"What Do You Look Like"
OK, I’m going to ask a really ridiculous question—Do you know what you look like? If I asked you to describe yourself, could you tell me? I’m pretty sure you could. If someone asked me, I’d say I was about 5’6, with blonde hair, blue eyes and freckles. The other day, however, I was reading in James and I realized that sometimes I forget what I look like. Listen to this: “Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.” (James 1:22-24) How many times have I not done what God’s Word says to do? Countless times, I’m sure. And according to James, it’s just as if I have forgotten what I look like.
Later in James 4:17, it says, “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.” We know the good we ought to do from Scripture. We read it, study it, and hear it preached at church. But are we listening and putting those truths into action? Are we doing the good we ought to do? Sometimes it is a real struggle to do what we should. Even Paul says in Romans that sometimes he does what he hates, and when he wants to do good, evil is right there with him. The devil would like nothing more than to turn our good intentions into evil deeds. Our best weapon against Satan’s attacks is the Word of God. The same Word that Jesus Himself used against Satan in the desert. We cannot know the real power of God’s Word just by listening to it; we must put it into practice.
So, let me ask you again—Do you know what you look like? Or do you, like me, sometimes forget? James tells us in 1:25 the benefit of listening to the Word and then doing. It says, “But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it – he will be blessed in what he does.” As James says, we only deceive ourselves when we merely listen. We cannot actively live our lives as Christians by simply listening to the word. Hebrews 4:12 says that the word of God itself is “living and active.” It takes action on our part as well to live what we believe. Jesus said in John 8:28-29, “I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me. The one who sent me is with me; He has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases Him." Jesus lived a perfect life here on earth by listening to the Father and doing what pleased Him. We are to be reflections of Christ just as He was a reflection of the Father. Only by listening and in turn doing can we please the Father and live pure and holy lives.
-Jenni Brummel