PHOTOPHILIC

 James 1:22
But be ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.  KJV

But be doers of the word(obey the message) and not merely listeners to it, betraying yourselves (into deception by reasoning contrary to the Truth).  AMP

Webster

1) doer - n - someone who doesn’t confine himself to thought or talk but takes effective action - habitually     (tendency to repeat an act again and again, a behavior pattern that has a degree of automatism)

2) word - n - basic - a basic unit of language - (Christian theo.), the Bible as the revelation of God.

3) message - n - a written or spoken communication from one person to another.  An ethical or spiritual     teaching.

4) hearers - n - Someone who hears, esp. one of several

5) listener - n - to pay attention to speech, music, to be influenced by

6) deceiving - past part. - to persuade oneself to believe something that is not true.

7) deception - n - tricking, the state of being deceived.

8) betraying - v- to act treacherously towards.

9) reasoning - n - the ability to think logically, to understand and to draw inferences - v - to argue     persuasively with someone, to persuade by reasoning.

Strong’s

1) doer - 4163 - from 4160  - a performer - Poietes, poy-ay-tace’
    4160 - to make or do, to execute, exercise fulfill,  poy-eh’-o

2) word - 3056 - logos - from 3004 - something said including the thought doctrine
    3004 - lego - to lay forth, to relate

3) hearers - 202 - ak-ro-at-ace’  from 191 - to listen, a hearer, merely
    191 - ak-oo’-o, to hear (in various senses)

4) deceiving - 3884 - par-al-og-id’-zom-ahee - from 3844 and 3849 - to misreckon, to delude, beguile.
    3844 - par-ah’ - meaning near or beside, the vicinity of
    3849 - par-ab-ee-ad’-zom-ahee, to force contrary to - to compel, to constrain.


    James 1:22 builds upon the message of Proverbs 16:3. It carries the thought and idea that commitment is more than just saying I agree.  It requires action.  Here that action is doing, or performing a certain action over and over.  The English word conveys action that is habitual.  This implies an action done over and over and over again.  Its not a one time action.
    Being doers of the Word shows a commitment, a wallowing in God’s Word.  The Amplified Bible says an obeying of the message.  A message is a written or spoken communication from one person to another.  In order to be doers of the word, we must know and understand the word or message.  We cannot follow or obey what we do not know or understand.  
    To strengthen the point, James admonishes us to not be hearers only, meaning take action on what you hear.  We are to put action into what we learn.  By doing so we give value to the message.  In life we hear libraries full of information.  We act upon only a broom closet full of it.  James is encouraging us to be sure that the message of God is in that closet (that part of the information upon which we act).  I would go so far as to say the message is the closet.  Meaning that God’s message should determine what we contain in our closet.  He never meant for us to be ignorant, He did intend for us to be selective in what knowledge we collect.  
    The world is full of information, but not all of it is edifying.  Some of the knowledge and information available to us does not build us up but rather works to take us down, to destroy us and to separate us from the truth.  Not all knowledge is based on truth.  It is this (false) information that undermines the foundation we build while learning the Word of God.  We need to be selective.  In our world today, information is so very easy to obtain, and yet we live among some of the most unlearned peoples of all time.  They do not investigate, they do not study, and they do not seek to know the truth.  They take at face value what they hear and see without searching out the root of where that information was obtained.  
    This plagues the Christian church as well.  We sit under men who for 1 hour a week, preach, teach, or expound upon the Word of God.  Very few of us go home and question what we were taught in that hour.  We take at face value that the man or woman standing behind the pulpit is telling the truth, that they have studied and dug deeply to find the truth of what they are saying.  In fact this may not be true.  This brings us back to the other words in the verse.  When we are only hearers or listeners, and not doers of the Word, we deceive ourselves into believing we are okay.  We somehow convince ourselves that we have done what the Lord desires of us.  We lose sight of the fact that we were never supposed to be just duff sitters, but actual doers of God’s Word.  We lax lazy because we do not get involved in living what we hear.  
    The Amplified Bible actually says …into deception by reasoning contrary to the Truth…..  We allow our false ideas to take us away from the truth of God’s Word because obeying God’s Word demands something of us.  It demands us to reject the way that things are and it demands that we live the way God desires us to live.  Wrapped up in this comes the understanding that this could mean I might not get to live how I want with the things that I want.  It means that at times my selfish desires have to be forgotten and I need to do things that are uncomfortable to me.  It means that instead of going along with the flow, I instead must paddle up stream against a tremendous pressure to be like everyone else.  Walking the talk is no easy thing.  But in the end it is beyond rewarding.  
    Okay, so how does this apply to food-related strongholds?  For me the last portion of the verse as stated in the Amplified Bible says it all.  If I don’t stay focused on the truth not only in God’s Word but also concerning my health, then I am allowing reasoning contrary to the truth to control my life.  I must decide what is most important.  I must decide which I am going to listen to and follow.  I then must become more than a listener.  I must become actively involved in doing the truth.  For me the truth is I cannot just eat any old way I wish.  It is reflected in several ways when I do this.  The first way that EVERYONE can see is my weight.  I currently carry way too much of this around.  But I see it in many other areas.  It affects my thinking.  When I am disobedient in following good eating habits, I walk around with a defeatist attitude.  I am discouraged and I actually devalue myself as a person.  My thoughts are not clear they are as cloudy as a stormy day.  Another area is my energy levels take a large dive.  I don’t desire to do much of anything.  I sit almost all the time.  I do not have motivation at all.  Every action I take is a huge effort.  And finally, because of this extra weight, it literally hurts to move.  Every action I take results in either hurting joints, or aching muscles.  
    I was at a point three weeks ago where I had lost 33 lbs.  I felt the difference, I noticed the change my body was taking, and my mental state was so good.  Today, I have no idea where I am on the scale, and even if all that I have done is gained back 5 lbs., the side effects are immense.  I am once again sluggish, I once again hurt, I once again am down on myself, and I once again don’t desire to accomplish a single thing.  
    This lesson requires an action from me.  I must step up to the plate soon.

James 15:16

But be ye doers (to make or to do, to execute) of the Word (something said including thought, doctrine) and not hearers (a hearer merely) only, deceiving (misreckon, to delude, to beguile) your own selves.