How Extreme

 

James 1:22

How extreme; someone expects us to read the Bible and then do what it says.  In a nutshell that is what James 1:22 is saying; “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”  I have a history of reading the Bible from my youth, and most of that reading was required reading by my parents or a Sunday school teacher.  But at the age of 27, I came alive to the Bible, it’s meaning became clear, yet I would pick and choose what parts of the manual I would apply to my daily life, and by doing that I was deceiving myself. 

I believe the same can be said about you; in fact, I would be willing to bet the farm that you have done the same thing.  But why do you and I allow this deception into our life, have we not all paid a price for ignoring the teachings of the Bible?  I can speak only for myself in this area, I’ve read or heard the message and the enemy of my soul places someone else into my mind, and it goes like this; I sure wish you could have heard the message and applied it to your life.  Or I hear the message, I even believe the message, but I do not take the teaching into my mind and heart, so I’m destined to repeat my poor performance.  And then often my actions tell all who watch that I just do not believe Jesus tells the truth, because if I did my life would comply with the teaching of the Bible.

For many who are young in the Christian faith may think the Bible is just rules, much like any other religion, but that is far from the truth; the Bible teaches us that we can have a relationship with our Creator.  Unlike the extreme religions that say kill your enemies, the Bible teaches us to do good to them and to love them, quite a contrast.  But that brings us to places like Ireland where the Protestants try to kill the Catholics and the Catholics reciprocate to the Protestants, all in the name of the same Bible that teaches them to love each other, something is very wrong!

Could it be that we stop reading too soon, or we forgot to apply it to our own life, or as we read, we think how good this would be for the person living down the street.  Could it be that many have never met the author of the Bible, and to them it is just the religion of their parents, if that is true, listen: Religion has its roots in rules, it is all about do’s and don’ts.  It also hinges on performance and it hates those who do not share those rules and actions, its end game is death; it was religion that killed our Lord.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice