Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures. 19 So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; 20 for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. 21 Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. 22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.
What does implanted, or engrafted mean? The Greek word is “emphutos” pronounced “em’-foo-tos” and this word is only used once in the New Testament. If you are familiar with a surgical implant, you know what implanted means. The same goes for a skin graft or a plant with a grafted branch. These examples give you an idea of what implanted means.
An implant takes living tissue and grafts it into another living tissue to make both one. If grafted properly, the thing being grafted becomes a living part of the thing it is grafted into.
Spiritually speaking, the living word of God is fastened into our born-again, living spirit. This continues until the living word becomes a part of us. Then, we become one. To receive the implanted word, we must be doers of the word. If we are not a doer of the word, we have not received it, we have only heard it.
The self-deception that James is talking about in the above verse is hearing the word and thinking we know it. We don’t know it until we practice what we have heard. We don’t fully understand it. Yet, we move forward thinking we have learned something. We have not.
Until we put the word into practice, we don’t know it, neither do we understand it as we should.
Consider this. A person may have read every available bit of information on brain surgery. Does that make them a brain surgeon? They might have memorized all the facts, but it doesn’t qualify them as a brain surgeon. A brain surgeon must practice their trade first. They do this under the supervision of skilled professionals. These professionals have tons of real-world experience. This practice is to prove they really know their stuff.
Those who hear the word and don’t act on it, don’t truly know it. They have not received the implanted word that is able to save their souls.
James 2:26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
Faith without works is a dead faith, not a living faith, not a faith that has any substance or value. Don’t deceive yourselves, act on the word you hear so it will be implanted in your heart and produce fruit in your life.
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