Walking with the Wise #482: Hearing & Doing

“Like a lame man's legs, which hang useless,


is a proverb in the mouth of fools.”
—Proverbs 26:7

Repeating a wise saying doesn’t mean you know how to do what it says. A lame man has legs, but can’t use them. The same is true of a fool. He can say something profound, but has no idea what it means or how to apply it to his life. As C.S. Lewis wrote, a “scholar’s parrot may talk Greek.”

Living the Christ life means hearing the Word and then doing what it says.

“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing”—James 1:22-25.

Do you know the truth of God but do not do it? Then run to Christ in the same way as the woman who suffered from bleeding for twelve years, who said, “If I only touch his garment, I will be made well”—Matthew 9:21. Hold on to Him like Jacob crying out, “I will not let you go unless you bless me”—Genesis 32:26. Seek wisdom, do it, and you will be blessed in your doing. Amen.