I’m not sure exactly which sermon we were talking about. It may have been mine. Nancy said, “that was more about education than application.”

And then we both wrote down that phrase. It was a good word.

There is a place for education, for learning ideas, concepts, principles. For learning facts and figures.

Where did Jesus preach? In the language he was using, what did that word mean? Which king followed which prophet? What are the words of the Sermon on the Mount? What was Jesus pointing back at?

All of those are helpful. I think about those ideas.

But beyond Bible studying, there is a need for what Bob Goff calls Bible doing. Which is what Jesus illustrated at the end of what we call the Sermon on the Mount when he talks about the wise and foolish contractors.

His point wasn’t about building techniques. And he wasn’t talking about “building our lives on the Lord Jesus Christ” as the kids song says.

His point was that the people who listen to what he says and then don’t do it, are foolish. The people who read the Bible regularly and then gossip about others are foolish. The people who preach sermons and then abuse their power. The people who quote “love your neighbor” and then don’t.

He’s not talking about the people who don’t care about him. He talking about the people who say they do.

Strong words, right? I mean Jesus said that if we call our brother a fool, we are in danger of hell.

But it is possible to do foolish things.

To take the words of Jesus and not figure out how to apply them.

I mean to do the practical work of saying, “If I am going to love my neighbor, I am going to do this on this day.”

We need to add application to our education.

We need to do.