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Home > Bible on Money > Major Themes > 1, 2 and 3 John
Doers, Not Just Hearers
By Justin Borger
with assistance from Generous Giving staff
The Christian life calls believers to unite their words with their actions. Jesus himself repeatedly warned against the sin of hypocrisy, when a person says one thing but ends up doing something else (e.g. Matthew 23:28). Throughout the New Testament in general, we are repeatedly reminded of the importance of being doers of the word, and not hearers only (e.g. James 1:22).
In his epistles the apostle John brings a great deal of clarity to the importance of uniting words and actions. Although we tend to think about truth as something a person grasps intellectually with his mind, John teaches that the truth really is something that we do or practice through our lives and actions (1 John 1:6). That is, either we live the truth or we live a lie, which is what it means either to “walk in the light” or to walk in the darkness (1 John 1:6-7).
In a similar fashion, John teaches that true love for God is inseparably connected to our actions as well. After all, if the truth is something we do, it will be impossible to have true love for God and our neighbor without expressing that love by our actions. Interestingly, when John chose an example of what true and active love looks like, he chose an example of material generosity that could not be more basic:
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. (1 John 3:16-18)
Related Passages: Psalm 89:15-16; Matthew 15:1-9; 23:28; Luke 11:37-54; 13:10-17; John 8:12; Acts 5:1-10; Romans 2:17-29; James 1:22-27; 2:14-19; 1 John 1:6-7; 3:16-18
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