“They hear your words, but they will not do them.”
Ezekiel 33:31

“But be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”
James 1:22

The prophet Ezekiel ministered in an evil time. It was his lot to prophesy to a generation that listened after a fashion, likened him to one having a pleasant voice, told others about his preaching, but did nothing about his message. They heard his words but did not do them.

Ezekiel was not the only man of God whose sermons fell on unresponsive ears. Earlier, God had advised Isaiah in advance that his message would blind eyes, stop ears, and harden hearts, lest the hearers should be converted and healed. Those words appear later in each of the four Gospels and still later in Acts and Romans to explain Israel’s poor response to the ministry of our Lord and of Paul. Israel heard but did nothing.

James warns against the same evil. Invariably, we do not quote the entire verse. We say, “But be doers of the Word, and not hearers only,” and there we stop. But there is a most solemn additional phrase: “deceiving yourselves.” That is the worst part of it: by hearing and not doing, we deceive ourselves.

Our Lord constantly warned against hearing without acting. “Everyone who hears these sayings of Mine and does not do them shall be likened to a foolish man who built his house upon the sand.” “If you know these things, happy are you if you do them.” “You are My friends if you do what I command you.” “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do the things which I say?” In the Great Commission, we are told to go, “teaching them to observe” the things He commanded.

Chief among the besetting sins of the saints is hearing without doing. It is a grievous sin, for “to him who knows the good he ought to do and fails to do it, to him it is sin.” In Ezekiel’s day, they heard the preacher, complimented him, told others about him, but did nothing about the message. The centuries have passed, and today we listen to preachers, invite others to hear them, and congratulate them with the very doubtful compliment, “I enjoyed your sermon.” But we do nothing about it.

Let it never be forgotten that although we may do nothing about the Word we hear, the Word will do something to us. The same sun melts ice and hardens clay, and the Word of God either humbles or hardens the human heart. Truth heard and not acted upon is a dangerous thing. Spiritual impulses that are not translated into action produce a disastrous reaction.

Anchor For Today:
Be a doer of the Word.