The Engrafted Word

Recently, I have been doing some thinking about receiving God’s Word and to what level we receive it. Jesus said we were to take heed to what we hear and to how we hear (Mark 4:24; Luke 8:18). I think many times are problem as Christians is that we hear Scripture in a very shallow and superficial way. We often fail to correctly apply it in our lives because of that and thus it does not produce fruit.
Then because Scripture is not truly doing its work, we are molded by many outside forces which are hostile to it. We are more molded by culture, media, and peer pressure than By the Word of God. Even in Christian spheres things are often done in ways that are unChristlike. People fight for what they believe to be right with slander, gossip and other underhanded methods forgetting that of Christ it is written, “in righteousness doth He judge and make war.”
Much of this is not so much a lack of knowledge of Scripture, but a great failure to apply it to our daily lives. If we do not live according to God’s Word then we will live contrary to it by default. We often follow convention rather than conscience, know more trivia than we do the Scripture, and fear man more than we fear God. This causes us to live very subpar Christian lives. We fall far short of what God intended Christians to be. We end up living ordinary lives that have the Name of Christ tacked on and some good morals thrown in.
One big key to overcoming this is found in James 1:21, “Therefore putting aside all filthiness and overflowing of evil, receive in meekness the implanted Word, which is able to save your souls.”
First we need to remove the uncleanness and other evil deeds in our lives and then submissively and humbly receive the implanted (or engrafted Word). This Word is not merely a plaster or a veneer, it is a bud that must be planted and penetrate us in order to produce fruit. Too often we do not let the Word work deeply enough and therefore we do not enjoy the good fruit that it produces.
So today as you go about your day, consider God’s Word and apply it, Ask God to help you apply it rightly. It is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among those who are sanctified. Praise God!