James 1:22-25 “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. (23) For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; (24) for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. (25) But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.”
We have seen in the previous passage that because they were negligent in acting on the word that they had already received, that the church at Corinth were prevented from receiving any further revelation from the Lord. In the passage of scripture quoted above the Holy Spirit through the apostle James confirms that same truth to us, for he teaches us that believers who fail to act on God’s revealed word deceive themselves. I want you to notice that the believers he refers to in this passage are diligent hearers of God’s word. In other words they regularly attend church meetings and most probably even read their bibles frequently, and yet we are told that they are still deceiving themselves. So, what does the Holy Spirit mean when He says that they deceive themselves? Their deception is that they think they are growing spiritually, but in reality they are not growing at all, and if anything they are actually becoming weaker spiritually. I want you to also notice that the quality of the word that they hear doesn’t impact their lives at all, for they could even be sitting under the anointed teaching of the apostle Paul himself and that would be of no benefit to them. So why is that? The reason is that the moment these believers hear the word of God they immediately forget what they have heard. In other words their minds have become blinded to receiving any further truths in God’s word. This is a sad spiritual truth but nevertheless it is true. I have tested it many times by asking saints what their pastor taught them in the previous Sunday service, and more often than not they have no idea and cannot remember anything he said. There is no getting around it. If we want to grow strong in spirit we are going to have to act on the word of God that has already been revealed to us, for until we do we will not receive any further revelation from God’s word.
Ephesians 4:16 “from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.”
In the passage of scripture quoted above the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul teaches us that the body of Christ grows when each individual member in the body does its share. In other words the spiritual growth of the corporate body of Christ only takes place when the church acts on the word of God. And so if the church cannot grow unless we act on God’s word, then most certainly no individual member of the body is going to grow spiritually unless they too act on God’s word.
Michael E.B. Maher
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