I was at church on Sunday, as I usually am, and I was particularly struck by our pastor's sermon. Being that we did not have Jr. High this week, I have the priveledge of hearing it twice, so it was double good.
Tom has been going through a series on James recently. This weeks question, was are you living a life of obedience. Tom shared one stat that he read from a study. This study was part coupled with an article saying that it was the most disturbing statistic you will ever hear. This study said that over 90% of the people in America attend church and that the average church goer acts no different from a non-church goer. (gasp....) Tom, being the realist that he is, quickly dissected this information for us. He said, "So what, just because you go to church doesn't mean you're a christian." He then shared some more stats that he has read before. While an overwhelming majority of Americans say they are christians, once you add in some basic christian fundamentals (The deity of Christ, salvation by grace through faith, etc.) that the number drops to below 10%. (7% if I remember correctly.) Only 7%, wow. Tom followed that up with, "So who cares if church people act like non-church people. If they aren't believers then how can we expect them to act any differently. Because its the change that Christ makes that causes our lives to be different, not going to church. So Tom called this stat (over 90% of people go to church) the most usless stat ever.
While that was interesting, it wasn't the focus of Tom's message. His message was basically on being a doer of the word. He equated the obedient life with being a doer of the word. He said one way to tell if you were a doer of the word was to ask yourself the question, Does my life look different? James 1:22-25 says,
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23For 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. 24For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25But 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.
Tom described the mirrors that they had in this time period. The wouldn't be polished glass like ours today, but rather polished bronze or brass. So they couldn't get the clearest image of themselves, but well enough to see. The passage also describes the man looking intently at the image. So it's not just a cursory glance. He was taking the time to analyze what he looked like. The main thing that I take away from this passage is an application point. I would say that James is describing a person who is wasting their time with looking in the mirror. Because they forget right after they look away. So what was the point of looking in a mirror? I would say that this applies to our lives in context of scripture. What point is there to reading it or studying it if we don't apply it to our lives? Is there one? Does mindless reading of scripture produce fruit in a person?
In a believer's life, if they are truly reading, the scripture will affect their life. But if I'm a pagan, then its just another book to me.
Live your life doing the word, because life without it is pointless.
2 comments:
that stat is shocking to me. it really shouldn't be, but it is. guess i thought there were more Christians. talk about a wake up call.
I love that text from James. We just translated last week in Greek as a matter of fact =). Good stuff
Amen!
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