James 1 – Part IV

I remember trying to teach James 1:21-27 one time as a part of Bible study in high school having no idea what it was about.  It’s probably just as well there were only a couple people there that day.  Reading this passage again on Thursday I was stunned to catch James’ intention.  James lays it out pretty plainly.

So what does one see when they look in the perfect law that gives liberty?  Well, as he says, what else does a man see when he looks in a mirror but his own face?  James’ quarrel though is not with what a person finds in the mirror but with the passive (or willful) amnesia of those who peer in to the mirror.

James goes on to say that whatever a person sees in the mirror ought to be a sight which propels them out in to changed living, living which cares for orphans and widow and remains unstained from the world.   So again, what does a person see in the perfect law of liberty?

In James’ words, they will see “the message implanted within [them].”  In other words, the sight that propels those formed by Christ out into sacrificial life among the needy in the world–if they can remember what they have seen–is a clear vision of the identity they have been given, the inside job completed in Christ.

Each time I come to God, encountering him in Spirit and Word, I re-encounter myself in a new way which has the power to reshaped my life and call me back to faithfully living out my identity and life in Christ in a broken world.