Check Your Reflection

Read: James 1:22-25

James 1:22–25 KJV 1900

22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. 23 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: 24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. 25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

Introduction:

Adrian Rogers Sermon Archive I. We See Ourselves Reflected

I heard of a man, an old fellow, who lived so far back out in the woods. He’d never ever even seen a mirror. And he finally found one. He was a grown man. And he looked at it, and he said, “Well, glory be. There’s a picture of my old pappy.” And he was so proud of it. He took it up and put it in the attic. His wife saw him up there in the attic. And she, being quite nosey, went up there afterward, and she found it, and looked at it. And she said, “So that’s the old hag he’s been running around with.”

A [2006] medical study reveals just how difficult change is for people. Roughly 600,000 people have heart bypasses a year in America. These people are told after their bypasses that they must change their lifestyle.

The heart bypass is a temporary fix.

They must change their diet.

They must quit smoking and drinking.

They must exercise and reduce stress.

In essence, the doctors say, "Change or die."

You would think that a near-death experience would forever grab the attention of the patients. You would think they would vote for change. You would think the argument for change is so compelling that the patients would make the appropriate lifestyle alterations. Sadly that is not the case.

Ninety percent of the heart patients do not change.

They remain the same, living the status quo.

Study after study indicates that two years after heart surgery, the patients have not altered their behavior.

Instead of making changes for life, they choose death. Change is that difficult. The majority of the heart patients choose not to change. They act as if they would rather die.

Source: Thom S. Rainer and Eric Geiger, Simple Church (B & H Publishing Group, 2006), p. 229

James, who isn’t known for being overly diplomatic and sugar coating things gives us a tremendous principle in this passage that is worth noting.

We have a standard by which to measure our lives by

He calls this standard, “the perfect law of liberty”

This “standard” or “perfect law of liberty” has the ability to transform us into Christlikeness but that is conditioned on our looking, hearing (knowing) and doing (obeying) the Word of God.

1. Looking

When we look into the mirror - the Standard - the perfect law of liberty it is supposed to be more than a passing glance.

It carries the idea of looking “with penetrating absorption.” We have to take it in, absorb it, soak it up.

It is so easy to hastily glance in the mirror and say its good enough - but if we are going to a formal event we make sure our hair is combed, our shirt is on right, not wrinkled, etc.

This is how we are to treat God’s Word.

Christian History Magazine—Issue 26: William & Catherine Booth: Salvation Army Founders Sayings of Catherine Booth

What a deal there is of going to meetings and getting blessed, and then going away and living just the same, until sometimes we, who are constantly engaged in trying to bring people nearer the heart of God, go away so discouraged that our hearts are almost broken.

Looking should bring change but James warns us about looking and leaving the same

He says our looking should bring about a knowledge

James Listening and Doing / 1:19–27

The verbs looking and forgets picture something that naturally or repeatedly occurs. Goes away pictures casualness and immediacy—at once he is gone and forgets. It would be silly to leave dirt on your face or your hair in a mess after seeing yourself in a mirror. It is just as silly to look into God’s Word and make no changes in your life. Whether we read God’s Word for ourselves or hear it read, our listening must have an attitude of seriousness and submission that will lead to obedience.

Unless in our looking at God and God’s Word we act quickly on what we learn we will leave and forget what we were prompted to change.

2. Hearing

This is a similar metaphor to the “looking” it is to gain knowledge and understanding of ourselves and what needs changed and improved.

We look in the mirror and see a streak of dirt on our face - and we wash it off - or go away and forget its there

We look at God’s Word where reveals something about us that needs to change - we need to begin immediately doing something about that thing whatever it is.

It’s a looking and a hearing - but not just a grasping what is lacking or what needs adjusted in us then we need to be...

3. Doing

Our doing should be in line with our hearing and looking

A doer becomes more Christlike

A doer becomes blessed in his deeds -

Someone has said, “A terrible curse hangs over the know-it-all who does nothing.”

The importance of reading and studying God’s word isn’t for information but its for transformation

When you look into the perfect law of liberty - who’s reflection do you see staring back at you?

Still you and your flawed unchanged self

Or do you see a person who is being “transformed by the renewing of the mind?”

Are you just listening to alot of great truth and not doing?

God help us to look, hear, and do