undistort

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

James 1:22-25

Ever looked at your phone or the clock to see what time it is and then 3 seconds later realize you’ve already forgotten what the time was? I do that. Probably 5 times a day. 

That kind of quick-forget is what James is describing in the first chapter of his epistle when he talks about someone who looks in a mirror and then “at once forgets what he was like.” Looking and forgetting what you’ve seen isn’t a new phenomenon. It takes intentionality to hold a thing in your mind. Particularly something as complex as an image of one’s self. 

That’s why self-reflection and introspection is, as James hints, effectively worthless when it comes to changing one’s self. Just like looking in a mirror for a few minutes each morning doesn’t do much to help you hold an image or your own face in your mind for the rest of the day, so a few minutes of introspective meditation isn’t going to change your life or make you a better person. 

God has graciously given us an accurate mirror. James calls it “the perfect law, the lay of liberty,” and gives some straightforward instructions for how we can avoid being self-deceived, ignorant, or blind to who we really are.

Let’s dig a little deeper into James’ words, specifically the final sentence of the section quoted above: “the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.”

The perfect law

Unlike an earthly, human-created mirror that reverses and distorts the image in reflects, God’s law is perfect. It “is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12) God’s word is a mirror that reveals and corrects the distortion our own gaze creates.  

Just like the mirror in your bathroom distorts your reflection and reverses things, so the mirror of self-reflection distorts things. Not so the perfect law. It’s perfection reveals our imperfection. 

But thank God that James doesn’t stop there. To have one’s brokenness simply revealed in the harsh light of a perfect mirror would be too great of a terror to bear. The good news is that God’s law isn’t merely a perfect law. It’s also a law of liberty. 

The law of liberty

Contrary to the opinions of the world, God’s perfect law isn’t a law that binds and blockades one from enjoying life. Quite the opposite. It is the distortion of self-reflection and viewing one’s self through the lenses provided by the world that leads to captivity.  In contrast, knowing and observing God’s law always leads to freedom. 

This is a crucial truth for those who say they follow Christ to be aware of. God’s law is a law of liberty. If knowing God’s truth is leading to you feeling captive to a certain level of performance, you’re probably not truly learning God’s truth. 

There are plenty in the world of religion that have used the perfect law as a tool to bind and chain themselves and those they have influence over, and as a result of limiting God’s law to being solely “perfect” and not also a law of love and liberty it becomes a thing that many decide would be better discarded as untrue. Recent “deconversion” stories of high-profile Christians like Rhett and Link and Joshua Harris are prime examples.

The beautiful truth is that God’s law is a law of liberty. As we come to know it in truth we find freedom, grace, and lightness that can be found nowhere else. The question then is, how do we discover the freedom embedded in God’s Word? Not by simply hearing, James says. 

Look intently

The first step to discovering the freedom in God’s Word is to “look intently”. It’s not enough to simply skim scripture or to half-heartedly listen to preaching on a Sunday morning. Discovering the powerful perfection and freedom of God’s law requires study and searching. It requires an openness to learn and a determination to see past one’s own prejudices and skepticism.

If you simply give God’s Law a read through and walk away you’re the one at fault, not the law. You’re the guy glancing at his phone to see what time it is, getting distracted by an Instagram notification, and then putting your phone in your pocket and realizing you have no idea what time it is.To discover the life-changing power of the perfect law of liberty requires intent looking. 

Hearer who forgets

We must “be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves”. Looking intently is the beginning, but it’s not the end of the process that will un-distort our gaze and our lives. 

Even if you have loads of Bible verses memorized, read a slew of Christian books, and know your theological terms all that knowledge isn’t going to do you any good in the long run. Simply hearing the information in God’s Word isn’t enough. To hear and not do and think you’re good to go, as James says, is self-deception. 

Doer who acts

The one who discovers the liberty of the law is the one who responds in obedience to what he hears. It is in the action that the un-distortion takes place. And what is this action? James is specific – it begins with bridling the tongue then moves to caring for those in need and keeping oneself “unstained from the world.” (v.26-27). 

Jesus speaks with equal specificity to the crowds who come to him and asked “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” (John 6:28-29). He goes on to explain that this belief is equivalent to coming to him and “eating” of him.

This is the strange dichotomy of the Gospel. To experience and know the truth that leads to freedom you must act in obedience, but that obedience isn’t first or primarily the obedience of doing a prescribed set of actions. Instead, it is the obedience of graciously receiving a gift and putting it to use. It is the work of faith than then proceeds to work itself out in external actions as James describes. 

Blessed in your doing

When we look intently into God’s perfect law and act in response, we are blessed in our doing. But this blessedness isn’t the transactional blessedness of an earned reward. Blessedness isn’t a description of the payment owed by God to those who keep his law. 

The kind of blessedness that James is describing here is the same that David describes in Psalm 32 when he writes, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.” To be blessed is to be in proper relationship with God and with those around you. When we live within God’s perfect law of liberty our lives are blessed because they are shaped as they were created to be. 

That blessedness is grounded in and flows from the forgiveness we find in Christ, the one who did what James describes here by intently looking, hearing from, and obeying his heavenly Father. As a result he was indeed “blessed in his doing”, so much so that that same blessing now overflows to each of us who will come to him in faith. 

May your days this week begin with a clear glimpse of your savior and yourself as seen in the mirror of God’s perfect law. May that seeing result in you living increasingly in the beautiful, blessed liberty that is ours in Christ.