MAN IN THE MIRROR

“Man in the Mirror” by Michael Jackson is the greatest secular song ever recorded, in my opinion. The hardest man to change is the man in the mirror. And he’s the one we so often don’t want to focus on changing. It’s much easier to tell others what to do and how they need to change than it is to change ourselves. But the Bible says, “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves” (2 Cor. 13:5). We should examine ourselves with much more scrutiny than we do others.

Everyone sins and everyone sins in many ways (James 3:2). If we act as though we never make mistakes, we are deceiving no one but ourselves (1 John 1:6-10). God’s promise is that if we confess our sins, he will forgive us. The reason we need to spend more time examining ourselves than we do examining others is because of our own failures and imperfections. Getting the plank out of our own eye is much more difficult than trying to get the speck out of our brother’s eye. It’s painful to be honest about your own sins. It soothing to focus on someone else’s.

Christians are called to a high quality of life and service. Because we belong to Christ, we should be a reflection of him. We have been rescued from the devil to proclaim the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. Jesus is the reason for our salvation, and he deserves our very best.