Do The Word: Bible Knowledge Without Action Is Deceptive – James 1:22-27

There’s an old story about a church looking for a new pastor. They brought in a few candidates to interview and preach a sermon, and one of the pastors stood out far above the rest. His sermon was powerful. They all agreed, he was their guy.

So they hired him. On his first Sunday, he opened his Bible and delivered a powerful sermon. The people were ecstatic and couldn’t wait for next week.

On the second Sunday, the pastor opened his Bible and preached a powerful sermon. With only one problem: It was the same sermon as the week before. The congregation thought it strange, but it was still good.

On the third Sunday, the pastor opened his Bible and preached the same sermon again! At this point, the people were concerned. So the elders of the church asked to meet with the pastor.

“We are a bit concerned that you keep preaching the same sermon,” they said. “Do you have another?” And the preacher replied, “Absolutely, but the church hasn’t obeyed the first one yet.”

How many of us here today are guilty of the same thing? We come to church, hear a powerful sermon, then get in our car and go home, and nothing in day-to-day life has changed.

Most Christians today, if they have been going to church for a while, know the Bible pretty well. You may not be an “expert,” but you know many of the stories, and you’ve heard Jesus’ teaching. 

In fact, if you grew up in the church and attended roughly three out of every four weeks, every 10 years of your life, you have heard 390 sermons. Multiply that out over 30 years, and you’ve heard well over 1,000 sermons in that time.

If you’ve sat in a pew for years, you are far more educated than the average person on the street.

But here’s the problem: Most Christians’ education far exceeds their obedience.

What good is information if it doesn’t lead to life transformation? What use is all that Bible knowledge if you only hear and never do?

As a pastor, I’m guilty of this too, even though I see this all the time, and it is so frustrating. You just want to look at people and say, “How can you start coming to church, sit here and listen to sermon after sermon for years, and your life still looks the same as when you started?” And then you step back and say, “And why am I no different?”

Bible knowledge without action is like having a Ferrari in your garage but never turning the key. And that is where our walk through the book of James takes us today.

Be Doers Of The Word

James 1:22 (ESV) says,

²² But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 

The doer first hears the Word of God and then does it. They receive God’s word with joy, delight in it, and then show the evidence of their internal faith in their outward life.

If you merely hear the word of God and don’t do anything with it, you are deceiving yourself. You can believe that with all your religious knowledge and study, you are a better Christian than most. After all, you always win at Bible trivia. That’s the lie Satan would love you to buy. 

If there is no evidence of the fruit of faith in your life, you have to wonder, are you a Christian in name only, or are you a true follower of Jesus Christ?

You can’t divide God’s Word into just the parts you like or the easy parts. Many people want just enough of Jesus to save them, but not enough to change them.

They’re here for the salvation without the dedication, the benefits without the commitment, the reward without the work.

But James doesn’t just leave us with this command. He gives us a picture of what it looks like when we don’t do what the word says, and it’s a little embarrassing.

James 1:23-25,

²³ For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. ²⁴ For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. ²⁵ But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. 

Imagine waking up, getting ready for work, looking in the mirror, and seeing your hair sticking up all over the place, your clothes don’t match, and you have toothpaste all down your chin, and you just shrug it off and forget all about it. Nobody would do that! That’s crazy. But we do it with the Bible. 

The Bible is also like a mirror, helping us see clearly who we are as God sees us. It exposes the flaws and imperfections in our lives that we would happily ignore without it.

Looking in the mirror is not always a fun experience. Maybe you are like me, and there are times when you avoid mirrors intentionally because you don’t like what you see.

But James says that when we look in the mirror of the Bible and, rather than walking away, act on what we see to work and persevere through the difficulty of changing our ways to follow God, we are blessed by obedience.

Obedience is a blessing

“Blessed” here doesn’t mean what we think about today in western culture, that you will be posting pictures on Instagram of your large house, beautiful family, and a new car.

We equate blessing with success in America, but that’s not what blessing is about.

The word “blessed” in James 1:25 in the original Greek that the New Testament of the Bible was written in is the word“μακάριος”, which means happy or favored by God. It’s the same word that we see in the beatitudes when Jesus says things like blessed are the poor in spirit or blessed are the persecuted or blessed are those who mourn. 

Blessed means that those who obey God’s commands will find favor with the Lord and be filled with the joy that only comes with serving and knowing him, regardless of their circumstances. This isn’t some superficial blessing; it’s a far deeper happiness in your soul.

This idea of blessing flowing from obedience is throughout Scripture. Look at what Jesus says in Luke 11:28 . A woman in the crowd shouts out to Jesus, that his mother is blessed for raising Jesus. And Jesus replies,

But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” 

If you think Jesus’ mom, Mary, is blessed because she raised the Son of God, you know who is more blessed? Those who do God’s Word. Those are the most blessed people on earth. It’s not the ones who have perfect children; it’s those who do the Word that are blessed.

In other words, Jesus says be a doer of the Word, and you will be blessed.

If you don’t obey, do you really love God?

James continues in 1:26-27, 

²⁶ If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. ²⁷ Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. 

There are plenty of “religious” people who know a lot about the Bible and theology. But do you really love God, if all you have is knowledge without action? 

There are countless Christians by name only who claim to love the Lord, but when you examine their lives, there is no evidence of faith. They aren’t producing the fruit of the Spirit. They are wrapped up in worldly living just like everyone else on Monday through Saturday until they drive to church and pay lip service to God on Sunday. If you want to talk about what it looks like to be a follower of Jesus, that isn’t it.

Think about this: If you were put on trial for your faith in Jesus, would there be enough evidence to convict you?

James just wrote about being quick to listen and slow to speak before this passage, and he says if you don’t tame your tongue, your religion is worthless. You know what to do but you don’t do it.

Do you know what pure religion looks like? It looks like obedience to God. It looks like caring for orphans and widows (the least in society who offer you nothing in return). These are just a few examples. Because it also means “keeping oneself unstained from the world.” So you don’t live like everyone else, but in a way that honors God in all areas of your life. 

According to the Bible, if you love God, you will do what he says.

Jesus says in John 14:23–24,

²³ “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. ²⁴ Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. 

So, according to Jesus, if we truly love him, what will we do? Keep his commands! We’ll be doers of the Word. And if we do not love him, what will we do? Not keep his commands! We won’t do the word. 

Those who are not followers of Jesus have at least one thing in common; whether they know anything about him or not, they won’t follow his commands.

1 John 5:3 says it simply,

For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.

Keeping God’s commandments is not a burden when you love God. But they are a burden if you don’t love him. If you love God, you obey him with joy. You know that he is good and that he won’t steer you wrong. His commandments are for our good. The actual burden comes from breaking his commandments. We feel the weight of the guilt and shame of our sins.

Obeying God pleases him and blesses you. Disobeying God is sin.

Do What You Know

Here’s the point: We need to hear the Word and do what it says.

What do you need to do that God has commanded you?

Maybe it is visiting orphans and widows. Maybe it is a secret sin you finally need to cut from your life. Whatever it is, Do what God has commanded you.

We won’t ever perfectly obey all of God’s commands all of the time. So thank God there’s grace for us. So don’t feel too burdened by legalism. But at the same time, if we love the Lord, we will desire to follow his commands. And it won’t be a burden to us because his commands are not burdensome; they’re blessings. 

Maybe that old pastor story is right. You don’t need another sermon, another podcast, or another book. Walk in the blessings of God and do what you already know he has commanded you to do.