Listen and Do

I’ve invested the better part of the last 20 years of my life to studying the Bible. If I had not let it change my life, it would have been a complete waste of my time. The reason we attend church, and the whole reason we study the Bible, is not to be entertained on a Sunday morning or to gain more head-knowledge; it’s so we can know the Lord and His Word better, and so it can impact our day-to-day life.

When we open our Bibles, or listen to a sermon, or sit down to an in-depth study of the Word, it’s with the intention of being transformed, more and more into the likeness of Jesus. Jesus’ death on the Cross was the sacrifice that makes us right with God. No amount of good works can attain righteousness for us, only Jesus can do that. Once we place our faith in Jesus, our sins are no longer counted against us—our slates are wiped clean and when God looks at us, He no Longer sees our sins, He sees the righteousness of Christ. Because of Jesus we’ve been made new—the old sinful us is gone and the new Spirit-filled us is here to stay. Having been made new, we now want to live accordingly—pursuing all that Jesus has in store for us. God’s Word is perfect, and it’s truly a blessing to read; but it’s even more of a blessing to live it out.

James 1:22-25 exhorts us to “not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive ourselves. We must do what it says.”

Jesus puts it this way in Matthew 7:24, “Therefore everyone who puts these words of mine into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.”