I’m serious. Do you know what you look like?
- James 1:22–25 (NLT) But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. 23 For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. 24 You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. 25 But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.
God is not much into image management. He sees us for who we are and wants us to see ourselves for who we are. We may “love the Word” and see ourselves as good Christians and loyal followers of Jesus.
But don’t you want to know? Know as God knows. Know for sure. Know in view of the reality of God and forever. I mean, fooling ourselves and maybe a few, or even lots of people, around us is very possible. But what kind of blessing is that? I look good in the eyes of my peers? I have made quite an impression on everyone around me.
But don’t you want to see what God sees? Hear his perspective?
- James 1:25 (NLT) But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.
The blessing is in the hearing and then the doing …
Use it or lose it. Live the words of God, or that “blessing” you received in Bible study becomes but a faded memory.
And now a practical word from our sponsor …
And now, how interesting it is the following verse.
- James 1:26 (NLT) If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless.
A practical way to gauge your spirituality …
Do you control your tongue? So let’s run the diagnostics and ask – Do I control my tongue? If not, Scripture says that two things are going on.
- You are fooling yourself.
- Your religion is worthless.
So back to my first question. Do you know what you look like or are you fooling yourself?
