The Test of Response to the Word
James 1:19-27
Godly Response: Christians will be doers of the Word of God. They will embrace the absolute accuracy and truthfulness of the Bible in every way; i.e. revelation of the one, true, living God; God's plan of salvation for fallen man; moral and ethical teaching; historical teaching; scientific teaching and so on. Christians will hunger to know the Bible better for the rest of their lives. But most importantly, Christians will with deep humility submit to the Bible as the inspired word of God that is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. In submission to the Word, the genuine Christian will be quick to hear (and learn what the Bible teaches), slow to speak (to make sure he knows and speaks the truth), and slow to anger (especially don't be angry with Bible teachings you find hard to accept). Plus, you will be drawn to some form of ministry in support of God's kingdom. Perhaps you will even visit orphans and widows in their distress of which is a ministry that God Himself calls pure and undefiled.
Worldly Response: Obvious ungodly responses include deliberately avoiding opportunities to hear God's word or rejecting it immediately without a second thought. But this scripture is more directed at those in the congregation who hear the word and receive great instruction on how to be saved and grow in their faith, and then they take no real steps in that direction. James 1:23-24 uses an analogy, "a man who is a hearer and not a doer, is like a man who sees himself in a mirror, but then looks away and forgets what kind of man he was." "Seeing himself in the mirror" represents how biblical teaching reflects back to us our desperate, fallen spiritual condition (that is who we are). "Turning away and forgetting what kind of person he was" represents leaving church and forgetting our desperate fallen condition and not taking any steps to deal with his fallen spiritual condition. In other words, they are Sunday morning Christians, and they are not really Christians at all.