How important it is to be a hearer of God’s Word! Immersing ourselves in the Bible by establishing the discipline of a daily quiet time as well as consistent study under the leadership of a local church is vital for genuine spiritual growth.
But hearing the word of God – and yes, even pouring our minds into studying Scripture – is not the final goal. We must press on and be doers of the Word. Studying the Bible is not meant to merely increase our knowledge, but rather to prompt us to mold our lives into the image of the One who gave us those precious, life-changing Words.
For a goal-oriented person like me, this is the most difficult aspect of the Christian life. I can train myself to take time each day to talk to the Lord and listen to what He has to say through His written Word, but when I close my Bible, I find it incredibly difficult at times to live by the instructions upon which I just meditated.
I am confident I will never perfect the discipline of applying God’s Word to my life. And thankfully, I do not have to in order to have an everlasting relationship with God. He loves me always and unconditionally simply because of my faith in Him.
However, because I am a child of God’s, I have His constant presence living within me, guiding me in His truths and empowering me to obey His commands. I am permanently saved by grace, yet also able to live according to His standards as set forth in His Word, the Bible, because of the Holy Spirit working in me. Therefore I must not be content with merely hearing the Word, but should also seek to obey it.
In applying God’s Word to my life, I must guard against picking and choosing which Scriptures I will accept. I must sincerely seek to apply the whole Word of God, not just those verses that are easy to follow or make sense in the context of our current culture.
For example, I could easily deceive myself and others into believing I am a “good Christian” by helping orphans, widows, the poor, and the oppressed, while all the time harboring bitterness, anger, and hatred in my heart. I also must guard against misusing my freedom in Christ (freedom from the penalty of sin, not from obedience to God) to disregard biblical commands and justify my selfish desires.
I must commit to applying all of God’s Word to all of my life, even when it is humbling and hard.
My goal in reading and studying God’s Word should never be simply to prove I am right, to convince others of my strongly held opinions, or to justify my actions. How easy it would then be to pull verses out of context instead of looking at all of Scripture! Rather, my purpose should be to discover how to be right with the One who created me and loves me unconditionally and how to live according to His standards for His glory.
“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.” James 1:25
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