March 19, 2010
Mirror
I just had an extreme make-over on my hair and I’m trying to cope with a new look. Last Sunday it was obvious that a few men didn’t quite know what to say. I relieved their awkwardness by joking that until I become competent with fixing my new hairdo, it may appear that I’ve put my finger into a light socket. Because I don’t yet have a sense of what I look like, every time I pass a mirror I look at myself. It gives me a whole new appreciation for James’ observation, “Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.” (James 1:23-24 NIV)
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Gail;
-----So why would listening to the Word be like looking into a mirror? You would not think that the Word of God is for reflecting our depraved human condition. A person would rather expect the Word to be more like a picture presenting the godly image of an obedient man. Indeed, God discusses much of man’s failures in it, but only for a contrast to what He wants us to learn about a right life in Him. So why would you figure His goal for our hearing is just to see a reflection of faults and failures, of which a man not doing the Word would plentifully have?
-----Yet God moved James to use a perfectly effective analogy. Although he used it concerning someone who only hears, God’s goal for our hearing the Word can not be likened completely to looking into a mirror. Granted, God’s Word divides soul from spirit and sifts both, causing a person to review himself even while hearing as if looking into a mirror. But you only see a detached image of yourself in a mirror. His Word is meant to deliver more than that. So note, this man is not hearing the Word with an objective towards God’s goal. A person only desirous to hear is merely interested in reflections, and truthfully, reflections of himself. Otherwise he would become a doer of the Word. To the hearer only, the Word is not the reflection seen in the mirror, it is the mirror.
-----Moreover (and I think being the more immediate meaning of this Scripture), what he saw is no longer in his sight when he goes on his way. The doer of the Word is entirely different. He is not hearing the Word with an objective towards his own interests. Be sure, he also needs to see himself for comparison to what he hears, but later is better for doing that. His interest is to have the Word with him. So his hearing will be more like taking a photograph (digital image, for you youngsters), since the Word being in his memory is his concern. Then, after he goes away, he is going to compare himself to what he remembers as he does his thing in the streets.
-----The doer is looking for more while hearing. He is looking for what is right so he can go do it. He is looking for instruction as well as reflection, because his intentions are to follow it. So, to what do you think James would have likened the hearing of the doer? I don’t think it can be analogized by any object - mirror, picture, or camera. It is a living thing. Jesus likened it to receiving seed in good soil, “...they are those who hearing the Word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bring forth fruit with patience.” (Luke 8:15) It is intimated in Prov 2:1&2 and Matt 12:35 viewed together, “....treasure up my commands with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom...” and, “The good man out of his good treasure brings forth good...” To the doer, hearing the Word is more than noting the reflections of himself it causes. It is more than remembering what he heard and pondering it. It is preparing receptiveness in his heart for it, where the understanding of it will cause him to practice it, which will prepare for it receptiveness. The doing what it says carries it away from the mirror into sight as actions while the doer becomes it in his heart.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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