The Problem of Auditing the Bible
When I was in college, I audited one class. I wanted the information; but the college offered the class while I was practicing for a recital. Since it wasn't a required course for my degree program, I chose to audit instead. By doing this, I paid for the class and attended the lectures, but didn't do any homework. The reading assignments, work projects, quizzes and tests? I skipped them. I heard the information, but didn't receive any credit.While this was a legitimate option for me as a college student, it is not for Christians and their relationship to the Word of God. Yet many of us, men especially, do it all the time. We audit the Word of God. How?We read the Bible at home. Or we listen to Bible preaching and teaching at church. We receive the information, but we don't do anything with it. Nothing practical. Nothing hands-on. Nothing tangible or real. Nothing changes about the way we conduct our life afterwards.Pastor James draws attention to this (Jam. 1:22-25):But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.Do you audit the Bible? Do you listen and learn, and then do nothing about it?What did your pastor teach you on Sunday? What have you discovered in the Word of God since then? And what are you doing about these things today?Bible lessons, lectures, information, insights, trivia, classes, sermons, studies and knowledge accomplishes little when you do nothing about it. But as James points out, when you obey the Bible by doing something about what you hear, then you will discover the blessing of God on your life. He will enable you to obey and transform your life in the process.Are you auditing the Bible?
