Words Matter

Doers of the Word: Living Out Our Faith

Imagine you’re driving to a new place and relying on GPS to guide you. The voice says, “In 300 feet, turn right,” but instead of turning, you just keep going straight, listening but not following the directions. A few blocks later, it tells you again to make a turn, but you continue ignoring it. Before you know it, you’re completely lost, with the destination farther away than ever.

Now, imagine this isn’t just a random errand but something much more important, like instructions for a life-saving medication or guidelines for a fire drill. In those cases, simply hearing the instructions wouldn’t be enough; if you don’t actually follow them, the consequences could be serious.

James 1:19-27 reminds us that God’s Word is like that essential instruction. Hearing it is the first step, but if we don’t put it into action, we miss its purpose and power. Just like ignoring a GPS or emergency instructions can lead to being lost or in danger, hearing God’s Word without doing it keeps us from reaching the spiritual destination God has planned for us.

The book of James is filled with instruction and wisdom that causes us to reflect on who we really are, it removes the masks we put on as we go through life and forces us to see what is under all of those masks, who are you really? These words of wisdom are so vitally important to our relationship with Christ that if we miss them, don’t follow them, don’t listen to the instruction then we are just as lost as we’ve ever been and in some ways even more so and not only that, we are held accountable for not following God’s Word. The Bible, the Word of God is often read but is it followed?

In the Bible there are 66 books, 1,189 chapters, 31,101 verses, 783,137 words. Over 6000 commands, 1, 260 promises and translated into 1200 languages. That’s a lot of words and we’re going to see over the next several weeks that words matter and you need to hear them, and actually do what they say.

Receiving the Word

James reminds us that from God comes every good and perfect gift, that God doesn’t change and his instruction hasn’t changed regardless of what some in the world would have you believe. We have received the gift of God’s word, left to us for us to hear and to “do” and we have been blessed with understanding so we can comprehend what God is trying to tell us. We have the very instructions for our lives, that as long as we follow this book, we inherit the kingdom of God. That is as basic as I can put it. Now there are some things that go into that, that cause us to take some action, there are details that we must follow so that we can show in our life to whom we belong, whether to God or the world and it’s those actions that define who we are as a people, as Christians.

The foundation of our faith is that the living Word of God is transforming, meaning that it requires something to happen in our life that so that we conform to what God is saying and that if there is no transformation in our life from hearing the Word are we truly saved? Are we the Christian we claim to be?

James warns us to rid ourselves of the moral and evil filth of this world that is so prevalent and that it is essential because it prepares our hearts to receive the Word and let it shape our lives. I want to be very clear about this, it is not enough to hear the word of God, while it starts there we must be “doer’s” of the Word of God. We have to let it transform us, renew us and shape us to be the people God wants us to be and this starts by listening to God and what He is saying.

Doer’s, Not Just Hearers

There is a vital connection between hearing and doing, it challenges us to move beyond knowledge and engage in our faith through practical actions. It’s one thing to hear a sermon, read the Bible or talk about faith. It’s another thing entirely to live it out day to day and this is where the action comes in. This is where we can ask those hard questions, am I a Christian? Am I saved? Or am I just saying I am enough so that even I start to believe it, maybe others believe it but not God. And we may not be fooling others or ourselves as much as we think we are.

As you look at the lives of others and watch what they do, how they act, how they respond to different situations, by how they conduct themselves you have a pretty good idea of the type of person they are, especially if they claim to be a christian. If we claim to be a Christian, what actions in your life can you point at, that show in your life daily that tells others that?

Do You Hear God’s Word?

The definition of hearing is the faculty of perceiving sounds. How many different things do you hear during the day? You hear others talking at work, radio, TV, kids, etc. but we learn to tune them out so that we can focus on something else, you may hear a doctor talking about a disease but that doesn’t make you a doctor right? Neither does simply hearing the Word of God make you a Christian but we so desperately want that to be so. If you want to be a doctor you have to go school, become an intern and practice for years and years for a chance at becoming a doctor. The success rate for a person to go to med school, graduate then start internship to eventually becoming a doctor starts at around 65% and then only about 80% go on to become doctors. What is the success rate of people becoming Christian? There’s no way to know but one thing I do know is that hearing the Word only and doing nothing else isn’t enough. Now, as I said this, chances are some of you started thinking about a doctor in your life that you don’t like, reliving a bad experience and maybe didn’t hear what I just said and that’s because we don’t focus enough on the words of God.

We are easily distracted, I believe too easily so that we don’t have to face the realities of life. It’s like the person that doesn’t admit when there is a problem in their life, if you don’t talk about it then there is no problem. Does that mean the problem goes away? Of course not, it means the problem is still there, never dealt with and only grows because we won’t face it.

We need to follow the directions we have been given. There have been times when we have been traveling somewhere that several people in the car had their GPS turned on their phones, each one tracking the trip. Replace the phones with the Bible and that is where we need to be, we will wear out phones out looking up everything from directions to how to fix something but we don’t pick up the Bible to see how to fix our lives and we stay lost on a journey where we go when we leave this world. Not knowing the way, we take the wrong turn, take the wrong exit, not because we get confused on the directions, but because we don’t know any better.

Jesus says to us, “I Am the Way, the truth and the Life.” Without the Way, there is no going, without the truth there is no knowing, without the Life, there is no living.

Are we living, in our prayers, are we praying that the Father be glorified or so that we might have our own comfortable way?

When we can ask ourselves the question in what way can I bring God the most glory and be of most service to His Church while I’m here we enter into the relationship with God that we should have.

Being the Christian we are supposed to be means that we can move between the righteous place and the sinful world without being stained by the world, being corrupted and our faith is not in vain. This is the faith we take with us, this is how we move and have our being, doing the work of God, not being hearers only and actually go and do the work, in our homes, work, community and even in the church.

James uses the analogy of a person who looks at their face in a mirror and immediately forgets what they look like. This person hears the Word but doesn’t put it into practice. How often do we fall into this trap? We hear God’s Word, we may even feel convicted, but then we walk away and nothing changes… Many of us get stuck in this pattern and feedback loop and we need the power of God, His Word, and fellowship to help break us out of it.

James calls us to be doers of the Word, not just hearers. James tells us to be “doers of the Word.” Webster defines doer as “one that takes an active part; one that does.” We must go When we live out what we believe, our faith becomes tangible. It impacts our lives and the lives of those around us. When we act on our faith, we begin to see the blessings that come from obedience. We experience God’s presence in new ways, and our faith deepens. This is what is called the sanctification process - a continual growth, renewal, sometimes difficult process of walking with God through life.

This is the crux of faithful action. It’s about living out the truths we claim to believe, letting them shape our decisions, our relationships, and our daily lives. It’s about living the life that Christ created us for, not hurting one another, not letting anger guide our actions and our words. A life where we can look into that mirror and see a reflection of God, remember a few weeks ago when we talked about we are created in God’s image? Yes, that part.

“Hearing” of the word is absolutely essential; but if hearing does not lead to doing, if study does not result in obedience, if attendance at worship service does not lead to a righteous life—then the Word of God has been mistreated and we are deceiving ourselves about the reality of our relationship to God. Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote: "Only the believing obey, only the obedient believe.

James is showing us that true religion is not about rituals or outward displays of piety. It’s not about going out and doing something for God so others see all the good you’re doing because that is mistreating the Word of God and deceiving yourself. It’s about the condition of our hearts and how that manifests in our actions. Caring for those in need, those that have been hurt, mistreated, those that have mistreated you, all of God’s people, and doing it for no other reason other than God’s Word has taken hold of your heart and doing the work.

This is difficult to talk about but it must be, I have to challenge you, the Word must challenge you. Do the Words matter to you? Does doing the work interest you? Are you already doing it? Have you ever done it with the right heart?

One last thing about being a doer, James kind of slips it in right at the last. In verse 27, “to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”

Remember what I’ve said before, if something is named in scripture it is for a reason, to cause us to pause and think about why it is. Why “widows and orphans”? I mean there are a lot more than that that need Christian people and shown the love of God right?

It’s because widows and orphans is telling us to provide for those who can do nothing for you in return because that’s what your heavenly Father did for you. these are specific groups of people who have nothing to offer in return. They are wholly dependent on the help of others. They are vulnerable, weak, hurt, unforgiven and needy and God calls us to intercede on their behalf. They can’t repay you, they can’t help you in return, they can’t offer you anything but you can offer them the love of God.