“But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.” James 1:22 NLT
Imagine if you will, that you are 16 years old again and are learning to drive a car. You read the driver’s manual from cover to cover, you attend class with the instructor, and you then watch each person you ride with to see how they are doing the different actions needed to be a successful and safe driver. The time comes for you to put that information you have been gathering to use and get behind the wheel to drive the car, and you just sit there. You don’t act on any of the information you have, instead you are content to simply have the knowledge but not use it to become a driver.
Reading the Bible is wonderful, listening to Christian radio is great, attending church and hearing God’s word through sermons is inspiring, but if the knowledge you gain from each of those avenues simply stays locked in your brain, then according to this scripture you are fooling yourself. That seems pretty harsh, doesn’t it? James doesn’t seem to be pulling punches here.
It is wonderful to know that Jesus loves you and died for you. It is great to know how to handle life situations you have heard about during sermons at church or on podcasts. It is inspiring to know that you could help change another person’s life by sharing God’s word with them, inviting them to church, but unless you do something with the information you have gained, nothing changes for you or your destination. It is just like the example above, all the information about driving does you really no good unless you put it into practice. Until you do it, you are not a driver, you are still a passenger and living life as a Christian is the same way.
What ‘action’ do you need to do? The action is accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior. The action is true obedience. The action is applying what you have learned through your reading and hearing of God’s word to your life. The action changes your path from a destination of destruction to the destination of salvation. Simply hearing does not save you, only Jesus can do that and only if you act upon it beginning with accepting His gracious gift.
Have you accepted it yet? Are you doing anything with the information you have heard about?