Hear and Do

KEY VERSE: “Be ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” —James 1:22

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: James 1:22-27; 2:1-8

AN IMPORTANT WARNING to the Christian is contained in the latter phrase of this text, “deceiving your own selves.” No one likes to be deceived, and least of all by one’s own self. But the Apostle James said that ft is possible to do this if we are not careful to understand God’s purpose for giving us the truth.

It is very important to hear his Word; but through the Prophet Isaiah, God informs us that he has not only opened our ears to his Word, but that he has also put his words in our mouth: “I have put my words in thy mouth … that I may plant the heavens and lay the foundation of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people.”—Isa. 51:16

The reference here is to the ‘new heavens’ and the ‘new earth’, the spiritual and earthly phases of the messianic kingdom. And the Lord tells us that it is through the power of his words that the personnel for these two phases of the kingdom are developed.

Paul said, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” (Phil. 2:12,13) God works in us by the Holy Spirit, through the Word, and our part is in yielding to the influences of his Word.

The Word of God, Paul wrote to Timothy, is good for “correction,” and for “discipline In righteousness.” This emphasizes that the Bible is not given to us merely to reveal the plan of God in which we are invited to cooperate, but also to instruct us individually in how to serve the Lord, and to teach us the true ways, of righteousness.—II Tim. 3:16

Paul explained that God’s purpose in providing us with his wonderful Word is that we “may be perfect [complete], thoroughly fitted for every good work.” (vs. 17) And, indeed, we are thoroughly fitted by this loving provision. Our faith in the truth is an armor of protection against all the fiery darts of the Adversary. The inspired Word provides encouragement in times of trial, and, as in the case of Jesus, it sets before us a joy which gives strength to endure the cross and to despise the shame, as we are suffering and dying with him.—Eph. 6:16; Heb. 12:2,3

Yes, we are thoroughly fitted by the inspired Word. This means that everything is In the Bible which we need to know in order to make our calling and election sure. Our responsibility is to make proper use of the Bible. We can help each other in doing this by admonishing those with whom we fellowship to become better acquainted with the Word that they might the more effectively appeal to its inspired pages as proof for everything they accept as truth.

We rejoice in the helps which the Lord has especially provided during this harvest end of the age in order that we might “rightly divide the Word of truth.” (II Tim. 2:15) A great value of these helps is the repeated emphasis they give to the fact that only the Bible is inspired. As early as page 12 in “The Divine Plan of the Ages,” we read, “No religious teaching should have weight except as it guides the truth-seeker to that fountain”—the Word of God.

The harvest work calls for a general and enthusiastic proclamation of the truth, the Gospel of the kingdom, and by this proclamation a witness is given to the world. But we should not expect a large ingathering of believers to the truth. Many hear and in varying degrees rejoice in the message. For this reason they will be ready to welcome the kingdom and its blessings, but we could not speak of these as a ‘class’ which the Lord is now developing. Nor should we lower the standard of full consecration in order to appeal to a non-sacrificing group who may be waiting for restitution blessings.

One of the important fundamentals of the truth is the heavenly calling of the Gospel Age as distinct from the hope of restitution to human perfection for the world of mankind during the Millennial Age. The “high calling” (Phil 3:14) has associated with it the privilege of sacrificing all earthly hopes and ambitions, and the setting of our affections on things above. This involves also the invitation to suffer and to die with Christ, and thus to share in the “better sacrifices” (Heb. 9:23) as participants in the sin offering.

Failure to understand these truths would mean that we do not see clearly what is involved in following in the footsteps of Jesus.

So let us be doers of the words our ears have heard!

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