Trailblazin Ministries

Man in the Mirror - James 1:23-24

Written by LaRosa Johnson
Monday, 02 July 2007

When last we took a look at the letter of James we saw how important it was for us to be doers of the Word and apply what we hear to our lives, instead of simply being those who hear the Word only. There was a lot left unsaid in that study, as we only began to take a glimpse of what the Word had to say about those who are deceiving themselves by being hearers only. We took a look at our first point of three, and today we will look at the second point of study as we turn into the Scriptures to James 1:23-24 for today's look at the Word of God.

James 1:23-24 (NASB95) - 23 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; 24 for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.

As we can see in today's passage, James is furthering his discussion of being a hearer of the Word versus being a doer of the Word by giving us an illustration of what it looks like for one to be a hearer and then not apply it to their lives. The example given here is of a person who looks at his face in the mirror, and then forgets what he looks like immediately after walking away from the mirror. At face value, this seems pretty straight forward, but there is more than meets the eye as we look at this passage more intently and with an understanding of what James is saying here. The first thing that we have to take note of is the word "mirror;" first century mirrors were not made of glass like we have today, but were made of flattened and polished metals (bronze or silver, or gold for the wealthy). These mirrors did not reflect a clear image of its gazer, and required the person to look closely and intently with the right light in order to get a somewhat clear picture of what they truly look like. This is pertinent information to help us understand this passage, and it does help to give us an idea of what James and his readers were working with when talking about mirrors.

Now that we have an understanding of what kind of mirror was used, let's take a look at the language used in this passage. We notice that James likens this to a person who is looking at his face in a mirror. "Look" is a very important word for us to get an understanding of, and it is translated as "observes" in the NKJV translation. The Greek word for this is katanoeō (Strong's #G2657) and means to "take note of," "perceive," or "to observe fully." This is a very strong and forceful Greek word and seems to imply that the person is looking closely and cautiously, as opposed to simply casually looking into the mirror. In other words, the person is looking trying to discover something about himself, and not just looking himself over just to be doing it. In the context of this passage, the mirror is referring to the Word of God, as it is our mirror and shows us what we should look like in the eyes of God. The more intently we look at and study Scripture, the more it will show us about ourselves and what we truly look like, especially in the sight of God. Now, this verse is simply a setup for the illustration that James is about to give, which leads us into the second point in this study:

The person who only hears and knows the Word soon forgets what he has heard. If a person does not practice what he learns, it soon fades from memory. It is just forgotten, and it never becomes a part of the person's life. He is like the person who looks in a mirror to see if he needs to do anything to his appearance, then walks away and thinks of something else and forgets the pimple or rustled hair that needed to be cared for.--Preacher's Outline and Sermon Bible

Verse 24 gives us a glimpse of what happens after this person has walked away from the mirror: they forget what they just saw. This is precisely what happens to the person who hears the Word and fails to apply it to their lives. Sadly enough, we know this all too well and can see it happen every Sunday morning after church. The pastor will preach a sermon and it convicts the listener and the Word shows them changes that they need to make to their lives. This person, in service, has all the intentions in the world to make said changes, but as soon as they get up from under the Word of God (church in this instance), they allow themselves to get distracted by the world and forget those changes that they were supposed to make in their lives. POSB made that illustration in their book and it is a very clear one that is easy for all of us to understand. John MacArthur's commentary chimes in as follows, "Unless professing Christians act promptly after they hear the Word, they will forget the changes and improvements that their reflection showed them they need to make." How true is that? It's just like me working out and getting in shape. I look in the mirror and see what I need to change, but soon after, I end up forgetting about the habit changes that I need to make and the workout routine that I've setup for myself because I didn't act on it right away, and kept putting it off.

We cannot, as Christians, allow that to be our lives. We cannot be hearers only, but we must be doers also. We shouldn't be the type of Christians who hear the Word, have a desire to apply it to our lives, and then it never happens. A lot of times we never become the children of God that we can be because we never simply take the time to apply the Word to our lives. It does us no good to constantly hear the Word of God preached to us or study it on our own if we never take the time to make it work in our lives. What good does it do us to read about sin and holiness and then continue in the path of sin and unrighteousness? That would be foolish, wouldn't it? Well, that's what happens when we fail to apply the Word and we walk away from the mirror forgetting what we looked like. As the body of Christ, we need to look closely at our mirror (the Bible) and see what it has to show us about ourselves and then make those changes. The good thing about this mirror is that it is two-way: 1) it shows us what we currently look like, and 2) it shows us what we can look like if we make the changes we are supposed to. So let's do what we need to to live up to the reflection that shows us what we should be in God's eyes. Amen? Amen!