7th Dec 2008 - Reflect His glory evermore

II Corinthians 3: ¹⁸ And we who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

‘To reflect’ means to bring about a good or bad impression and to show an image of. ‘Glory’ is high renown or honour, magnificence, great beauty, a very beautiful and impressive thing.

This period of festivity is a time to reflect on the beautiful and magnificent Jesus. We can explore His person and character in His interaction with people as recorded in the bible. He is compassionate, understanding, patient, unselfish, humble, gentle, non-judgemental, wise, loving, forgiving, kind and sinless. Examples include:

·     The woman caught in the act of adultery was not condemned by Jesus but forgiven. (John 8:1-11)

·     Jesus chose to dine with Zacchaeus, a rich tax collector and a notorious sinner (Luke 19:1- 10)

·     Jesus showed compassion in the feeding of the five thousand as He was concerned that the people had not eaten. (John 6: 1-14)

·     He went beyond the boundaries of race, tradition and gender to reach the Samaritan woman at the well with the message of salvation (John 4:1-26)

Jesus instructs us in the bible on how we should be; as He was.

·     Love our enemies. (Matthew 5:43-38)

·     Do not judge others (Matthew 7:1)

·     To seek the lost (Luke 15:1-7)

We are to reflect the image of Christ and become more and more like Him. It is not easy and means we should change our attitudes to be like His (Philippians 2:5) He was God and King of kings but yet He became nothing. He did not demand His rights but instead served the people. We should be careful not to be overbearing on those we have authority over. In everything we do, we should stay away from complaining or arguing. We should live clean, innocent lives as children of God as we are constantly been watched by others (Philippians 2:14). They should be able to notice the difference in our lives and desire what we have. However, this transformation does not occur instantly but is a process that happens by the Holy Spirit as we change the way we think (Romans 12:2). We need to collaborate with the Holy Spirit to bring about this change.