Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me

 Good morning. Today we are back in the pastor's favorite book. But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. If you are just a hearer of the word, you think you're OK. I've done my duty by going to church. I'll be just fine for the following week. You have deluded yourself. Everyone else will know you're not OK. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. The word shows him how he does not measure up. But if he is not a doer of the word that tells him how to change his life, then he will quickly forget how much he did not measure up to the word. But the one who looks intently (this is the same Greek word that was used when they stooped to look into the tomb) at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man shall be blessed in what he does. When you are looking intently at something, like they did in the tomb, you notice every little tiny detail. You also remember what you see. And what is it that this person does and is blessed in doing – the word. Too many people think of the word as being one of restriction and not of liberty. They are like children who do not want their parents to say no. But it is truly liberty when we know where the boundaries are. Father thank You that the reader is an effectual doer of the word. He/she is blessed in what he/she does. People will see that he/she does the word and is blessed and will want to come to know You.