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knows it all and never will. We never get to a place where we no longer need to be taught. At the point of
the new birth, God implants the new birth in our heart, an incorruptible seed, which cannot be defiled.
From that point on, it is up to us to implant the seed of God’s Word in the same heart. The salvation of
our spirit, the new birth, was instantaneous. The saving of our souls is a process, which occurs over our
lifetime. Through time we take on the image of Jesus Himself as we study and meditate on His Word (2
Corinthians 3:18).

C. Being Doers of the Word

Jas 1:22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

But be (ginomai: become) ye doers (poieti: producers) of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving
(paralogizomenoi: deluding) your own selves.

James is quick to add that study of the Word is not enough. We have to put the Word to work in our lives
and live it before others. This will be the theme of the upcoming chapter: works which accompany faith.
If a person only studies and meditates on the Word, he will delude himself. It is like eating and never
exercising. The Word is designed to do more than just feed our inner man. It is designed to produce power,
to live the gospel out before the world. This is the end result of the Word. It has been given to help us
fulfill the Great Commission, spreading the gospel to all men.

Jas 1:23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural
face in a mirror;

For if any man be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man (aner) beholding (perceiving)
his natural face in a glass (mirror).

The mirror here is the Word of God. The Word is a mirror (1 Corinthians 13:12) in which we look to better
perceive ourselves. The objective of the mirror of the Word is to keep hearing (looking) and doing until
we look more like Jesus Himself (2 Corinthians 3:18). Scripture is the only mirror that will make us look
like someone else: Jesus.

Jas 1:24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.

For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way (apeleluthen: goes away) and straightway
(eutheos: immediately) forgetteth what manner of man he was.

Natural mirrors are not designed to be a great part of our lives. They show us what we look like in the
morning and are used only long enough to obtain the momentary goal of appearance. They may be used
throughout the day to reattain the goal, but that is all.

The Word of God is different. It is designed to be looked into and its revelations to be carried with us
throughout the day. The Word of God is something we look into daily, but we also carry it with us in our
soul to be drawn from daily. The mirror of God’s Word is not like a natural mirror that we use when we
have a problem. The Word is not to be studied only in church or occasionally as the need arises. This is
not a natural mirror; it is a spiritual one. It is part of our lives, night and day, twenty‐four hours a day. As
we meditate on the Word, we place it in our souls. We are to be an epistle known and read of all men (2
Corinthians 3:2). We are a Bible, whether we have one or not.