Forgetting about the man in the mirror
Posted by Mathew | August 20, 2008 | No Comments
Those of you with children or adolescent teenagers or those of you married to big kids (I pity my wife!) will no doubt know that it is frustrating when they don’t follow through on a commitment or a task that they promised. Look no further than me – guilty, your Honour. Well, there’s a great many more of us who do the same to God. Imagine what God feels like when we say yes to His face, but then go away and immediately fail to follow through or run in the opposite direction?
Take Jonah, for instance, whom God charged to preach repentance to the people of Nineveh. And what did Jonah do? He ran away, defying God Himself. Futile, Jonah. Futile. When I read through James 1:23-25, I not only think of Job, but also of myself and of others around me who, having faithfully attended church and bible studies for years on end, fail to realise all that we are instructed in our Christian faith and fail to apply and/or comprehend all that we learn of and about God and about our roles in His master plan.
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).
This action that James writes of is a grievous sin. It nicely illustrates the pointedness of the words of the Lord Jesus when he himself said: “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62).
You cannot run a straight plow if you are looking over your shoulder. You need to remain focused on your task and your calling. If you do not, you cannot serve God in heaven (aka, end up in hell). This is strong stuff.
The relevance of the above verse from James illustrates that we all too often are exposed to something on a regular basis but then we forget the substance of what it is that we are supposed to be acting upon! That’s an otherwise ineffectual witness of the gospel and, as is implied in Jesus’ words, places concerns over your eternal destination.
But consider the rest of the words in James’s passage:
But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it – he will be blessed in what he does (James 1:25 – emphasis mine)
I have denied myself many blessings, opportunities and caused others significant emotional pain during life due to the fact that I never really knew what I looked liked (inwardly, a very sinful man!), even while attending and preaching at church; likewise, I hate to think of the crooked plow lines I’ve plowed over the years. What about you? Where does your heart stand with God? Won’t you too become like a man who, after having inspected himself in the mirror of the gospel message, knows himself intimately (warts and all) and yet simply trusts in the Lord Jesus for his salvation?
Just as I am, Lord Jesus, I come.
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