“Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like” -James 1:23-24
Please note that James uses the expression “the word” in singular to refer to the word of God (scriptures), the bible for Christians. He is comparing the word of God to a mirror, and, listening to the word to looking at a mirror. This kind of metaphor had to be inspired by the Holy Spirit for it is a message in its own right.
It is important to understand that, among other things, this passage is reminding us that the word of God is about us. True, it talks about peoples and times geographically and chronologically far removed from us, but it is primarily about us (you and I). It means that we should see ourselves in the bible when we read it and listen to what it says. Unless this happens, reading and hearing it is a waste of time and of no benefit/profit to us -It is like someone who looks at a mirror and goes away forgetting what he looks like.
Let’s turns to 1 Corinthians 10:6 to further elaborate the foregoing point. Apostle Paul is writing to Christians in Corinth: “Now these things occurred as an example to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.”
In case you are wondering, “these things” refers to the experiences of Israelites in the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land under Moses’ leadership. Apostle Paul writes that “…God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert.” Most of us read this verse to mean that most of them did not make it into the Promised Land because God was not pleased with them, but this is not quite true.
The truth of the matter is that most of them did not make it mainly because they kept setting their hearts on evil things -evil always brings about destruction. Now Paul says, “These things occurred as example” to keep us from doing the same things. Here is where we can see the significance of the mirror metaphor. See, most of them did what most of us (human beings) tend to do (Read Romans 7:21-23). Did you know that it takes no effort to think evil? Come on…, let’s be honest.
We are talking about the word of God (Bible) as the Unbreakable mirror at our disposal. It means that it cannot distort the view it reflects -except in the eyes of anyone who comes to it with an already-distorted view of himself/herself. It shows the picture of us as we really are, even though all of us reading it today were not even born when it was written. That is why we consider it the word of God forever relevant…
I pray that God will grant you the grace to see yourself in every page of his word each time you read it so that, after reading it, you will never go away forgetting what you look like, in the name of Jesus Christ!