Are You a Hearer or a Doer?

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven;

but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Matthew 7:21

At the end of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus gives two responses to his word: hearing and doing (Matthew 7:24-27). Most of us function from the default position that we are doers of the word. But if we back up a few verses and the look at the context, Jesus is actually giving us a warning: there are people who will think they are doers, that were only ever hearers (v21). I’ve always found this warning to be concerning. On the one hand, I feel enormous grief for the people who may one day stand before the Lord and be rejected (v23). And on the other hand, when I consider the ‘doing’ Jesus was referring to, I am forced to seriously consider my own level of adherence.

Think about this list of instructions Jesus gives in the Sermon on the Mount, can you honestly describe yourself as a doer?

Rejoice when you are hated and persecuted for Jesus’ sake. Matthew 5:11-12

Let you light shine before men. Matthew 5:16

Do good works for others to see. Matthew 5:16

Don’t break Jesus’ commandments or teach others to break them. Matthew 5:19

Be reconciled to your brother. Matthew 5:23

Reconcile with your adversary. Matthew 5:25

Don’t look at women with the intention to lust after them. Matthew 5:28

Avoid getting divorced. Matthew 5:32

Just say yes or no. Matthew 5:34-37

Don’t resist evil. Matthew 5:39-41

Turn the other cheek. Matthew 5:39-41

Give more than you are asked. Matthew 5:39-41

Always let people borrow from you when they ask. Matthew 5:42

Love your enemies. Matthew 5:44

Bless people who curse you. Matthew 5:44

Do good to those who hate you. Matthew 5:44

Pray for people who abuse you. Matthew 5:44

Be mature. Matthew 5:48

Give to the poor secretly so no-one else knows about it. Matthew 6:1-4

Pray privately, without repeating yourself. Matthew 6:5-8

Pray like Jesus taught: praise God the Father, pray for God’s will to be done, pray for sustenance, ask for forgiveness, ask for help with sin, ask for deliverance from evil, worship God. Matthew 6:9-13

Forgive men. Matthew 6:15

Fast in secret. Matthew 6:16-18

Store your wealth in heaven. Matthew 6:19-20

Don’t accumulate earthly wealth. Matthew 6:19-20

You can’t serve God and money. Matthew 6:24

Don’t worry about food. Matthew 6:25, 31

Don’t worry about clothing. Matthew 6:25, 31

Search for the Kingdom of God. Matthew 6:33

Don’t worry about tomorrow. Matthew 6:34

Don’t judge others. Matthew 7:1

Don’t be a hypocrite. Matthew 7:3-5

Remove the beam from your own eye before helping someone else. Matthew 7:5

Don’t give spiritual rebuke to fools. Matthew 7:6

Ask (seek, knock) God for what you need. Matthew 7:7-8, 11

Treat others as you would like to be treated. Matthew 7:12

Go in the gate that leads to life. Matthew 7:13-14

Watch out for false prophets. Matthew 7:15-16

Recognise false prophets by their bad fruit. Matthew 7:15-16

Be doers not hearers. Matthew 7:24-27

That’s a very confronting and a very humbling list. Now, Jesus isn’t telling us to judge each other’s salvation, he telling us to judge our own. We are meant to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling not someone else’s (Philippians 2:12). We all need to take the time to swallow our pride, and honestly assess our own personal position before the Lord. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, how terrible to ever hear the words: depart from me, I never knew you (Hebrews 10:31, Matthew 7:23).

There is a line from the Veggie Tales episode about Gideon, that has always stuck with me, “If you wanna hear the Lord say well done, you’ll have to do what he asks.” After all, how can we claim to be Biblical when our actions don’t line up with God’s instructions? Not because we try and fail as sinful people – praise the Lord for his forgiveness! But because we simply ignore them?

So, what about this list:

Pray for the government. 1 Timothy 2:2

Visit widows and the fatherless. James 1:27

Pray for persecuted Christians. Hebrews 13:3

Make disciples. Matthew 18:18-20.

Don’t judge people by their clothing at church. James 2:1-9

Pray with lifted hands. 1 Timothy 2:8.

Separate from heresy. 2 John 1:10-11.

Show hospitality to strangers. Hebrews 13:2

Rightly divide the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15

Separate from Christians living in sin but not the unsaved. 1 Corinthians 5:9-12

Despise not prophesying. 1 Thessalonians 5:20

Support the weak. 1 Thessalonians 5:14

Work with your own hands. 1 Thessalonians 4:11

Don’t slander. James 4:11

Don’t gossip. Ephesians 4:29

Don’t lie to each other. Colossians 3:9

Fathers don’t provoke your children to anger. Ephesians 6:4, Colossians 3:21

Weak Christians shouldn’t judge someone else’s liberty. Romans 14:1-13

Stronger Christians shouldn’t judge someone else’s weakness. Romans 14:1-13

ROMANS 14:4 TEE

Don’t follow man made rules in an attempt to avoid sin. Colossians 2:20-23

Remember who the real enemy is. Ephesians 6:12

Use your spiritual gift to help the church. Ephesians 4:12

Don’t have idols or sacred cows. 1 Corinthians 10:7

Be all things to all men in order to save some. 1 Corinthians 9:20-23

Confess your sins to each other. James 5:16

Ask God for wisdom. James 1:5-6

Bring your body under subjection. 1 Corinthians 9:27

Don’t use your traditions as an excuse to ignore God’s commandments. Mark 7:9

Of course, it’s much easier to just say we are fulfilling God’s instructions than to actually do them. In Niugini they have a saying that translates, “I can hear every time your spoon hits the side of your teacup.” It is used to carry the idea that everyone in the community knows exactly how you are behaving all the time, because privacy is so limited. But in a Western society, it is pretty simple to deceive others about our behaviour. And it is easy to put on a show on Sunday morning and live very different lives during the week.

And, you know, we might even be able to deceive our own selves about our behaviour, like Jesus warns and James reiterates:

But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. James 1:22

And because we can deceive even ourselves it is worth taking the time to stop and check we are still on track every now and then. Proverbs 3:6 says,

In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

Personally, this verse has always made me think of a map. When we’re driving, we don’t spend all our time looking at the map, we get the general gist and head off. But let's do some maths: if I start driving on a course 1° off the intended route, in 100km I will be 1.75km away from the correct path. The human eye can still see 1.75 km on flat ground, so if I stop, I would still be able to see the right location. But I only need to drive a total of 267km for the route to be completely hidden from my sight, it will be 4.65km away, making it below my horizon, even if I stop and get out of the car. So, what seemed like such a small error at the start, can led us into the wilderness without the true path in sight; really, really, quickly.

Sometimes we need to have the humility to stop and study the map again, and check we are going in the right direction. Because there are also lots of side tracks leading off, and we might take a wrong turn– then the only option becomes a u-turn to get back on track. But as long as we keep checking back in and humbly acknowledging God's leading and instructions, we can keep heading in the right direction.

So, check yourself. Because, we might be able to deceive others, we might be able to deceive even ourselves. But we’ll never be able to deceive God.

Made for His Glory,