But don't just listen to God's word. 

You must do what it says. 

Otherwise, 

you are only fooling yourselves. 

James 1:22 NLT

As we have been seeing in Matthew Jesus concern about the religious leaders he was bumping into, this verse from James got me thinking about the religious leader in me. 

That part of me that is so concerned about what someone else believes as a way of categorising, labelling, maybe even deciding if they are like me enough. 

Don't get me wrong, there's important work figuring out our beliefs, what's truth and error. 

But at the same time James is encouraging us to live it out.

Live out what I do know. 

I do know that love is patient, and that I can exercise patience.

I do know that love is kind, and that I can be kind to those I live with, meet in my workplace, study, community, even in church. 

Pastor Trey in his book Theologizin Bigger (which I recommend btw) puts it this way when discussing the church in Acts:

"Perhaps a better way of saying this is that belief is inspected through behavior in these early communities."

How we live matters.

How we stand here matters. 

James encourages us to live out what we know, to let what we know of Jesus permeate our everyday, our ordinary.

#james

#itsaheartthing