About the much misinterpreted: "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves."

"But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves."

James 1:22 is one of the most misinterpreted bible verses. Many preach this in the context of "You see, now that you are born-again, you have to obey the Law of Moses and be sinless by your own effort in order to remain godly and make it to heaven."Not so when you read the verse in its context. When you take a "text" out of its context, you are left with a "con."

See the verse in its context:

"But be doers of the Word [obey the message], and not merely listeners to it, betraying yourselves [into deception by reasoning contrary to the Truth]. 23 For if anyone only listens to the Word without obeying it and being a doer of it, he is like a man who looks carefully at his [own] natural face in a mirror; 24 For he thoughtfully observes himself, and then goes off and promptly forgets what he was like."

See the TPT version- "Don’t just listen to the Word of Truth and not respond to it, for that is the essence of self-deception. So always let His Word become like poetry written and fulfilled by your life! 23 If you listen to the Word and don’t live out the message you hear, you become like the person who looks in the mirror of the Word to discover the reflection of his face in the beginning. 24 You perceive how God sees you in the mirror of the Word, but then you go out and forget your divine origin. 25 But those who set their gaze deeply into the perfecting law of liberty are fascinated by and respond to the truth they hear and are strengthened by it—they experience God’s blessing in all that they do!"

Notice that those who are not doers of the word are those who do not live out the message that they hear? And what is the message of Christ? See this in Romans 1:

16 "For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile. 17 This Good News tells us how God makes us right in His sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”

The Word that we are to be doers of or message that we are to obey tells us how God makes us right in His sight. We see a detailed account of how God makes us right in His sight in Romans 3:

"26...for He himself is fair and just, and He makes sinners right in His sight when they believe in Jesus. 27 Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. 28 So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law."

This is the Word that we are to be doers of: believing that in Christ, we are righteous by faith and not by human effort at obeying the law. This is the crux of the message of Christ: Righteousness by faith in Christ.

Back to: “But be doers of the Word [obey the message], and not merely listeners to it, betraying yourselves [into deception by reasoning contrary to the Truth]. 23 For if anyone only listens to the Word without obeying it and being a doer of it, he is like a man who looks carefully at his [own] natural face in a mirror; 24 For he thoughtfully observes himself, and then goes off and promptly forgets what he was like."

The TPT version says: 23 “If you listen to the Word and don’t live out the message you hear, you become like the person who looks in the mirror of the Word to discover the reflection of his face in the beginning. 24 You perceive how God sees you in the mirror of the Word, but then you go out and forget your divine origin. 25 But those who set their gaze deeply into the perfecting law of liberty are fascinated by and respond to the truth they hear and are strengthened by it—they experience God’s blessing in all that they do!"

Now consider Romans 5:9 — “And there is still much more to say of His unfailing love for us! For through the blood of Jesus we have heard the powerful declaration, “You are now righteous in My sight.” And because of the sacrifice of Jesus, you will never experience the wrath of God."

Notice that it is through the blood of Jesus that we are made righteous in God's sight and not because we obeyed the Ten Commandments or did good things? Verse 24 of James 1 says of those who are hearers of the word and not doers:

“You perceive how God sees you in the mirror of the Word, but then you go out and forget your divine origin.”

Those who are mere hearers of the word and not doers are those who forget how God sees them through the mirror of His word- Righteous by the blood of Jesus. After hearing the word, such do not obey the Word of Truth that they heard. Instead of believing that they are righteous by faith, they go back to trying to obey the Ten Commandments and doing all sorts of “good works" in order to get right with God, obtain His favour and escape His wrath, all of this after Christ shed His blood for us for this same purpose.

Some people who wanted to be doers of God's work asked Christ what they must do in John 6. See our Saviour's response:

28 “They replied, “We want to perform God’s works, too. What should we do?” 29 Jesus told them, “This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the One He has sent.”

To be a doer of the word is to believe that in Christ, we are righteous (in God’s sight) by faith in Christ and not by what we do/don't do or puny efforts at obeying the Ten Commandments. This is what it means to believe in Jesus Christ.

But many observe themselves in the mirror of God's word and then go out and stop believing that God sees them as righteous because of the sacrifice of His own Son. Only when we continually see ourselves the same way our heavenly Father sees us in Christ (righteous) can true transformation happen; not by human effort at obedience but by the power of the Holy Spirit. See this in 2 Corinthians 3:18-

"But we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed to the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord."

In Christ, our salvation is not at all about behaviour modification by human effort. It is about hearts’ transformation by the Holy Spirit. Christ in us does it all. When we look into the mirror of our lives, there is so much imperfection. God knows how screwed up our lives can be. But He does not want the believer in Christ to see himself in these imperfections, obvious as they are. He wants us to continually believe and keep on seeing ourselves as He sees us in the mirror of His word- Righteous through Christ's blood (Romans 5:9.) This is what it means to be a doer of the word. Here, we are transformed by His Spirit and so, get to live right.

Those who are hearers alone and not doers forget their righteousness in Christ and their divine origin and try to get re-righteous through the Law. Such do not obey the Truth. Paul called Peter out for such behaviour in Galatians 2:11-14, when he (Peter) did some "eye-service" and reverted to the Law of Moses by not eating or associating with Gentiles because some of James' Jewish friends from Judea were in town-

“When Peter came to Antioch, I told him face to face that he was wrong. 12 He used to eat with Gentile followers of the Lord, until James sent some Jewish followers. Peter was afraid of the Jews and soon stopped eating with Gentiles. 13 He and the other Jews hid their true feelings so well that even Barnabas was fooled. 14 But when I saw that they were not really obeying the truth that is in the good news, I corrected Peter in front of everyone and said: Peter, you are a Jew, but you live like a Gentile. So how can you force Gentiles to live like Jews?”

Peter's action was contrary to the truth. He didn't obey the truth of the Good News: “But be doers of the Word [obey the message], and not merely listeners to it, betraying yourselves [into deception by reasoning contrary to the Truth].”

The message of the cross is righteousness by faith through Christ Jesus. Doing works of the Law in order to to be anything at all in God's sight after Christ died to make us righteous and perfect in His sight is what it means to be a hearer of the word alone and not a doer.

Paul goes on to say in verses 17–21 of Galatians 2:

17 “But suppose we seek to be made right with God through faith in Christ and then we are found guilty because we have abandoned the law. Would that mean Christ has led us into sin? Absolutely not! 18 Rather, I am a sinner if I rebuild the old system of law I already tore down. 19 For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law—I stopped trying to meet all its requirements—so that I might live for God. 20 My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. 21 I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.”

Interpreting or acting on the belief that being a doer of the word is obeying the Ten Commandments and doing works of the law in order to be anything before God is rebuilding the old system of the law that we who believe in Jesus already tore down. It is treating God's grace as meaningless.

“Law” and “Grace and Truth" are on different sides of the aisle, “For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” John 1:17.

For us who are in Christ, this truth is not “obey the Ten Commandments in order to be righteous.” No one can (Romans 3:20.) This is the sure-fire way to get cut off from Christ: “For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God's grace.” Galatians 5:4.

Our truth is that in Christ, God sees us as righteous only because of the shed blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ. All who receive God's abundance of Grace and obey the truth (believe and receive His gift of righteousness to us in Christ) GET TO live in triumph over sin and death through Jesus Christ:

“For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one Man, Jesus Christ." Romans 5:17