11/20 Jarmine (see HERE)
How long would you go without looking in a mirror?
As far as I know, most people check themselves out in a mirror every morning, the better to be sure we are looking our best before going out into the world. And we keep doing this, even if we don’t necessarily like what we see.
Many people don’t realize it, but the Bible, and especially its moral laws such as the Ten Commandments, are meant to be a sort of “mirror” in which to see ourselves as we really are, not in comparison to the world but according to God’s holy standards. And, like a mirror, when we don’t like what we see we are given the chance to do something about it.
James 1 says “Do not merely listen to the word (the Bible), and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.”
So like a mirror the Bible gives us a picture of ourselves according to God’s standards, not in comparison to worldly standards. Just as we might recognize a counterfeit bill by becoming very familiar with the real thing, we need regular exposure to the Bible in order to see ourselves as we really are in God’s eyes. And as James tells us, just as we shouldn’t see mud on our face in a mirror and do nothing about it, neither should we look into the mirror of the Bible without acting on what we see.
I thought about this after a conversation with a young man named Jarmine, who has grown up in a Catholic home and seems to have been comparing himself and the world to the mirror of God’s word. But he also showed signs of the slide that so many young people his age do, away from the standards of God’s word and toward the standards of the world.
And why not? The standards of this world can be deceptively attractive, and it takes humility and courage to look into the mirror of God’s Word. We will see in ourselves the stain of sin, as described in Isaiah 59: “For your hands are stained with blood, your fingers with guilt. Your lips have spoken falsely, and your tongue mutters wicked things.”
We won’t like what we see. But the bad news of our sin can be replaced by the good news of forgiveness in Christ. We read in Galatians 3 that “...the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.”
We can’t save ourselves by following God’s moral laws. We’ve already broken them, and besides, that’s not their purpose. They are a mirror that remind us of our need for the Savior, and the standard to follow as we want to live a life of gratitude and obedience once we have been saved.
And just as we look into a mirror daily, we need to look into the Bible daily for self-reflection, and, with God’s help, to act on what we see there.
Thanks, Jarmine, for allowing me to record our conversation! It can be seen on my YouTube Channel.
No comments:
Post a Comment