Listening to the Word and not obeying it is like glancing in a mirror – James 1

But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. 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. (22-25)

How well are you studying the bible? We all know that we must have a daily diet of God’s word. Spiritual food is much like physical food, it must be consistent and it must be hearty to keep us healthy. However, we often subsist on a spiritual diet of little bites here and there followed by periods of unhealthy fasting. A quick reading of a text, or even a brief devotion like the one you are reading, is no substitute for regular deep dives into God’s word complete with prayer, study, meditation, and genuine soul searching. When was the last time you took hours and feasted on God’s word? If we don’t do that regularly then James says we are “fooling ourselves.”

Listening to a sermon or podcast without considering and obeying the implications for your life is like glancing in the mirror and then forgetting how you look. James implores us to look carefully into the perfect word of God and this will set us free. How many times have you glanced at something without really seeing it? This often happens when we drive. We drive down the same road every day, glancing at new construction or new billboards but never really seeing them. Then months later when we are a passenger in the car (instead of the driver) we observe all kinds of “new” things only to discover they were there all along. We just never noticed them because we were too focused on driving.

We cannot approach God’s word in this way. His word deserves our full attention and complete focus. We need to look carefully at it, do what it says, and REMEMBER what we learned. This is the kind of study that brings genuine change, and in the words of James, this is the kind of study that results in God’s blessing in our life. Consistency and depth are the keys to a rich devotional life. We cannot sacrifice one for the other, but instead, we must strive for balance in both. It is not enough to just listen to the word of God and then move on with our lives as if we never heard it. We must chew on it, memorize it, and let it become a part of us. That is when we see genuine spiritual growth.