Doing the Word

INTRODUCTION

Turn in your Bibles to the book of James. Our passage this morning is from James chapter 1, beginning in verse 22 and running through verse 25.

Now, you’ll recall that a few months ago I preached from James 1:19-21, and the passage we’re going to study this morning is a companion to that. In fact, it’s really a continuation of the same topic. In verses 19-21, we learned the necessary components to properly receive God’s word. Here, James is concerned, then, with the next step in that process—properly responding to the word of God.

Read James 1:22-25

Around 2006 or 2007 that I came across an article in a 2005 issue of Scientific American. Now, if you’re doing the math, that’s about 15 years ago that I first read this article, but it was such an astounding read that it has stuck in my mind to this day.

The article was about a man named Laurance Kim Peek, and the article was titled, Inside the Mind of a Savant. Reading more about this man, I came to find out that Kim Peek was actually known as a megasavant.

Peek was born in 1951 in Salt Lake City, UT. He was born with a condition known as macrocephaly, or an unusually large head, as well as several other congenital and neurological issues which presented numerous developmental challenges from an early age. Until age four, he was unable to walk, and even after that he walked only with an unusual, sidelong gait. He couldn’t button his shirts and had difficulty performing other fine motor skills.

Yet despite these developmental challenges, Kim evidenced from an early age some rather astounding intellectual abilities. According to his father, from as early as 16 months, Kim demonstrated an ability to memorize things he had read, and could recite books he had read with perfect recall. He would read a book, memorize it, and then place it upside down on the bookshelf to mark the books he had read, and he continued that practice throughout his life.

Kim’s ability to read and memorize books was astonishing. He could speed-read a book in as little as an hour, memorizing nearly everything in it. By the end of his life, he had read and memorized vast amounts of books, and could accurately recall the contents of at least 12,000 volumes on a range of subjects, from history to literature, geography, numbers, sports, music, dates, and even the entire Bible.

One of the reasons Kim could intake and memorize so much information was because he could open a book and read each of the two facing pages at the same time. He would scan the left page with his left eye, while his right eye scanned the right page. This allowed him to filter through even the thickest of books in an expediant amount of time, and he became known from working through an entire catalog of books in the Salt Lake City Library.

Kim Peek’s abilities became well known following the release of the 1988 film Rain Man, in which Peek was the inspiration for the character Raymand Babbitt, played by Dustin Hoffman.

But sadly, one of the realities brought up by the article in Scientific American was that, despite Kim Peek’s remarkable intellectual abilities and the vast volumes of books he had memorized and could instantly recall with accuracy, he had trouble understanding the significance of the books that he read. That’s not to say that he didn’t understand anything in them. But his ability to digest and then apply the principles of books on a philosophical level was a struggle for him. So he was filled with knowledge, but he struggled to apply that knowledge in practical ways in everyday life.

Transition: And it was that issue that came to my mind as I studied this passage, because it occurred to me that even though the parallels with Kim Peek are limited in this analogy, churches are nevertheless filled with individuals who are bursting with knowledge but struggle to put that knowledge into practice.

APPLICATION: Too often we are much too willing to hear the word without ever actually doing anything with it. Week after week, we sit under preaching, we read our Bibles, listen to sermons and podcasts on our commutes and during our free time, we attend Bible studies, we accumulate Bible knowledge and theological acumen—but does it actually translate into anything tangible in our life?

That is the issue posed to us by the text.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

James, if you remember, is writing to predominantly Jewish Christians during a time when the oral reading of the Scriptures formed an essential element of religious life, both in the Jewish synagogue as well as in Christian assemblies (Acts 15:21). They sat regularly to hear the word read and taught, just as we do, and likewise they struggled like we do to go beyond that to obey the word in everyday life.

The reality is that, just as we learned last time, your relationship to the word of God is one of the things that sets you apart as a Christian.

- It was the word that awakened you to new life in Christ (Jas 1:18)

- It was the word that was implanted in your heart, bring you from infancy to full maturity and final salvation (Jas 1:21)

But the thing that proves these things out and demonstrates that they really, genuinely happened is that you actually put the word into practice.

PROPOSITION: Authentic faith not only receives the word of God, but also obeys the word of God. In other words, true, genuine, authentic faith is a faith that hears God speak and then does what God requires.

INTERROGATIVE: So how do we make sure that we’re people who obey God’s word? How does it take to be a “doers of the word?”

ANSWER: James gives us four truths we need to know so that we can be “doers” of the word.

1. DOING THE WORD IS AN IDENTITY, NOT A PASTIME (1:22a)

The first thing we need to understand if we’re going to be doers of the word is that “doing the word” isn’t a pastime activity. It isn’t a hobby which we dabble in on our off time. It’s not an interest or a fascination. It’s not something we do when we can. It’s an identity.

Doing the word has to be so much a part of who you are that it is as essential to your identity as your DNA is.

“But be doers of the word” – James could have put this a number of different ways. He could have simply put, “Do the word.” But instead, he chose to put his emphasis not on the action of “doing” itself but instead on the person performing it.

He tells us to “be a doer.” Make it your identity. Make it a part of who you are. By putting it this way, James is saying that the whole person, inside and outside, needs to be wrapped up in this activity of doing the word.

And just to reinforce that point, the verb he uses here—be—speaks of a continuous, never-ending activity. In other words, being a doer of the word is an identity that you own, and it’s something that continuously marks you.

ILLUSTRATION: Growing up in northern Virginia and right down the road from the site of several major battles of the Civil War, I’ve been able to attend a Civil War reenactment. Now, these reenactments are quite astounding. The men and women who participate in these are meticulous. They care about the details. Everything from the uniforms, the weapons, the customs, the accents, and speech style—everything is reenacted to communicate a holistic sense of what it would have been like to live and fight during that war. It really is an educational experience for everyone, and the participants in these reenactments delight in reliving the past, in remembering the events, and commemorating this time in our nation’s history, both the highs and the lows.

But here’s the thing: eventually, after it’s all over, they strike the camp, get in their cars, drive home, and eat a burger, take a shower, and watch some TV. While they’re reenacting, they’re on—they’re totally engaged. But when it’s over, it’s over, and they return to normal life.

That’s not what it takes to be a doer of the word. This isn’t a pastime. It’s one thing to work on your car, change the oil…it’s another thing to be a professional mechanic. It’s one thing to spend a few days or weeks engaged in an armed conflict. It’s totally another to be a professional soldier, whose entire life is dedicated to warfare.

That profession becomes your identity. It’s not just what you do, but who you are. And as Christians, born again by the word of truth, and having that word implanted in our hearts, we must BE doers of that word.

Just to help this sink in a little more, consider Paul’s words to the Corinthians:

2 Cor 5:16-17 - From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Like James, the language here is identity language. As a Christian, you are no longer who you once were. That former person hangs, writhing and screaming on the cross. The person you are now is a new creature—born when God awakened your heart and you believed the gospel. The key to life as a Christian is to embrace who you now are in Christ. You must BE a doer of the word.

Transition:Now that brings us to a second truth we need to understand.

2. DOING THE WORD IS A NECESSITY, NOT AN OPTION (1:22b)

Now I say that lest we get the idea that as a Christian, I have a choice about whether I embrace this “doer” identity or not.

“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” In contrast to the “doer of the word,” we’re introduced to the alternative: the hearer only.

Now, at once we have to recognize that by itself, being a hearer of the word is not a bad thing. It was the apostle Paul, after all, who instructed Timothy, “Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching” (1 Tim 4:13). Now, you can’t give that kind of instruction if you hold the position that being a hearer of the word is a bad thing.

The problem, of course, is not in being a hearer, but in being a hearer only.

“Hearer”– used in classical Greek to refer to an individual who attended the lectures of philosophers and public speakers, but who wasn’t an actual follower or student of the one who was teaching. So the educational equivalent of a hearerwould be our modern notion of an auditor—someone who sits in on a class, but is not accountable to completing the work.

ILLUSTRATION: Now, I audited a class during my time in seminary. And let me tell you, it was fantastic. I showed up, I listened to the lectures. I skipped a few classes. There was no homework, no final exam, no memorization work—absolutely NO STRESS! But there was also little to no lasting impact on me now some ten years later. The classes that have had the greatest impact on me have been the ones I threw myself into with full force. They were the ones that I knew I was accountable for, the ones where I worked hard for my grade.

There is no auditing allowed in the Christian life. James makes that perfectly clear, first off because he has given us a command here: BE doers of the word, and not hearers only. There’s no other option. Being a doer is a necessity. It’s part of being a believer.

ILLUSTRATION: If you say, “I want to be a football player,” you can join a team, and wear the uniform and all the pads, but if, when the coach says, “Get in there,” you say, “No, I’m good on the sideline,” you aren’t really a football player. You may call yourself a football player, but you can’t be one unless you actually play the game.

In the same way, you can call yourself a Christian, but unless you demonstrate your profession with action—unless you’re a doer of the word—you’re just a person with a helmet on, not a player—you’re just a class auditor, not a student.

Luke 6:46 – “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?”

1 John 2:3-4 – And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

Cf. Matt 7:21

Now, John just introduced for us what James says is the resulting net effect of being a hearer only.

“deceiving yourselves” – an auditor in Christ in a self-deceived person. That word deceived appears only here and in Colossians 2:4. It speaks of following after false logic, fallacious reasoning, and thus coming to a false conclusion.

Now, in Colossians, the deceiving influence is external. It’s talking about being deceived into abandoning “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge in Christ” by following human philosophy. But with James, the deception comes from within. The person is the one who creates the false logic, who dangles out a fallacy as bait, like a lure, and then goes after it like a fish. He hooks himself with his own fallacy. And the fallacy is this: hearing is enough.

Listen to me: that is an extremely dangerous position to hold. One author put it this way:

Wolff: “It is sad to be deceived, most miserable to be self-deceived. Many still determine their godliness by the quality of hearing (for instance sermons) or reading (even God’s word) instead of action and obedience.”

In Ezekiel 33, the Lord indicts the exiles of Judah for exactly this same thing:

Ezek 33:30-32 - “As for you, son of man, your people who talk together about you by the walls and at the doors of the houses, say to one another, each to his brother, ‘Come, and hear what the word is that comes from the Lord.’ And they come to you as people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear what you say but they will not do it; for with lustful talk in their mouths they act; their heart is set on their gain. And behold, you are to them like one who sings lustful songs with a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument, for they hear what you say, but they will not do it.

To the people of Ezekiel’s day, God’s word was like entertainment. They listened like they were at a concert. They were impressed by eloquent messages, well-executed oration. But they had no interest and intention of obeying, and for that they found themselves in exile.

There is much the same that happens in church today. In the words of one writer,

Roberts: “Our churches are filled with spiritual sponges who soak up the information, sit, sour, and eventually stink!”

You don’t want to be that person. Don’t be the person who’s bought into the lie that hearing is enough. You can listen to all the sermons in the world, and it will do nothing for you if you hold to the self-deceiving lie that hearing is enough. You have to be a doer, and not a hear only.

Transition: That brings us to a third point.

3. DOING THE WORD IS AN EFFORT, NOT A LEISURE (1:23-25a)

James begins in verse 23 to paint a picture for us of the difference between a doer and a hearer. And he does this by using a simple image from everyday life—a man looking into a mirror.

“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”– Now, this imagery is absolutely generic. This could be anyone, you, me, the person sitting beside you.

Now, this person is “staring intently”, which is a good translation of this term, because it dispels the common notion that the underlying sin of this individual is simply that he gave nothing but a hasty, careless look. That’s not what the word means.

Luke 12:27 – Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

Acts 7:31 - When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight, and as he drew near to look, there came the voice of the Lord.

The term means to look at something with reflection on what’s observed. It means to direct one’s whole mind in observation. I suppose an adequate term would be to study something visually.

And what this person is studying is “his natural face,” or literally, “the face of his genesis,” which is a Semitic expression for a person’s natural, physical complexion.

Now, he has good reason for this focused study of his face, because he is staring intently at his face “in a mirror.” Mirrors at that time were not the clear, highly reflective glass mirrors that are commonplace today. The first glass mirrors weren’t available until late in Roman times.

Mirrors at the time were made of polished metal, usually copper or bronze, so they produced dim and warped reflections. So, while you could gain a good impression of yourself, you couldn’t simply glance at a mirror and learn much. You would have to look intently at what you saw in a mirror, and that’s exactly what this individual is doing.

1 Cor 13:12 - For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

So up to this point, the actions of this individual are understandable and perfectly acceptable. The issue isn’t what he’s doing at the mirror that’s the problem, but what happens next.

24 “For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he is like.”The issue here is not that he looks. The issue is that he goes away and forgets. That’s the problem that James is driving at, and he makes that point clear in verse 25 when he describes the “doer” as one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, AND PERSEVERES, not being a hearer who FORGETS but a doer who ACTS.

The difference between the doer and the hearer is not in the quality of their looking. The word used in verse 25 for looking means to “bend down to carefully observe something.”

Luke 24:12 - But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened.

That term is used here to describe someone bending over to pour over the word. James has simply moved from the imagery of the mirror—of staring intently at your reflection—to the reality of staring intently and studying the word.

But while the hearer in verse 24 goes away and forgets, the doer perseveres and so acts. He remains. He doesn’t go away. He stays.

The implication of verse 24 is that this person stares at himself, carefully observing his appearance. He notes the frazzled hair, the crusty sleep in the eyes. There’s obvious work to be done. But he then goes away without dealing with what he sees. That’s the issue. And because nothing was dealt with, and because he’s no longer in front of the mirror, it’s not long before he forgets the blemishes he saw at first.

In contrast, the doer in verse 25 stares into the mirror—which in both cases is actually the word—but rather than going away, he remains. That’s the central difference. The hearer goes away, while the doer remains.

William Varner: “Each is equally serious in his gaze. It is what happens next that makes the difference. As for the man with the mirror, “off he goes.” His friends, however, when they meet him and see his face, could tell him that his devotion to the mirror is without any lasting value.”

Now, we could easily read more into the individual parts of this comparison than I think James actually intended. The overall point James is trying to make is simply this: you don’t stare intently into a mirror only to go away without fixing what you see. Doing that would be a complete waste of your time, and it makes no sense. It’s absurd.

And it’s equally absurd to listen carefully to the word, only to go away without putting it into practice. A life that is lived under the word must be then shaped by the word if it is to have any lasting value on that person.

APPLICATION: So what’s the key to all this? What makes the difference? It’s in the word persevere. The reason you go away from the mirror without addressing what you see is because it’s hard work to do the word.

Doing the word is an effort. It takes dedication to stay in front of that mirror and deal with the defects, to fix the problems. It’s so much easier to leave and forget than to remain and act.

I think we forget sometimes that when we became a Christian, we didn’t sign up for a leisure activity. I think sometimes we’re like an 18-year-old, fresh out of high school, who enlists in the military because he thinks it sounds fun, only to be slapped in the face at basic training with the cold, hard reality that the military isn’t a picnic. It’s hard work.

So is sanctification. Paul writes,

1 Cor 9:24-27 - Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

What Paul is describing here is the hard, toiling labor of bringing your life under the direction of the word—disciplining to do God’s will rather than your own.

Sometimes we go away from the mirror because we don’t want to change. We see the problems. The word makes them obvious. But we don’t want to change. We don’t want to deal with them because it means we have to deny ourselves; because it means we have to give up something that we love. And so we go away and we forget.

Other times, we go away because we simply don’t continue on with the next step of consciously meditating on the truth we’ve learned so we can apply it in its proper time. That’s a hard step. It takes dedicated tenacity and self-determination. It takes discipline.

This is why the blessed man in Psalm 1 is one who not only delights in God’s law, but then takes it a step further and meditates on it day and night. He doesn’t go away and forget. He ruminates…he lets it soak into his heart. He lets it uncover secret rooms. This man is a doer and not a hearer only.

ILLUSTRATION: I’ve known several people over the years who have quit in the middle of biblical counseling. But they didn’t quit because they didn’t want to change. They quit because counseling uncovered the reality of just how much work it takes to really change.

Biblical counselors give homework. It’s not just a therapy session. You walk out of your time as a counselee with biblical homework…and this homework gets personal. It gets real. And the people who quit that process don’t make that call because they don’t see their need for change. They quit because they don’t want to do the work.

You want to be a doer of the word, it takes effort.

Transition: Now this brings us to our final point, and one that rounds out what would otherwise be an overwhelming reality for us. Yes, doing the word is an effort, but it is also a joy.

4. DOING THE WORD IS A JOY, NOT A BURDEN (1:25b)

25 “But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty…” Pay attention to how James talks about the word.

In verse 18, it was the word of truth that gave us new life. In verse 21, it was the word implanted in our hearts that brings us to ultimate salvation. And it is that same word that James here calls the perfect law, the law of liberty, or the perfect law that sets you free.

This is the balm for the weary soul. And it’s the key to all of it because it gets at the heart of everything else we’ve looked at.

- Why would someone embrace doing the word as an identity?

- Why would someone commit to doing the word as a necessity?

- Why would someone dedicate himself to doing the word if it’s such hard work?

The answer is because it’s a joy to do it. And the reason it’s a joy is because they’ve been set free.

To an unbeliever, obeying the word is not a joy. It is a burden, and they feel the weight of that burden on them. It’s a burden because it calls them to do that which they do not desire. So many an uncoverted person has sat in the pew on a Sunday morning. And they are content to play the part, as long as they don’t have to live the part.

But for the believer, obeying the word is not a burden—not anymore. For them, it’s freedom. It’s freedom because the law is written on their heart (Jer 31:33). And the heart they now have is a new heart, empowered by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit (Ezek 36:26).

Listen to how Paul described the complete and radical shift in relationship that a believer has to obedience before and after the cross:

Rom 6:17-22 - But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.

So what Paul is saying is that while you were still an unbeliever, you weren’t free to obey the law, because you were a slave to sin, and sin is, by definition, lawlessness. But in Christ you were set free from your slavery to sin, and were for the first time free to willingly obey the law.

D. Edmund Hiebert put it this way:

Hiebert: “The believer is not free from the obligation to do God’s will as revealed in His Word, but love works in him the desire to do his Father’s will. Men are free when they want to do what they ought to do. This is the “splendid paradox” produced by a living faith in the gospel through the indwelling Holy Spirit.” (122)

Now look what happens next. When you are a doer of the word—a doer who obeys because he wants to, not because he has to…it produces something in you.

“But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.”

The word for blessed here is the same word Jesus uses in the Sermon on the Mount. It means happy—joy. Doing the word produces joy. Obeying God brings happiness.

And notice what this happiness is connected to. Sure, there is blessing in the kingdom to come for those who obey God. But that’s not really what James is promising here. He’s not just trying to motivate you by offering you some kind of future reward. He’s actually saying that obeying God will bring you happiness in the very act of obeying. He’s saying that the one who does the word is a happy person.

Why is that? Well, first there’s joy in obedience because we find joy and happiness in doing the things that we want to do. And when you want to obey, you will find happiness in obeying. It’s that simple. But when you don’t want to obey, you won’t be happy, even if you do obey…because your heart’s not in it.

Ps 119:2 – Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart.

Cf. Ps 128:1; Rev 1:3

But there’s a second reason. Obedience also brings happiness because it reinforces in us the assurance of our salvation in Christ. True believers obey God’s word:

John 8:31-32 – So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my words, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

1 John 2:3 – And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.

We know that we have come to know God when we obey his word. And that knowledge produces confidence, which brings happiness and joy because we have evidence of the sincerity and genuineness of our faith. It brings you confidence that you are who you say you are.

CONCLUSION

So what does it take to be a “doer of the word?”

- It’s an identity – it’s something you are, not just something you do

- It’s a necessity – doing the word is not optional

- It’s an effort – doing the word it’s hard work

- It’s a joy – it flows out of the freedom we have to obey God from the heart

GOSPEL

Now, if you are a Christian and this passage is convicting to you, then see this as an opportunity to ask yourself some important questions.

Paul told the Corinthians:

2 Cor 13:5 – Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!

Your response to the word is a test of the genuineness of your faith. When you’ve sat for a long time in a church and heard the word for long enough, it’s easy enough to become convinced that everything is okay when it’s not. And that’s why a test like this is important.

Do you obey the word? Do you actually put it into practice? Or have you gotten good and hearing the word without actually doing anything with it?

Matt 7:24-27 – “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”

That’s a warning to us—a warning not to hear but not act. It was James who wrote,

James 4:17 – So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

But that’s where there’s good news to be found. Where there is sin, there is grace to be found in the Lord.

Matt 11:28 - Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”