Monday: Being a Doer
Read James 1:22 again. The Greek says to be
doers of the Word. How might the message have been different had James simply said, Do the word
?
Image © Darrel Tank from GoodSalt.com
James combines being and doing. He does not separate them, nor does he make one more important than the other. They are like two sides of the same coin, inseparable. We are to be doers. Furthermore, the tense of the Greek word for be here refers to an ongoing lifestyle of obedience, one that is expected of us now rather than at some indefinite time in the future.
The point is, we are to become new people in the Lord, and as a result of what we become, we do the things that God commands us to. This is something quite different from us merely following rules (which seems to have been the problem with the rich young ruler, as we saw in yesterday’s lesson).
Read Luke 6:27-38. What are some of the actions that we should be taking?
Love your enemies.
Give to everyone who asks of you.
Be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful
(Luke 6:27, Lk. 6:30, Lk. 6:36, NKJV). Sounds impossible, doesn’t it? And it is, on our own. Love like this does not come naturally to sinful human beings. That is why Jesus goes on to talk about two different kinds of trees and the fruit each produces (Luke 6:43-45).
Similarly, in Galatians 5, Paul contrasts the works of the flesh (Gal. 5:19-21) with the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23). It is almost as if the more we focus on doing, the worse we become; whereas, when we are being led by the Spirit, yields a totally different outcome-the fruit of love and obedience.
Think about a time you did something simply because it was required of you or because it was a rule you had to obey. Contrast that to the time you did something similar because it was something you wanted to do, something that flowed naturally out of you because of Christ living in you. How does this contrast help us to understand the point of today’s lesson?
(30)
This is one lesson I can honestly agree with completely. It reminds me of a story I heard many years ago that I am sure was making the rounds at that time. It was about a woman that was married to a man that used to post a to-do list on the refrigerator door every morning. Those really aggravated her to the point that their marriage finally broke up.
She remarried and her new husband never put up a to-do list. After a while one day when she was rummaging through the attic she came across one of those old to-do lists and the anger started to well up inside of her until she started to realize that she was doing all those things on the to-do lists for her new husband. She was doing them because she wanted to, not because she thought that she had to.
So to me our attitude and the reasons why we do what we do is probably more important than doing what we are commanded because we feel we have to. "We love Him because He first loved us" (1 Jn. 4:19 NKJV). We do good because we are saved not because we think we have to in order to be saved.
When we do things because we want to do them then we will do them the way they should be done and we will want to do them the best we can. That to me is love in action - it isn't a matter of a forced sacrifice but of real love that motivates and drives us to do.
Greetings! I am in a process of becoming an Adventist. This deliberation helps to equip myself with the word. Now i totally agree with what you just said about doing what we like not instructed. They often say that His ways are not our ways therefore this may not necessarily apply in the covenant with our Creator. Unless we ascertain that which was destined for us before we were born i guess that should propel us to wanna do good in every thing we do.
Sammy,I am overjoyed that you are planning to join us. Your decision is actually fulfilling what the lesson is asking us to do. This is the best and most important decision that you will ever make. Keep studying the quarterly and Bible and stay close to Jesus. You will receive the reward promised by Jesus to those who keep His commandments read Revelations 22:14. May God bless and keep you.
im happy for u dear sam 🙂 may u'll be continually blessed and a blessing to others ^_^
Thanks Tyler.
Please explain what it means to give to EVERYONE who asks. Should I give money EVERYTIME someone asks?
And should I not expect them to pay me back (give expecting nothing in return for)
Help me to understand this statement.
Thanks
Lisanne, your question comes from Lk 6:30 which is part of Luke's version of the Sermon on the Mount. With texts such as these context is important and should also be understood in the setting in which it is given. The conclusion of that section is this, "But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful" (Lk. 6:35-36 NKJV). Notice the thrust of what Jesus is saying. Basically it is, don't do as the world does but as God does.
The wealthy people of that time were very much like many wealthy people today. To them it is all about getting as much money as you can by any means possible. They were lending money to desperately poor people and charging exorbitant interest for it and were taking everything from them and leaving them completely destitute when they couldn't pay back - it was a money making scheme very similar to the rip-off conducted in the temple with the sacrifices that reduced even the average person to some level of poverty. They basically didn't care what they were doing to people just as long as they made money, that is why "the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil" (1 Tim. 6:10 NKJV).
Jesus on the other hand was teaching that we need to care and should give to those in need that have no way of paying us back. That is the real definition of "giving." Beyond that He tells us to give and help those who are not friendly to us, "For He is kind to the unthankful and evil."
These verses do not constitute a call for us to give away everything we have but to be mericiful, "And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise" (Lk. 6:31 NKJV). In other words have a heart for those in need and don't be like those who can think only of how they can amass fortunes at the expense of everyone else.
Thank you.
Another thing you could start out doing is giving only those amounts of money you can do without. The text has more meaning than this but it's somewhere to begin. Budget a certain amount to give away each month if called upon, ask for wisdom and roll over what you don't use to the next month.
It will free you from having to monitor every instance of assistance you give someone in order to enforce repayment.
thank you for sharing this short story dear ^_^ it helps me understand more vividly the point of this lesson 🙂
I agree with you my brother concerning the to do list. The list was a command without love and affection and how she felt. The love of God is free without pressure .
This is a great explanation for this weekly topic,I love it thanks for sharing this.Happy sabbath and God bless....
There are people in the world who care little or nothing for Christ, but focus on doing good and accomplish this to a large extent such that others benefit. They are sometimes called ‘good’ people. At the same time the impression may be conveyed by some Christians that focusing on doing good is counterproductive or that it somehow works against faith in Christ. So it is thought and taught if one only believes in Jesus he/she is heaven bound. This is likely an attempt to make right living and Christian standards, including stewardship, diet, entertainment, dress, and lifestyle optional.
There is no real contradiction between focus on doing and focus on Christ. To focus on Christ is not merely to steer at a portrait of Jesus, the work result of the artistic imagination of an inspired painter. Neither is it to concentrate as hard as possible on Jesus’ name. No, it is more. It is to reflect on the life of the Savior with the intent to pattern His devotion which includes prayer, study and right living. It requires intentional effort to go against feelings and inclinations, understanding that the power to do that which the will determines comes from above.
Were there as many doers as there are believers the world would be a much different place.
Both the good works of the worldly and those of believers bring some benefit. The difference between non-believing ‘do-gooders’ and the faithful is the motivating power and the fact that the latter are being changed more and more into the likeness of Christ. The worldly credit themselves and get their reward immediately. The reward of the righteous is what they ultimately become by the enabling of the Holy Spirit, which is like Christ and one with Him. Christian effort to do good or right is not to get something, but to address needs and to advance character development.
It is not focusing on doing right, but wrong motivation which causes failure to live right. The Bible encourages us to focus on good (Philippians 4:8, 9) and has more to say about doing than believing because the point of believing is to be able to do. The Redeemer’s purpose is not simply to save sinners who believe, but to restore His image and make them useful in heaven. Probation is the time to fit us, not to believe something, but to live something in Heaven. This is practice time. So focus on Christ and focus on doing good and cooperation with the divine will produce righteousness.
Mary’s words to the servants at the wedding in Cana rings relevant for us today, "Whatever He says to you, do it." (John 2:5).
Tyler Cluthe, your comment pretty much summed up the whole of today's lesson. Doing in LOVE is DOING it in God's way, for God is LOVE. It is my prayer that we continue daily abiding in His love, by the fellowship of the Holy Spirit that will refresh us daily in DOING good according to His will. Cheers!!!
Being a doer, i think it is very clear. knowing what God (thru the bible) would like us to do but failed to do, we are not being a doer. Or in other words, most of us KNOW from cover to cover what the bible says, but the DOING part is lacking!
This is dangerous!
I think its time that we DO what God wants us to do than just knowing it.
This is the crux of the book of James, the handbook of practical Christian living.
It shares with us the true character of God, that he offers to implant in our hearts.
When we describe what God's character looks like in action we must never separate what God does from why He does it.
Because in our lives that is most important. Do we see the Word as a list of rules to be obeyed or a list of ideals to be implanted in our heart.
Is our locus of control external or internal.
Are we being forced to comply or suffer punishment?
Or are we willingly being transformed into His likeness.
Love and transformation is the key.
It is so important, exciting and wonderful to learn and share more and more about the character of God, but each aspect that we discover must always be kept encased within the context of love and transformation.
One of my Mother's favourite sayings was: 'it's all out of a loving heart'
Again DA 668:
All true obedience comes from the heart. It was heart work with Christ. And if we consent, He will so identify Himself with our thoughts and aims, so blend our hearts and minds into conformity to His will, that when obeying Him we shall be but carrying out our own impulses. The will, refined and sanctified, will find its highest delight in doing His service. When we know God as it is our privilege to know Him, our life will be a life of continual obedience. Through an appreciation of the character of Christ, through communion with God, sin will become hateful to us.
I'm appreciating the comments to do with acceptance and motivation. Some of us know what it is to be motivated by fear, some of us have actually got comfortable living with fear and even learned to be compulsively angry at fear with pugilistic reactions and then came to Christ. Tell some of us that we ought to fear the Lord and obey Him, and get an outrageous response or tell us that God loves us unconditionally and isn't intimidated by our fear turned to anger, He just wants to heal and forgive and you might have a convert who's appreciation fills a hallway with joy. Your call saints.
The whole idea of true good works is only by the fruit of the Holy Spirit. We can be branches that have a good connection to the Vine, which can be pruned according to His will. And we are soil that can be plowed, cultivated, fertilized, watered, and warmed by the Son, if we so choose. If we do then the seed of the word will grow and blossom and produce fruit. The Holy Spirit draws us, leads us into all truth, gives us true repentance, gives us His love, patience, kindness, and goodness that causes us to be what we are and to do what we do, but only if we give Him permission. The time spent in Bible study and prayer determines our relationship with our Savior. "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." 2 Corinthians 3:18
Our battle is not with Satan but with self. Jesus has won the battle and the war; it is up to us to choose sides.
Im so glad and blessed reading all that's in here.
Doing things that come from you heart is genuine, you do not think twice about it, its so nature; and doing what your forced to do there's no love in it, your just doing it to get it over with. My opinion of what I said previously contrasts to the lesson because even when people(our enemies) get on our nerves we still have to be compassionate to them no matter what, if God can put up with our disobedience; than there shouldn't be a problem with us loving our enemy/enemies and showing compassion.
In chapter 73 of 'The Desire of Ages' 'Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled' Christ was doing just that, right after Judas left the room. In divine love and with the tenderest kindness, Christ was preparing His Disciples for His death, resurrection, and ascension. But 1st He reminded them of His mission. Thus He does for us. "God sent His Son not into the world not to condemn us, but through Christ, save us." John 3:17. Wait, there is more to His mission than that, such as setting an example for us. Teaching us that the way to the Father is through Him. Pointing us away from earthly things to heavenly things. Giving us hope. "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know." John 14:1-4.
Again Christ with divine love and the tenderest kindness, instructs us the way is through Him. Now this is where obedience comes in, we tap Christ unlimited resources, we take hold of the Strong for strength, thus we can live the law in humanity as Christ did.
You bet ya, belief, faith, grace, and doing play a role too. I am reminded of the 70's preacher who taught that we are in a row boat with two oar's one side is faith and the other works. Let me purpose a crew boat of four oar's one side is faith and grace and the other side is works and doing. I am reminded that we are justified by doing good works, saved by grace, through faith, strengthened by trials. Through faith we take hold of the hand of Christ who bestows grace. Doing good becomes a reflection of our hold on Christ. Thus the crew boat moves forward with the Strong for endurance to cross the finish line. You might ask who is in the crew boat? Why of course you and I, with Christ in our hearts. Henceforth is laid up for us an incorruptible crown. 1 Corinthians 9:25, 2 Timothy 4:8 "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him." James 1:12. Now for Inge, the amplified version. “Blessed (happy, to be envied) is the man who is patient under trial and stands up under temptation, for when he has stood the test and been approved, he will receive [the victor’s] crown of life which God has promised to those who love Him.” James 1:12. If we love Him we will obey Him. Not through our own power but through relying on the Strong for strength.