There is a reason so many people grow frustrated with the Bible while others are continually transformed by it.
They are approaching the same book, yet they are not approaching it for the same purpose.
One opens the Scriptures hoping to find ammunition.
Another opens the Scriptures hoping to find truth.
One opens the Scriptures searching for verses that justify existing opinions.
Another opens the Scriptures asking God to reveal hidden faults.
One reads to expose others.
Another reads expecting to be exposed himself.
James describes the Word of God as a mirror.
“For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass.” James 1:23
The old King James word “glass” means mirror.
What a remarkable picture.
Every morning, most of us stand before a bathroom mirror.
We do not approach it expecting the mirror to reveal our neighbor’s flaws.
We do not hold it up hoping it will show us what needs fixing in our spouse, our children, our pastor, or our friends.
We look into it because we understand the purpose of a mirror is personal examination.
The mirror tells the truth.
It reveals what is there whether we welcome the revelation or not.
When approached honestly, Scripture begins exposing things we would much rather leave hidden.
Pride that looked like conviction.
Bitterness that had disguised itself as discernment.
Fear masquerading as wisdom.
Selfishness wrapped in the language of self-care.
Envy hidden beneath criticism.
Unforgiveness buried beneath years of justification.
The Word of God has a way of pulling curtains back.
“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword.” Hebrews 4:12
Notice where the sword is pointed.
The verse does not describe Scripture first cutting everyone around us.
It pierces us.
It enters the hidden chambers of our own hearts and reveals motives we did not even fully understand ourselves.
That process is often uncomfortable.
Perhaps that is why so many people prefer using the Bible as a magnifying glass.
A magnifying glass feels safer.
A magnifying glass allows us to inspect everyone else’s shortcomings.
It allows us to zoom in on someone else’s failures while remaining comfortably distracted from our own.
Human nature has always leaned this direction.
The Pharisee in Luke 18 stood praying with himself and saying,
“God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are…” Luke 18:11
What a chilling prayer.
Notice where his eyes were fixed.
Not on God.
Not on his own heart.
Not on his own need for mercy.
His attention was entirely consumed with comparing himself to others.
The publican standing nearby became his measuring stick.
The Pharisee’s confidence rested not in righteousness received from God, but in the fact that he believed himself superior to another sinner.
And while his eyes remained fixed outward, he completely missed the corruption still living within himself.
The publican, meanwhile, stood afar off and cried,
“God be merciful to me a sinner.” Luke 18:13
One man used religion to inspect another man.
The other allowed himself to be examined.
One left unchanged.
The other went home justified.
I think this danger becomes even greater for people who know their Bibles well.
Knowledge is a wonderful gift when it is accompanied by humility.
But knowledge without humility often becomes a weapon.
The longer a person studies Scripture, the greater the temptation to begin using truth primarily as a tool for evaluating everyone around them.
Suddenly every sermon applies to somebody else.
Every devotional reminds them of someone else’s shortcomings.
Every verse becomes another opportunity to diagnose the failures of family members, church members, politicians, friends, and strangers.
Meanwhile, the mirror sits forgotten.
The Pharisees knew Scripture.
They memorized it.
Studied it.
Quoted it.
Debated it.
Yet when the Living Word stood before them, they could not see their own condition.
The very Scriptures that should have humbled them instead became instruments of self-righteousness.
Christ repeatedly exposed this tendency.
“And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?” Matthew 7:3
A beam.
Not a speck.
Not a flaw requiring careful investigation.
A beam.
The imagery is almost humorous because it is so absurd.
A man carrying a massive piece of timber protruding from his own eye attempting delicate surgery on someone else’s vision.
Yet spiritually speaking, we do this all the time.
We become experts at identifying faults in others that we ourselves possess.
We become skilled at recognizing pride in others while remaining blind to our own.
We become passionate about correcting everyone else while neglecting personal repentance.
And the tragedy is that this approach completely misses one of the greatest wonders of Scripture.
Because the Bible is alive.
It is not merely information.
It is not merely doctrine.
It is not merely history.
Every time a believer opens the Word with humility, the Spirit of God begins applying eternal truth directly to the condition of that particular soul.
The same passage read a hundred times suddenly exposes something new.
The same Psalm suddenly speaks directly into a current struggle.
The same verse uncovers an area of pride that had gone unnoticed for years.
No ordinary book does this.
Fairy tales have long been fascinated with magical mirrors.
Stories are filled with mirrors that reveal hidden things, speak secret truths, or expose realities otherwise unseen.
Yet resting in the hands of every believer is something infinitely more remarkable.
A living book.
A Book that knows the condition of our hearts better than we do ourselves.
A Book that does not merely reveal what is wrong, but continually points us toward the One who can make it right.
Because the purpose of the mirror is not condemnation.
The purpose of the mirror is transformation.
God shows us our pride so we may humble ourselves.
He reveals bitterness so we may forgive.
He exposes fear so we may trust.
He uncovers sin so we may repent.
The mirror is an act of mercy.
The Lord loves His children too much to leave them unchanged.
And so every time we open the Scriptures, we would do well to begin with a simple prayer:
“Lord, show me, me.”
Not my husband.
Not my wife.
Not my children.
Not my pastor.
Not my church.
Not my neighbor.
Me.
Show me what You see.
Because the Christian who approaches Scripture that way will never run out of things to learn, things to confess, things to surrender, and reasons to marvel at the grace of God.
The mirror always has more to reveal.
And thank God it does.
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I’m in the final stages of writing
“The Quiet Heart: A Bible Study on Contentment.”
I intend to have final edits done, and the completed study ready to email out by Friday, June 19.
This is not a fluffy devotional.
This is a meaty study on a fruit of the spirit today’s culture is desperately lacking.
Study Biblical Contentment with me!
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