“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” (James 1:22)

We know that God’s word is divine and complete. It encapsulates all that God has done; starting from creation and continues through Jesus’ birth, life, death, and resurrection. The Bible has the written records and letters to the early Christian church. It captures the milestones of the Apostles work and accomplishments through the Holy Spirit. And it provides the revelation of Jesus’ return with the numerous prophetic messages solidifying the second coming of our Savior as truth. The Bible is said to be the word of God, pointing to the Word [Jesus] as defined by the Apostle John. It is all that we have in terms of the recorded truth and instructions of God to His people. So, knowing all these things to be true about the Bible, what should we do with it? Well for one thing we should crack open the cover, open up our “Bible-apps” and read it. But James provides us with the notion that simply reading the bible doesn’t cut it. Reading, and I would argue, even that studying the bible is just not enough. No, we need to move past the intellectual acceptance of what the Bible says and do what it teaches us. We can’t “merely listen to the word” and expect our lives to magically change course. We need to accept its truths and apply them throughout our days. Jesus didn’t speak to the crowds just to be heard. He was a teacher to the crowds, they called Him “Rabbi” because there was an expectation that His followers would apply His message. So today remember, we don’t have this complete record of God’s work so that it looks good on our shelves. We need to read it. But more importantly, “Do what it says.”