Sometimes, what we think and how we act are not in alignment. We may want to believe they are not connected, that we can just “go through the motions,” although our heart is not in it, we can still do good deeds. But they are connected. That’s why Jesus warns that defilement comes not from outside sources, but from the sin that is already inside us. And it’s what James is getting at by exhorting us to be “doers of the word, not merely hearers.” If we have, as we sing in that familiar song, “the joy, joy, joy, joy down in our heart,” it should flow out in obvious ways. If it doesn’t, then that, too, is evident.