For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. (Romans 2:13) Paul makes a distinction between hearing and doing. This distinction is different than the distinction he makes between faith by hearing and doing good work for the sake of salvation. The distinction in this passage make it clear that a person who says he or she believes in God only really believes when he or she is doing what he or she says they believe. Likewise, knowing something about God and about what should be done is not the same as doing it. We call it hypocrisy. Paul simply called it a failure of faith. Paul is not saying that your works justify you and your salvation in Jesus Christ, because there is nothing that we do to save ourselves; but he is saying that we need to live like we say we want to live. Are we taking pulse to see how we are living? Have we been just sitting at church nodding our heads about things we agree but never do or are we actually living those things? Let’s meditate and pray about what we’re doing with our faith.