Who Do You See?

I enjoy examining the way words are used in the Bible. I like to look at the specific meanings of words and what they mean. So, let’s do something fun today. Let’s take a good look at the word "Look." Here’s how it becomes important in the Bible:

"For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does." (James 1:23-25)

Whoever hears Gods' Word, but doesn't do it, is like someone who forgets what they look like! Take a minute to look at yourself in a mirror. What do you see?

Do you see your body, with all of your blemishes and defects? Do you see an aging person? A young one? Do you see a human face and hands and arms made out of flesh and bones? Or, do you see what God sees?

God doesn’t see you like that. He sees the inner person. James literally calls a face “the face of your birth.” When we become a Christian, we ask Jesus to come into our heart and cleanse us from our sin. When He does that He changes us and we become a new creature. That is who we should see in the mirror because that is who God sees. Not our old self with all of our sin and problems.

Look again in that mirror. Do you see yourself or do you see Jesus? God sees His Son in us when we give our life to Him and allow Him to change us.

"I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me" (Galatians 2:20)