholding his natural face in a glass”, so read ahead, and we shall join together then.

Until tomorrow…there is more…

Look for the daily devotional book “Equipped for Battle – From Generation to Generation”, the marriage book “So, You Want to Be Married”, and the new devotional “One Year in the Sermon on the Mount” in all major bookstore sites, http://www.amazon.com ; http://www.barnesandnobles.com ; download to e-books, and find it locally at www.mrzlc.com/bookstore.