God’s Word is the true source of an image of a righteous man or woman. Slave owners in America in the early 1800s knew that people would not be slaves if they could read for themselves what God said about them, so they passed laws forbidding slaves to be taught to read and write.

Learning to read was the first step toward grasping President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. It was also the first step toward knowing God’s proclamation of a new position in Christ! James 1:23–24 (NLT 1996) says, “If you just listen and don’t obey, it is like looking at your face in a mirror but doing nothing to improve your appearance. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like.”