Are You a Believer?
Scripture
22. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving
yourselves.
23. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man
observing his natural face in a mirror;
24. for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of
man he was.
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.
This is a passage from the book of James that we are all very
familiar with, that is, those of us who have been Christians for any sizeable
length of time. In this particular passage, we are admonished to be doers as
well as hearers of the word. Hearing only does not do us a whole lot of good.
As a matter of fact, James tells us that if we do not act on that which we hear
we are essentially deceiving ourselves. Deceiving ourselves how, you might ask.
In the example that James gives us we see a man who looks at himself in
a mirror. He might have his hair uncombed, or he might have a
On the other hand if our subject is not only a hearer, but a doer he is
going to act on what he sees in the mirror, and as James tells us, with respect
to walking in obedience to the perfect law of liberty, he is going to be
blessed because he wasn't a forgetful hearer, but he was also a doer. This is
something that each of us needs to get into our hearts and our minds. It needs
to be an active part of our personal relationship with God, because God desires
for us to be doers, not just empty professors. We see this cleary expressed in
the epistle to the Ephesians. In Ephesians 2:10 Paul tells us, "For we are
His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared
beforehand that we should walk in them."
But what really establishes whether we are going to walk in the things
that God has prepared for us to do? I believe it comes down to a simple matter
of believing. Now, that sounds pretty basic, pretty simple, but just as there
is a connection between hearing and doing, there is a connection between
knowing and believing, and that's what I wish to focus our attention on.
In the church today we talk alot about what we believe. We have
doctrines that we are familiar with, that we are in general agreement on. And
if we were to speak to most professing believers as to what they believe we
would probably get a lot of answers that would essentially be in the
affirmative. A person might say, "Oh yeah, I believe this doctrine or I
believe in that doctrine", but the real determining factor of that belief
will be evidenced by what that particular person does. Because if a person says
that he believes, I mean truly believes, his behaviour is going to reflect what
he claims to believe. If he believes that it's dangerous to stick his finger in
a light socket, do you suppose you're going to see him stick his finger in a
light socket? Probably not. If he believes that standing in the middle of a busy
highway is dangerous, he probably won't be caught out in the middle of the
freeway standing in the path of oncoming traffic, and that is because he sees
the danger. Not only does he know it's dangerous, he also believes it's
dangerous. And because of what he believes he will avoid putting himself in a
dangerous predicament like standing in the middle of a busy highway. If he has
a terminal disease, such as cancer, and he believes that the answer can be
found in a regimen of altering his diet, his actions will demonstrate that
belief. You'll probably see him stop eating certain foods. He'll probably stock
up on numerous herbal supplements and vitamins and start eating more foods high
in fiber. In short, what he believes will dictate his behaviour, and that, because
he takes his knowledge of his disease seriously as it pertains to his own
personal well-being.
Let's take a look at how the scriptures help to bring this relationship
between knowing and believing more into focus. In Romans chapter one verses 18
through 32 we read about a gradual moral decline that takes place in humanity.
We see it all around us today. In verse 32 we read the following: "who, knowing
the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are
deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice
them." Here is an example of the man who looks in the mirror, but he
forgets what he sees. Those who practice the things mentioned in Romans chapter
one know that they are deserving of death, but their knowledge does not
translate to belief, for if they truly believed that they were going to face
the wrath of God in the day of judgment they would be looking for a way of
escape as in the case of the Pharisees in Matthew 3:7 where we see John the
Baptist making this statement, "Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee
from the wrath to come?" If the Pharisees didn't believe that John's
baptism would be beneficial to them in a salvational sense, do you think they
would have bothered to lower themselves to the place of being baptized by a man
clothed in camel's hair? Highly unlikely, considering the pride of the
Pharisees.
In Luke 6:46-49 we read the words of Jesus,
"But why do you call Me 'Lord, Lord,' and not do the things which
I say? Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will
show you whom he is like: He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and
laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat
vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on
the rock, but he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a
house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat
vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was
great."
Here we see the same thing that James is trying to get across in
his epistle. Jesus is speaking to His disciples, and the matter is one that
comes down to knowing and believing, because it obvious that they knew the
Lord, but they failed to do what He said. There are many places in the gospels
that reveal to us that the disciples were not overstocked in the faith
department, and faith equates to belief.
What was the first thing that Jesus preached? In Mark
In John chapter 6 we see where Jesus addresses a number of His
disciples. In verses 62 through 64 we read, "What then if you should see
the Son of Man ascend where He was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the
flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are
life. But there are some of you who do not believe." They knew Jesus and
they knew what He taught. They saw Him perform miracles on a daily basis, and
yet they did not believe. In verse 66 it states, 'From that time many of His
disciples went back and walked with Him no more.' Where do you suppose they
went back to? Probably back to what they were doing before they ever met Him.
Probably back to living the life of sin and selfishness they were accustomed to
before they ever came in contact with the Son of God.
But look further on in the chapter. In verses 67-69 the scriptures tell
us, 'Then Jesus said to the twelve, "Do you also want to go away?"
But Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the
words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know that You
are the Christ, the Son of the living God." We see Jesus using similar
terminology in John 10:37 and 38 when in addressing the Jews He says, "If
I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do, though you
do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that
the Father is in Me, and I in Him."
I praise the Lord for Simon Peter because he had made the connection
between knowing and believing, and it was evidenced from that day forward. Not
only was it evidenced in Simon Peter, but it was also evidenced in the other
ten disciples who would remain faithful to Jesus Christ. And it didn't stop at
the cross. It didn't stop at the resurrection. It continued on. But that's the
nature of true belief. When a person is walking with a genuine belief in the
atoning work of Jesus Christ, when they have truly come to that place where
they have been spiritually regenerated, their life is going to reflect it in
the same way the lives of the disciples reflected that they had been with
Jesus. If a person truly believes in the truths of God's word that person is
going to reflect that belief in his life. His desire is going to be to follow
the will of God in everything that he does.
So the question comes down to this, are you a believer? Or are you like
the man who looks in the mirror, sees himself as he is and walks on forgetting
what he looked like? Remember what Jesus said about the man who built his house
on the sand, the man who heard and knew what God's word said, but he didn't
bother to change, he didn't bother to repent and live his life for Christ? The
house that he'd built, the life that he had lived only to please himself came
to ruin. And for the person who refuses to believe the gospel today, the person
who refuses to repent, the person who continues to live for the world, the
outcome will be no different. For the Lord Jesus tells us in Matthew
7:21, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom
of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven." Are you doing
the will of the Father? Are you striving to live each day in a way that pleases
the Lord Jesus? Are you desiring to become more like Christ?
In closing, think on the admonition of the apostle Peter. He tells
us in 2 Peter 3:17, 18, "You therefore, beloved, since you know this
beforehand, beware lest you also fall away from your own steadfastness, being
led away with the error of the wicked; but grow in the grace and knowledge of
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." As you grow in the grace and knowledge
of the Lord Jesus, may you also grow in believing so that you are a reflection
of that knowledge before the rest of the world.