Home Outreach Leaders Articles for Outreach & Missions Whatever You Do, Don't Be a Passive Listener!

Whatever You Do, Don't Be a Passive Listener!

So whether you’re an avid reader or not, what on earth would cause somebody to look so intently into a book as if their life depended on it? Because it does. This isn’t just a book. James described it as, “the perfect law that gives freedom.” Those are pretty big shoes to fill. A book that’s perfect, contains God’s commands, and has the power to bring freedom in our lives has to be more than just a book. It’s more than just ink on paper. It has authority and it has transformational power.

You might say, “Come on Stephen. How can the Bible, which consists of 66 books written over 1,500 years ago by 40 people in three different languages, even be reliable?” Consider this:

  • In their book, The Faith: Given Once, For All, Charles Colson and Harold Fickett defend the textual integrity of the Bible, noting that there are 24,947 ancient manuscripts of the New Testament alone, the oldest dating back to AD 150.
  • Scholars have more ancient manuscripts to work from than with any other writing — 14,000 of the Old Testament alone.
  • Homer’s Iliad — a poem set during the Trojan War — is the next closest with only 600 manuscripts.
  • The accuracy of the ancient manuscripts comprising the Scriptures is remarkable. Why? “Jewish tradition provides one answer. According to Hebrew practice, only eyewitness testimony was accepted; and when copying documents, the Jews would copy one letter at a time — not word by word, not phrase by phrase, not sentence by sentence.”
  • The evidence supporting the authority of the Bible is extraordinary.
  • Colson and Fickett write: “Before the end of the 1950s, no less than 25,000 biblical sites had been substantiated by archaeological discoveries; there has been no discovery proving the Bible false. No other religious document now or in history has ever been found that accurate.”

Nevertheless, the Bible has been fought relentlessly. For example:

  • John Wycliffe was an Oxford professor, theologian and creator of the first hand-written English language Bible manuscripts. Forty-four years after his death on December 31, 1384, Pope Martin V, infuriated by Wycliffe’s teachings, ordered his bones to be dug up, crushed and scattered in the river Swift.
  • In 1415, one of Wycliffe’s devout followers, John Hus, was burned at the stake using Wycliffe’s manuscript Bibles as kindling for the fire.

Despite these and countless other attempts to destroy the Scriptures, today the publication and distribution of the Bible is available in over 2,000 languages. So the fact that the Bible consists of 66 books written over 1,500 years by 40 people in three different languages is a miracle in itself because the story of Scripture provides amazing harmony. God’s Word is the ultimate authoritative trump card for erroneous beliefs and false assumptions.

So what’s the result of being a “doer” of God’s Word? James says we will be “blessed” in what we do. Joshua 1:8 makes a similar observation:

Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.

James wraps up this section of his letter by giving us three examples of what being a “doer” looks like:

  • Speech — He says, “If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless” (James 1:26).
  • Serving — Verse 27 says, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress … ”
  • Separation — Verse 27 concludes, “ … and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

Those are just three examples James gives for being a doer of God’s Word. I’m sure there are dozens more.

Question: What should be your response to James’ challenge to be a “doer” of God’s Word?