Hearing and Doing

When Jesus came to the end of what we know as the Sermon on the Mount, He made it clear that hearing what he said and shaking our heads in agreement is not enough.  "Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man..." (Matthew 7:24). If what we hear is not something which causes us to act, then our ear energy has been wasted.  James the Apostle underscores the importance of action when he wrote in his epistle, "What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you have faith but do not have works?...So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. (James 2:14, 17).   There is no way to take Jesus seriously without understanding that following Him requires doing.  

Matthew 25 lifts up the imperative of doing things like feeding the hungry, giving the thirsty a drink, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, caring for the sick, and visiting those imprisoned.  Jesus calls those who follow Him to look outward to be his hands and feet in ministry.  The life of a disciple, however, is not just defined as a life of social activism.  As we consider the body of the Sermon on the Mount, it is clear that following Jesus also means looking inward and allowing the enabling power of His words to do a work of inner transformation.   It is not a one or the other way of life.  We cannot follow Jesus and be the social activist and neither can we follow Him as the mystic who is concerned only about his or her own heart.  

Instead of being one or the other, it is both.  There are no exceptions.  No matter how uncomfortable one side of this spiritual equation might make us, we cannot ignore the needs of the heart for the needs of others and neither can we ignore the needs of others for the needs of the heart.  It is like breathing in and breathing out.  Life can be sustained only as we breathe air in and out.  So it is with our life as a disciple.  We cannot breathe the air of discipleship without nurturing our own soul and caring for the needs of others.  When we take Jesus seriously, there is no other option.