"But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing."
Having just been told to receive the word, a clarification is made. The clarification comes in the form of a prohibition: our receiving of the word should not just be a willingness to listen to the word. Just listening is not enough. We must also act. We must be doers of the word. Hearing is useless unless we apply what we learned to our lives. If we apply the word (in practice, not just in theory) we will remember and benefit from the hearing of the word. But if we only listen and don't act, we will forget what we heard. There is no blessing in that. I hear people pray sometimes that God would bless the hearers of a sermon; it seems that the blessing comes in action and not only in a single action but in perseverance. Blessed are the doers who keep doing.
No comments:
Post a Comment