Andras Tamas is the name officials gave a certain man decades ago in a Russian psychiatric hospital. He’d been drafted into the army, but the authorities had mistaken his native Hungarian language for the gibberish of a lunatic and had him committed.

Then they forgot about him. For 53 years.

A few years ago a psychiatrist at the hospital began to realize what had happened and helped Tamas recover the memories of who he was and where he came from. He recently returned home to Budapest as a war hero, “the last prisoner of World War II.”

Not only had this man forgotten his real name, he hadn’t even seen his own face in five decades. So, according to one news account, “For hours, the old man studies the face in a mirror. The deep-set eyes. The gray stubble on the chin. The furrows of the brow. It is his face, but it is a startling revelation.”

Imagine looking at your own face in a mirror and not recognizing it. James 1:22-25 says that is just what people are doing when they listen to God’s Word but do not obey it. There, right before their eyes in Scripture, is an accurate reflection of themselves. But they don’t truly see—with the eyes of their hearts—what the Bible shows them.

1. If you must envy, envy the woman who hugged the feet of the eternal God, or envy the children He held in His arms.
2. If you must steal, steal more time away from your daily routine and spend it with Jesus.
3. If you must murder, work on crucifying the “old man” who lives inside each born-again believer.[Caution: The old reprobate is extremely hard to kill and does not tend to stay dead very long.]
4. If you must lie, tell the “old man” he can do as he pleases today.
5. If you must be a man of strife, put on the whole armor of God and remember that we war not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, and against spiritual wickedness in high places.
6. If you must “get high” be intoxicated with the Holy Spirit.
7. If you must fear, fear that within yourself which can cause you to fall.
8. If you must be angry, rage against those sin-weaknesses in yourself.
9. If you must covet, covet those things that be of God: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance.
10. If you must hate, hate the works of the flesh: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, drunkenness, revellings, etc.
11. If you must be overly ambitious, reach for a star: ” … To him who overcomes, I will give the Morning Star.” (Rev. 2:26, 28).
12. If you must be lazy, lie down in His green pastures and walk beside His still waters.
13. If you must be shameless, walk this earth boldly, having no shame of your King or His gospel.
14. If you must be gluttonous, open your mouth wide for God to fill. (Psalm 81:10)
15. If you must be stubborn, trust in the Lord and you’ll be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but which abides forever.
16. If you must be nosy, poke your nose into the gospel of Christ, which is something angels desire to look into. (I Peter 1:12)