“For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was” (James 1:23-24).
The particular word, translated as “looks,” denotes not a passing glance, but an attentive stare. For James, the “word implanted” (v.21) becomes the mirror through which we see ourselves. Thus, an attentive reflection upon the implanted word enables one to see not only shortcomings and failures, but untapped potential and unrealized possibilities; it bears the evidence of the image of God within each of us, a living an active reminder of who we are and what we should seek to reflect.
Bobby Dagnel 