“For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.”
We spend a lot of time in front of the mirror each morning preparing ourselves to face the world. We groom our physical selves to our own idea of perfection before we walk outside our houses. Most of the time after we leave, in our head is the picture in the mirror of what we last seen before leaving. Now, I would probably be crazy to assume that once someone leaves their house they don’t at least glance in a rear view mirror, bathroom mirror while washing their hands or their reflection in a glass window or door. We constantly are checking our appearance to make sure we are acceptable in our own sight and the sight of those around us.
Now, have you ever looked into a mirror and thought, “I don’t remember having blue eyes!” Or maybe said to yourself, “I forgot that I have that little freckle right there under my eye.” Usually not. We know our outward appearance pretty well, don’t we? In James 1:23, it says that if we look into the mirror and go away and forget what we look like, we are but hearers only to The Word. Hmmm…as much time as we spend grooming our natural, physical self, why don’t we spend even more grooming ourselves spiritually? We check up on our physical appearance, all while our witness and testimony is full of smeared lipstick, stray hairs and stained clothes. We are just like the one who looks in the mirror and sees our idea of perfection and then we forget as soon as we turn away. The lines between believers and the world have been blurred because we aren’t looking through dirty mirrors. What do you mean, Ashlee?
In verse 25, James says that we should look intently into the perfect law of liberty and persevere in it. Those are not only hearers, but doers! What is the perfect law of liberty?
The Word of God.
When we spend our time comparing our reflection with the words between the pages, we cannot help but see how flawed we truly are. We take time to examine the innermost parts of our soul and see the need for redemption from the world’s skewed view of perfection.
Make not mistake…we must continually check ourselves against The Word of God and when the images that are displayed across the scriptures do not match the reflection of our hearts, we must NOT walk away unchanged.
