Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. (James 1:22-24)
Have you ever been fooled – whether for fun or not? While some of us are more gullible than others, it is actually not that difficult to be deceived. The idea of deceiving ourselves sounds pretty crazy. Who would want to do that? And yet we do it more often than we think. It can be quite a challenge to be completely honest about our ourselves.
James warns us not to deceive ourselves. In this case it has to do with listening to the word (which includes reading it), but not doing what it says. When we read the Bible, but don't put into practice its teachings, we fool ourselves. When we continually expose ourselves to the Bible, we somehow convince ourselves that we are doing what it says, even when we don't.
That means that there is likely many of us right now who even though deep down we believe we are being true to the teachings of Scripture, we are not.
If we are deceiving ourselves in this way, how can we ever be set free to see ourselves according to reality? I believe we can by first, asking God to reveal to us the truth about ourselves. Then by fixing our gaze upon his Word, we need to ask ourselves if we are truly living according to it. Be careful though! This exercise in and of itself won't safeguard us from the deception. The only way to be free of it, is to do what God says.
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