Multiple times a day, we look into mirrors. From mirrors in the bathroom to mirrors in our cars to our phones acting like mirrors when they’re turned off —mirrors are all around us. When you look into physical mirrors, you see various things. Just so, when you look into a spiritual mirror (i.e. when you consider yourself), you should see various things.
The first thing you should see when reflecting in a spiritual mirror is your flaws. Yes, we each have flaws. If you think you have no flaws, you are deceiving yourself (1 John 1:8). Just as we ensure our teeth are on straight and our eyebrows are combed neat, so we should ensure our spiritual person is proper each day. Unfortunately, most people never peer into a spiritual mirror. James illustrates “the perfect law of liberty” (i.e. the New Testament) as a mirror. How many people daily read or even consider the New Testament? Too few, I think, is the unfortunate answer. We must look into that spiritual mirror, that is, we must hear God’s Word (Matt. 11:15; John 12:48). But we must not stop there. It is not enough for us to just know our flaws, we must also improve ourselves. Such is what James advocated when he referred to mirrors (Jas. 1:22-25).
The second thing we should see when reflecting in a spiritual mirror is Jesus. Yes, there should come a point when you look into a spiritual mirror and see Jesus staring back at you. Such was the point Paul made when he wrote, “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor. 3:18). That makes sense doesn’t it? If the first thing you see is your flaws, and you work at fixing your flaws like James said to do, then slowly but surely you should eventually see your reflection transforming into Christ, for Christ is the object of our imitation, the one perfect human (1 Cor. 11:1; 1 Pet. 2:22). If we were to chant, “mirror mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?” we would see Jesus. And, unlike the Evil Queen of Snow White, we ought not seek to destroy the fairest of them all, but seek to be more like Him.
Often we pass physical mirrors. How often do we pass spiritual mirrors? This should be a daily occurrence, and when we see our spiritual reflections, we should first see our flaws, then we should eventually see our reflections transformed into Christ. To do this, we must hear the Word (Matt. 11:15), and then be doers of the Word (Jas. 1:22-25).
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