How to Accurately Apply the ScriptureSample

Forgetful Hearers

Has the Word of God been implanted in your life? How you go on listening to the Word of God will answer that question. Even if you love listening to sermons and faithfully read the Bible and Books about theology, if you’re not practicing what you hear, you are not receiving the Word of God in your heart. 

James says that such a person is “like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.” (James 1:23) James is giving us an analogy; before we move to the spiritual application, he wants us to use the natural picture, something that happens in the world all the time. 

A mirror in the first century was not made of glass; it was made of polished metal, like silver or bronze. You didn’t get clarity on your reflection. Someone had to look carefully and look at different angles to have some idea of how they appeared to others. James says that mirror views don’t last very long. After you look into a mirror, it won’t take long to forget what you saw. We can relate to this feeling though we have better mirrors now. It is easy to forget what we saw in the mirror the first time we looked; that’s why we go back and look again. There might be something on our person that needs to be adjusted.

The mirror is the Word of God. But unlike the first-century mirrors, when we look carefully into His Word, we’re going to see with clarity. We see what the Word reveals; we see areas of our lives that need change, repentance, and action. God deals with our hearts through conviction and sorrow. We hear about steps we need to take, but if we’re just hearers, we walk away and forget what we need to do. That’s the deceit that is in our lives when we listen to His Word this way. We go away as if it’s all alright, but it isn’t. 

Hebrews 4:12 tells us there is no problem with the mirror—the Word of God. It shows us the deepest parts of our soul in a way that no other instrument can. We’re going through life with significant blind spots because we’re not taking action in what the Lord is showing us. That leads to greater blindness, which is deadly. When we are just hearers, we are self-deceived to the teaching of Scripture. We forget what we see.