Crosstalk: The perfect law of liberty
As a child, I remember my aunt looking in a mirror and saying "They don't make mirrors like they used to!" Now, being the age she was then, I understand why this made others laugh. It was her reflection that had changed, not the mirror... Josephine Burtenshaw writes.
In the Epistle of James, chapter 1, verses 23-24, he explains what our response to "the perfect law of liberty" should be. Our true Christian identity is to reflect the love, grace, mercy, forgiveness, kindness and goodness of God into a world that needs to hear the Good News of the Gospel which Christ perfected by His suffering and death on Calvary's cross.
James describes a man who fails to do this as one who after considering his own reflection in a mirror, then turns away and forgets what he looks like - becoming somebody who only hears the Word of God but fails to act on it. We are not just called to be hearers of the Word, but to be those who practice it. God's word equips us for this life and the future, enabling us to reflect the Heart of God into a broken world. It also gives us the opportunity to transform our own lives, as well as others, by reflecting the truth of God's Word, in which there is no distortion, only the beauty of God's Heart of Love for a lost world, which He longs to save, through those He has called to be His image-bearers.
Josephine Burtenshaw, Barnabas Church, Shrewsbury
