Doing Not Just Listening

Hearing something or even knowing something is not the same as doing something.

I have heard many people tell me how I should do something but I didn’t do it the way they told to do it. I have known some truths but did not apply them to the way I lived.

In James 1:22 James tells us that just hearing or knowing is not enough. God wants us to do to obey.

James 1:22
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

If we just listen to the word and don’t do what it says, then we are deceiving ourselves.

We deceive ourselves by:
Substituting knowledge for obedience
Substituting religion for relationship
Substituting facts for faith
Substituting appearance for reality

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is obeying God.

Then James draws a picture of the futility of merely hearing the word and not doing it.

James 1:23-24
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.

I have always noticed that James says when a man, not a woman, looks at his face in the mirror and then goes away and forgets what he sees.

A woman would never do that. Women are much more into noticing details. Women look for details, men look at the big picture.

If a person looks in the mirror and then forgets what he saw, that would be totally foolish. It would mean that person looked in the mirror for nothing.

The purpose for looking in the mirror is to see if there is something that needs to be changed. If I see something that needs to be changed but immediately forget what it is, and thus don’t make the change, then I have wasted my time looking into the mirror.

When Jesus shares with me truth, it is not just for me to know. It is a truth that Jesus has shared with me to apply in my life. If I just keep it as a nice stowed-away fact, I have wasted the truth that Jesus has shared with me.

In Mark 12:30-31 Jesus shares that I am to love God with all that I am and that I am to love my neighbor as myself. If I file that truth away and don’t love God with all that I am and don’t love others like I love myself, then I have not obeyed Jesus.

In Ephesians 5, as a husband I am told to love my wife as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it. That means I am to actively love my wife like Jesus loves the church and to make sacrifices for my wife as Jesus sacrificed Himself for the church. It doesn’t mean I agree that is what I am supposed to do and not actually do it.

The Bible is not so much a book of facts as it is direction for the way of life that pleases God.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is making the Word of God the foundation of and authority for how you live your life.

James then shares two benefits of hearing and obeying the Word of God.

James 1:25
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.

James describes the law as perfect. It is perfect because the One who gave it, the One on whom it is based, and the One who it glorifies is perfect.

Psalm 18:30
This God - His way is perfect, the word of the Lord proves true, He is a shield for all those who take refuge in Him.

1 Peter 2:2
He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in His mouth.

God the Father and God the Son are perfect and sinless.

God is perfect and His word is perfect.

If we obey the perfect word of God, we will experience freedom.

In John 8:36 we are told that if the Son sets us free we are free indeed.

Freedom is not doing anything I want.
Freedom is doing anything that God wants.
Freedom is not following my dreams.
Freedom is doing God’s will.
Freedom is not being what I want.
Freedom is being who the Creator made me to be.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing true freedom in Jesus.

If we obey the perfect word of God we will be blessed in what we do.

We are blessed because we obey what God says.

When we obey God two things happen.
One: We honor God.
Two: We are benefited by God for our obedience.

God will always bless obedience.
God will never bless disobedience.

I have never obeyed God and later regretted my obedience.

I have many times disobeyed God and regretted it every time. (I am a slow learner).

Making God happy with our lives brings us great blessing.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about obeying God and then experiencing the blessings of God.

In Complete Obedience, Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls
                                                Joe