“For it is not the heroes of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified” (Rm 2:13).

A person who hears the words of God and acts upon them is considered righteous in the sight of God. Obedience is thus the primary requirement for him who has faith in Jesus Christ. James warns the believers against the failure in combining hearing with doing: If anyone is only a hero of the word and not a doer, and is not able to grasp firmly the divine will and his own relation to God. (Jas 1:22-24).

This failure is compared, in a parable of the Lord Jesus, to a house which is not built upon the rock (Mt 7:21, 24-25). When rain and the flood come, the ill-constructed house collapses.

God does not justify a Christian who merely uses his faculty of hearing. Instead, God expects him to build up his faith by practice. A practical faith will produce tangible experience in the Lord and His wonderful words of life. It will thus motivate him to love the Lord and to improve his spiritual level.  if one stops at the stage of hearing and does not show action, his faith is like the seed which falls upon the pathway (Mk 4:4).

A person may hear countless sermons, but never benefit from them. The reason is he does not express the word of God into action. This also underlines the failure of the chosen people in the Old Testament. They heard the voice of God but scarcely lived up to the divine demands.

The author of the Book of Hebrews states: the message of God did not meet with faith in the hearers (Heb 4:2). The Lord manifested His Majestic power and Glory at Mount Sinai in declaring the Ten Commandments. The law of God repeatedly reminded them of their exclusive allegiance to Him, for He is the Savior who had delivered them out of the Egyptian bondage and guided them to the promised land. Unfortunately, most of the Israelites perished in the wilderness because of unbelief. Taking this historical lesson, one must emphasize the integration of hearing and action.

James has rightly stated that a faith is dead without works. Incidentally the works here should not be taken as legal observance in the rabbinic sense; instead, the works refer to the fruit or a deed attuned to the divine will and words.

 “Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar? You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone” (Jas 2:21, 24),  and so by both hearing and doing one is justified in the presence of God.