Have You Forgotten What You Look Like? James 1:23-24

James 1:23-24 (CSB) Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like someone looking at his own face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of person he was.

This is a verse for the people of our day.

“If anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer”: one of the most common devotional habits practiced today is passively reading the word of God, looking for things to encourage one’s own emotional state without any need to build one’s life on what you hear by obediently responding to the word.

Jesus said,

Matthew 7:24-25 (CSB) Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. ²⁵ The rain fell, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and pounded that house. Yet it didn’t collapse, because its foundation was on the rock.

“Immediately forget what kind of person we are“: In the word of God we see two images: we see the perfect image of Christ and we see ourselves.  We see the state of our fallen soul and we see the glorious image of Christ in which we are being renewed through the word.  Sometimes the state of our fallen soul that we see in the word can be personally offensive to us, but those who humbly respond to God’s word are being renewed in Christ’s glorious image; they will gradually see their image be conformed to his.  But those who do not respond obediently to the word of God are like someone who forgets both the current state of their fallen soul and the glorious image of Christ to which they are being renewed; though they hear the word, they do nothing about it and pretend like they are fine just the way they are.

Therefore, Jesus continued,

Matthew 7:26-27 (CSB) But everyone who hears these words of mine and doesn’t act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. ²⁷ The rain fell, the rivers rose, the winds blew and pounded that house, and it collapsed. It collapsed with a great crash.

When you hear the word of God, build your life upon what you hear and your life will endure when the storm comes.