James 1:22-25 and 2 Corinthians 3:18: Two Mirrors

INTRODUCTION

Several years ago a drunk walked into a Venice, California, ballroom and smashed a big full-length mirror. When he was arrested, he protested angrily: “I saw that other guy looking at me very nasty!”

The Scottish poet Robert Burns wrote a poem in which the narrator tells about sitting behind a fine, high-class lady in church and watching a louse roving around her bonnet. In his poem he scolds the louse for not realizing how important the lady is—and then he realizes that, to a louse, we are all equal.

He imagines how humiliated the fine lady would have been to know that she had a louse in her bonnet.

The last line of the poem is famous, and translated from the Scottish dialect, it goes like this:

“O would that God,

 the gift would give us

To see ourselves as others see us!”

William James, the great psychologist and philosopher wrote that when two men meet, it is really six people: each man as he sees himself (that’s 2), each man as the other sees him (that’s 4), and each man as he really is (that’s 6).

Socrates, the Greek philosopher used to like to quote this bit of advice: “Know thyself.”

But none of us can truly know ourselves as we really are—and probably we wouldn’t want to.

Someone commented: “Know myself!  If I knew myself I’d run away!”

Some of us—especially as we grow older—don’t spend much time looking into mirrors. It’s not much pleasure to see ourselves as others see us.

It is said that Queen Elizabeth I—who was reputed to be a beauty in her youth—when she grew old, she had all the mirrors removed from her rooms.

I found mentions of mirrors in the Bible that can instruct us.

I. The first one is in James 1:22-25: “Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away immediately forget what they were like. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing.”

A. James tells us here that God’s Word is a mirror that shows us ourselves. In that way the Bible helps us to see sins that we would otherwise overlook.

I will tell you a way that God’s word has been a mirror for me.

Jesus told a story in Luke 18 about the Pharisee who went up to the Temple to pray, and as he stood praying he said, “God, I thank thee that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers….I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I get.”

See how full of himself that Pharisee was, and how superior to other men he felt himself to be!

In that story Jesus compares the proud Pharisee to a penitent tax collector who was also praying in the Temple that day. The tax collector went into a corner, smote his chest and cried out, “God be merciful to me, a sinner.”

Sometimes I see myself in that Pharisee, because, although I am not so blatant about it, sometimes I catch myself looking down on other people.

When I read that story I see myself as in a mirror, and I see that I am that Pharisee.

B. In 2 Samuel 11 and 12 we read of a terrible sin David committed. He had stolen another man’s wife, and when she became pregnant, David arranged for her husband to be murdered. Than he married the woman.

David was not aware of his sin. His conscience was clear, because he was blinded by his pride.

But God sent David a “mirror” into which he could see himself as he really was.

God sent his prophet Nathan. Nathan told David a story about a rich man who had very many flocks and herds and a poor man who had nothing but one little ewe lamb. The poor man loved his little ewe lamb; she was like one of his children. But when a traveler came to visit the rich man, the rich man was unwilling to take one of his own flock to prepare dinner for the traveler. So he took the poor man’s little ewe lamb and butchered it.

David was furious when he heard of this injustice and he said, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die!”

Then the prophet pointed his finger at David and said, “You are the man! Why have you despised the word of the Lord and done this thing?”

In his little story about the poor man and his little ewe lamb, the prophet held up a mirror to David, which forced King David to confront his wickedness.

And to his credit, David did repent and confess his sin.

God forgave him, but that sin left a blot on David’s character forever.

That’s the kind of book the Bible is. It is a book of stories of people doing well and of people doing badly, and we can see ourselves in those stories.

The Bible holds up a mirror to ourselves so that we can see ourselves as we really are.

But James reminds us how hard it is for us to see ourselves. Sometimes we read the Bible and think, I’m okay because I read the Bible.

I knew a man who did an evil thing. He tried to deprive some people the privilege of hearing the Word of God. He attacked the messenger God had sent.

That same man boasted to me that he read his Bible every day.

He was the man who was a hearer and not a doer. He looked into the mirror and then forgot what he should have seen there.

Whenever we open our Bibles, we should ask God to show us ourselves—to show us our sin and lead us to repentance and faith.

We do not read the Bible to feel holy, but to see ourselves and to see Jesus.

II. So the purpose of the Bible isn’t only to show us ourselves. It is also to help us look beyond ourselves and see the mercy and grace of God.

A. Here is another word from God about a looking glass. St. Paul wrote this:

“And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3.18).

To see “the glory of God” is to see Jesus.

According to St. Paul when we read of Jesus and think about what we are reading, we see the glory of God as though reflected in a mirror.

And to fix our gaze on Jesus is to be changed into his likeness.

B. This is why God has given us the Communion Service, the Lord’s Supper, the Mass—or whatever you call it in your church.

As we gather in worship to pray and sing praises to Jesus, and, as we see the bread and wine and take them, we are confronted with the vision of Jesus. We are seeing Jesus as in a mirror—the mirror or our mind’s eye.

And if we really see him--and consider what his life, death, and resurrection means to him and to us—we can’t help but love and believe and be changed.

C. When we read and meditate on the gospels, we see Jesus and we share the experience of those who knew and loved him.

A great theologian wrote, “Our reading of the Gospel story can be and should be an act of personal communion with the living God” (William Temple).

Just to read the gospels thoughtfully and prayerfully is to worship Jesus.

D. Some people find it helpful to put up crosses, or crucifixes, or pictures of Jesus on their walls to bring their thoughts often to the Christ who loves them and gave himself to them.

E. Some people memorize hymns or Bible verses and repeat them to themselves.

I remember one of my grandmothers singing hymns to herself as she went about her housework.

My other grandmother had a large framed Bible verse in a prominent place. On it was this Bible verse, in shining mother-of-pearl letters: “Even Christ pleased not himself” (Romans 15:3). When she looked at that scripture she remembered that she wasn’t put on earth to please herself but to please her Savior and other people. And that’s the kind of person she was.

III. St. Paul wrote to the Christians in Galatia that he was in pain for them—like the pains of childbirth—until Christ would be formed in them.

A. I have a prayer that ends like this—

Let Christ be formed in me,

and let me learn of him all lowliness of heart,

all gentleness of bearing,

all modesty of speech,

all helpfulness of action,

and promptness in the doing of my Father’s will.

(John Baillie, A Diary of Private Prayer, 26th Day, Morning).

B. This is what we want—that Christ be formed in us, and Christ will be formed in us if we occupy our minds with him—if in our mind’s eye we see him lying in the manger, on the roads of Galilee…sitting down to dinner with sinners…in the Temple teaching…in the Garden praying…on the Cross dying…and risen in the company of his disciples.  

God’s purpose for all of us is that Christ will be formed in us—so that we can be his presence in the world.

That is one way that Jesus is still alive in our world. He is alive in people who are like him—in their kindness and generosity.

CONCLUSION

Florence Nightingale was the greatest nurse who ever lived. She nursed the wounded and dying soldiers during the Crimean War and organized the nursing service in that war.

She inspired all the nurses who came after her.

I read a biography of her. I learned that she was a woman of God.

The story is told once when she was making her rounds, a dying soldier looked up at her and murmured, “You are Christ to me.”

Martin Luther said, “It is the duty of every Christian to be Christ to his neighbor.”

It is through us that Jesus visits the world. It is through us that Jesus serves suffering and struggling people. We are the channels through which God’s love reaches our lost and sorrowful world.

And that will happen only when we are so occupied with Christ that we are transformed into his likeness—not his physical likeness, but that his kindness, holiness, and mercy may shine through us.

Here is a hymn I like and repeat to myself often:

May the mind of Christ my Savior

Live in me from day to day,

By his love and power controlling

All I do and say.

The last verse goes like this—

May his beauty rest upon me

As I seek the lost to win,

And may they forget the channel,

seeing only him.

 (Kate Wilkinson, 1925)