On Saturday, May 30, 2026 I sat down to do my daily Bible study. The passages that were to be read that day were Proverbs 11, 12 & 13. These chapters talk a lot about pride, humility and wisdom. The Bible I use has a short commentary each day dealing with what will be read and this is part of what it said: “The writer contrasts those who walk in wisdom with those who lack wisdom: the upright, blameless, and merciful versus the unfaithful, unjust, hypocritical, ruthless, and ungodly. These descriptors grab our attention and sink into our hearts as we seek to understand ourselves and others. God’s Word functions as a mirror to reveal unrighteous urges that lurk in our hearts.” *
The next day, May 31, the passages to read were Proverbs 14, 15 & 16 and this is a portion of what the commentary had to say that day: “The book of Proverbs operates as both a mirror and a window. As a mirror, these sayings often reflect back who we are as we relate to God and others. As a window, they provide a righteous vision for our plans, work, paths, and pursuits.” *
So I sat there thinking to myself I should consider writing a blog with the title Mirror…Mirror based on those comments. Very soon that idea was cemented into my mind, because…
Later that same morning, I sat in my church and our Pastor had a prop brought onto the stage – guess what it was…a full-length mirror! And, he used that mirror prop several times to make a point during his sermon. For the current series he is teaching, he uses the KJV, but I like this translation for the scripture reading he used – James 1:19-27 (ERV): “My dear brothers and sisters, always be more willing to listen than to speak. Keep control of your anger. Anger does not help you live the way God wants. So get rid of everything evil in your lives—every kind of wrong you do. Be humble and accept God’s teaching that is planted in your hearts. This teaching can save you. Do what God’s teaching says; don’t just listen and do nothing. When you only sit and listen, you are fooling yourselves. Hearing God’s teaching and doing nothing is like looking at your face in the mirror and doing nothing about what you saw. You go away and immediately forget how bad you looked. But when you look into God’s perfect law that sets people free, pay attention to it. If you do what it says, you will have God’s blessing. Never just listen to his teaching and forget what you heard. You might think you are a very religious person. But if your tongue is out of control, you are fooling yourself. Your careless talk makes your offerings to God worthless. The worship that God wants is this: caring for orphans or widows who need help and keeping yourself free from the world’s evil influence. This is the kind of worship that God accepts as pure and good.”
From the sermon, I will quote some things, paraphrase other things, as well as interject some of my own thoughts. The pastor spoke about how each day before we leave our house we’ll stand in front of a mirror and “address all the physical flaws”. Most, if not all of us, wouldn’t leave to go out and face the world without doing that first. However, he said, in that Bible passage, James indicates that people that “look into a spiritual mirror” seeing all of their spiritual flaws that need to be fixed then turn and walk away without addressing them, even forgetting them, is like that person that looks in the mirror and sees themself, then walks away immediately forgetting how bad they looked and not addressing those “flaws” that should be fixed before presenting ourselves to the world.
He challenged us to look into our own spiritual mirrors and focus on the areas that need our attention, because…“Everything that we do as Christians becomes an example to the world of what Christ is like.” “Our world judges Christ through the behavior of Christians.”
You know, looking in a mirror and seeing flaws then walking away is something that a younger child might do – because they are immature. They don’t have a clear understanding of what’s expected of them and because of that immaturity it can be overlooked by the world – maybe even viewed as cute. But, if we, as supposedly mature, spiritual adults look in our spiritual mirror and walk away without taking care of business, so to speak, it most definitely is not cute and can be a negative reflection of our Lord to the world and hinder our life as well.
As Christians, we can’t go through life just hearing the Word but we must learn to DO the Word – and that will likely mean working on those flaws we see in our spiritual mirror. We shouldn’t hear the Word and get upset – we should change. “When the Word is spoken it makes religious people mad and Godly people change.” So I ask you – are you “religious” or are you “Godly”?
We shouldn’t just hear the Word and do nothing – we should apply that Word to our lives. And, we shouldn’t hear the Word then deceive us into believing our sinful ways can be twisted in such a way to fit our lifestyle, if it doesn’t line up with God’s Word.
God’s Word is always going to reflect the truth to us. What do you see in your spiritual mirror? Don’t ignore the flaws – be honest with yourself then partner with the Holy Spirit and start addressing them. “Show up and grow up!”
Let God’s Word function as that spiritual mirror for you – let it reflect back to you how you are relating to God and to others – don’t walk away and forget those flaws that need to be fixed. As we change we can become like a mirror that reflects our Lord: “But we Christians have no veil over our faces; we can be mirrors that brightly reflect the glory of the Lord. And as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him.” (2 Corinthians 3:18 TLB)
Written by Karran Martin – June 11, 2026
*The One Year Chronological Study Bible – NLT – Tyndale
[All bold emphasis is mine]
Karran's Korner 