Mirrors do not lie! If a person looks into a mirror, the truth is always present. No matter how a person may feel, the mirror shows the truth. Often, mirrors are quite shocking. While we may feel we look a certain a way, feelings are proven to be irrelevant through the reality of the looking glass. On different occasions, God referred to His Word as a mirror (1 Corinthians 13:12; James 1:23ff). Consequently, God’s Word is irrefutably telling indeed! It shows a person’s actual spiritual state.
Firstly, God’s mirror clearly shows the unsaved. Sadly, most everyone believes they are going to heaven. In fact, the secular criterion for entering heaven is simply to die. However, God’s mirror shows a vastly different picture. Those who reject Christ and His Gospel will be in serious trouble at the judgment (John 12:48). If a person has not obeyed God’s plan of salvation, he or she is “without God” and “without Christ” (Ephesians 2:12). The truth that God’s mirror clearly shows is that most people are in fact lost (Matthew 7:21ff; Romans 3:23; 6:23). While most people do not “feel” lost, the Divine looking glass shows quite a different picture!
Secondly, God’s mirror visibly shows the unfaithful. For many Christians faithfulness is only determined by their attendance record at the assembly. While it is true that the faithful regularly attend the services of the church (Matthew 6:33), faithfulness is not based solely on attendance. Far too many Christians attend regularly, but they never take the time to teach their relatives or neighbors the saving Gospel. How many “faithful attendees” gossip about their brethren on a regular basis? Unfaithful people are exposed by God’s mirror and surely include those who lack love and compassion for others (1 Corinthians 13:1ff), and they never exhort and encourage their fellow brethren (Hebrews 10:23ff). Unfaithfulness is clearly exposed by the Divine looking glass as those who fail to grow and mature in the faith (Hebrews 5:12ff; 2 Peter 3:18). Although many “feel” that they are faithful, God’s mirror shows the clear truth!
Thirdly, God’s mirror plainly shows the unfruitful. The church was never established to merely “keep house”! Sadly, far too many congregations of God’s people are merely content to maintain. The Divine looking glass shows that our early brethren “turned the world upside down” (Acts 17:6). Instead of “tolerating” sin and deprivation our brethren of old “troubled the city” (Acts 16:20). A congregation must be busy spreading God’s Word! It is not enough for a congregation to simply inhabit a plot of land in a community. Ask yourself regarding the place where you worship the following: “How much actual outreach are we involved in?” Also ask, “How much fruit have we actually borne in the past five years?” Ironically, many congregations have a list of “activities” that benefit the members socially (dinners, country trips, zoo trips, etc.), but those same groups have little to nothing regarding activities to spread the Gospel (radio programs, door-knocking campaigns, newspaper articles, billboards, etc.). Fruit bearing is not optional!
Although we may not like what we see standing before a mirror, the truth is helpful and useful. The same is true of God’s mirror. It exposes the areas wherein we must change. Heaven awaits those who honestly look into God’s mirror and make the proper adjustments. “But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed” (James 1:25). Dear friend, look closely!
