Do Not Merely Listen

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

“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? (Luke 6:46)

          If you were to be invited to play football, and made up your own rules to the game, could you actually be said to be playing football? If you moved to a new country, went through the naturalization process, and proceeded to blatantly disregard the laws of the land, could you really be said to be a citizen? If you got married, but before and after the ceremony, carried on with another person, are you really married? If a relationship results in the birth of a child, but after that birth either the mother (or more likely the father) never interacts with the child,  or does not contribute toward the child’s well-being, is that person really a mother or father? If a child weighs 7 lbs. at birth, and three months later, weighs 6, is there a reason for concern?

The answer to all but the last is “no.” But don’t take it beyond the level of the examples. I’m not saying that one cannot play football, be a citizen, be married or be a parent unless one does absolutely everything perfectly in that role. But one cannot play football, be a citizen, be married, or be a parent if one rejects doing what that is entailed in doing it. In the same way, one cannot be said to be a follower of Christ if one consistently rejects everything the Bible says, but at the same time, we cannot expect that we will ever live up to the perfect standard and should not judge one another as failures even though we have failed. We are works in progress.  As noted yesterday, belonging costs. It should cost because paying that price is what validates our belonging. It makes our belonging real. So does playing by the rules.