Be A Doer of the Word
James 1:22-25 NIV Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. (23) Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror (24) and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. (25) But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it–not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it–they will be blessed in what they do.
What is James telling us? We look in a mirror to prepare ourselves because it shows us what to correct.
What does someone look like who is a doer of the Word?
- A doer of the Word allows the teaching of the Word to shape his thinking in every area of life.
- A doer of the Word does not adjust his moral compass to the norms of popular culture.
- A doer of the Word learns not to live by his feelings and emotions.
- A doer of the Word learns to know God by His Word and promises – not by the circumstances of life.
Here Are New Testament Examples:
- Don’t Live in Worry:
Matthew 6:25 NKJV (25) “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
Philippians 4:6 | TPT (6) Don’t be pulled in different directions or worried about a thing. Be saturated in prayer throughout each day, offering your faith-filled requests before God with overflowing gratitude. Tell him every detail of your life,
Philippians 4:7 | TPT (7) then God’s wonderful peace that transcends human understanding, will make the answers known to you through Jesus Christ.
We want verse 7 results without first doing what verse 6 says. If you do verse 6, you will get verse 7.
- Walk in Love Towards People:
John 13:34-35 NKJV (34) A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. (35) By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Jesus gave us a COMMANDMENT to love one another.
Romans 5:5 NKJV (5) Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
- Have A Heavenly Marriage:
Ephesians 5:22-33 TPT (22) For wives, this means being supportive to your husbands like you are tenderly devoted to our Lord, (23) for the husband provides leadership for the wife, just as Christ provides leadership for his church, as the Savior and Reviver of the body. (24) In the same way the church is devoted to Christ, let the wives be devoted to their husbands in everything. (25) And to the husbands, you are to demonstrate love for your wives with the same tender devotion that Christ demonstrated to us, his bride. For he died for us, sacrificing himself (26) to make us holy and pure, cleansing us through the showering of the pure water of the Word of God. (27) All that he does in us is designed to make us a mature church for his pleasure, until we become a source of praise to him—glorious and radiant, beautiful and holy, without fault or flaw. (28) Husbands have the obligation of loving and caring for their wives the same way they love and care for their own bodies, for to love your wife is to love your own self. (29) No one abuses his own body, but pampers it—serving and satisfying its needs. That’s exactly what Christ does for his church! (30) He serves and satisfies us as members of his body. (31) For this reason a man is to leave his father and his mother and lovingly hold to his wife, since the two have become joined as one flesh. (32) Marriage is the beautiful design of the Almighty, a great and sacred mystery—meant to be a vivid example of Christ and his church. (33) So every married man should be gracious to his wife just as he is gracious to himself. And every wife should be tenderly devoted to her husband.
God does not ask us to do something that He does not give us the ability to do.
If we will purpose to pursue the word, He will give us power to make the changes and adjustments we need to make to have victory in our lives.
(Philippians 2:13 AMPC) … for it is God Who is all the while effectually at work in you [energizing and creating in you the power and desire], both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight.
James 1:25 TLB (25) But if anyone keeps looking steadily into God’s law for free men, he will not only remember it but he will do what it says, and God will greatly bless him in everything he does.