“Mirror, Mirror on the Wall”
James 1:19-27
My wife and I made a trip to the beautiful city of Boston a few weeks back to do something that has been on my bucket list for a very long time. Actually before people were even talking about having a bucket list. And that was to see Paul Macartney in concert. Now unless you have lived in a cave all of your life you know that he is one of the Beatles and along with John Lennon wrote most of their music. It was packed and the concert was amazing.
Paul had an incredible band backing him up but it was clear the whole night that the concert was really about him. I’ve been told that he has a pretty big ego. And one comment that has been made is that Paul Macartney never met a mirror he didn’t like. In other words he enjoys looking at himself.
Most of us, probably all of us looked in the mirror at least once this morning. Some of us stood in front of the mirror for some time. We want to look our best. So at least once a day we stand before a mirror and review the way we look. If we need to adjust something… and we usually do, we straighten out our clothes or we comb our hair… all because the mirror tells us we need to.
This morning I want to give you a very important truth that I hope you will hang onto. This is it. .
The word of God is a mirror that the Holy Spirit uses to enable us
to see ourselves as we really are.
It is not like a mirror. It is one. When we look into God’s word the view we get is HOW GOD SEES US. Not how our friends see us or how we see ourselves. How God sees us.
But here’s the problem. The problem is that most of us don’t actually read it. It’s not because we don’t have a Bible. The Bible is present in almost every home in America. According to a recent Gallop Poll “eighty-two percent of the Americans believe that the Bible is the “inspired” Word of God… more than half stated they read their Bible at least monthly. Yet half couldn’t name even one of the four gospels [Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and fewer than half knew who delivered the Sermon on the Mount.” [Jesus].
The truth is we hold the very word of God in our hand. And it is a mirror. The Bible allows us to see ourselves as we really are. So how do we get the most out of it? James says we must be open to God’s Word. Let’s face it, many people are not. People will ask us as believers, questions about God. That’s a good thing when that happens. But when we turn to the word to give them answers many times they will respond, “I want to know about God, but I don’t want to hear what the Bible has to say.” Because they don’t see the connection between the two.
Sometimes pride gets in the way. So James tells us to “receive the word with meekness” to “humbly accept the word planted in you.” That word means to welcome. It is a word used in the NT that is also used for hospitality. For how we welcome others into our homes. And how we do that says a lot about us.
James is telling us that we need to welcome the word of God into our lives. Here’s how he says to do that. (1) James says we must be quick to hear the Word of truth. James is not talking about just physically hearing the words; he is talking about listening. Have you ever said to someone I don’t think you hearing what I have to say and they respond, oh I hear you, I just don’t agree. You can hear His Word and still not understand it. There are several things that can cause that to happen.
One of those is our tongue. Let’s face sometimes we talk too much. There is a reason God gave us one mouth and two ears. We need to listen more than we speak. James says we must have a controlled tongue. We can’t listen if we are the ones doing all the talking. Some of us are not very good listeners. People ask us how we’re doing and they just expect to hear an answer like "fine." That is what we are programmed to hear. So if someone starts talking about how rough the week has been, we may be talking to someone else already. We are not quick to hear as James tells us to be. Instead we are quick to speak.
(2) The second thing we need to do is “cultivate a calm spirit.” James says we should be “slow to anger.” In other words, we need to calm down. You can’t talk with a person when they’re angry. I know. I’ve tried. They won’t listen. Right? We can become so upset that we just block out our capacity to hear it. And this is especially true with God’s word. There are things God wants to tell you that will make you very uncomfortable. And when we are angry, we shut Him out. We often shut everyone out. What we are thinking about is the person we are angry with and how we are going to get even. We feel resentment. Bitterness. And all of these are barriers to communication. We need to calm down so we can hear.
There’s a 3rd thing James tells us we need to work on. (3) We must produce a Clean Life. James tells us to “lay aside all filthiness; he says we must get rid of all moral filth. This is an interesting word here in the Greek. The word for "filth" that is used here comes from a root word in Greek that means "ear wax." Can we talk about ear wax for a moment? Because it really is a great word picture. We can’t hear when our ears are full of wax. When they are we reach for a Q tip. Harvard school of medicine says that’s actually the worst thing we can do. They say that when we use it we are actually pushing the wax in further. Now, I know no one is enjoying this conversation but it makes a great point. Most of us use the wrong tool to improve our hearing. OK. Enough about ear wax.
James says that we get rid of anything that we know of in our lives that keeps us from hearing God. Because until you do you won’t be able to hear what He has to say.
He gives us a 4th thing to work on. We must learn to be submissive to God’s word.
Vv. 22-25. James gives us several ways to do that. In verse 25, James speaks of “one who looks into the perfect law of liberty.” You will notice that he is not simply talking about someone who just glances at God’s word. He is talking about someone who looks intently. They examine what the word has to say. Study it. Research it. The word means to “stoop [down] and gaze into." It is the same word that was used to show the way Peter, John, and Mary stooped down to look into the empty tomb on Resurrection morning. They weren’t just taking a casual glance. We are not to glance, we are to gaze and there’s a huge difference.
What do you do when you look into the mirror in the morning? I glance at the mirror every morning. Sundays I look a lot longer. Saturdays, not so much. On Saturdays I’m not really looking very hard. James describes here a man who looks into the mirror and sees that things are out of place and does absolutely nothing about it. Notice he didn’t say it was a woman. Women don’t do that. They’re going to do something about it.
5. James says all of this requires reflection. In verse twenty-five he says, “But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty, and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, that person will be blessed in what he does.” Let me give you a piece of advice here…if you don’t study God’s word on a regular basis you will limit your ability to make good decisions. You will be more susceptible to temptation. Remember Jesus used God’s word to deal with temptation in the wilderness. We must do the same.
6. James says all of this requires a response. He says in verse twenty-two: “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says!” James tells us that if we want to be blessed it will not happen by just hearing the word… we will be blessed by “doing the word.” So if you expect to be blessed by just listening on Sunday mornings you won’t be…you will be blessed when you respond to it. That is the basis upon which you will be blessed. If you’re not willing to do the word, don’t expect to be blessed by the word.
James says that person is like a man who looks in the mirror, sees what he needs to do to improve himself and then says, “oh well” and then walks away. They are like the African princess that George Sweeting tells about in one of his books: “She lived in the heart of the jungle and for years this daughter of the tribal chief had been told by everyone that she was the most beautiful woman in the entire tribe. She had no mirror to look in so she was convinced she was beautiful. One day an explorer was traveling through that part of Africa and the princess was given a mirror as a gift. For the first time in her life she was able to see her own reflection. Her immediate reaction was to smash the mirror on the nearest rock. Why? Because for the first time in her life she knew the truth. What other people had told here all those years didn’t matter anymore. She saw for the first time that was she wasn’t beautiful after all. .
You see, mirrors don’t lie. When you look into the mirror, you see the truth. And too often we do nothing about it. The word of God is like a mirror to show you the truth. You can get mad and even break the mirror but you won’t change the truth.
7. Finally, James says we must practice real/true religion. 1:26-27 “ If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is useless. (27) Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: To visit the orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.”
There is (unfortunately) a great disparity between what Christians say they believe and the way they behave. You see until your religion changes your behavior the world will never know Jesus. If someone saw you here today and then saw your behavior this week would they make the connection?
James is actually giving us 3 very simple truths in this passage.
1. Guard your tongue. He has already said that we are to be slow to speak. Now he is telling us that our “religion is worthless” unless our “tongue” is kept on a “tight rein.” That’s different. We have to learn to control our speech. James says if we can learn to do that we can begin to get a handle on our behavior.
2. Give to others. He says that religion that God considers to be pure is “to look after orphans and widows in their trouble.” Many of the hospitals, orphanages, homes for the elderly… many of these have been set up by the church. It’s a good thing to have compassion for someone but our compassion should move us to DO something. It should move us to give. We can’t do everything but we can do something. A pastor friend of mine years ago adopted a little girl from Korea and he told me I can’t change the whole world but I CAN change the world for this one.
3. Guard your life. James says that a mark of true spirituality is “to keep oneself unspotted”…. “to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” In other words, keep your life clean! Guard your heart. Watch what you do! Watch what you allow into your life. Your mind; your heart is like a gate to the rest of your body. And when you open the gate you put your whole life in danger.
Years ago a song was written by Evie Tornquist titled Mirror, Mirror. One verse says this….
You’re searching for Jesus, looking to find,
Hope for tomorrow and some peace of mind.
Well you can find it in the Bible and many churches I know
But till you’ve found Him in the mirror
You’ve got a long way to go.
So mirror, mirror on the wall,
I know who is Lord of all
Just let me see Him every day
For me, that is the only way.
And it is.
Have you taken a long look in the mirror lately? Have you taken an inventory of your spiritual life? I can’t say what God may have said to you during this message. It could be many things. I have had people tell me things God said to them that had nothing to do with the message. They say you know pastor when you said such and such today? And I never even said it. God may have spoken to you today about a sin that you need to put away. He may be speaking to you about your Bible reading schedule. Or maybe He is speaking to you about giving your life to Christ right now. What will you do? Will you respond or will you just walk away from what he is saying?
Maybe you don’t like what you see in the mirror/God’s word. Many times I don’t. But it doesn’t make sense to just neglect it because we don’t like it.
I get a lot of junk mail, don’t you? A lot of it I don’t read. I throw it away without even opening it or if I do open it I just glance; I don’t gaze.
But have you ever gotten a love letter? I suspect every one of us has. I think that the one-time people read a letter carefully; for all its worth, is in when they’re in love. They look at every word. They read it again and again. They keep it so they can read it again tomorrow. This is God’s love letter to you. So why not read it? Just read it.
