Look, Continue, Do

James 1:25 "But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does."

Once again I was surprised…surprised that I had no journaled in the book of James. So here it goes.

James is jammed packed. I mean, when you are reading this book see how rich it is. To pick out one verse a day is a challenge because there is so much. But today, I grabbed this one. It is in the middle of counting trials as joy, how to get wisdom, enduring temptation, good gifts from the Father, being swift to hear, being a doer of the word and not just a hearer (where we are going today), the definition of pure and undefiled religion. Like I said, huge…

But this verse kind of hit me. It hit me because it talks about what we should do with the word of God and the result of doing it. What should I do with the Bible? Look into it. Continue in it. Do it.

Look into it. It is almost like seeing something that you are curious about and you have to bend over to look into. There is this body action of bending, of stooping, of bowing. It is a humble position. It is a bent over position. It is a realization that the words that I am reading are directly from the hand of God. (I say that because the word look means to stoop, to look with the head bowed, to look with the body bent.) I know that I am guilty of taking the Bible for granted. I mean, I get up in the morning, grab my Bible and read it. That is good. The thing is, what is my attitude when I do this? Is it a humble attitude? Is it a grateful attitude? Is it an expectant attitude? The word "look" also means to look carefully into or to inspect curiously. It isn't just a flippant getting through your chapter and you have done your duty, it is more than that. It is "digging deeper". Studying the passage. Studying the context. Studying the history. Studying the words.

Continues in it. This means to remain beside it, to be always near it, to survive and remain alive in it. This isn't just looking into it and leaving it at that. It is living in it. It is making God's word our very existence. Even though I am in it and studying it every day, I wonder if I can say that? I wonder if I can say that God's word is my very existence? That it is my source for survival? Am I that desperate for it? Sure I love it. Sure I enjoy what it teaches me every day, but am I continuing in it the way James implies? If I were, it would be the thing I pick up the most often to read. I know that I go on the internet several times a day. Why don't I do that with the word of God? Kind of convicting.

Does it. This is a maker. A producer. A performer. An obeyer. This is the person who makes the word of God come alive in their lives and tangibly reproduces what it says. This is the person who takes what is written on paper and makes it come alive. This is the person who reads: "visits the widows and orphans in their distress" and actually does it. This is the hard stuff. This is the selfless stuff. This is the time consuming stuff. I think it is easy to preach a good game. It is much more difficult living it.

But when you do, you are the one who gets blessed.