James 1:22 “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”
A man once approached John Wimber, the founder of the Vineyard group of churches, complaining about the depth of teaching on a Sunday. “When are we going to get to the meat?” he asked. Wimber replied: “The meat is on the street.” He meant that if you want the Word of God to ‘dwell in you richly’ (Colossians 3:16), it wasn’t enough just to be hearers of the word – you need to be doers of the word.
And here is the challenge. Why is it that our focus seems to be on learning more at the expense of doing what we already know? I love the access we have in this generation to so much excellent teaching, writing and Biblical resources – both new and old. At the click of a mouse I can access Christian classics by saints past and present. Yet as the volume of resources increases, the effective activity of the church seems to decrease – or am I just speaking from my personal battle to come out of hiding in my study books and engage with a lost and broken world?
To stop reading about prayer and get on my knees and pray? To put down my treatise on love, cross the street and demonstrate love by my actions rather than my intentions?
Today you have a choice. You can spend your time studying the menu, reading it, researching it, admiring it, discussing it. Or you can eat the meal.
Let us try and put into practice what we know. Because at the end of the day, most of us are educated way beyond the level of our obedience already – and when we meet Jesus he isn’t going to sit us down and test us on our Biblical knowledge. He is going to ask: “When I was naked did you clothe me, when I was hungry did you feed me?”
And you don’t need a theology degree or a certificate in Food Science to do that…
Lord, I choose to follow you in word and deed today. Amen!
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