Be a Doer!
My small group time usually goes something like this: when we arrive, we catch up with each other for a few minutes and then jump into Bible study. And most weeks, our study of scriptures is rich, full, and diverse. We agree and disagree, we ask questions and use illustrations to help us better understand the scripture, and we even sometimes look up the original Greek or Hebrew text (crazy, huh!). Then we spend some time sharing prayer requests and praying for each other before we head to “Crave”, our new favorite night spot, for a crepe or some fro-yo. Not bad.
But, a couple of weeks ago, I stumbled across a passage of scripture that has led me to evaluate my weekly small group experience. What I found during this “evaluation” is that my interaction with scripture, privately and in my small group, is quite “heady”. It’s intellectual. Smart, even.
The passage I stumbled across this week is James 1:22-27. In this passage two verses in particular led me to the before mentioned evaluation;
25 “But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act – they will be blessed in their doing.”
27 “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”
Upon reading this passage I realized, my Christian life is not supposed to be so “heady”. It’s supposed to be “do-y”. Scripture should lead us to DO, not just THINK.
But that’s the hard part. I am more than willing to dig into God’s word, but not nearly as willing to dig into my personal actions. Digging into God’s word can be detached from my behavior. It can be solely academic. And that is “safe.” But taking a close look at my life is vulnerable, scary, and discouraging. Particularly with my small group – guys who I look up to and admire for their strong Christian lives!
But how will the Truths we have found in scripture ever change our lives if we do not also dig into our personal actions? If we do not ask, “how am I being a DOER of God’s word, not just a HEARER?”, then how will we know if God’s Word is really changing us? Making us better? Making purer? Making us more like Jesus?
The question this week for me has become, “Am I content knowing a lot of the facts about scripture?” or “Do I really want to live a life that my God can proudly use to impact the lives of those I know and meet?”
In my small group, my hope is now this: that we will not ONLY be learners of the word, but doers; that we will spend as much time in the APPLICATION part of the study, as we do in the DIGGING part of the study; and that my fellow small group members will ask me how I have succeeded and failed at being a DOER of God’s word. Not so I can feel pride for succeeding, or guilt for failing, but so that “orphans and widows” have been cared for, and that I have remained “unstained by the world.”
Chris Greer
Coordinator of Small Groups
chris.greer@belairpres.org
