shawnethomas

In late 1942, the United States landed troops in North Africa to begin the liberation of Europe from Hitler’s Nazi Germany. In the early days after the invasion, the U.S. Army initially was not making much progress in their march across North Africa. General Dwight Eisenhower was frustrated with what many of his commanders were doing — or NOT doing! He wrote: “There’s a lot of big talk and desk hammering around this place — but very few doers!” (Rick Atkinson, An Army at Dawn, p. 59)

I wonder if that is how the Lord must feel sometimes as He watches us, His people, here on earth? Does He see a lot of “big talk,” “but very few DOERS”? I think the fact that God placed this passage here shows that this is indeed what He too often sees from His people: a bunch of “big talk,” but “very few doers” of His word!

Last week we saw in James 1:19-21 that real faith should affect every relationship in our lives: that we are to be “quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger” towards our spouse, children, work associates, and neighbors. But, try as we may, we will fail at those things — and so we need to “receive the word implanted, which is able to save (our) souls.” Our only hope of heaven is to trust in Jesus’ righteousness, not our own.

But now James follows this up with a cautionary word here in :22-25. He says, “But prove yourselves DOERS of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.” We need to make sure we don’t “lull ourselves into a false sense of complacency” by thinking that we’re right with the Lord, when we aren’t really doing what He commanded us to do. Let’s look at how James 1:22-25 says that “What Real Faith Looks Like” means being “doers of the word”: