Are You a Hearer Only or a Doer?

Webster’s Dictionary defines the word application as “the act of putting to a special use or purpose.”

Every day I read the Bible. Every day I pray. But not every day do I act like a Christian. Why?

It’s because we forget to become doers of the Word. The Bible is very clear that if you and I don’t become doers of the Word, we are like the man who looks in the mirror and forgets what we look like after we walk away.

James 1:22-25 says, “But prove yourselves doers of the Word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.”

All the knowledge of the Bible and all the sermons in the world will not make you a good Christian unless you actually apply what you know and what you hear to your walk. For example: Love your neighbor. If you don’t know or get to know you neighbor, how can you love them?

Another example: The Lord’s Prayer says, “Forgive us as we have forgiven our debtors.” Is that a prayer we really want to pray? Lord, forgive just like those I forgive? Would God actually forgive you if that were the case? Have you really forgiven others? If not, watch out what you pray for. 

Are you and I really applying the words of God to our life? Or are we just going through the motions? The dictionary says application means “the act of putting to a special use or purpose.” For what special use are you using God’s Word? Is it for knowledge? That’s not too special.  

God wants us to share His Word. He wants us to apply what we learn and hear to our lives, our families’ lives and to each person we come in contact with.

So I ask you: Are you a forgetful hearer or an effectual doer of God’s Word? There is a difference.

Jody Burkeen is founder of Man Up God’s Way Ministries, birthed out of his desire to help change the way Christian men “do” Christianity.