Chapter 21: Myth—Everybody Gets To Go

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Myth—Everybody Gets To Go

By Jesus definition then, the five wise virgins were obedient to God and were doers of the Word. In contrast, the five foolish virgins were not

obedient to God and were not doers of the Word. If you can grasp the obedience requirement that Jesus expounds, you’ll understand James.

“Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness,

and receive with meekness the implanted Word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and

immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.” James 1:21-25

James admonishes us to “receive with meekness the implanted Word.” Immediately afterwards James makes it clear that you need to be a doer of the Word to be saved. Don’t deceive yourself by ignoring God and His Son.

Verily I say to you that your obedience or lack of it does matter to God!

“What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a

brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,’ but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by

itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, ‘You have faith, and I have works.’ Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God. You do well.

Even the demons believe—and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was

working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect?” James 2:14-22