(My condition caused by my thoughts precisely)
So long as the sin remains unsettled
unresolved unconfessed genuinely
The condition of stark blindness exists.
What happens when he reads the Word
As I dutifully religiously did for years?
False assessment!
Imprecise logical preoccupation with truth.
Paralysis of the Will
No object nor motivation to engage in doing.
Results?
Enjoying the experience of reading the Word.
Reading for entertainment or knowledge only
Substituting the need to confess and be cleansed
By staying away from sin.
With an ephemeral passing situational ritual
Yet the indulgence in the ritual
No matter how excessive
Some people even get degrees
From reading the Bible, about the Bible
Yet do nothing to remove the desire to sin
As well as the enslavement to lust, covetousness and immorality.
James one also states the principles that
I missed perennially whenever I read the Word
The need to "abide by" the Word.
The Greek word is parameno (alongside to stay, abide, remain)
The idea of parameno is dwelling alongside the Word.
One engaging in this work camps around
With no desperate need to hurry on
Or moving fast to other issues
In order to avoid the thorough examination
Rumination!
Remember the act of the cow whereby
Food is brought back for thorough assimilation
Through slow deliberate chewing!
The Word of God is actually THOUGHT ABOUT!
It is slowly being ruminated
In the thought processes of evaluation.


First, there is the warning about Paralogizomai
The problem of deceit through false reason
Where the believer is disabused of the notion of "knowing"
Without ever having experienced doing.


Secondly, there is parakupto
The thorough close inspection of the Mirror of the Word
To see what needs to be adjusted or improved
As the reflection dictates.
That does not penetrate the inner being of the believer
Parakupto is contrasted with a quick forgetful glance


Thirdly, there is the process of Parameno
Which involved a calculated deliberate effort
To remain doing the act of mirror gazing
The believer keeps on reading, thinking, meditating
About the implication of the Word on ones life.
Parameno is a structured process to abide by the Word.


My devotions
My submission to the routine teaching
Were safe fortresses within which I lived
With my sinfulness accepting it as the norm.
The challenges to examine the Word,
Critique my motives ruthlessly
Root out all forms of evil from my mind
Was far from me!
Consider my religious "significant others"
They too were willing to subscribe to a Christianity
That was Sub-Scriptural
In African Christian paganism
Except it was too sophisticated to accept the label
Of paganism!
My sinful desires burned throughout the rituals.


I have met many brothers and sisters, fellow sufferers
Who dichotomize the Word of God from personal reality
It all comes so spontaneously with us
That we chuckle as we read James One
Stating the far away illustration
Of reading (hearing) the Word
Completely obliviously.
It comes natural to bear a grudge, maybe for years
While reading about being
"Devoted to one another in brotherly love"
Being "blessed by the reading of the Word"
While living in hatred, bitterness and anger.


Praising the Lord for "showing us new things" from his Word
While sustaining unspeakable jealousies against believers
For years!!
Then emerge from the "reading of the Word of God"
As if nothing, nobody, no force has touched our hearts
To appeal to our callous conscience long hardened
By years of enslavement to sin
What's even more appalling with believers
Is when they use flowery revelatory language
"God showed me in his Word . . ."
"The Spirit revealed this great truth to me . . .
As I was before His presence
His Word exploded in my mind and heart."


This person of 1 John 2:9-11 is entrenched in spiritual darkness
Living out of fellowship with the Lord!
He fabricates intimate encounters with the Lord
Which he cannot sustain spiritually
For he is living and flaunting blatant disobedience
To the Lord!
Sometimes the personal experiences claimed
Are more flamboyant:
"The Lord spoke to me audibly as I was reading
To explain the revelation to me!"


These claims are declared by saints
Who are living out of fellowship with the Lord
Believers who live in self-declared darkness.
"How long have you harboured this grievance
Against your brother?"
"For some time, now, but the Lord knows
About it for I told him about my situation!"
"How long would you then say you have been living in sin?"
"Oh, but I read the Word regularly
I pray and fast in intercessions
I feel the presence of the Lord in my quiet time."
"How long have you been living in sin, precisely?"
"I have peace about my situation
The Lord has given me so much peace
I feel no need to do anything beyond the
personal ministry of the Spirit in my life!"
"Wait, just a minute. You have bitterness. You have
Unresolved conflicts and grudges?
For a very long time . . ."


The Bible says comprehensively
You live in a state of unresolved sins.
Once you do that you forfeit the privilege
Of Koinonia (fellowship) with the Lord.
According to 1 John 1:5-2:1
You cannot have "private peace with the Lord"
When you hate your brother
According to 1 John 2:3-11
Since you are living in gruesome deliberate
Disobedience!
You cannot have personal peace and quietness
When you commune with the Lord
When sin has created a chasm
Between you and the Lord!"
"I know that the Lord blesses me when I read the Word"
It is impossible for you to be blessed by the Lord
When you don't prove yourself a doer of the Word
Gazing and abiding in it.
You are only "blessed" when you obey the Lord
According to the Scripture.


This believer acknowledges a stalemate of years
Yet with the arrogance and pride
Developed through years of reluctance
He feels no obligation to obey God!
Furthermore, he creates his own rules
On how to be blessed by the Spirit
Independently from the basic rules of obedience
He claims personal peace and revelations
Independently from the authority of the Word.
Will the habit of bitterness, anger and hatred
Be confessed by such a believer?
Will the practice of disobedience be harshly
Repudiated by such a believer?
Will he be revolted by the practice of sin
As it rules, controls his will and emotions?
Will he feel about sin what God