What will I do?

Be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. — James 1:22

A man who has been my mentor and friend for many years often says that his goal in studying the Bible is always personal application. I appreciate his emphasis on putting learning into practice, because it’s too easy for those of us who study, discuss, teach, and write about the Bible to take a merely intellectual approach to the Word.

Oswald Chambers said: “There is a danger with the children of God of getting too familiar with sublime things. We talk so much about these wonderful realities, and forget that we have to exhibit them in our lives. It is perilously possible to mistake the exposition of the truth for the truth; to run away with the idea that because we are able to expound these things, we are living them too.”

James reminds us that the person “who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of work, this one will be blessed in what he does” (1:25). The key issue is not what is preached or written, but what is done.

When I study God’s Word, my first question should not be, “What am I going to say about this?” but “What am I going to do about this?” — David McCasland

We take delight to teach God’s Word,

We say, “Amen, it’s true!”

But it’s of little use to us

Unless His will we do. — D. De Haan

READ: James 1:21-25

One step forward in obedience is worth years of study about it. — Chambers

The Bible in one year:

• Exodus 31-33

• Matthew 22:1-22