Resources/Articles
"Mirror, Mirror On The Wall"
For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like unto a
man beholding his natural face in a mirror;
for he beholdeth himself, and goeth away, and straightway forgetteth
what manner of man he was.
James 1:23,24
The mirror the wicked witch in the movie Snow White had was a self-esteem booster or an ego deflator. The wicked witch liked it when the mirror told her she was the fairest of them all. When it told her she was not, she became very angry and jealous.
The good thing about mirrors is they always tell us the truth. You can always trust it to give you a true picture - whether you like it or not - of what you look like. If you do not like what you see, it is not the mirror’s fault. There is no defect in the mirror. It is showing you reality, not make-believe. It is a reflection from which you will make changes or leave everything as it is.
Some people have their parents as their mirrors. They are reflecting what their parents taught them and lived like before them. Many of us become like our parents because this is the mirror through which we live. They lived that way before us. We often refuse to question what it looks like, because they are our parents. Would the image they cast be faulty? Our parents may have done what we are doing. They are probably the reflection of what they received from their parents. Notice what the mirror of God says about our parents: “Children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right” (Ephesians 6:1). Think about reflecting in your life what is right.
Friends can also become a mirror. Besides our parents, we are with our friends at church, school, on teams, or while shopping. If not with them somewhere, we are talking to them on the phone or through social media. Friends are the ones off of which we “bounce” ideas. Their words we often repeat. Their styles of clothes we imitate. What they love, like, hate, buy, hear, or taste, we do as well. Because they are our friends, we may never check on whether their reflection is right or not. We just enjoy doing things with them. We need to pay attention to the values they are leading us to duplicate. The mirror of God says, “Be not deceived, evil companionships corrupt good morals” (1 Corinthians 15:33).
God and His word is a mirror as well. The interesting thing with this mirror is the earnest petition made by God and His word to duplicate what we hear, see, and read from Him. 1 Peter 1:16 says, “Ye shall be holy; for I am holy.” God insists we be hearers and doers of the word. The importance of this mirror is we will see who God is. Our understanding of Him will lead us to know of His goodness, justice, truth, and righteousness. As a result, reading His word will be a mirror of the type of people He wants us to be. When we understand who we are (Romans 3:23), we will know changes will need to be made. God will not accept our sin. He desires for us to admit what we see our image in His word is. He does not want us to go away. God wishes all men will repent and be saved (1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9). It is the hope of God we will look in the mirror and want to dress ourselves into the new man He created “in righteousness and holiness of truth” (Ephesians 4:24).
