In his masterful turn-the-world-upside-down book The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis has his diabolical character Screwtape write the following:
“It remains to consider how we can retrieve this disaster. The great thing is to prevent his doing anything. As long as he does not convert [his conviction and subsequent remorse] into action, it does not matter how much he thinks about this new repentance. Let the little brute wallow in it. Let him, if he has any bent that way, write a book about it; that is often an excellent way of sterilising the seeds which the Enemy plants in a human soul. Let him do anything but act.”
I felt the sting as I read.
But will I convert the conviction of the Lord into obedience?
“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.”
~James 1:22-25 (ESV)
One thing I like about reading the same book with other people I know is that they bring out things I missed. I think I remember the first part of this quote, but not the part about the book, and at first I thought, “Well, what’s wrong with that?” But in the context, and as contrasted with the Scripture you shared, I can see that writing a book (or blog post) in place of obedience can be one temptation to our flesh. Satan is so sneaky!