“For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does” (James 1:23-25).
Everyone on this entire earth fit into these three verses. The first group is many of us, both in the church and those who are not in the church. These are the individual who look at there lives and see changes that need to be made. They can either see them first hand, someone tells them their problem, or they read it for themselves in the word of God. They realize that they are in error and what do they decide to do about it Nothing! How many of us wake up in the morning, stumble into our bathrooms, look into the mirror, and walk out the door ready to greet the world? Almost no one.
We all take the time to make some changes to make our outer appearances conform to a standard we hold for ourselves. How much more should we do this very same thing to our inner man? That is what the second group does. The second group looks at themselves in the perfect law of liberty, sees the things that they need to change, and changes. We understand that when it comes to physical appearances but we hesitate when it comes to our inner beauty. The Bible is our spiritual mirror that we can look at our spiritual selves. On the inside, God has made us all to be beautiful. When He created our inner man, He created it flawlessly. It is when we spiritual go to sleep and don’t take care of our inner man that it becomes flawed. WAKE UP! Look into perfect law of liberty and make yourself beautiful again.
Remember the parable of the ten virgins: “Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!’ Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise answered, saying, ‘No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’ And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut. Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ But he answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.” Always be spiritually ready for Jesus, because we never know when He might be back.
Jeremy Ferguson
