“And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” 2 Corinthians 3:18 ESV
Reflection: when you look in the mirror, what do you see?
Most people have a mirror in front of their bathroom sink. But, if you think about it, the location of this mirror might not be the best. What I mean is that, we typically see ourselves twice in that mirror during the day; first when we get up in the morning, and then before we go to bed. Not sure about you, but the first image I see in the morning seems to be a bit groggy from sleep. And the second one, also being tired and ready to go to sleep. Since the mirror doesn’t lie, doesn’t that mean that the person we see is tired all the time? Thankfully not. It might take us a bit to “wake up” (some longer than others), to be alert and feel ready to meet the day, we do eventually get there and the image in the mirror looks a bit better if we check then.
But what else do we see in this mirror? If we look a bit deeper?
James wrote “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.”James 1:22-25 ESV. He is talking about the “spiritual reflection” of ourselves in the metaphorical “mirror” of God’s word. The word of God challenges us when we read it, and allow it to enter in, “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12 ESV
The first image we see in the mirror of God’s word is ourselves. It is not good. We can try to improve our look, but somehow it still doesn’t measure up.
But then we start realizing that there is another image in that mirror. A reflection of who we were created to be. We dimly see the glory of Christ, beautiful, pure and holy. And we deeply desire to be just like that, if we only could. In our focus verse today, we see Paul writing about this to the Corinthians, saying “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.” 2 Corinthians 3:18a ESV. Did you see that? By beholding, looking at the glory of Jesus in that mirror of God’s word, we not only start to see him more clearly, but we also are being transformed “one degree of glory” at a time. Becoming more like Jesus each time we behold him. It sounds great, you might say, but how can that happen? How can this broken, sinful heart become more like Jesus? Paul writes, it is not our doing,
“For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” 2 Corinthians 3:18b ESV
It is the work of the Holy Spirit. All we have to do is to stare at the second image in the mirror; the one we want to become. To stare at Jesus. He will transform us, little by little, to be like himself. To become who we were created to be.