Articles
The Problem with Mirrors
We tend to develop love-hate relationships with mirrors. When we believe we are looking good, we don’t mind taking a look in the mirror. In fact, we might even be pleased with what we see. On the other hand, we sometimes deliberately avoid mirrors because we are afraid of what we might see, and that we might look worse than we fear we already do.
The thing about mirrors is that they force us to be honest. Unless we are looking at one of those mirrors that have been intentionally bent to give a distorted look (remember those in the old amusement parks?), a regular mirror will reveal ourselves to ourselves without holding anything back. Now there are some things about our appearance that we cannot change (at least not without a good plastic surgeon and a ton of money), but we use mirrors to check on ourselves and to fix the things we can change about ourselves.
But here’s the “funny” part. We invent all kinds of ways to avoid the honesty that the mirror forces upon us. We will take a look at ourselves and see something that obviously needs our attention, but then we tell ourselves that the problem staring back at us in the mirror is really not all that bad, or that it is actually acceptable (because suddenly our standards are not as strict as they would normally be). Or we tell ourselves that even though we see a flaw, that we are not like that every day, that we’re just having a “bad hair day” (or whatever) on this particular day. Or we acknowledge the flaw we see, but we say, “Well, it’s just the way I am, and people are going to have to accept it.”
Yet the fact is that if we are not going to be honest about what we see in the mirror, there is no point in looking in the mirror at all. Why even bother with it if you are not going to do something about the problems you see in your reflection?
One of the most challenging passages in all the Bible must be James 1:23-25. “For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.”
Most everything that is true of a mirror is true of the word of God. It is meant to be a way for us to consider and judge ourselves. God has provided it as, among other things, a way to get us to look at ourselves and see what is wrong with us. And like a physical mirror, the word of God forces us to be honest with ourselves.
In particular, James is making a point about the difference between a person who only hears the word of God (but does not obey it), and a person who both hears and obeys it. The person who hears God word but does not put it into practice is like a person who has looked in the mirror and has done nothing about the problems he sees in his reflection. But the person who both hears and obeys is like a person who looks in the mirror and, with honesty, says, “There are some things I need to change!” He makes the changes in his life to conform himself to the will of God, and James says such a person is blessed.
Just as we do with physical mirrors, I fear we also play little games with ourselves when it comes to looking into the spiritual mirror of God’s word. The word reveals to us the spiritual and moral changes that we need to make; it shows us what is wrong with us. And like a mirror, the word of God does not deceive us. It tells us the truth. But we do not always like the truth, especially when it means that we have not measured up as we should. We don’t like the guilt that comes from having to be honest with ourselves, so we tell ourselves that even though we are not perfect, no one is, or that at least we are not as bad as others. Or we tell ourselves that we cannot change who we are, and God should understand that.
Friends, if we are not going to be honest with what we see of ourselves and our flaws in the mirror of God’s word, then why pick up a Bible in the first place? Why claim to be obedient children of God if we are not going to correct our flaws when God reveals them to us? We become the people who hear, but do not do the word of God, and the word of God actually does us no good.
The reason for buying a mirror is to use it, and reason for picking up a Bible is to obey it. It requires honesty, and we ignore it only to our peril.
