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AN HONEST AND GOOD HEART (IV)
LORD’S DAY, MAY 30
Luke 8:4-15

James 1:22-25

 

“…they, which
…having heard the word,

keep it, and bring forth fruit…”

 

AN HONEST AND GOOD HEART (IV)
 
Finally, having considered what an “honest and good heart” is not, we must consider what it is ‒ it is like the good ground. “But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience” (Luke 8:15).
 
In other words, an “honest and good heart” is defined in terms of both hearing and keeping God’s Word. This is what ultimately distinguishes such a heart from the other types of ground that have been considered. In all those cases, the Word was heard, but not truly kept. As James puts it, “be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22). Where there is no true obedience to God’s Word, there can be no true salvation: only self-deception.
 
God’s Word is that “perfect law of liberty,” by which we live (James 1: 25). It is “quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Heb 4:12). It reveals both the way of life, and our own waywardness. To hear, and not to do, is likened to “a man beholding his natural face in a glass,” who “beholdeth himself,” with all his stains and blemishes, yet simply “goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was” (James 1:23-24).
 
But those with an “honest and good heart” take heed to examine themselves in light of Scripture: giving all diligence to bring their lives more and more into conformity with what they see therein. Such a man “looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work” (James 1:25). And so doing, he “bring[s] forth fruit with patience” (Luke 8:15). Dear reader, have you such a heart? Do you hear the Word of God, keep it, and persevere in obeying it? Then you may look forward with sure hope and assurance to that blessed day when the Lord will say to those who are His, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant” (Matt 25:21).
 
THOUGHT: “Thy Word is a lamp to my feet… to guide and to save me from sin, and show me the heav’nly way.” (Sellers)

PRAYER: “Thy word have I hid in mine heart…” (Ps 119:11)

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