Bible blog post Monday February 24th

"Actions Speak Louder Than Words" (Mark 7:1-13)

Knowledge is a collection of facts or information; a theoretical understanding of a subject or subjects.  It is good and important to gain knowledge but it shouldn't end with the acquiring of it.  Wisdom is the next step.  Wisdom is applying the knowledge we have to our lives.  It is showing an understanding of our knowledge by putting it into right action.  Without action we are just walking encyclopedia's, Goggle search engines with useless limbs.  Our knowledge without action serves no purpose other than to puff us up and make us feel more important than we really are.  Imagine a doctor who spends years studying but never practicing.  Would you trust them to be your surgeon?  What about a pilot who has all the knowledge and know how of how an airplanes flies and how to work all the controls in the cockpit but never spent time in the air flying?  Would you trust them with your life and let them be your pilot?

The Pharisees of Mark 7 were walking biblical concordances.  They not only knew the biblical text but had it memorized and could recite it back to you without flaw.  They could tell you every little part of the law and how it should be lived.  The problem was they lacked wisdom, they lacked action.  They were not practicing what they were preaching (See the February 3rd blog post).  The Pharisees were called to lead the people by  knowledge in action, wisdom.  They were called to lead not just with words but through their actions.  Christ sees beyond the thin veneer of their outward appearance and calls them out:

"These people honor me with their lips (their head knowledge), but their hearts are far from me (no action).  They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men." Mark 7:6-7

We too can fool ourselves into thinking that our knowledge of God and his word is enough.  We can preach, teach, write and use our words to proclaim the knowledge we have of God's word but what good is that if we don't live it out and display it, put it into action, as the Godly wisdom it is?  We can get on our soapboxes and preach forgiveness to others but if we are not willing to give it to those who hurt or wronged us then we are as guilty as the Pharisees and why should anyone listen to us?  If we proclaim with our mouths that we should love others but harbor bitterness and resentment toward others we are foolish hypocrites that no one will want to listen to let alone follow.  If we tell others of the goodness of God's grace, his undeserving favor, in our lives yet refuse to let it flow through us into the lives of others who don't deserve it then we live a lie and our faith is faulty.  When we choose to have a faith built on the knowledge of words over the wisdom of action we are a danger to others, a bad example as Christians, and a poor representation of our very good God.

I encourage each of us to do a head and heart check today (and every day).  We need to ask God to reveal to us any part of our lives that are not being lived out according to the truths of his word.  Ask him to move us from being collectors of knowledge into people of wise truth filled action.  We need to be ready to hear an honest answer that might be as blunt as Christ's warning to the Pharisees in Mark 7.  We need to be ready to listen and be wise and to let the word of God live through us.

Below is another passage to encourage you to live in action.  (James 2:14-26)
I'm praying with you.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=James+2%3A14-26&version=NIV