Do you ever slap yourself on the forehead and say "I knew better than that!!"? I surely do! I cannot count the times that I hear a sermon or read a passage of Scripture or just plain remember a Truth and think - "I used to do that right but somewhere along the line, I've stopped". Or I find myself repeating the same commissions or omissions over and over again.
How does that happen to us?
Well, basically,
we're human!
And humans forget. Like James tells us
For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing
Just like I look in the mirror everyday to check my hair and makeup before I leave the house. More than once, if I have time! And then, based on what I see, I adjust. And tweak. And look again. Because I can't remember what I look like from one glance to the next!
It's the same with our spiritual life. God's Word is the mirror that we look into in order to know what we look like spiritually. And, based on what He shows us, we adjust and tweak and look again. And what helps us remember what we saw is to obey what He shows us to do. Being a doer, not just a hearer - or a looker !!
I love what the word "intently" means in Greek - it means to stoop down and focus. Isn't that powerful? We don't need to merely read God's Word - we need to humble ourselves and examine how to apply what it means to live it out. It means being willing to let the Word show us where we need to adjust. And then to obey it. That's what helps us remember.
This mirror of God's Word that we are to look into isn't just another law to follow. Thankfully not. Rather it is the perfect law...the law of liberty.
What does that mean - a law...of liberty? Seems contradictory.
Except that it's not.
The perfect law is the Gospel of Christ. He fulfilled every point of God's law - which we can't do - and, in so doing, He set us free from our inability to keep it. God counts His perfection as ours...and then He abides within those who believe in Him and transforms us into people who look like Him. Not immediately, to be sure. But, little by little, as we obey Him -- being an effectual does and not just a hearer of His Word -- we grow in our likeness to Him. Blessed in what we do.
How does that happen to us?
Well, basically,
we're human!
And humans forget. Like James tells us
For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing
Just like I look in the mirror everyday to check my hair and makeup before I leave the house. More than once, if I have time! And then, based on what I see, I adjust. And tweak. And look again. Because I can't remember what I look like from one glance to the next!
It's the same with our spiritual life. God's Word is the mirror that we look into in order to know what we look like spiritually. And, based on what He shows us, we adjust and tweak and look again. And what helps us remember what we saw is to obey what He shows us to do. Being a doer, not just a hearer - or a looker !!
I love what the word "intently" means in Greek - it means to stoop down and focus. Isn't that powerful? We don't need to merely read God's Word - we need to humble ourselves and examine how to apply what it means to live it out. It means being willing to let the Word show us where we need to adjust. And then to obey it. That's what helps us remember.
This mirror of God's Word that we are to look into isn't just another law to follow. Thankfully not. Rather it is the perfect law...the law of liberty.
What does that mean - a law...of liberty? Seems contradictory.
Except that it's not.
The perfect law is the Gospel of Christ. He fulfilled every point of God's law - which we can't do - and, in so doing, He set us free from our inability to keep it. God counts His perfection as ours...and then He abides within those who believe in Him and transforms us into people who look like Him. Not immediately, to be sure. But, little by little, as we obey Him -- being an effectual does and not just a hearer of His Word -- we grow in our likeness to Him. Blessed in what we do.