Digging Deeper – Man in the Mirror

Have you ever put on an outfit, checked your appearance in the mirror, gathered your belongings, and, just before leaving the house, found yourself returning to the mirror to reassess how you look? I’ll be the first to admit it is a regular occurrence for me. What happens? Is the first look not sufficient to quell my doubts about my sense of fashion? Have I forgotten what I look like?

James warns us not to do this with our spiritual lives. In the age of cameras and screens, the analogy is extremely relevant — we can all identify with his words on some level. When we come face to face with the Word of God, it “exposes our innermost thoughts and desires” (Hebrews 4:12). Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians says that we are “looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord…being transformed into the same image” (2 Corinthians 3:18). Let us then, after gazing intently into the Word, be doers who act. This is the essence of Christian practice.

Imagine a world where the apostles were hearers only, where action did not follow the emotional, intellectual, and spiritual transformation they experienced. Where Paul did not painstakingly traverse the Mediterranean. Where the saving message never reached farther afield. Where the church acquiesced to pagan rule and succumbed to persecution. Where the brutish moral standards of ancient life were never abolished. Where monasteries never felt compelled to preserve and transmit the text. Where literacy and charitable organization did not follow evangelism. Where religious liberty was snuffed out by an elite institution.

Almost all of our present freedoms and values are a direct result of the transformative effect that Christendom has had upon the world — all because individuals followed Christ as doers and not hearers only. Let us “go and do likewise” (Luke 10:37).