James 1:22-25
22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.
I once saw an animated drawing with captions with a caterpillar and a butterfly. The caterpillar said to the butterfly “You’ve changed”. The butterfly replied “I’m supposed to.”
Change is inevitable for all of us. We change with the different seasons in our lives. We change with the times. We change as we age and mature. We change as we experience different things in life like becoming a wife, having children, experiencing trauma and hardships. Many of these changes are inevitable.
And the reality is, as we navigate through these inevitable changes, in many aspects we get to choose how we change. We choose if we get better or if we become bitter. We choose if we become wiser or foolish. We decide if we want to continue to go in a certain direction or if we want to change directions in life. We decide if we want to become better stewards of our finances or our health or not. We decide. Even when things are not going right and we are challenged and advised to change, it’s still our decision if we do it or not.
But when we consider the change that God requires of each and every one of us that have answered the call or invitation into relationship with Him, we don’t get to choose how we change.
God is very specific when it comes to the change He’s looking for in us. Because of His love and mercy and tender care for us, God understands our human frailty. And He allows us space to grow and mature in order to become who He has called us to be. He knows that we are works in progress.
And so it would be wise for us to ask God to teach us to number our days. Give us wisdom and understanding of His will for our lives. Help us understand what it truly means to be created in His likeness and in His image. Help us to be holy, for He is holy. Help us realize the urgency of the time that we are allotted in this life.
Because the truth of the matter is, the world has given us plenty of things to pursue under the umbrella of advancement and growth. And we make all the changes necessary to get what the world has to offer us.
We’ll go to school if we need to.
We’ll lose weight if we need to.
We’ll invest financially if we need to.
We’ll take out a loan if we need to.
We’ll make alliances and network if we need to.
We’ll make whatever changes necessary when we want something bad enough.
But we have to understand that worldly growth is not the same as godly growth. And we can still gain the whole world and lose our souls.
So as we pursue the changes that magnifies and honor God, this is called transformation. According to Romans 12:2, this transformation is the way we prove what the will of God is. What is good, acceptable and perfect.
We don’t primarily prove what the will of God is by going to church; or by getting involved in ministry, or by doing anything that will get us recognition for being people of God.
The transformation that God requires of us is an inner transformation that He discerns. It’s a transformation of the heart and the mind and the will. It is a turning towards the kingdom of God, His authority and the will of God above our own. It’s a dying to self in order to live for Him.
And because it’s such an intimate journey, it’s a personal journey. People can encourage you in the journey. They can help you on the journey. They can even discipline you on the journey. But they cannot make you walk the journey. Ultimately, it begins and ends with you.
In the words is Michael Jackson, “I am starting with the woman in the mirror”.
We can have all the right information. We can have relationships with all the right people. We can be in the right places at the right time. But if we don’t adhere to what we hear from the Word of God, we waste our time. We just go through the motions. It’s like going to a buffet and choosing not to eat because you don’t feel like chewing in order to digest the food. If you don’t digest the food, then you don’t benefit from the food.
God will not do in miracle what he has assigned us to do in muscle. The word teaches us that God has given us everything we need pertaining to life and godliness. We are been thoroughly equipped to be and to become who and what God has called us to be. The equipment serves us no purpose if we don’t pick it up and use it.
In essence, this is what James 1 is communicating to us. God gives it to us, but we have to use it if we’re going to experience the change that inherits heaven. The inner transformation that equips and empowers us to live lives that honor God from the inside out.
James 1:22-25
22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
What I have learned about myself and about many of us as the children of God, is the fact that we will say “amen” to something that we believe to be true and still not do what it says to do.
- I am more than a conqueror in Christ Jesus. Amen
But then we live fearful and defeated lives.
- I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Amen.
But we constantly compare ourselves to others and don’t feel like we’re good enough.
- I am a holy nation, a royal priesthood. Amen.
But we don’t live lives that honor God. And we don’t speak words that glorify God. We might live churchy. But we don’t live holy.
So when the text says, don’t just listen to the word, but do what it says, make sure that your “Amen” cosigns your lifestyle and your lifestyle co-signs your “Amen”. Otherwise you deceive yourself. You are lying to yourself about yourself. And self-deception does way more damage than somebody else deceiving you.
23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.
You know we live in the day and time of filters. We can take a picture with our phones and filter that picture to smooth out the wrinkles. We can mark out the blemishes. We can give ourselves a glow that we don’t naturally have. We can enhance what we want. And we can minimize what we don’t want. And then we take that filtered, altered photo, and make it our profile picture as if that’s the real us.
You know exactly what you look like when you look in the mirror. You see every blemish. You see every wrinkle. You see every mole or scar. You know exactly what you look like.
If we’re not careful, that filter will have us feeling and believing that that picture is the real us. Because we got some likes, some hearts and some compliments as if that picture was really how we looked. And it’s not.
The only way we can come into the realization of how we look to God is to be students of the word. The word of God exposes us to our true heart condition. No filters. No cropping out the parts you don’t want seen. No elimination of blemishes. No erasing flaws. No enhancements. But the real, authentic, unfiltered you. Not the you that gets the likes and the hearts and the compliments. But the you that God sees.
God doesn’t expose you to the true condition of your heart just to highlight your flaws. God is not a fault-finder like some of us are. God shows you you in order to help you know what you need to work on in order to be who He has called you to be; to become acceptable and pleasing in His sight. The Lord will do His part. But we have to actually do our part and what it says.
This verse says that to read the word and not do what it says is like looking into the mirror and walking away and not remembering what you look like. It is impossible for you to understand the condition of your heart without the word of God.
People can and will tell you what’s wrong with you and tell you the problems that they have with you. But they can’t instruct you outside of the word of God in a way that makes you pleasing to God — and not just pleasing to them. So you can be better to them and still not be pleasing to God when you don’t do what the word says.
25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.
Look into the word. Listen to the word. Do what the word says. Then you will be liberated and blessed in what you do.
The flipside of that, is if you don’t look into the word, if you don’t listen to the word, if you don’t do what the word says, you will forfeit your freedom and your blessing.
Lord, we thank You for leading and guiding us in our transformation journey. We thank You for giving us everything we need to be and to become a people that please You — to be holy; to bear Your image. We ask that Your Holy Spirit convicts us when we resist transformation. Help us die to ourselves that we may live for You.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen
*Tressa Jo
BeyondSeeLevel 