By Matthew Balogun
As believers, whenever we come across verses in the bible or hear sermons that implore us to practice the word, we get a rush of ideas on what we should do. This article will answer all questions you might have on that subject matter.
“Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.”
James 1:21-22
The word ‘deceiving yourselves’ is the Greek word “Paralogizomai”, which means to act beside yourself, or to act differently from your original nature. For example, when a boy decides to act or dress like a girl, that is the word “Paralogizomai”. That means you are acting beside yourself or out of character.
Now the author of this book (Apostle James), in talking to believers here, is not referring to obedience or disobedience; he implies that when you don’t act on the word, you are acting beside yourself. In the reverse way, when we act on the word, we are being our natural selves. This means that there is a meeting point of agreement between you and what you are reading or hearing.
“For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:”
James 1:23 (KJV)
Note the word ‘Like’ – it shows that James here is giving an illustration of a man who is a hearer of the word only; it is a figure of speech known as a simile. He used the same word in James 1:6 – “But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.” Here, James presents the action and state of the man who doubts the word as how the wave of the sea moves and is tossed by the wind. Now the word “hearer” will imply that teaching had or is taking place, and when a man who is taught and hears the engrafted word chooses not to act on it, he is acting unlike himself.
“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works”.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 (KJV)
The primary profitability of the scriptures lies in doctrine, which in Greek is the word “didaskalia,” implying teaching and proper interpretation of the scriptures. Now, the end point of this teaching is seen in verse 17 “that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” and this only happens when the man who is taught and hears, chooses to act on what he has received.
So, he brings the same word to use in verse 23 and explains the state of the man who only hears the word but chooses not to do it. He likens it to a man beholding his natural face in a glass; this means that the word is a reflection of the believer’s original makeup and state. If the doing of the word is illustrated by the beholding of one’s self in a glass, then the word reflects the believer back to him.
James is saying that when you look at the word, you are looking at a mirror. You are looking at yourself.
Hence, when you look at the revelation of Christ in the written word and you act otherwise, you are acting beside yourself. The word ‘natural face’ in verse 23 in the original writings means your face as of birth, the way you were born, what is natural to you; it could also mean natural appearance; two Greek words “genesis-prosopon” When you use mirrors, what do you see? – you use it to see yourself, not another person; it reflects your true self.
So, the word is a mirror, a true reflection of the believer’s identity in Christ; therefore, it puts a responsibility on the believer to act on the word because he is being himself.
