"But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves."
You are to show by your actions that you are Christians. That you love and trust God. If you only read the Bible or believe that faith without works will save you, then you missed the whole point and have deceived yourself.
Jesus did not come to earth, hold out his wrists and say, "Slit them so I can die for you." He lived His Life a certain way and that way was full of hard work, kindness, love, worship, prayer, caring, etc... How can we do less?
You read these words. Will you forget them? Stop reading and start acting!
"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, for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was."
Are you understanding? If you do, then reading these words alone isn't enough. Your whole life should tell others that you love God. How? By loving others!
In today's world, many churches are upset at the pulpit about Obama winning because he represents evil to them for supporting gay marriage, immigration, and marijuana. Church members say hateful things, pass on emails and words about how horrible something is, gossiping about politics that aren't even true, and denouncing people who are sinful.
Jesus ate with the sinners. Why don't you? Jesus sweated through hard work to ensure that others who are poor could feel hope. Why don't you? Yet words are said against those who have food stamps and are poor because it is assumed they are lazy. Yes, there are a few... but only a few... like that. Most are not.
We are pushing people away by showing ourselves, that we call Christian, to be hypocrites. No wonder Christianity is in trouble. Believing isn't enough. Acting and acting with love, caring, and kindness is needed desperately in even the smallest things.
"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."
Here is the key to success. By acting as a Christian and helping those around you, you will be blessed. By caring and being a friend to those who are different, you will be blessed. In case I am not understood, by helping "the least of these" you will be blessed. The first shall be last and the last first... I see that to mean those with self-righteous attitudes towards self and disgust towards others will be the last to understand God's gift of LOVE.
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