A father noticed how cluttered his son’s room was becoming, so he called his son to his side. He instructed his son to clean his room before supper, and the boy nodded his head, said, “Yes paw. Right away.” The father was pleased at the prompt attention his son gave to his request. Some time later, the son returned to where his father was, and the father asked him, “Did you do what I instructed?” The boy confidently answered, “I memorized exactly what you said, and I even wrote it down in my notepad. I studied the words and I am now able to write and recite them in Greek and in Hebrew, but I didn’t stop there. I studied the history behind cleaning rooms, and I have determined the most effective way to do it. I understand exactly what it is that causes a room to become cluttered, and I have begun a detailed outline of the steps that should be taken to make my room spotless!”
The father asked again, “Did you do what I instructed?”
The lesson here and the parallel to our relationship with God and His Word should be obvious.
God has given us specific instructions. We may study them regularly, and we may do word studies to get even deeper into the scriptures. We may mark our Bibles until there is no more space in the margins, but until we act upon it, and do what is asked of us, we are still standing at the starting line.
1 Cor. 9:24
“Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.”
Jesse, here’s another relevant passage: “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?” (Lk 6:46 RSV)
And perhaps Saul saying to Samuel that he HAD obeyed what was commanded … yet that was a false statement (1Sam 15:20)