Prophetic NEWS
 









  

James 1, Verse 22

Be doers of the word, not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

It is not enough to hear and know the Word of God, we must live
and do the Word of God. The person who only hears and knows the
Word deceives himself. If a person thinks that he can hear and
learn the Word of God and then go out and live like he wants,
he deceives himself. There are many who sit under the Word of God
week after week, they learn and know as much of the Word as
anyone. They think that listening and learning makes them
acceptable to God, that it makes them safe and secure. When they
slip into sin, they feel that they can ask God for forgiveness
and that he will forgive them. It is true that if you ask
forgiveness he will forgive you but if you keep doing the same
sin again and again there will come a time when God says enough
is enough. Genesis 6:3 tells us that the Lord said
"My Spirit will not always strive with man."

If a person hears God's word without putting it into practice
in his own life, then he deceives himself. Self deception is a
terrible thing. 

J. Vernon McGee in his commentary on James made this statement
about the greatest failure of the church in recent years.
He said after World War II the Western world came out of the bomb
shelters and went to church prompted by fear of the bombs but not
by fear of God. If you really stop and think that is what has
prompted people again the fear of another terrorist attack after
September 11, 2001 but not a fear of God. Lets go on and see what
else he says. Church membership and attendance soared to new
heights. Lawlessness and immorality increased dramatically.
Drunkenness, divorce, and juvenile delinquency escalated.
And in the lives of Christians there was a total breakdown in
separation from the things of the world. What had happened?
The church had been getting out the word in a passive voice.
We had forgotten that a leather bound Bible needs some good shoe
leather to go with it. Memorizing Scripture is good, but it
also demands action. Be ye a doer of the Word.

James 1, Verses 23-24



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, for he observes
himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.

The person who only hears and knows the Word soon forgets what
he has heard. If a person does not practice what he learns,
it soon fades from memory. It never becomes a part of the
person's life. He is like the person who looks in the mirror to
see if he needs to do anything to his appearance, then walks away
and thinks of something else and forgets that his or her
appearance needed to be cared for. Another example is we hear
the Word and are convicted of some defect, some shortcoming,
some failure that we need to clean up. But as soon as we walk
out from under the word, we are distracted by the world and its
affairs and we soon forget to do what the Word of God told us
to do. The Word is a mirror that reveals what is wrong with us.
You cannot afford to read the Word of God and not respond to it.
It demands your response, and if you don't respond, you are
responsible. God uses His Word to call us back to himself.
It is easy to read the Word of God and think it is a picture
of someone else. But it is a picture of you , and it is a
picture of me.

Verse 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. 

The person who hears and does the Word of God is blessed.
The Word of God is called the "perfect law of liberty."
What does this mean? It means that the Word of God will set a
person free from the bondage of sin and death. It will free a
person from all the temptations of this life and give a
victorious life. This person will also be free from all the
things that has them enslaved here on earth. They will discover
love, joy, and peace. In order to have all of this there is one
thing we must do and that is we must continue in the Word of God,
and continue to live by the Word of God.

If we do then we will be blessed by God. 

Verse 26

If anyone, among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle
his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one's religion is
useless.

If a person thinks that he is religious or acceptable to God and
does not bridle his tongue he deceives himself. No matter what he
thinks or professes, his religion is empty. (RVG Tasker, in
The General Epistle of James, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries)
says this: The word religious and religion describe a person who
is very religious and who gives great attention to religion.

The person is actively religious, very faithful in his religious
worship and service. But is loose with his or her tongue,
interrupting and dominating the conservation, lashing out at
others, gossiping and telling tales, judging, criticizing,
murmuring, and condemning others. Using slang, cursing, engaging
in suggestive and off colored talk, talking about and running
others down. For a person to withstand and to conquer temptation,
he must bridle his tongue. It is possible to be very religious
and yet unsaved. 


Verse 27

Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this:
to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself
unspotted from the world. 

There are three things we must do and have in this verse.

1. Here is the pure and undefiled form of religion, the true way
in which to show that we do have a living faith in God our Father.
This can be done by our actions toward others, and by living
personal lives of godliness.

2. Visiting the fatherless and widows applies to visiting all who
have a need in the community. God expects us to reach all within
our community, and the task is not all that difficult, not in a
country where a church is in practically every community.

3. Keeping one unspotted from the world. Contact with the world
does not mean that we should become implicated in the things of
the world. As believers we are in this world but we are not of
this world.

Pure religion does not become corrupted with false beliefs or
with false religion. It hold to the purity of the gospel and to
the Word of God. Pure religion does not focus upon form and
ritual and ceremony, but focus on the power of God to change
lives eternally and it reaches out to change people's lives
by visiting them. 

True religion stirs people to separate themselves from the
things of this world that arouse fleshly desires and cravings.
True believers keep themselves unspotted from the lust of the
eyes, the flesh and the pride of life


GOD's NEWS

Jesus Christ is Lord of His Church
and the Bride is NOT READY for His return!




THIS IS THE JUDGMENT
that the Light has come into the world, 
and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, 
for their deeds were evil.  

GOD so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,
that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have
Eternal LIFE. For God did not send his Son into the world
to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.



He who believes in Him is not judged;
he who does not believe has been judged already, 
because he has not believed in the name of the only 
begotten Son of God.  John 3:16-19


Page date    April, 2002
Updated      May  2007