Be Doer of the Word, not Hearer only

Posted on Sept. 11, 2024, 10:14 a.m. by Rev. Shobayo Kayode The Gospel Study Centre

“But be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” (James.1:22) Hearing the word without acting on it means one deceiving oneself. We are doer of the word when we hear the word, accept it into our minds, agree to it in our heart, and act on it in obedience. The scripture says, “Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it” (Luke.11:28) Keeping the word is our obedience to the word which makes us doer of the word by which the evil character in us is laid off and our soul is saved. “Lay aside all filthiness and overflow wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save our soul”. (James.1:21) The hearer is the one that merely hears the word and quickly forgets it. He is described as a careless man that looks into a mirror to see his natural face and forget what he looks like as he moved away from the mirror. (James.1:23) He is merely deceiving himself. The scripture says, “for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified.” (Rom.2:13) Anything less than being doer of the word is tantamount to deceiving oneself. The doer is the one who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, not forgetful hearer but a doer of the work. The scripture says “this man shall be blessed in his deed” (James.1:25) He is blessed in his deed because he is acting in obedience to the word. Doer of the word get results. The greatest result of the doer of the Word is Salvation. We thank God for His grace that brought us to Jesus Christ through faith. We heard the word of truth, we acted on the word of truth by the conviction of the Holy Spirit, gave our lives to Christ and we received our salvation. We need to continue to be doer of the Word to nurture our salvation and grow our faith in Christ. In addition, doer of the word gets strengthened against the threat and temptation of the evil one by which he is able to overcome the deceit of the devil that walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Brethren, let us be guided by the Bible passages that says, “for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified.” Our prayer is that God that works in us both to will and to do for His good pleasure, will grant us the grace and enablement to be doer of His word and not hearer only deceiving ourselves, in Jesus mighty name. Amen Evangelism Let us pray that the Holy Spirit will complete the work of salvation in the lives of those we have shared the good news of salvation with, but are yet to take action. We should not be weary. Rev. Shobayo Kayode The Gospel Study Centre