Today's reading: Deuteronomy 27; Luke 6
Would you say that you have a solid spiritual foundation? And if so, what are you basing your answer to that question on?
The end of Luke 6 got me thinking about this question this morning as Jesus wraps up His teaching with this:
“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”
As far as Jesus is concerned, the strength of our spiritual foundation is directly related to how much we put His teaching into practice. It's important to recognize that the distinction He cuts between the strong foundation and the weak foundation is not between the person who hears His words and the person who doesn't, but is between the person who hears His words and puts them into practice and the person who merely hears them.
Is that as sobering to you as it is to me...?
What Jesus is saying is that you can know a whole lot of Bible and still have a weak foundation. You can go to church every week and sit under profound preaching and teaching and still have a weak foundation. You can know your theology and apologetics forwards and backwards and still have a weak foundation. You can be deeply assured of the gospel and still have a weak foundation. And I'll also throw in that you can have had a strong foundation in the past and still have a weak foundation today.
So to put the question I asked at the beginning another way, how much have you been putting what you're learning in the Bible into practice lately?
I for one can easily fall into the trap of learning the Bible for the sake of learning, rather than for the sake of following. But at the end of the day, all the learning in the world means nothing if it is not accompanied by action. I think I honestly need to spend a little less time reading, listening, and learning new things, and start devoting a little more time to asking the Lord how he wants me to live out that day the truths He is revealing in our reading each morning.
I'm just going to leave off with the words of James this morning from James 1:
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.
Father, as we continue on in this reading plan, draw our attention each day to how you would have each of us live out what you are revealing to us in your Word.
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