Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves

Ed Miliband has had his manifesto commitments carved in stone in order to try to address the public perception that politicians routinely break their promises and therefore talk the talk but don’t walk the walk. Nick Clegg has had to address this issue regarding tuition fees. Kevin Maguire, reporting in the Daily Mirror on Clegg’s Question Time performance, wrote that: “The shattered promise was his first question and he struggled for credibility after that ... He probably is a decent man. But that breach of trust was catastrophic.”

In politics, Dan Hodges has written, “there are a multitude of forgivable sins. Cheat on your wife. Lie about your record. Stab your colleague in the back. Lie with your colleague’s back-stabbing wife. The voters will tut, shake their heads, and move on. But there is one offence for which there is no pardon. Never, ever, under any circumstances, get caught preaching one thing at the public while practising another. Incompetence, duplicity, arrogance – each one hurts. Hypocrisy kills.”

Consistency also applies in business. William C. Taylor, author of Practically Radical: Not-So-Crazy Ways to Transform Your Company, Shake Up Your Industry, and Challenge Yourself, has written that, “One of the most ubiquitous aphorisms in business is that the best leaders understand the need to “walk the talk” — that is, their behavior and day-to-day actions have to match the aspirations they have for their colleagues and organization.”

Investors in People argue that “Everybody needs someone to look up to in the workplace. They want role models. This may seem like a daunting responsibility for a manager or employer, but it needn't be. It's largely just a matter of what we call ‘walking the talk’” and leading by example. “A manager's behaviour has an impact on everyone around them, and an effective manager is one who inspires their team by showing the way with their own actions.”

So, if we say that someone talks the talk but does not walk the walk, we mean that they do not act in a way that agrees with the things they say. The phrase “if you’re going to talk the talk, you’ve got to walk the walk” is a modern version of old sayings like “actions speak louder than words” and “practice what you preach.” Another early form of the expression was “walk it like you talk it.” Many people now condense this to “walk the talk.”

All these are essentially versions of James 1. 22, “be doers of the word, and not merely hearers.” If we are hearers of the word and not doers, we are like those who look at themselves in a mirror and immediately forget what they were like. “A first century mirror was not the silvered glass one without which no bathroom is complete today. It was beaten bronze and gave a fuzzy image. If you wanted to be sure your face was not dirty a quick glance was not sufficient. You would need to peer intently, work out what was required, then go and find some clean water to do something about it. The same is true of the way we react to encountering God. The real blessing of the Christian faith does not lie in listening to sermons or reciting liturgies, but in dwelling on what is true until it transforms what we do. A genuine encounter with Jesus provokes action.”

The action it produces is “care for orphans and widows in their distress.” Jesus said, in the Parable of the sheep and goats, that God’s judgement on us will be based on our actions; giving food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked and visiting those in prison. These actions are to be the end result of our faith. If our looking deeply into God’s word does not result in our doing these things, our faith is not genuine and we are not walking the walk as Christians.

God’s judgement on our current General Election and the Government that results will be on the same basis. The confession which precedes our Eucharist is our weekly opportunity to acknowledge the reality that we often talk the talk without walking the walk. It is our opportunity to turn away from insincerity and to seek the consistency in our faith to which James calls here. “Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.”

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

T Bone Burnett - Criminals.