Mature Reactions
Take Action – Part 1

Scripture Reading: James 1:22-27

Key Verse: James 1:22

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

James starts this part of his challenge to the church with the thought that actions speak louder than words.  He is warning Christ followers to live out what they read and hear from God’s Word.  God’s Word gives us knowledge about God’s expectations concerning how we do life!  We will be held accountable for what we do with our knowledge, not for what we didn’t know.  James wrote in the fourth chapter of this little book: “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins” (James 4:17).

James is certainly not making a case for earning our salvation by works.  He is making a case for how we should handle the truth revealed to us, after we have received Jesus into our lives by faith.  For Christ followers, it simply means we truly follow Jesus by imitating the way Jesus lived His life while on earth.  As the Apostle Paul wrote; “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5:1-2).  Note the tone of these words.  It is a sacrificial style of living.  If we do what we read and hear from the Bible, we will have to accept the sacrifices it will bring to our lives.  Jesus came to serve others, not be served.  Are you willing to be a doer of God’s Word and serve God by serving the people around you?  (Continued)

Father, remind me not to get my wants ahead of those around me.  In Jesus’ name, amen.