"But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was."-James 1:22-24 (KJV)
The mirror on the wall is perhaps our most respected "adviser" of our physical appearance. Most Americans have at least one mirror in each bathroom and in each bedroom. We "consult" the mirror daily for input on how we look. We never dispute its "advice"; sometimes we choose to ignore it, but most of the time we simply take the input and make or work at making the necessary physical improvements.
One of the reasons we spend so much time before a mirror is because we value how we look to others. When the mirror on the wall tells us that everything is in order we can go public with confidence. If, on the other hand, the mirror tells us something is out of place and we fail to address the matter, we become self-conscious in the company of others.
The Bible says we are both a physical being and a spiritual being. Our physical being is referred to as our outer man, and our spiritual being, our inner man. Most people spend lots of time tending to their external appearance but little time on the inner person. Just as we have a physical mirror to assess our physical appearance, we also have a spiritual mirror for tending to our spiritual appearance. The Bible is that spiritual mirror.
Our spiritual mirror uses Christ as its standard. That is, whenever we hear biblical preaching, or whenever we study the Bible, the Scriptures allow us to and challenge us to evaluate our inner person relative to the character modeled by our Lord Jesus. Some of the areas we are challenged to perfect are those of love, joy, inner peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. When we look at ourselves in these areas--in terms of the Scriptures--we must not only hear what God is saying about our current state, but also we must take action to correct the appearance of our spiritual being. This we will do if we value our appearance before the Lord, who looks on the inner man.
Dear Lord, Help me to be a doer of Your Word. As Your Word shows me the flaws in my spiritual being I want to be responsive, that I might become more like Christ on the inside. Amen.
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