But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. (James 1:22)We knew a young man named Tim who was mentally challenged. When I met him I found out that he watched Food Channel all day long he knew all of the Food Channel personalities and could discuss them at length, he knew the shows and watched what they made.
When I asked him if he cooked, he replied, “Nope.” Meals on Wheel came once a day with a little lunch and he would eat that, in front of a really big screen TV. And what is more, he didn’t think it odd in the least that he ate a mass-prepared, unseasoned meal in a foam container while he watched professional cooks prepare very good food.
I also knew a guy who read his Bible constantly. He took notes in a notebook and could quote a lot of Bible. But two things stuck out about him. One was that I have never heard more crackpot ideas about the Bible come from anybody like they did from him. It was almost like the more he studied, the weirder he got. And second, his lifestyle reflected the absolute opposite of what the Bible said.
In other words, all of his studying did no good.
It is like listening to positive mental attitude tapes and remaining depressed. Or reading cookbooks and never cooking. Or collecting maps but never going anywhere.
It doesn’t matter how familiar you are with something, if you do not do what it says, it is worthless to you. If you do not do what the Bible says, all of your knowledge and study is worthless.
You starve to death sitting in front of a plateful of the best tasting food in the world.
Romans 10:17 says So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ. Faith comes by hearing, but there has to be action, too, or all the hearing you have done is worthless.
People go to church for decades yet never become strong in the faith. That is because they hear, but they do not do.
You have to do or the hearing is no good to you. It may be great to someone else, but it will amount to nothing to you.
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