Memorize
Passage #1
The prudent sees the evil and hides himself, but the naive go on, and are punished for it.
Did I recall this passage correctly? No
Passage #3
Luther Statement
If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking I am not confessing Christ however boldly I may be professing Christ. Wherever the battle rages there the loyalty of the soldier is proved and to be steady on all the battlefield besides is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that one point.
Did I recall this passage correctly? Yes
Passage #4
Start memorizing 1 Thess 4:3-8.
I wrote this out phrase by phrase correcting my mistakes along the way. Repetition helps the memory.
Did I recall this passage correctly? n/a
Scripture Reading
| The Message | NASB |
|---|---|
| 14 Dear friends, do you think you’ll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? 15 For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved 16 and say, “Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!” and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup — where does that get you? 17 Isn’t it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?
18 I can already hear one of you agreeing by saying, “Sounds good. You take care of the faith department, I’ll handle the works department.” Not so fast. You can no more show me your works apart from your faith than I can show you my faith apart from my works. Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove. 19 Do I hear you professing to believe in the one and only God, but then observe you complacently sitting back as if you had done something wonderful? That’s just great. Demons do that, but what good does it do them? 20 Use your heads! Do you suppose for a minute that you can cut faith and works in two and not end up with a corpse on your hands? 21 Wasn’t our ancestor Abraham “made right with God by works” when he placed his son Isaac on the sacrificial altar? 22 Isn’t it obvious that faith and works are yoked partners, that faith expresses itself in works? That the works are “works of faith”? 23 The full meaning of “believe” in the Scripture sentence, “Abraham believed God and was set right with God,” includes his action. It’s that mesh of believing and acting that got Abraham named “God’s friend.” 24 Is it not evident that a person is made right with God not by a barren faith but by faith fruitful in works? 25 The same with Rahab, the Jericho harlot. Wasn’t her action in hiding God’s spies and helping them escape — that seamless unity of believing and doing — what counted with God? 26 The very moment you separate body and spirit, you end up with a corpse. Separate faith and works and you get the same thing: a corpse. |
14 What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? 17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.
18 But someone may well say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” 19 You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. 20 But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? 22 You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected; 23 and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “AND ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS,” and he was called the friend of God. 24 You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25 In the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? 26 For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead. |
Reflections
James cuts through the hypocrisy and preserves true Christianity. While most professing Christians “learn all the right words but never do anything” James sets the matter straight. His brother taught the same thing.
Luke 6:46-49
46 Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not DO what I say? 47 “Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words AND ACTS ON THEM, I will show you whom he is like: 48 he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. 49 “But the one who has heard and has not acted accordingly, is like a man who built a house on the ground without any foundation; and the torrent burst against it and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great.”
John says it this way.
1 John 1:5-8
5 This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. 6 IF WE SAY that we have fellowship with Him and yet WALK IN THE DARKNESS, we lie and do not practice the truth; 7 but IF WE WALK in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
He is pretty much saying we are not a Christian.
1 John 2:5-6
By this we know that we are in Him: 6 the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.
Paul understood the need to couple the two as do I and like Paul, my cry is the same; how I need help making my walk match my talk.
I truly believe that if a few more “Christians” would convert their profession into practice there would be less war and more peace.
Rom 7:15
15 For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.
Rom 7:24
24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?
Why I memorize. It challenges my mind. I find these statements helpful in my fight for truth and morality both within and without my life.