Therefore, putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with humility the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deluding your own selves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his natural face in a mirror;
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So, then, my beloved brothers, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger; for the anger of man doesn’t produce the righteousness of God. Therefore, putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with humility the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deluding your own selves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his natural face in a mirror; for he sees himself, and goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of freedom and continues, not being a hearer who forgets, but a doer of the work, this man will be blessed in what he does.
Parallel Translations
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Therefore, putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with humility the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
But be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deluding your own selves.
For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his natural face in a mirror;
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Wherfore laye a parte all fylthynes all superfluite of maliciousnes and receave with meknes the worde that is grafted in you which is able to save youre soules.
And se that ye be doars of the worde and not hearers only deceavinge youre awne selves with sophistrie
For yf eny heare the worde and do it not he is lyke vnto a man that beholdeth his bodyly face in a glasse.
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Wherefore lay apart all filthinesse, and superfluitie of maliciousnesse, and receiue with meekenes the word that is graffed in you, which is able to saue your soules.
And be ye doers of the word, and not hearers onely, deceiuing your owne selues.
For if any heare the woorde, and doe it not, he is like vnto a man, that beholdeth his naturall face in a glasse.
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Cross-references (68)
- Romans 2:13 (v22) For it isn’t the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified
- Luke 6:46-48 (v22) “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and don’t do the things which I say? Everyone who comes to me, and hears my words, and does them, I will…
- John 13:17 (v22) If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
- James 4:17 (v22) To him therefore who knows to do good, and doesn’t do it, to him it is sin.
- 1 John 2:3 (v22) This is how we know that we know him: if we keep his commandments.
Show all 68 cross-references
- Luke 11:28 (v22) But he said, “On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God, and keep it.”
- Ephesians 4:22 (v21) that you put away, as concerning your former way of life, the old man that grows corrupt after the lusts of deceit,
- James 2:14-20 (v22) What good is it, my brothers, if a man says he has faith, but has no works? Can faith save him? And if a brother or sister is naked and in…
- Matthew 12:50 (v22) For whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother.”
- Matthew 7:26-27 (v23) Everyone who hears these words of mine, and doesn’t do them will be like a foolish man, who built his house on the sand. The rain came…
- Colossians 3:17 (v22) Whatever you do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father, through him.
- Matthew 7:21-27 (v22) Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.…
- Ephesians 1:13 (v21) In him you also, having heard the word of the truth, the Good News of your salvation—in whom, having also believed, you were sealed with…
- 1 Peter 2:11 (v21) Beloved, I beg you as foreigners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;
- John 6:63 (v21) It is the spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and are life.
- James 1:26 (v22) If anyone among you thinks himself to be religious while he doesn’t bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this man’s religion is…
- Revelation 22:7 (v22) “Behold, I come quickly. Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.”
- 1 John 3:7 (v22) Little children, let no one lead you astray. He who does righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.
- Psalms 25:9 (v21) He will guide the humble in justice. He will teach the humble his way.
- Galatians 6:7 (v22) Don’t be deceived. God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.
- Colossians 3:5-8 (v21) Put to death therefore your members which are on the earth: sexual immorality, uncleanness, depraved passion, evil desire, and…
- James 2:14-26 (v23) What good is it, my brothers, if a man says he has faith, but has no works? Can faith save him? And if a brother or sister is naked and in…
- Ezekiel 33:31-32 (v23) They come to you as the people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear your words, but don’t do them; for with their…
- Luke 12:47-48 (v22) That servant, who knew his lord’s will, and didn’t prepare, nor do what he wanted, will be beaten with many stripes, but he who didn’t…
- 1 Peter 2:1 (v21) Putting away therefore all wickedness, all deceit, hypocrisies, envies, and all evil speaking,
- 3 John 1:11 (v22) Beloved, don’t imitate that which is evil, but that which is good. He who does good is of God. He who does evil hasn’t seen God.
- Luke 6:47 (v23) Everyone who comes to me, and hears my words, and does them, I will show you who he is like.
- Hebrews 12:1 (v21) Therefore let’s also, seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily…
- James 4:8 (v21) Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded.
- Galatians 6:3 (v22) For if a man thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
- Matthew 28:20 (v22) teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
- 1 Corinthians 6:9 (v22) Or don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s Kingdom? Don’t be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor…
- 1 John 1:8 (v22) If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
- Jeremiah 44:16 (v23) “As for the word that you have spoken to us in Yahweh’s name, we will not listen to you.
- 2 Timothy 3:15-17 (v21) From infancy, you have known the holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus.…
- Titus 2:11 (v21) For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men,
- Isaiah 29:19 (v21) The humble also will increase their joy in Yahweh, and the poor among men will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
- Romans 6:17 (v21) But thanks be to God, that, whereas you were bondservants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you…
- Philippians 4:8 (v22) Finally, brothers, whatever things are true, whatever things are honorable, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever…
- Hebrews 4:2 (v21) For indeed we have had good news preached to us, even as they also did, but the word they heard didn’t profit them, because it wasn’t mixed…
- John 6:68 (v21) Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life.
- Romans 1:16 (v21) For I am not ashamed of the Good News of Christ, because it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first,…
- 1 Corinthians 15:2 (v21) by which also you are saved, if you hold firmly the word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
- 1 Corinthians 15:33 (v22) Don’t be deceived! “Evil companionships corrupt good morals.”
- 2 Corinthians 7:1 (v21) Having therefore these promises, beloved, let’s cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear…
- Hebrews 2:3 (v21) how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation—which at the first having been spoken through the Lord, was confirmed to us by those…
- Isaiah 61:1 (v21) The Lord Yahweh’s Spirit is on me, because Yahweh has anointed me to preach good news to the humble. He has sent me to bind up the broken…
- 1 Thessalonians 2:13 (v21) For this cause we also thank God without ceasing, that when you received from us the word of the message of God, you accepted it not as the…
- 2 Peter 2:13 (v22) receiving the wages of unrighteousness; people who count it pleasure to revel in the daytime, spots and defects, reveling in their deceit…
- Isaiah 2:20 (v21) In that day, men shall cast away their idols of silver and their idols of gold, which have been made for themselves to worship, to the…
- Isaiah 30:22 (v21) You shall defile the overlaying of your engraved images of silver, and the plating of your molten images of gold. You shall cast them away…
- Ezekiel 18:31 (v21) Cast away from you all your transgressions, in which you have transgressed; and make yourself a new heart and a new spirit: for why will…
- Obadiah 1:3 (v22) The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who dwell in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high, who says in his heart, ‘Who…
- Matthew 5:5 (v21) Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.
- Acts 13:26 (v21) Brothers, children of the stock of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, the word of this salvation is sent out to you.
- Romans 11:17 (v21) But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the…
- Titus 3:3 (v22) For we were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating…
- Revelation 12:9 (v22) The great dragon was thrown down, the old serpent, he who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown…
- Isaiah 44:20 (v22) He feeds on ashes. A deceived heart has turned him aside; and he can’t deliver his soul, nor say, “Isn’t there a lie in my right hand?”
- Ezekiel 36:25 (v21) I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness, and from all your idols.
- Zephaniah 2:3 (v21) Seek Yahweh, all you humble of the land, who have kept his ordinances. Seek righteousness. Seek humility. It may be that you will be hidden…
- Acts 10:33 (v21) Therefore I sent to you at once, and it was good of you to come. Now therefore we are all here present in the sight of God to hear all…
- 2 Timothy 3:13 (v22) But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
- 1 Corinthians 3:18 (v22) Let no one deceive himself. If anyone thinks that he is wise among you in this world, let him become a fool, that he may become wise.
- Ephesians 5:4 (v21) nor filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not appropriate, but rather giving of thanks.
- 1 Thessalonians 1:5 (v21) and that our Good News came to you not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and with much assurance. You know what kind…
- 1 Peter 1:9 (v21) receiving the result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
- Romans 13:12-13 (v21) The night is far gone, and the day is near. Let’s therefore throw off the deeds of darkness, and let’s put on the armor of light. Let’s…
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (24 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv21–23 21 Wherefore lay apart. He concludes by saying how…
21 Wherefore lay apart. He concludes by saying how the word of life is to be received. And first, indeed, he intimates that it cannot be rightly received except it be implanted, or strike roots in us. For the expression, to receive the implanted word, ought to be thus explained, “to receive it, that it may be really implanted.” For he alludes to seed often sown on and ground, and not received into the moist bosom of the earth; or to plants, which being cast on the ground, or laid on dead wood, soon wither. He then requires that it should be a living implanting, by which the word becomes as it were united with our heart.
He at the same time shews the way and manner of this reception, even with meekness. By this word he means humility and the readiness of a mind disposed to learn, such as Isaiah describes when he says,
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“On whom does my Spirit rest, except on the humble and meek?” (Isaiah 57:15.)
Hence it is, that so far profit in the school of God, because hardly one in a hundred renounces the stubbornness of his own spirit, and gently submits to God; but almost all are conceited and refractory. But if we desire to be the living plantation of God, we must subdue our proud hearts and be humble, and labor to become like lambs, so as to suffer ourselves to be ruled and guided by our Shepherd.
But as men are never thus tamed, so as to have a calm and meek heart, except they are purged from depraved affections, so he bids us to lay aside uncleanness and redundancy of wickedness. And as James borrowed a comparison from agriculture, it was necessary for him to observe this order, to begin by rooting up noxious weeds. And since he addressed all, we may hence conclude that these are the innate evils of our nature, and that they cleave to us all; yea, since he addresses the faithful, he shews that we are never wholly cleansed from them in this life, but that they are continually sprouting up, and therefore he requires that care should be constantly taken to eradicate them. As the word of God is especially a holy thing; to be fitted to receive it, we must put off the filthy things by which we have been polluted.
Under the word κακία, he comprehends hypocrisy and obstinacy as well as unlawful desires or lusts. Not satisfied with specifying the seat of wickedness as being in the soul of man, he teaches us that so abounding is the wickedness that dwells there, that it overflows, or that it rises up as it were into a heap; and doubtless, whosoever will well examine himself will find that there is within him an immense chaos of evils.
Which is able to save. It is a high eulogy on heavenly truth, that we obtain through it a sure salvation; and this is added, that we may learn to seek and love and magnify the word as a treasure that is incomparable. It is then a sharp goad to chastise our idleness, when he says that the word which we are wont to hear so negligently, is the means of our salvation, though for this purpose the power of saving is not ascribed to the word, as if salvation is conveyed by the external sound of the word, or as if the office of saving is taken away from God and transferred elsewhere; for James speaks of the word which by faith penetrates into the hearts of men, and only intimates that God, the author of salvation, conveys it by his Gospel.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv21–23 By meekness, he meaneth modesty, and whatsoever is contrary…
By meekness, he meaneth modesty, and whatsoever is contrary to an haughty and proud stomach.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv21–23 21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of…
21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
Ver. 21. All filthiness] Gr. ρυπαριαν, the stinking filth of a pestilent ulcer. Sin is the devil’s vomit, the soul’s excrement, the superfluity or garbage of naughtiness, περισσειαν, as it is here called by an allusion to the garbage of the sacrifices cast into the brook Kedron, that is, into the town ditch. Retentio excrementorum est parens morborum. Out with it, therefore. Some say that the word rendered filthiness, properly signifies "the filth under the nails and armholes;" but translated to the mind, it signifies covetousness, as sordes in Latin; but here any kind of sin, especially inward, as superfluity may note outward evils, that do superfluere, float at top.
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Receive with meekness] It is ill sowing in a storm: so a stormy spirit will not suffer the word to take place.
The engrafted word] εμφυτος, engrafted upon the heart, as the scion upon the stock, or sowed in the soul, and mingled with faith, that it may bring forth fruit to God.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv21–23 Wherefore lay apart; not only restrain it, and keep…
Wherefore lay apart; not only restrain it, and keep it in; but put off, and throw it away as a filthy rag, Isa 30:22; see Eph 4:22; Col 3:8; 1Pe 2:1.
All, of every kind.
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Filthiness; or, sordidness; a metaphor borrowed from the filth of the body, 1Pe 3:21, and thence transferred to the soul; and it here seems to imply, not only sensuality or covetousness, but all sorts of lusts, whereby men are defiled, 2Co 7:1; 2Pe 2:20.
And superfluity of naughtiness; i.e. that naughtiness which is superfluous. That is said to be superfluous or redundant, which is more than should be in a thing; in which respect all sin is superfluous in the soul, as being that which should not be in it: and so this intimates that we are not only to lay apart more gross pollutions, but all the lusts of the flesh, and relics of old Adam, as being all superfluities which may well be spared, or excrements, (as some render the word, agreeably to the former metaphor), which should be cast away.
And receive; not only into your heads by knowledge, but into your hearts by faith.
With meekness; with humility, modesty, and gentleness, which makes men submissive to the truth of the word, and ready to learn of God even those things which are above their natural capacity, Psa 25:9; Isa 66:2; Mat 11:5,27; this is opposed to wrath, which makes men unteachable.
The ingrafted word; either which is ingrafted or implanted, viz. ministerially, by the preachers of the gospel, 1Co 3:6,7; principally by the Spirit of God, who writes it in the heart, Jer 31:33. And thus it may be taken particularly for the word of the gospel, in opposition to the law, which came to men’s ears from without, and admonished them of their duty, but was not written in their hearts, or ingrafted thereto from them unto obedience to it. Or, that it may be ingrafted, i.e. intimately united to, or rooted in, the heart by a vital union; or made natural to it, (as some render the word), the heart being transformed by the power of it, and conformed to the precepts of it, 2Co 3:18; Rom 6:17.
Which, viz. when received by faith, is able to save, instrumentally, as being the means wherein God puts forth his power in saving them, Rev 1:16.
Your souls; yourselves; the soul, as the noblest part, is by a synecdoche put for the whole person: see 1Pe 1:9.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv21, 23 These words are a direction given for the right…
These words are a direction given for the right hearing of, and due profiting by the word of God.
In order to the former, our apostle shews, 1. What we must lay aside, namely, all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness; that is, all sensual lusts, and angry passions.
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And, 2. Receive with meekness, calmness, and submission, the engrafted word; that is, the word planted and sown in our hearts by the hands of Christ’s ministers: which is able to save our souls, that is, from hell and damnation; yet does not the word save of itself, but God by the word; the power of the word is not intrinsical, but extrinsical, derived from God, whose the word is.
Learn hence, 1. That as all sin in general, so anger, wrath, and malice in particular, ought to be laid aside by us at all times, but then especially when we go forth to hear the word of God.
Learn, 2. That the word must be received with all meekness of spirit, if we would hear it with profit and advantage; there must not be found with us either a wrathful fierceness, or a proud stubbornness, or a contentious wrangling, but humility and brokenness of spirit, dociblilty and tractableness of spirit, under the word, otherwise all our hearing will be an addition to our sin, and an aggravation of our condemnation.
Learn, 3. That he word must not only be apprehended and received by us, but implanted and engrafted in us, or it will never be able to save our souls; receive the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
Quest. But how may we know when the word is an engrafted word?
Ans. When it is a fruitful word, The word of the truth of the gospel is come unto you, and bringeth forth fruit Col 1:6.
Learn, 4. Though hearing of the word be a duty, yet it must not be rested in; be hearers, but not only hearers. Alas! bare hearing of the word is the least part of Christianity, and the lightest part of Christianity; though we be intelligent hearers, though we be very diligent and attentive hearers, though we be affectionate hearers, yea, though we make great proficiency in knowlege by our hearing, yet all this will deceive us at last, if nothing farther be added to it.
Therefore, learn, 5. That the doers of the word are the best hearers, yea, the only hearers in God’s account: not to hear at all is atheistical, and produces no religion; to hear, and not to know and be affected with what we hear, is stoical, and breeds a blind religion; to know, and not to do, is Pharisaical, and breeds a lame religion; the practical hearer is the only approved hearer in the account of God: A good understanding have they that do they commandments, Psa 111:10.
Lastly, without this, all our hearing is but self-deceiving; and this is the most shameful deceit, the most dangerous deceit, and, if timely care and endeavours prevent not, an irreparable and eternal deceit: Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv22–23 But be ye doers of the word,.... And they…
But be ye doers of the word,.... And they are such, who spiritually understand it; gladly receive it; and from the heart obey it, and make a sincere and ingenuous profession of it; and who submit to the ordinances it directs to, and keep them as they have been delivered; and live, and walk, becoming their profession of it. The Arabic and Ethiopic versions read, "be ye doers of the law"; and so one of Stephens's copies, as in Rom 2:13
and not hearers only; though the word should be heard swiftly and readily, and received with meekness; yet it should not be barely heard, and assented to; but what is heard should be put in practice; and especially men should not depend upon their hearing, as if that would save them; this is deceiving your own selves; such as rest upon the outward hearing of the word will be sadly deceived, and will find themselves miserably mistaken, another day; see Luk 13:25. Arguments taken from hence are like the sophisms, paralogisms, and false reasonings of sophisters, which carry a fair show, and ensnare and deceive.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv21, 23 Therefore laying aside - As a dirty garment. All…
Therefore laying aside - As a dirty garment. All the filthiness and superfluity of wickedness - For however specious or necessary it may appear to worldly wisdom, all wickedness is both vile, hateful, contemptible, and really superfluous. Every reasonable end may be effectually answered without any kind or degree of it. Lay this, every known sin, aside, or all your hearing is vain. With meekness - Constant evenness and serenity of mind. Receive - Into your ears, your heart, your life. The word - Of the gospel. Ingrafted - In believers, by regeneration, ver. 18 and by habit, Heb. v, 14. Which is able to save your souls - The hope of salvation nourishes meekness.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv21–23 Verse 21. All filthiness] πασαν ροπαριαν. This word signifies…
Verse 21. All filthiness] πασαν ροπαριαν. This word signifies any impurity that cleaves to the body; but applied to the mind, it implies all impure and unholy affections, such as those spoken of Jas 1:15, which pollute the soul; in this sense it is used by the best Greek writers.
Superfluity of naughtiness] περισσειαν κακιας. The overflowing of wickedness. Perhaps there is an allusion here to the part cut off in circumcision, which was the emblem of impure desire; and to lessen that propensity, God, in his mercy, enacted this rite. Put all these evil dispositions aside, for they blind the soul, and render it incapable of receiving any good, even from that ingrafted word of God which otherwise would have saved their souls.
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The ingrafted word] That doctrine which has already been planted among you, which has brought forth fruit in all them that have meekly and humbly received it, and is as powerful to save your souls as the souls of those who have already believed. I think this to be the meaning of εμφυτον λογον, the ingrafted word or doctrine. The seed of life had been sown in the land; many of them had received it to their salvation; others had partially credited it, but not so as to produce in them any saving effects. Besides, they appear to have taken up with other doctrines, from which they had got no salvation; he therefore exhorts them to receive the doctrine of Christ, which would be the means of saving them unto eternal life. And when those who were Jews, and who had been originally planted by God as altogether a right vine, received the faith of the Gospel, it is represented as being ingrafted on that right stock, the pure knowledge of the true God and his holy moral law. This indeed was a good stock on which to implant Christianity. This appears to be what the apostle means by the ingrafted word, which is able to save the soul.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv21–23 Jas 1:21. Wherefore — Because wrath is such a…
Jas 1:21. Wherefore — Because wrath is such a hinderance to true religion, and you are regenerated; lay apart — As you would a dirty garment; all filthiness — Every kind of sin which is of a defiling nature. The word ρυπαρια, here used, signifies filthiness adhering to the body. When, as here, applied to the mind, it denotes those lusts and appetites, and other sins which defile the soul, particularly those which are gratified by gluttony, drunkenness, and uncleanness; vices to which many Jews, pretending to be teachers, were addicted; and superfluity of naughtiness — Κακιας, maliciousness, or wickedness of any sort; for however specious and necessary it may appear to worldly wisdom, it is vile, hateful, contemptible, and really superfluous: every reasonable end may be effectually answered without any kind or degree of it. Lay this, every known sin, aside by the grace of God, or all your hearing is vain; and receive — Into your ears, your heart, your life; with meekness — Constant evenness and serenity of mind, or with an humble, submissive frame of spirit; the ingrafted word — The word of the gospel, ingrafted in penitent, believing souls by regeneration, (Jas 1:18,) and by habit, (Heb 5:14,) through the influence of God’s Spirit attending the ministry of your teachers, 1Co 3:5-6. Which is able to save your souls — As a means appointed by God for that end, and when received by faith, Heb 4:2.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv21–23 Wherefore - In view of the fact that God…
Wherefore - In view of the fact that God has begotten us for his own service; in view of the fact that excited feeling tends only to wrong, let us lay aside all that is evil, and submit ourselves wholly to the influence of truth.
Lay apart all filthiness - The word here rendered filthiness, occurs nowhere else in the New Testament, It means properly filth; and then is applied to evil conduct considered as disgusting or offensive. Sin may be contemplated as a wrong thing; as a violation of law; as evil in its nature and tendency, and therefore to be avoided; or it may be contemplated as disgusting, offensive, loathsome. To a pure mind, this is one of its most odious characteristics; for, to such a mind, sin in any form is more loathsome than the most offensive object can be to any of the senses.
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And superfluity of haughtiness - Literally, “abounding of evil.” It is rendered by Doddridge, “overflowing of malignity;” by Tindal, “superfluity of maliciousness;” by Benson, “superfluity of malice;” by Bloomfield, “petulance.” The phrase “superfluity of haughtiness,” or of evil, does not exactly express the sense, as if we were only to lay aside that which abounded, or which is superfluous, though we might retain that which does not come under this description; but the object of the apostle is to express his deep abhorrence of the thing referred to by strong and emphatic language. He had just spoken of sin in one aspect, as filthy, loathsome, detestable; here he designs to express his abhorrence of it by a still more emphatic description, and he speaks of it not merely as an evil, but as an evil abounding, overflowing; an evil in the highest degree. The thing referred to had the essence of evil in it (κακία kakia); but it was not merely evil, it was evil that was aggravated, that was overflowing, that was eminent in degree (περισσείαν perisseian). The particular reference in these passages is to the reception of the truth; and the doctrine taught is, that a corrupt mind, a mind full of sensuality and wickedness, is not favorable to the reception of the truth. It is not fitted to see its beauty, to appreciate its value, to understand its just claims, or to welcome it to the soul. Purity of heart is the best preparation always for seeing the force of truth.
And receive with meekness - That is, open the mind and heart to instruction, and to the fair influence of truth. Meekness, gentleness, docility, are everywhere required in receiving the instructions of religion, as they are in obtaining knowledge of any kind. See the notes at Mat 18:2-3.
The engrafted word - The gospel is here represented under the image of that which is implanted or engrafted from another source; by a figure that would be readily understood, for the art of engrafting is everywhere known. Sometimes the gospel is represented under the image of seed sown (Compare Mar 6:14, following); but here it is under the figure of a shoot implanted or engrafted, that produces fruit of its own, whatever may be the original character of the tree into which it is engrafted. Compare the notes at Rom 11:17. The meaning here is, that we should allow the principles of the gospel to be thus engrafted on our nature; that however crabbed or perverse our nature may be, or however bitter and vile the fruits which it might bring forth of its own accord, it might, through the engrafted word, produce the fruits of righteousness.
Which is able to save your souls - It is not, therefore, a weak and powerless thing, merely designed to show its own feebleness, and to give occasion for God to work a miracle; but it has power, and is adapted to save. Compare the notes at Rom 1:16; 1Co 1:18; 2Ti 3:15.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv21, 23 All uncleanness.[8] The Greek shews that hereby is meant…
All uncleanness.[8] The Greek shews that hereby is meant a sordid, filthy uncleanness, infecting and defiling the soul. --- The engrafted [9] word. The word and doctrine of Christ, by the labours of his preachers, and chiefly by his divine grace engrafted and fixed in your souls. (Witham)
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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]
Immunditiam, Greek: ruparian, from Greek: rupos, sordes, spurcitia.
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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]
Insitum verbum, Greek: emphuton logon.
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George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv21–23 lay apart--"once for all" (so the Greek): as a…
lay apart--"once for all" (so the Greek): as a filthy garment. Compare Joshua's filthy garments, Zac 3:3, Zac 3:5; Rev 7:14. "Filthiness" is cleansed away by hearing the word (Joh 15:3).
superfluity of naughtiness--excess (for instance, the intemperate spirit implied in "wrath," Jam 1:19-20), which arises from malice (our natural, evil disposition towards one another). Pe1 2:1 has the very same words in the Greek. So "malice" is the translation, Eph 4:31; Col 3:8. "Faulty excess" [BENGEL] is not strong enough. Superfluous excess in speaking is also reprobated as "coming of evil" (the Greek is akin to the word for "naughtiness" here) in the Sermon on the Mount (Mat 5:37), with which James' Epistle is so connected.
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with meekness--in mildness towards one another [ALFORD], the opposite to "wrath" (Jam 1:20): answering to "as new-born babes" (Pe1 2:2). Meekness, I think, includes also a childlike, docile, humble, as well as an uncontentious, spirit (Psa 25:9; Psa 45:4; Isa 66:2; Mat 5:5; Mat 11:28-30; Mat 18:3-4; contrast Rom 2:8). On "receive," applied to ground receiving seed, compare Mar 4:20. Contrast Act 17:11; Th1 1:6 with Th2 2:10.
engrafted word--the Gospel word, whose proper attribute is to be engrafted by the Holy Spirit, so as to be livingly incorporated with the believer, as the fruitful shoot is with the wild natural stock on which it is engrafted. The law came to man only from without, and admonished him of his duty. The Gospel is engrafted inwardly, and so fulfils the ultimate design of the law (Deu 6:6; Deu 11:18; Psa 119:11). ALFORD translates, "The implanted word," referring to the parable of the sower (Mat. 13:1-23). I prefer English Version.
able to save--a strong incentive to correct our dulness in hearing the word: that word which we hear so carelessly, is able (instrumentally) to save us [CALVIN].
souls--your true selves, for the "body" is now liable to sickness and death: but the soul being now saved, both soul and body at last shall be so (Jam 5:15, Jam 5:20).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv21–23 21. Filthiness—Ribaldry and indecency against the gospel and its…
21. Filthiness—Ribaldry and indecency against the gospel and its professors and teachers. It often designates filthiness of apparel. Hence, when young Wesley, at Oxford, was walking with the pious Moravian, (Peter Bohler,) and was inclined to shrink from the ribaldry of the students, Peter said, with a smile, “My brother, it does not even stick to your clothes.”
Superfluity—Over-abundance, such as the wrath of man could fluently pour forth.
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Naughtiness—Malignity.
Receive—The advice is to James’ unconverted brethren.
Ingrafted word—That gospel, word of truth, (Jas_1:18,) which, as a graft produces a new tree, produces a regenerate man.
Save—Instrumentally, as a means, and conditionally, by being received.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv21–23 21. lay apart all filthiness …] The cognate adjective…
21. lay apart all filthiness …] The cognate adjective is found in its literal sense in ch. Jas_2:2, and figuratively in Rev_22:11. A kindred noun appears in a like combination in “the putting away of the fifth of the flesh” of 1Pe_3:21 and in the LXX. of Pro_30:12. The word points not specifically to what we call “sins of impurity,” but to every form of sin, including the “wrath” of the preceding verse, as defiling the soul.
superfluity of naughtiness] Better, excess of malice, i. e. excess characterised by malice. The English “naughtiness,” though used in the 16th century, as by Latimer and Shakespeare, as equivalent to “sin” or “wickedness,” has gradually lost its sharpness, and has come to be applied almost exclusively to the faults of children. The Greek word, though, like the Latin word from which malice comes, originally generic in its meaning, had come to be associated mainly (as in Eph_4:31; Col_3:8; 1Pe_2:1) with the sins that have their root in wrath and anger, rather than with those that originate in love of pleasure, and so carries on the sequence of thought.
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receive with meekness the engrafted word] The order of the words in the original is more emphatic, but in meekness (as contrasted with wrath and malice) receive ye. The “engrafted word” is that which was before referred to as the instrument by which the new and better life was engendered. The English “engrafted” suggests one process of growth somewhat too definitely, and implanted would be a better rendering. The word is not found elsewhere in the New Testament (the Greek word in Rom_11:17 is more specific), but, like so many of St James’s phrases, appears in the sapiential books of the Apocrypha (Wis_12:10, “their malice was bred in them”). We note the agreement of his teaching with that of the Parable of the Sower, where the Seed is the “Word,” and the conditions of its fertility are found in “the honest and good heart” (Mat_13:23), free from prejudice and bitterness. Moral discipline, the putting away of that which defiles, is the right preparation for the highest spiritual life.
which is able to save your souls] The words express at once the power, and the limits of the power. There was in the implanted word, taken in its widest sense, the promise and the potency of salvation, yet it did not work as by compulsion or by a charm, but required the co-operation of man’s will. So, later on, St James speaks of God Himself as being “able to save” (chap. Jas_4:12).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv21–23 (21) Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of…
(21) Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness.—So Peter (1Pe_3:21) speaks of “the filth of the flesh.” But the defilement here referred to seems general and not special, common, that is, to the whole natural man. The superabundance—the overgrowth—of evil will occupy the heart, if care be not taken to root it out; and, like the thorns in the parable of the sower (Mat_13:7, et seq.), spring up and choke the good seed. All such a rank and poisonous crop must be gathered and laid aside, in caps may be, for some fiery trouble to consume, that out of the dead luxuriant weeds a richer soil for virtue may be made.
Naughtiness (ne-aughtiness, or nothingness) was used in 1611, instead of the older and more correct translation, malice or maliciousness. The badness implied in the original is much more positive than that which appears from our present version.
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Receive with meekness the engrafted word.—Or, in mildness accept ye this word of truth (see Jas_1:18, above), engrafted, like a good olive tree, or rather implanted, in you. The term is peculiar to this place, and means “innate” in its first intention. If taken so, “the innate Word” will be Christ Himself formed within us. (Comp. Gal_4:19.)
Able to save your souls.—In like manner Paul at Miletus commends the elders of Ephesus “to God, and to the Word of His grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified” (Act_20:32). Observe, the idea of salvation thus conveyed by the implanted word, is so potentially and not actually. Tended and cultured, it will grow into a tree of life, the fruit whereof may heal the wounds of sin; but the after-growth of this plant of God is largely in the hands of man.
We can hardly help making a brief inquiry in this place on the meaning of “soul.” There are few words more vaguely used by devout persons, or which present greater difficulties to the learned, or open wider fields of speculation for the thoughtful. In common language we speak of “body and soul,” meaning much the same as “body and spirit;” but theologians write more carefully of “body, soul, and spirit” (comp. 1Th_5:23); and psychologists distinguish between the animal branch of their subject and the rational or intellectual (ψυχή νοῦς). The second of these methods of division is known as the trilogy, and is of most importance to the Christian reader. By it is understood (1) the body, wholly and entirely material, of and belonging to this world; (2) the mind or reason, corporal also—that is, arising from the body, and depending in its exquisite balance upon it; (3) the true soul or spirit, the breath as it were of God, immaterial and immortal. Our bodily nature, of course, is shared with the lower creation, and the spiritual with the higher, while the intellectual is peculiar to mankind. If it be hard to draw a line between vegetable and animal, harder still is it to separate instinct from reason, the difference being of degree rather than kind. But if the one side of the mental soul—namely, the rational, be near akin to what is termed instinctive in the brute, the other, the intellectual, however it may, as it does, soar upward, yet approaches not to the angels, for the difference here is of kind and not degree. Now, strange to say, the Apostle treats not of the spirit but the natural soul. Other texts in plenty assure us that God is able to save the one; from this we may learn salvation is for both, such being the work of “the engrafted Word.” Reason and intellect consecrated to divine service have an eternity before them, one of activity and not repose. The highest conception of God to the Greek mind was the Aristotelian idea of intellectual self-sufficiency and contemplation; the Oriental strives, as for ages it has striven, for extinction and nothingness; but to the Christian is given the sure and certain hope of the glorified body, the enlightened soul, the perfected spirit—three in one, and one in three—working the will and praise of its Maker and Redeemer for ever.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv21–23 With the form of expression in this verse, comp.…
With the form of expression in this verse, comp. 1Pe_2:1, "Putting away, therefore, all wickedness (ajpoqemenoi ou=n pasan kakian), and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil-speakings, as new-born babes long for the spiritual milk," etc. Filthiness (rJuparian). Here only in the New Testament, never in LXX; but the adjective rJuparov is the word used of the "filthy garments" in Zec_3:3, 4 a narrative which illustrates the passage before us. Karts is not vice in general, but rather that vicious nature which is bent on doing harm to others. (see Lightfoot on Col_3:8) Thus the two words rJuparia and kakia comprise two classes of sins the sensual and the malignant, Engrafted; rather, implanted. The word is only found again in RAPC Wis 12:10, where it signifies "inborn." St. James"s teaching here is almost like a reminiscence of the parable of the sower. (Mat_13:3, etc.) The "implanted Word" is the gospel teaching. "The seed is the Word of God". (Luk_8:11)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv21–22 Lay aside all filthiness … and receive with meekness
Jam_1:21-22
Lay aside all filthiness … and receive with meekness
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Of preaching, hearing, and practising the Word of God
I.
THAT TO LAY APART ALL THE FILTHINESS AND SUPERFLUITY OF NAUGHTINESS HERE MENTIONED IS NECESSARY FOR EVERY ONE WHO
INTENDS TO BE A TRUE CHRISTIAN. Plain as this may seem to be, it is fit to be taken notice of.
1. Because there are some who, though they maintain no such principles in speculation, yet in their practice seem to compromise matters between their vicious inclinations and the Divine laws; and are by no means so holy, so free from all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, as the religion of Jesus requires them to be.
2. Because there are others professing Christianity who, even by their doctrines, would reconcile some sorts of impurity with it.
II. THAT THERE IS A PARTICULAR CONNECTION BETWEEN OUR CLEANSING OURSELVES FROM SUCH POLLUTIONS, AND OUR PROFITABLY HEARING, THE WORD OF GOD. It is self-evident that the better disposed the mind is, the more likely it must be to receive and retain the heavenly instructions. As a vessel which is empty, clean, and sound, is best fitted to receive and retain pure water, or any such liquor poured into it. Whereas, on the contrary, the foul exhalations of lust will be apt to exclude the Word.
III. THAT MEEKNESS, OR A FREEDOM FROM PASSION AND PREJUDICE, AND WHATEVER ELSE IS IMPLIED IN THAT WORD, IS MORE ESPECIALLY REQUISITE IN ORDER TO SUCH PROFITABLE HEARING. As new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby, Receive it with the mature understandings of men, but with the unprejudiced wills of children; with the sweetness, innocence, and simplicity of infants.
IV. THAT THE WORD OF GOD HAS A MOST POWERFUL, NAY, A NEVERFAILING EFFICACY TO SAVE OUR SOULS (see 2Ti_2:15).
V. THAT IT IS A VAIN THING TO HEAR IT UNLESS WE PRACTISE IT; AND THAT WE DO BUT DECEIVE OURSELVES IF WE EXPECT ANY BENEFIT FROM THE FORMER WITHOUT THE LATTER. (Joseph Trapp, D. D.)
Reception of the gospel with meekness
I. THE OBJECT. By the ingrafted Word we are to understand the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, which began to be engrafted or planted in the hearts of men when our Lord and His apostles entered on the ministry.
II. THE PROPERTY ascribed to it.
III. THE QUALIFICATION, how it must be received.
1. Meekness is such a good disposition of mind as prepares men for the reception of the gospel. It is also such a disposition as may be under the influence of grace, acquired by prudential motives and considerations, such as the notions of Gods infinite power, justice, and truth; the presages of conscience that rewards and punishments must be distributed equally some time or other.
2. And as this good disposition may be acquired by these and the like considerations, for this reason we ought to distinguish it from some things that are thought to bear a resemblance to it.
(1) It ought to be distinguished from nature, which, being defiled by the first transgression, is the greatest obstacle of a ready obedience to Gods commands.
(2) This good disposition of spirit ought to be distinguished from what we call good nature, because this has a regard chiefly to civil conversation betwixt man and man, and discovers itself either by doing or receiving good offices, and that with a desire to please and oblige others.
(3) This good disposition ought to be more especially distinguished from a contemptible, abject spirit, which is a character profane men are wont to affix upon this excellent qualification.
(4) This tractable, meek spirit ought to be distinguished also from that mean, abject spirit that takes shelter in an implicit faith.
3. I proceed to show how necessary this qualification of meekness is to us in the state we are in, and that with reference only to the mysteries of faith. Which way soever the controversy turns, the mysteries of it continue still, and must continue till time shall be no more. In this case whatever assistance we crave from reason, reason rightly informed will tell us, first, that this is not a matter that lies properly within her verge and jurisdiction. (S. Estwick, B. D.)
How we may hear the Word with profit
I. By THE WORD I understand the Word of God; which Word of God may be considered either as it is written in the Scripture, or as it is preached by the ministers of Christ.
II. WE PROFIT by the Word when we get that good and spiritual advantage from it for which it was designed by God. Now, God hath appointed His Word--
1. For learning and instruction.
2. For conversion. The Word turns man unto God--
(1) As it discovers sin (1Co_14:24-25).
(2) As it brings people to the confession of sins (Mat_3:6; Act_19:18).
(3) As it works a kindly mourning and sorrow for sin (Act_2:37; Neh_8:9; Jer_3:21).
(4) As it works amendment and reformation (1Th_1:9; Col_1:5-6).
2. For the building up of those that are called, converted, and sanctified Act_20:32; Act_18:27; 1Ti_4:6).
4. For consolation (1Co_14:31; Act_8:5; Act_8:8). Now the Word comforts--
(1) As it opens Gods attributes, such as His mercy, wisdom, faithfulness, and power:
(2) As it discovers Christ, the promises and privileges of the saints.
(3) As it discovers and reveals the marks and characters of Gods children.
(4) As it answers the doubts and fears of saints.
III. How WE SHALL PROFIT by hearing the Word.
1. Hear it attentively (Mar_4:2-3 : Act_13:16; Rev_2:7).
2. With meekness.
3. With a good and honest heart.
(1) An understanding heart.
(2) A believing heart.
(3) A loving heart.
4. Keep what you hear of it (Luk_8:15; 1Th_5:21; 1Co_15:2).
(1) Repeat it in your families.
(2) Talk of it as you go from hearing.
(3) Pray to the Lord that He would preserve the Word in your heart by His Spirit. (Thos. Senior, B. D.)
Ways of treating the Word
There are two ways of treating the seed. The botanist splits it up, and discourses on its curious characteristics; the simple husbandman eats and sows, sows and eats. Similarly there are two ways of treating the gospel. A critic dissects it, raises a mountain of debate about the structure of the whole, and relation of its parts; and when he is done with his argument, he is done; to him the letter is dead; he neither lives on it himself, nor spreads it for the good of his neighbours; he neither eats nor sows. The disciple of Jesus, hungering for righteousness, takes the seed whole; it is bread for to-days hunger, and seed for to-morrows supply. (W. Arnot, D. D.)
Moral hindrance to the reception of the truth
As filthiness (which is the literal import of the original word--a word which occurs only here in the New Testament) of the outward person is offensive to the senses of one who is of cleanly and delicate taste and habits, so offensive is sin or moral evil to the spiritual sensibilities of the new man; of him who is begotten of God, and whose seed remaineth in him--the seed of the pure Word of God. The exhortation will thus correspond very closely with that of another apostle, which is also connected with the representation of believers as belonging to Gods family (2Co_7:1). Then--retaining the same view of the connection--the word rendered naughtiness will naturally be taken in its largest and most general acceptation as meaning evil--evil, that is, in principle, affection, and conduct. I am inclined, however, without being positive, to understand the connection of the words as more immediate with the preceding two verses; and as referring especially to the outward expression or utterance of that wrath of man which worketh not the righteousness of God. In this way, I would interpret filthiness of the vile abusive language in which that wrath is ever prone to indulge itself; of ribaldry--coarse and foul invective. And this corresponds well with the style of the writer, who dwells afterwards at such lengths on the evils of the tongue. The low abuse of a wrathful and misguided zeal was one description of the filthy communication which Paul, too, commands believers to put off. On the same principle, I take the word rendered here naughtiness, to have the sense of malice or maliciousness, rather than the more general sense of evil. These things they were to lay apart as hindrances to the reception and influence of Gods Word, as at variance with the temper of mind necessary to its right reception and its right operation. Meekness has here the distinctive sense of an humble, calm, childlike docile disposition. It is a state of mind unreservedly open to the instructions and directions of Divine wisdom and Divine authority; conscious of ignorance and of proneness to err. The Word is denominated the engrafted Word, or the implanted Word. The more usual figure is that of seed--seed sown in the heart. Hence it is a shoot--a shoot, as it were, from the tree of life--implanted in the same soil by the agency of Gods Spirit. It becomes the plant of grace in the heart; and, in the life, brings forth fruit unto God. And of that implanted Word it is here added, which is able to save your souls. There are two parts of the souls salvation, for both of which the Word of the truth of the gospel is alike adapted and sufficient. It reveals, in the first place, the ground of the pardon of sin, and of justification before God; and by faith in this ground we are pardoned and justified. That ground consists in the atonement and righteousness of the Divine Saviour--His mediatorial obedience unto death. The Word of the truth of the gospel, when believed, thus saves the soul from guilt and condemnation, and brings it into a state of life and acceptance with God. Then, secondly, it becomes the instrument of renewal and progressive sanctification--an equally important element of the souls salvation. It saves the soul by delivering it from the power and the love of sin. We are saved by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost. And this is by means of the Word. It is then, when brought to the possession of the inheritance among them that are sanctified, that the soul is fully and for ever saved. This latter part of the gospel salvation James was anxious to impress, in its indispensable necessity, on the minds of those to whom he wrote--the practical influence of the truth which he here exhorts them to receive, and to receive, in all its lessons, with meekly submissive docility--the vanity of all professions of having so received the truth if its practical efficacy was not apparent. This is an invariable characteristic of Gods Word. The doctrinal and the practical are inseparable. It follows here accordingly: But be ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. The great general principle, or truth, in this verse is, that all mere hearing of the Word, and all professed faith of it, are self-delusions, where there is not the experience of its inward holy influence manifested in its outward practical effects--that the hearing and the professing are worthless without the doing, as the required and necessary evidence of our being accepted of God in Christ. The doing of the Word is a proof of our being believers of the Word; of our having indeed received it with meekness, and of its being divinely and savingly implanted in our hearts. (R. Wardlaw, D. D.)
The engrafted Word
The engrafted Word
St. James is, by eminence, the apostle of practical Christianity. The keynote of his Epistle is, that the religion of Jesus is less a thing to talk about than a thing to act upon, that Christianity is nothing if it is not a life-controlling, life-moulding power.
I. Observe now THIS WORD IS HERE QUALIFIED. It is called the engrafted Word. It is a metaphor drawn from the vegetable world. The sacred metaphors of Scripture teach by pointing out real correspondences between one department of Gods works and another.
1. This metaphor implies that it is no part of the intellectual outfit of the human mind. The Divine Word came to the human mind from without, as a graft to be inserted.
2. It shows its assimilative power. There must be, in the vegetable world, a family likeness to start with, an organic affinity between the stock and the graft. There is a great deal in common between the Word of Jesus and the existing aspirations and beliefs of the human soul. Beneath every heathen superstition fragments of truth which have close fellowship with the one true faith lie buried.
3. In this metaphor we see its power of laying the nature into which it is inserted under contribution. The engrafted Word does not say to human nature that nothing can be done with it, and that it is fit only for destruction. It makes the most of it; it perfects and consecrates human nature by the gifts of grace.
II. THE MASTER BENEFIT THAT IT CONFERS. Able to save your souls. The apostle does not say it will save them, that it is a talisman which will operate irrespectively of your wills: Lo, you can check, you can refuse it. But it is able to save.
III. WE ARE TO RECEIVE THE WORD OF CHRIST IN A PARTICULAR MORAL TEMPER AND ATTITUDE with meekness. It is not meant to add fuel to your controversies, it is meant to govern your lives.
IV. THE DUTY INCUMBENT UPON EVERY CHRISTIAN PARENT OF TEACHING HIS CHILD THE FAITH OF CHRIST. Beyond a certain age the stock takes a graft only with difficulty. When all else has been parted with in later life, the early lessons of piety will rise before the soul as from the very grave and thrill it with a new and awful power. (Canon Liddon.)
The reception of the Divine Word
1. Lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness. The evil to be got rid of is represented as a foul garment or sore encumbrance. It is to be entirely apart. We are to deal thus with all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness. None of it is to be spared. The least of it is vastly too much, and may not be tolerated. The whole of this Amalek is doomed, and woe to him who acts Sauls part, and makes any exception when carrying on the work of destruction.
2. And receive with meekness the engrafted Word, which is able to save your souls. This is the end to which the other is only the means. We are to receive the Word, that is, admit it into our souls, which we do by believing. Faith accepts it, appropriates it, makes it our own, lodges it within us as a real and abiding possession. This grace has not only a perceptive, but also a receptive power. This is to be done with meekness, gentleness, mildness--with a disposition the opposite of an angry, malicious spirit. No other can be suited to receiving the Word, which, in its very nature, is humbling to our pride, and, being all impregnated with love, cannot dwell where enmity continues to retain its seat. The one must make way for the other. And mark how he describes the Word which is to be thus received. Often is it spoken of under the emblem of seed sown, here it is the kindred one of a shoot planted or engrafted. The Word had already been lodged within the per, sons here directly addressed. They had been begotten by it, and hence, in their case, it was engrafted. It had been inserted into the old and wild stock of nature by the Spirit, and thus had changed the whole character of the tree and its productions. What they were now to do was to receive it more fully. We need ever to be appropriating afresh Divine truth, using it as the aliment of the spiritual life, drawing from it the motives to, and the materials for, holy living. Which is able to save your souls. Your souls, that is your whole persons, which are here designated by their principal part, that in which corruption chiefly dwells, and on which destruction chiefly falls. This is the Words highest excellence, its crowning distinction. It can do what is here ascribed to it, not efficiently, but only instrumentally. It reveals and offers salvation, spreads out the blessings of it, and commends them to our acceptance. (John Adam.)
Before sermon, at sermon, and after sermon
It is a good thing to be under the sound of the Word of God. Even if the very lowest motive should induce persons to come to hear the gospel, it is nevertheless a good thing that they should come. He that comes near to its fire, even with the intent to quench it, may find himself overcome by its heat. Master Hugh Latimer, in his quaint manner, when exhorting people to go to church, tells of a woman who could not sleep for many nights, notwithstanding that drugs had been given to her; but she said that if they would take her to her parish church she could sleep there, for she had often enjoyed a quiet slumber under the sermon; and he goes the length of saying that if people even come to the sermon to sleep, it is better than not to come at all; for, he adds, in his fine old Saxon, they may be caught napping. Yet it will strike you at once that though it be well to come to the hearing of the Word in any case, yet it is better to come in a better way. We should endeavour to gather the most we can from the means of grace, and not pluck at them at random. Let us not lose a grain of the blessing through our own fault. The Word of the Lord is precious in these days; let us not trifle with it.
I. Let us consider the fit and proper preparation for listening to the gospel, or what is to be done BEFORE HEARING. There should be no stumbling into the place of worship half-asleep, no roaming thither as if it were no more than going to a play-house. We cannot expect to profit much if we bring with us a swarm of idle thoughts and a heart crammed with vanity. If we are full of folly, we may shut out the truth of God from our minds. We should make ready to receive what God is so ready to bestow. When I think of our engagements throughout the week, who of us can feel fit to come into the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High? I mean not into these tabernacles made with hands, but into the inner spiritual temple of communion with God. How shall we come unto God until we are washed? After travelling so miry a road as that which runs through this foul world, can we come unto God without shaking the dust from off our feet? There is a common consent among mankind that there should be some preparedness for worship. In making this preparation our text tells us that there are some things to be laid aside. All filthiness. Now sin of every kind is filthiness. By faith in the precious blood of Jesus it must be washed out, for we cannot come before God with acceptance while iniquity is indulged. Filth, you know, is a debasing thing, meet only for beggars and thieves; and such is sin. Filth is offensive to all cleanly persons. However poor a man is he might be clean; and when he is not, he becomes a common nuisance to those who speak with him, or sit near him. If bodily filthiness is horrible to us, what must the filthiness of sin be to the pure and holy God? Moreover, sin is not only offensive, but it is dangerous. He who harbours filth is making a hot-bed for the germs of disease, and thus he is the enemy of his family and of his neighbourhood. The filthy man is a public poisoner, a suicide, and a murderer. Sin is the greatest conceivable danger to a mans own soul: it makes a man to be dead while he lives, yea, corrupt before he is dead. There are three sins at least that are intended here, and one is covetousness. Hence the desire of unholy gain is called filthy lucre, because it leads men to do dirty deeds which else they would not think of. If the lust of wealth enters into the heart, it rots it to the core. Then, with peculiar correctness, lustfulness may be spoken of as filthiness. How should the thrice holy Spirit come and dwell in that heart which is a den of unclean desires? But in the connection of my text the filthiness meant is especially anger. How can you accept the Word of peace while you are at enmity with your brother? How can you hope to find forgiveness under the hearing of the Word when you forgive not those that have trespassed against you? The wrath of man is so filthy a thing, that it cannot work the righteousness of God; nor is it likely that the righteousness of God will be wrought in the heart that is hot like an oven with passion and malice. But it is added, and superfluity of naughtiness. The phrase here used differs not in meaning from the first epithet of the text: it gives another view of the same thing. You have seen a rose-tree which, perhaps was bearing very few roses, and you half wondered why. It was a good rose; and planted in good soil, but its flowers were scanty. You looked around it, and by and by you perceived that suckers were growing up from its roof. Now, these suckers come from the old, original briar, on which the rose had been grafted, and this rose had a superfluity of strength which it used in these suckers. These superfluities, or overflows, took away from the rose the life which it required, so that it could not produce the full amount of flowers which you expected from it. These superfluities of naughtiness that were coming up here and there were to the injury of the tree. Children of God, you cannot serve the Lord if you are giving your strength to any form of wrong; your naughtinesses are springing from the briar stock of your old nature, and the best thing to do is to cut off those suckers and stop them as much as possible, so that all the strength may return into the rose, and the lovely flowers of grace may abound. Oh, that Gods people, when they come up here on the Sabbath-day, may first have undergone that Divine priming which shall take away the superfluity of naughtiness, for there cannot be grafting without a measure of pruning. The gardener takes off from a certain part of the tree a shoot of the old stock, and then he inserts the graft. There must be a removal of superfluities in order that we may receive with meekness the engrafted Word, which is able to save our souls. Why is this? Why is a man as he comes to hear the gospel to see to this? I take it because all these evil things preoccupy the mind. If we come here with this filthiness about us, how can we expect that the pure and incorruptible Word shall be sweet to us? Moreover, sin prejudices against the gospel. A man says, I do not enjoy the sermon. How can you? What have you been enjoying during the week? What flavour did last night leave in your mouth?
II. Secondly, I will talk a little about DURING HEARING. How shall we act while listening to the Word? Receive with meekness the engrafted Word, which is able to save your souls. The first thing, then, is receive. That word receive is a very instructive gospel word; it is the door through which Gods grace enters to us. We are not saved by working, but by receiving; not by what we give to God, but by what God gives to us, and we receive from Him. The preaching of the Word is as a shower from heaven; but what happens to the soil if the raindrops fall, but none are absorbed into the soil? Of what avail is the shower if none is drunk in by the thirsty furrows? A medicine may have great healing power, but if it is not received, then it does not purge the inward parts of the body. There must be a receiving of any good thing before the goodness of it can be ours. Then it is added, receive with meekness. We stand at the bar to be tried by Gods Word, and searched; but woe unto us if, rejecting every pretence of meekness, we ascend the tribunal, and summon God Himself before us. The spirit of critics ill becomes sinners when they seek mercy of the Lord. His message must be received with teachableness of mind. When you know it is Gods Word, it may upbraid you, but you must receive it with meekness. It may startle you with its denunciations: but receive it with meekness. It may be, there is something about the truth which at the first blush does not commend itself to your understanding; it is perhaps too high, too terrible, too deep; receive it with meekness. What is this which is to be received? Receive with meekness the engrafted Word. We are not bidden to receive with meekness mens words, for they are many, and there is little in them: but receive with meekness Gods Word, for it is one, and there is power in each Word which proceedeth out of His mouth. It is called the engrafted Word. Engrafting implies theft the heart is wounded and opened, and then the living Word is laid in and received with meekness into the bleeding, wounded soul of the man. There is the gash, and there is the space opened thereby. Here comes the graft: the gardener must establish a union between the tree and the graft. This new life, this new branch, is inserted into the old stem, and they are to be livingly joined together. At first they are bound together by the gardener, and clay is placed about the points of junction; but soon they begin to grow into one another, and then only is the grafting effectual. This new cutting grows into the old, and it begins to suck up the life of the old, and change it so that it makes new fruit. That bough, though it be in the grafted tree, is altogether of another sort. Now we want the Word of God to be brought to us after a similar fashion: our heart must be cut and opened, and then the Word must be laid into the gash till the two adhere, and the heart begins to hold to the Word, to believe in it, to hope in it, to love it, to grow to it, to grow into it, and to bear fruit accordingly. Once more you are to receive it by faith, for you are to regard the Word as being able. Believe in the power of Gods Word, receive it as being fully able to save your souls from beginning to end. Two ways it does this: by putting away your sin as you accept the blood and righteousness of Christ, and by changing your nature as you accept the Lord Jesus to be your Master and your Lord, your life and your all.
III. Lastly, let us think of AFTER SERMON. Be ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. First, the command is positive--Be ye doers of the Word. Sirs, ye have heard about repentance and the putting away of filthiness: repent, then, and let your filthiness be put away. May God the Holy Ghost lead you to do so--not to hear about it, but do it. Ye have heard us preach continually concerning faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you know all about believing; but have you believed? We are to admonish you concerning all those blessed duties which spring out of that living faith which works by love; but it is nothing to hear about these virtues unless you possess them. Doing far surpasses hearing. I believe that with a very little knowledge and great doing of what we know, we may attain to a far higher degree of grace than with great knowledge and little doing of what we know. Observe that the command is put negatively: the text says, not hearers only. Those who are hearers only are wasters of the Word. What poor creatures hearers are, for they have long ears and no hands! Ye have heard of him who one day was discoursing eloquently of philosophy to a crowd, who greatly applauded him. He thought he had made many disciples, but suddenly the market-bell rang, and not a single person remained. Gain was to be made, and in their opinion no philosophy could be compared to personal profit. They were hearers till the market-bell rang, and then, as they had been hearers only, they quitted the hearing also. I fear it is so With our preachings: if the devil rings the bell for sin, for pleasure, for worldly amusement, or evil gain, our admirers quit us right speedily. The voice of the world drowns the voice of the Word. Those who are only hearers, are hearers but for a time. Remember, if any man will be lost, he will most surely be lost who heard the gospel and refused it. Over the cell of such a man write, He knew his duty, but he did it not; and that cell will be found to be built in the very centre of Gehenna; it is the innermost prison of hell. Wilful rejection of Christ ensures woful rejection from Christ. The text closes with this solemn word: Deceiving your own selves. Whereupon says Bishop Brownrig, To deceive is bad, to deceive yourselves is worse, to deceive yourselves about your souls is worst of all. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The engrafted Word
I. THE GIFT TO BE BESTOWED.
1. The nature of the gift. The application of truths to the soul in practical activity. The will of God as imparted by revelation. The guidance of God.
2. The benefit of the gift. Able to save the soul. Preservation from sorrow, ruin, death.
II. THE METHOD BY WHICH IT IS TO BE IMPARTED.
1. NO meritorious deserving.
2. No heavy price.
III. THE WAY WHICH IT IS TO BE RECEIVED.
1. With thoroughness.
2. With meekness.
3. With docility.
IV. THE EFFECT IT WILL PRODUCE.
1. Transform the entire nature.
2. Enlighten the life.
3. Bestow salvation. (Homilist.)
The engrafted Word
Various images are given to us to set forth the manifold value of the Word of truth. It is compared to gold and silver Psa_119:72). By St. James in this passage it is called the engrafted Word, or the implanted Word (R.V.). It is as the graft put into the tree, which, when it takes and grows, changes its whole character and produce. So, when Gods truth enters the soul, it becomes as the germ and origin of a new and holy life. Or, the expression used by St. James may lead us to another view. It is like seed planted in the earth, as in the parable of the Luk_8:11). And, as seed, the Word has a mighty power and operation. We are told that in Mexico you come upon vast masses of masonry, once forming part of their heathen temples, but now utterly overthrown and broken up. But how has this been accomplished? It is by seeds carried by birds of the air, and lodged in the crevices, and these, by and by, have grown and grown until they have split into fragments walls and buildings which once seemed likely to abide for centuries. Thus, too, is there a power in the Word of God to cast down the strongholds of sin, superstition, error, and idolatry, and, whether in countries or in human hearts, utterly to destroy that which dishonours the Lord. We are reminded by St. James in this passage that this Word is able to save your souls.
1. It is Gods instrument for convincing men of the evil of their doings. It shows to them the peril of living in unpardoned sin. It leads them to seek the way of life, and, like the multitude on the day of Pentecost, to ask, What must we do?
2. The Word is able to save the soul, because it ever points to Him who is able to save, even to the uttermost.
3. The Word is able to save because it points out the path of true holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. It gives us the holy law of God in all its breadth and fulness. It calls us to the loftiest standard of self-denial and consecration to Gods service. But to learn these lessons and obtain these benefits, the Word of God must be received into the heart. It may fall upon the ear, or be read by the eye, and yet fail to impart any true blessing. Hence we need to look for the aid of Gods Holy Spirit. Pray much that you may rightly understand what is revealed, and, above all, that you may love the truth and follow it. If you would receive the Word aright, there must be hearty renunciation of all past evil. Cast aside old habits of sloth, self-indulgence, worldliness, evil speaking, and all else that belongs to sin and the flesh. I know full well you cannot do this in your own strength. St. James adds another particular as to the reception of the Word. It must be received with meekness and humility. All pride, prejudice, and self-wisdom must be cast to the winds. You must come to the Word to learn what God would teach you, and you must come in the spirit of a little child. Perhaps we can find no better example of the spirit in which we should hear or read than that of Mary, sitting at the feet of Jesus and hearing His Word (Luk_10:39). Yeas there ever a better student in Divine knowledge? (G. Everard, M. A.)
The Bible and human souls
I. THE BIBLE.
1. It is the Word. Pure. Loving. Faithful. Conquering.
2. It is the engrafted Word. An incorruptible seed.
3. It is the Word to save from spiritual ignorance, prejudice, thraldom, selfishness, sensuality, guilt, &c.
II. THE HUMAN SOUL.
1. Its amazing capability.
2. Its moral obligations. Receive the Word in a humble, reverent, docile spirit. (Homilist.)
Receiving the Word
1. Before we come to the Word, there must be preparation. Many come to hear, but they do not consider the weight and importance of the duty. Christ saith (Luk_8:18).
(1) By way of caution.
(a) Do not exclude God out of your preparations. Usually men mistake in this matter, and hope by their own care to work themselves into a fitness of spirit.
(b) Though you cannot get your hearts into such a frame as you do desire, trust God, and that help which is absent to sense and feeling may be present to faith.
(2) By way of direction. I cannot go out into all the severals of preparations, how the heart must be purged, faith exercised, repentance renewed, wants and weaknesses reviewed, Gods glory considered, the nature, grounds, and ends of the ordinances weighed in our thoughts. Only, in the general, so much preparation there must be as will make the heart reverent. God will be served with a joy mixed with trembling (Gen_28:17). And again, such preparation as will settle the bent of the spirit heavenward. It is said somewhere, They set themselves to seek the Lord Psa_57:7).
2. Christian preparation consists most in laying aside and dispossessing evil frames. Weeds must be rooted out before the ground is fit to receive the Jer_4:3). There is an unsuitableness between a filthy spirit and the pure holy Word.
3. Put it off, as a rotten and filthy garment. Sin must be left with an utter detestation (Isa_30:22).
4. We must not lay aside sin in part only, but all sin (1Pe_2:1; Psa_119:104). The least sins may undo you.
5. Sin is filthiness; it sullies the glory and beauty of the soul, defaces the image of God (2Co_7:1; Job_14:4; Job_15:14).
6. From that superfluity of wickedness. That there is abundance of wickedness to be purged out of the heart of man. All the imaginations of the heart are evil, only evil, and that continually; it runneth out into every thought, into every desire, into every purpose. As there is saltness in every drop of the sea, and bitterness in every branch of wormwood, so sin in everything that is framed within the soul. Whatever an unclean person touched, though it were holy flesh, it was unclean; so all our actions are poisoned with it.
7. Our duty in hearing the Word is to receive it. In receiving there is an act of the understanding, in apprehending the truth and musing upon it Luk_9:44). And there is an act of faith, the crediting and believing faculty is stirred up to entertain it (Heb_4:2). And there is an act of the will and affections to embrace and lodge it in the soul, which is called a receiving the truth in love, when we make room for it, that carnal affections and prejudices may not vomit and throw it up again.
8. The Word must be received with all meekness. First, this excludes--
(1) A wrathful fierceness, by which men rise in a rage against the Word Jer_6:10).
(2) A proud stubbornness, when men are resolved to hold their own Jer_2:25).
(3) A contentions wrangling, which is found in men of an unsober wit, that scorn to captivate the pride of reason, and therefore stick to every shift Psa_25:8-9).
Secondly, it includes--
(1) Humility and brokenness of spirit. There must be insection before insition, meek ness before ingrafting.
(2) Teachableness and tractableness of spirit (Jam_3:17). The servants of God come with a mind to obey; they do but wait for the discovery of their duty (Act_10:33). Disputing against the Word, it is a judging yourselves; it is as if, in effect, you should say, I care not for God, nor all the tenders of grace and glory that He maketh to me.
9. The Word must not only be apprehended by us, but planted in us. It is Gods promise (Jer_31:33).
10. The Word in Gods hand is an instrument to save our souls.
11. That the main care of Christian should be to save his soul. This is propounded as an argument why we should hear the Word; it will save your souls. Usually our greatest care is to gratify the body. (T. Manton.)
The gospel
I. ITS CHARACTER
1. The distinctness of its existence. It is a graft taken from the tree of eternal thought. Christ brought it to the earth, and grafted it upon human souls.
2. The affinity of its nature.
3. The appropriateness of its force. The gospel, when it enters the human soul, lays under contribution all its reasoning, creative, and susceptible powers.
II. ITS CAPABILITY. AS the buds of a fruitful tree engrafted on some barren plant make the worthless valuable, the unfertile fruitful, so the gospel saves all the souls faculties, turns them all to a right use.
III. ITS RECEPTION.
1. Not with--
(1) Thoughtlessness.
(2) Servility.
2. With the meekness of--
(1) Docility.
(2) Devotion. (Homilist.)
The ingrafted Word
The man who supposes that all that is necessary is that he run over a passage of Scripture before leaving his bed-chamber, and another at family prayer, and give respectful attention to his clergyman in church, is greatly mistaken. He must work out in life what he reads and hears, as the sap of a tree works out fruit on the stem which is grafted thereon. It is the failure to do this which has so greatly retarded our religious life. Men have heard the Word with their outward ears, and have gone out of the church thinking that the sermon was done, whereas it had not begun in their practice, not even in their hearts. No; the moment I have learned anything from the Word, I must make a strenuous effort to reproduce it in my life. Then the next thing learned, then the rest; and so on, until my life be an incarnation of the Bible. If each hearer did this, how powerful our holy faith would be among men! Compared with this, what is success in controversy, although I could silence every theological opponent? What Biblical learning, although I could repeat every verse of the Bible in every tongue ever spoken among men? Neither of these would save me; but the truth, animated into fruitage by my spiritual vitality, would make me a tree worth a place in Gods orchard. (C. Deems, D. D.)
Preparation of heart
That the Word of God may have full power over us, there must be a preparation of heart for its reception. We must cease to do evil before we can learn to do well. We must lay aside everything which is offensive to the purity of God. By the term filthiness James seems to wish to arouse a sense of the loathsomeness of all sin. He does not simply mean that we shall lay aside those particular sins which are disgusting to us; but rather to impress us theft all sin has in it that which makes it disgusting to God. He may here be supposed to be thinking of sins of the flesh, the visible violations of the moral law. Then we are to lay aside all superfluity of naughtiness. The word occurs in Rom_5:15 and 2Co_8:2; it indicates that which goes out to others. Here it means the outflowing of malice. By the one phrase James may be supposed to refer to sins of the flesh, and by the other sins of the spirit. While indulging ourselves either in sins which others cannot see, or sins which show themselves in displays of evil temper, we cannot profit by the Word of God. Meekness, as well as purity, is essential to the proper hearing of the Word of God. One cannot in private approach the study of the Word in the pride of opinion or of scholarship, nor can one resort to the Word for the purpose of sustaining ones own dogma, and while in that spirit find the Word profitable. You know that this is sometimes done. A man may take down the Bible to find proof passages, just as a lawyer may search the Reports of the Supreme Court to find only that which will sustain his theory of the case which he is to try. In such search he throws aside whatever does not make for his side. He is not learning laws, he is hunting helps. If the Bible be so studied, it will be unprofitable. We must approach it with the docility of little children (Mat_18:23). We must simply wish to learn what is the mind of the Spirit in the Word of God. (C. Deems, D. D.)
The engrafted Word
It is only in the apprehension of what we really are that the Word begins to be engrafted. We may have correct theories about the exceeding sinfulness of sin and the mischief that it works; but it is when we see ourselves in the mirror, and discern what sin has done for us, that Gods view of sin begins to be ours, and we shrink from it and long to be saved from it, as if it really were what the Word represents it as being--a terrible and fatal disease, a very plague-spot in the soul. You shall see two persons going out of the same church, after having listened to the same sermon. They are both, we will say, sinners, and unforgiven sinners; but the one is full of admiration of all that he has heard. What a magnificent sermon! I never heard anything more scathing than his denunciation of sin. How he did show it up! I really think he is the most impressive preacher I ever listened to. And the other slips away in silence like one ashamed; his whole life rises up in witness against him. The preachers voice has seemed to thunder in his ear, Thou art the man! His self-complacency is rent to shreds; he feels, like the publican, as though ha could not so much as lift up his eyes unto heaven. He retreats into the solitude of his own chamber, and casts himself upon his knees with a cry of anguish, God, be merciful to me, a sinner! What is it that makes the two to differ? In the one case the Word has been heard, and only heard; and in the other case it has been implanted. In both cases the mirror has been presented; but in the one ease the man has been content with a glance, and then straightway has forgotten what manner of man he was; while the other has looked boldly and resolutely into the glass, until his inmost conscience has been roused and his very heart appalled by what he has seen there. The image still haunts him; he cannot escape from it. His self-esteem is levelled in the dust; he has seen his natural face in the glass, and he has really discovered what manner of man he is. (W. M. H. Aitken, M. A.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v22 Chapter 9
Chapter 9
THE DELUSION OF HEARING WITHOUT DOING-THE MIRROR OF GODS WORD.
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Jam_1:22-25
HERE we reach what on the whole seems to be the main thought of the Epistle - the all-importance of Christian activity and service. The essential thing, without which other things, however good in themselves, become insignificant or worthless, or even mischievous, is conduct. Everything else, if not accompanied by practice, by avoiding evil and doing good, is vain. In Bishop Butlers words, religion "does not consist in the knowledge and belief even of fundamental truth," but rather in our being brought "to a certain temper and behavior"; or as St. John puts it still more simply, only "he who doeth righteousness is righteous." Suffering injuries, poverty and temptations, hearing the Word, teaching the Word, faith, wisdom, {Jam_1:2; Jam_1:9; Jam_1:12; Jam_1:19; Jam_2:14-16; Jam_3:13-17} are all of them excellent; but if they are not accompanied by a holy life, a life of prayer and gentle words and good deeds, they are valueless.
There are two or three other leading thoughts, but they are all of them subordinated to this main thought of the necessity for Christian conduct as well as Christian belief and wisdom. One of these secondary thoughts has already been noticed more than once-the blessedness of enduring temptations and other trials; it is specially prominent in the first and last chapters. {Jam_1:2-4; Jam_1:12; Jam_5:7-11} Another of the secondary topics which have a prominent place in the letter is the peril of much speaking. It introduces and closes the section which lies immediately before us, {Jam_1:19; Jam_1:26} and it is dwelt upon at length in the third chapter. Yet a third topic which cannot fail to attract the attention of the reader is the preference given to the poor over the rich as regards their spiritual opportunities, and the stern warnings addressed to all those whose wealth leads them to become tyrannical. This subject is specially prominent in the first, second, and last chapters. {Jam_1:10-11; Jam_2:1-7; Jam_5:1-6} But all these matters are looked at from the point of view of Christian conduct and service. They are not in any one case the idea which binds together the whole Epistle, but they lead up to it and emphasize it. If we were to single out one verse as in a special way summing up the teaching of the whole letter, we could hardly find one more suitable for the purpose than the first of the four which stand at the head of the present chapter: "Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deluding your own selves." It will be worth while to examine this simple and most practical exhortation somewhat in detail.
It is one of the many sayings in the Epistle which irresistibly remind us of the teaching of Jesus Christ; not as being a quotation from any of His recorded discourses, but as being an independent reproduction of the substance of His conversation by one who was quite familiar with it, but was not familiar with the written Gospels. Had the writer of this letter been well acquainted with any of the four Gospels, he could hardly have escaped being influenced by them, and the echoes of Christs teaching which we find in its pages would have been more closely in accordance with the reports of His words which they contain. This feature of the Epistle harmonizes well with its being written by the Lords brother, who must have been very familiar with the Lords teaching, and who wrote before A.D. 62, i.e., at a time when perhaps not one of our Gospels was written, and when certainly none of them can have had a very wide circulation. More will be said upon this point hereafter: for the present it suffices to point out the resemblance between this warning against the delusion of thinking that hearing without doing is of any avail, and the warning which closes the Sermon on the Mount: "Every one which heareth these words of Mine, and doeth them, shall be likened unto a wise man, which built his house upon the rock…And every one that heareth these words of Mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and smote upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall thereof". {Mat_7:24-27}
"Be ye doers of the Word." Both verb and tense are remarkable (γινεσθε): "Become doers of the Word." True Christian practice is a thing of growth; it is a process, and a process which has already begun, and is continually going on. We may compare, "Become ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves"; "Therefore {Mat_10:16} become ye also ready"; {Mat_24:44} and "Become not faithless, but believing". {Joh_20:27; where see Westcotts note} "Become doers of the Word" is more expressive than "Be doers of the Word," and a good deal more expressive than "Do the Word." A "doer of the Word" (ποιητηγου) is such by profession and practice; the phrase expresses a habit. But one who merely incidentally performs what is prescribed may be said to "do the Word." By the "Word" is meant what just before has been called the "implanted Word" and the "Word of truth" (Jam_1:18; Jam_1:21), and what in this passage is also called "the perfect law, the law of liberty" (Jam_1:25), i.e., the Gospel. The parable of the Sower illustrates in detail the meaning of becoming a habitual doer of the implanted Word.
"And not hearers only." The order of the words in the Greek is a little doubtful, the authorities being very much divided; but the balance is in favor of taking "only" closely with "hearers" (μη ακροαταινον rather than μηνον ακροαται); "Be not such as are mere hearers and nothing more." The word for "hearer" occurs nowhere else in the New Testament, excepting in the singularly similar passage in the Epistle to the Romans, which is one of the passages that give support to the theory that either St. Paul had seen this Epistle, or St. James had seen St. Pauls: "Not the hearers (ακροαται) of a law are just before God, but the doers of a law shall be justified". {Rom_2:13} The verb (ακροαομαι) does not occur in tile New Testament; but another cognate substantive (ακροατηριον), meaning "a place of hearing," is found in the Act_25:23. In classical Greek this group of words indicates attentive listening, especially in the case of those who attend the lectures of philosophers and the addresses of public speakers. It is thus used frequently in Plato, Aristotle, Thucydides, and Plutarch. It is somewhat too hastily concluded that there is nothing of this kind included either in this passage or in Rom_2:13. Possibly that is the very thing to which both St. James and St. Paul allude. St. James, in the address which he made to the so-called Council of Jerusalem, says, "Moses from generations of old hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath". {Act_15:21} The Jews came with great punctiliousness to these weekly gatherings, and listened with much attention to the public reading and exposition of the Law; and too many of them thought that with that the chief part of their duty was performed. This habitual public testimony of respect for the Mosaic Law and the traditional interpretations of it, and this zeal to acquire a knowledge of its contents and an insight into its meaning, was the main portion of what was required of them. This, St. James tells them, is miserably insufficient, whether v-hat they hear be the Law or the Gospel, the Law with or without the illumination of the life of Christ "Being swift to hear" (Jam_1:19) and to understand is well, but "apart from works it is barren." It is the habitual practice in striving to do what is heard and understood that is of value. "Not a hearer that forgetteth, but a doer that worketh" is blessed, and "blessed in his doing." To suppose that mere hearing brings a blessing is "deluding your own selves." Bede rightly quotes Rev_1:3 in illustration: "Blessed are they that hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things which are written therein."
The word here used for deluding (παραλογιζομενοι) is found nowhere else in the New Testament, excepting in one passage m the Epistle to the Colossians, {Col_2:4} in which St. Paul warns them against allowing any one to "delude them with persuasiveness of speech." But the word is fairly common, both in ordinary Greek and in the Septuagint. Its meaning is to mislead with fallacious reasoning, and the substantive (παραλογισμος) is the Aristotelian term for a fallacy. The word does not necessarily imply that the fallacious reasoning is known to be fallacious by those who employ it. To express that we should rather have the word which is used in 2Pe_1:16 to characterize "cunningly devised fables" (σεσοφισμενοι μυθοι). Here we are to understand that the victims of the delusion do not, although they might, see the worthlessness of the reasons upon which their self-contentment is based. It is precisely in this that the danger of their position lies. Self-deceit is the most subtle and fatal deceit. The mere knowledge of the law derived from their attentive listening to it does but increase their evil case, if they do not practice it. "To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin". {Jam_4:17}
The Jews have a saying that the man who hears without practicing is like a husbandman who ploughs and sows, but never reaps. Such an illustration, being taken from natural phenomena, would be quite in harmony with the manner of St. James; but he enforces his meaning by employing a far more striking illustration. He who is a hearer and not a doer "is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a mirror." Almost all the words in this sentence are worthy of separate attention.
"Is like unto a man" (εοικεν ανδρι). St. James uses the more definite word, which usually excludes women, and sometimes boys also. He does not say, "is like unto a person" (ανθρωπω), which would have included both sexes and all ages. A somewhat quaint explanation has been suggested by Paes and adopted as probable elsewhere; viz., that men, as a rule, give only a passing look to themselves in the glass; whereas it is a feminine weakness to be fond of attentive observations. But it is fatal to this suggestion that the word here used for beholding (κατανοειν) means to fix ones mind upon, and consider attentively. It is the word used in "Consider the ravens," and "Consider the lilies". {Luk_12:24; Luk_12:27} Moreover, the Greeks sometimes do what we very frequently do in speaking of the human race; they employ the male sex as representative of both. This usage is found in the New Testament; e. g., "The queen of the South shall rise up in the judgment with the men (των ανδρων) of this generation, and shall condemn them. The men (ανδρες) of Nineveh shall stand up in the judgment of this generation, and shall condemn it." {Luk_11:31-32} Here it is impossible that the women are not included. And this use of "man" (ανηρ) in the sense of human being is specially common in St. James. We have it four times in this chapter (Jam_1:8; Jam_1:12; Jam_1:20; Jam_1:23), and again in the second (Jam_2:2) and third (Jam_3:2).
This man, then, attentively studies his natural face in a mirror. The words for "his natural face" literally mean "the face of his birth" (τοσωπον της γενεσεως αυτου); i.e., the features with which he was born; and the mirror would be a piece of polished metal, which, however excellent, would not reflect the features with the clearness and fidelity of a modern looking-glass. Hence the necessity for attentive observation, the result of which is that the man recognizes his own face beyond all question. But what follows? "He beheld himself, and he has gone away, and he straightway forgot what manner of man he was." The perfect tense between two aorists gives a lively simplicity to the narration (κατενοησεν . . . απεληλιθεν . . . επελαθετο). This is represented as a common case, though not an invariable one. Most of us know our own features sufficiently well to recognize them in a good representation of them, but do not carry in our minds a very accurate image of them. But what has all this to do with being hearers, and not doers, of the Word?
The spoken or written Word of God is the mirror. When we hear it preached, or study it for ourselves, we can find the reflection of ourselves in it, our temptations and weaknesses, our failings and sins, the influences of Gods Spirit upon us, and the impress of His grace. It is here that we notice one marked difference between the inspiration of the sacred writers and the inspiration of the poet and the dramatist. The latter show us other people to the life; Scripture shows us ourselves.
"Our mirror is a blessed book, Where out from each illumined page We see one glorious image look, All eyes to dazzle and engage,"
"The Son of God; and that indeed We see Him as He is we know, Since in the same bright glass we read The very life of things below."
"Eye of Gods Word, whereer we turn Ever upon us I thy keen gaze Can all the depths of sin discern, Unravel every bosoms maze."
"Who that has felt thy glance of dread Thrill through his hearts remotest cells, About his path, about his bed, Can doubt what Spirit in thee dwells?"
Kebles metaphor is somewhat more elaborate than St. Jamess. He represents the Bible as a mirror, out of which the reflected image of the Son of God looks upon us and reads our inmost selves. St. James supposes that in the mirror we see ourselves reflected. But the thought is the same, that through hearing or reading God s Word our knowledge of our characters is quickened. But does this quickened knowledge last? Does it lead to action, or influence our conduct? Too often we leave the church or our study, and the impression produced by the recognition of the features of our own case is obliterated. "We straightway forget what manner of men we are," and the insight which has been granted to us into our own true selves is just one more wasted experience.
But this need not be so, and in some cases a very different result may be noticed. Instead of merely looking attentively for a short time, he may stoop down and pore over it. Instead of forthwith going away, he may continue in the study of it. And instead of straightway forgetting, he may prove a mindful doer that worketh. Thus the three parts of the two pictures are made exactly to balance. The word for "looking into" is an interesting one (παρακυπτειν). It indicates bending forward to examine earnestly. It is used of Peter looking into the sepulcher; {Luk_24:12} a verse of doubtful genuineness and of Mary Magdalene doing the same; {Joh_20:11} and of the angels desiring to look into heavenly mysteries. {1Pe_1:12} He who does this recognizes Gods Word as being "the perfect law, the law of liberty." The two things are the same. It is-when the law is seen to be perfect that it is found to be the law of liberty. So long as the law is not seen in the beauty of its perfection, it is not loved, and men either disobey it or obey it by constraint and unwillingly. It is then a law of bondage. But when its perfection is recognized men long to conform to it; and they obey, not because they must, but because they choose. To do what one likes is freedom, and they like to obey. It is in this way that the moral law of the Gospel becomes "the law of liberty," not by imposing fewer obligations than the moral law of the Jew or of the Gentile, but by infusing into the hearts of those who welcome it a disposition and a desire to obey. Christian liberty is never license. It is not the relaxation of needful restraints, but the spontaneous acceptance of them as excellent in themselves and beneficial to those who observe them. It is the difference between a code imposed by another, and a constitution voluntarily adopted. To be made to work for one whom one fears is slavery and misery; to choose to work for one whom one loves is freedom and happiness. The Gospel has not abolished the moral law; it has supplied a new and adequate motive for fulfilling it.
"Being not a hearer that forgetteth." Literally, "having become not a hearer of forgetfulness" (ουκ ακροατημενος); i.e., having by practice come to be a hearer, who is characterized, not by forgetfulness of what he hears, gut by attentive performance of it. The unusual word "forgetfulness" occurs nowhere else in the New Testament, nor in classical Greek; but it is found in Ecclesiasticus (11:27), "The affliction of an hour causeth forgetfulness of pleasure"; and this adds a trifle to the evidence that St. James was acquainted with that book. "A hearer of forgetfulness" exactly balances, both in form and in thought, "a doer of work"; and this is well brought out by the Revisers, who turn both genitives by a relative clause: "a hearer that forgetteth," and "a doer that worketh." The Authorized Version is much less happy: "a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work." There is no article in the Greek, and the translation of one genitive by an adjective, and of the other by a genitive, is unfortunate. "A doer of work" (ποιητης εργου). or "a doer that worketh," is an expression that emphasizes just what St. James wishes to emphasise, viz., the necessity of actively practicing what is attentively heard. "A doer" would have sufficed, but "a doer that worketh" makes the idea of habitual action still more prominent.
"This man shall be blessed in his doing" (εν τη ποιησει). Once more we have a word which is found nowhere else in the New Testament, but occurs in Ecclesiasticus (19:20), and with much the same meaning as here: "All wisdom is fear of the Lord; and in all wisdom there is doing of the law" (ποιησις νομου). The correspondence between the meaning of St. James and the meaning of the son of Sirach is very close. Mere knowledge without performance is of little worth: it is in the doing that a blessing can be found.
The danger against which St. James warns the Jewish Christians of the Dispersion is as pressing now as it was-when he wrote. Never was there a time when interest in the Scriptures was more keen or more widely spread, especially among the educated classes; and never was there a time when greater facilities for gratifying this interest abounded. Commentaries, expositions, criticisms, introductions, helps of all kinds, - exegetical, homiletic, historical, and textual, -suitable both for learned and unlearned students, multiply year by year. But it is much to be feared that with many of us the interest in the sacred writings which is thus roused and fostered remains to a very large extent a literary interest. We are much more eager to know all about Gods Word than from it to learn His will respecting ourselves, that we may do it; to prove that a book is genuine than to practice what it enjoins. We study Lives of Christ, but we do not follow the life of Christ. We pay Him the empty homage of an intellectual interest in His words and works, but we do not the things which He says. We throng and press Him in our curiosity, but we obtain no blessing, because in all our hearing and learning there is no true wisdom, no fear of the Lord, and no doing of His Word.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv21–23 21. Lay aside all filthiness. Every impurity of life.…
21. Lay aside all filthiness. Every impurity of life. Naughtiness. “Overflowing” of wickedness in the Revision. Wrath would cause such an overflow. The engrafted word. The word of God planted in your hearts.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v22 Jas_1:23. Natural face.—Lit. “face of his birth”; “the face…
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
Jas_1:23. Natural face.—Lit. “face of his birth”; “the face he has by corporeal birth.” γενέσεως is used in distinction from the notion which follows of spiritual features. The tenses of the verbs (aorist) imply, “looks at himself once for all”; “has taken his departure and is gone”; “forgets and thinks of it no more.”
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Jas_1:25. Looketh.—παρακύψας; to lean aside, to stoop to look, at something which attracts attention; hence to look particularly, to scrutinise; implying close inquiry after truth. Perfect.—Because regarded as the consummation of Judaism; the law of Moses was incomplete in respect of pardon of sin and holiness. Law of liberty.—Its characteristic is its freeing men from the bonds which prevent their being righteous. “The gospel is in a proper sense the law of liberty, because those who receive it render a free, loving obedience from an inward, vital principle.” Dean Alford says, “Not in contrast with a former law of bondage, but as viewed on the side of its being the law of the new life and birth, with all its spontaneous and free development of obedience.”
SYNONYMS OF THE WORD θρῆσκος
θεοσεβής, only in Joh_9:31; necessarily implies piety towards gods, or the God. εὐσεβής may mean this, but may also mean piety in the fulfilment of human relations; it implies worship or worthship, and reverence well directed. εὐλαβής, passed from caution and carefulness in human things to the same in Divine things. Devout, or the special Jewish Old Testament phase of piety. In the mingled fear and love which constituted together the piety of man toward God, the Old Testament emphasises fear, the New Testament love. εὐλαβής therefore suits the Old Testament piety. It represents the scrupulous worshipper making conscience of omitting anything. In θρήσκος, Lat. religiosus, we have the zealous and diligent performer of the Divine offices of the outward service of God. θρησκεία, cultures exterior, predominantly ceremonial, external service. The external form or body of which εὐσέβεια is the informing soul.—After Trench.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Jas_1:22-25
Following up Religious Instructions.—One of the weaknesses of the Hebrew Christian communities was that so many of the members thought they were called to teach, and were able to teach. It is the constantly recurring weakness of the so-called Free Churches, which encourage their members to use their various gifts in the service of the Church. Persons who think they can teach and cannot are amongst the most difficult and troublesome people to deal with. St. James’s counsel here is directly addressed to such persons. He politely but searchingly says, “You would make better hearers than teachers; and you would find plenty of sphere for your energy, if you set yourselves to do the things about which you hear.” “Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deluding your own selves.” There is a hearing only, which leads to nothing. The seed of truth lies as on a hard field-path, exposed to the birds. There is a talking only about what is heard, which is more than useless, which is mischievous, because self-satisfying. There is a doing of what we hear which is in every way valuable, for it implies thought, care, anxiety, right sense of responsibility and duty. Doing prefers silence.
I. Religious knowledge is not the final result of religious instruction.—It is a proper result, one to be distinctly aimed at. But it may be made a final result by the teacher who has the special gift of teaching; and by the hearer who is mentally strong, naturally critical, or unduly interested in doctrine. It needs to be strongly urged on public attention in these days, that religious knowledge is no more than a stage on the way to the final result aimed at by the public presentation of religious truth. F. W. Robertson says, “I can conceive of no dying hour more awful than that of the man who has striven to know rather than to love, and finds himself at last in a world of barren theories, loving none and adoring nothing.”
II. Religious feeling is not the final result of religious instruction.—This truth appeals to quite a different class of hearers—to the emotional class. There are very many persons who think they can never get a blessing from public services unless their feelings are moved. And the claim of these really good, but somewhat weak-charactered, people mischievously influences our public preachers, who allow themselves to cultivate the merely rhetorical and pathetic, and to imagine that they have gained splendid triumphs when they have subdued congregations to tears. It is well therefore to set forth the surface and temporary character of religious emotions, and the temptation to satisfy ourselves with them, and even flatter ourselves in our goodness as indicated by them. Many a Christian’s life, if read searchingly, will be found very full of high, forced, fictitious emotions and feelings, but very weak in masteries of evil, power of principles, self-sacrifices, holy charities, and good works. People seem to prefer that which cultivates the sentimental.
III. Religious talk is not the final result of religious instruction.—Some hearers simply reproduce what they hear, with variations, and imagine they have reached the true result when they have given everybody whom they can influence their idea of the sermon. And their talk is of no value to themselves, or to any one who listens to them. In every sphere of life it is found that the talkers are the helpless people, if they are not the mischievous people. While they stop and talk, the real work of life waits undone. True preaching tends to stop talk, by compelling people to think, and to inquire what they can do.
IV. Religious doing is the final result of religious instruction.—Our Lord, as the great Teacher, constantly enforced this truth by direct word, e.g. “If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them”: by pictures, “as of the good tree that brings forth good fruit”; and by parable on parable, such as that of the “talents.” The apostle constantly urges the same thing. St. James has it for the one thing that he variously illustrates and impresses. The true hearer is “the doer that worketh”; and the true preacher or teacher is he who can inspire men unto doing, lead into the life of service.
SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES
Jas_1:22. Spiritual Parasites.—The plants that grow on the great trees, and thrive on the sap of the trees, only bring forth their own fruit unto themselves. They in no sense help the mission of the trees. Nay, their simple receptiveness becomes a drain of the tree’s life, and even effects its ultimate ruin. There be those in the fellowship of Christ’s Church who are “hearers only”; receptive only; they take in everything, give out nothing, help in nothing, do nothing but serve and please themselves. They are but parasites, but they may have a fatally mischievous influence on the Church’s life. He who receives is honourably bound to use what he receives in the common service; but this no parasite ever does.
Living the Truth.—A brief and simple but very expressive eulogy was pronounced by Martin Luther upon a pastor at Zwickaw, in 1522, named Nicholas Hausman. “What we preach,” said the reformer, “he lives.”
True Religion.—A man’s religion is not a thing all made in heaven, and then let down and shoved unto him. It is his own conduct and life. A man has no more religion than he acts out in his life.—H. Ward Beecher.
An End in view for Hearers of the Gospel.—It is strange folly in multitudes of us to propound no end in the hearing of the gospel. The merchant sails, not only that he may sail, but for traffic, and traffics that he may be rich. The husbandman ploughs, not only to keep himself busy, but in order to sow, and sows that he may reap with advantage. And shall we do the most excellent and fruitful work fruitlessly—hear only to hear, and look no further? This is indeed a great vanity, and a great misery, to lose that labour which, duly used, would be of all others most gainful; and yet all our meetings are full of this.—Leighton.
Jas_1:22-24. Profitless Hearing.
I. The vacant hearers.—These are men who are drawn mechanically to the sanctuary, and leave all but their bodies elsewhere.
II. The curious hearer.—This spirit brings the attention to bear upon a subject, but merely to dissect and criticise it.
III. The captious hearer.—Here the attention is excited only to be turned against the teachings of religion. The business here is to catch the preacher in his words.
IV. The fashionable hearers.—These welcome the Sabbath so as to display to advantage their attractions.
V. The speculating hearers.—These are they whose selfishness leads them to make a pecuniary gain of godliness. It is respectable to attend Divine worship, therefore they go.
VI. The self-forgetful hearers.—Those who listen to find out their neighbours’ defects.
VII. The prayerless hearers.
VIII. The unresolved hearers.—J. T. Tucker.
Jas_1:23. Eastern Mirrors.—The mirrors in use among the Jews, Greeks, and Romans were of polished metal; and as these presented a less perfect image than our modern mirrors, to see through, i.e. by means of, a mirror had become among the later Rabbis, as well as with St. Paul, a proverbial phrase for man’s imperfect knowledge of Divine things.
Objects that may be looked at.—St. James especially draws attention to the character of the looking, and the dependence of the after-results upon that character. But we may also compare the objects looked at, and the results dependent on looking at right and fitting objects. There is—
1. Looking in at self.
2. Looking around on others.
3. Looking out at truth.
4. Looking up to God. The writer of the epistle to the Hebrews bids us “look off”—look away—“unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.”
Characters seen in the Use of Mirrors.—Vanity is thus shown. So is the anxiety to please. But the indifference which involves a hurried and careless use of the mirror should be recognised as a moral weakness. A Christian man ought to be the “best possible” in every relation of life, and in the use of every power of influence. Much influence does come from his personal appearance, expression of countenance, and manners. A careful use of the mirror may therefore be a sign of right Christian carefulness, and anxiety to serve others in every kind of ministry. “It is possible, though it can hardly be insisted on, that there is an emphasis on a man’s casual way of looking at a mirror, and the more careful gaze supposed to be characteristic of a woman.”
Jas_1:24. Fading Impressions.—This is described as an actual occurrence, seen and noted by the writer. There is a recognition of the well-known face, followed by instant and complete forgetfulness; and thus is it often with the mirror of the soul. In some striking sermon, or book, a man’s self is made manifest to him, and the picture may be too familiar to cause aversion; but, whether or no, the impression fades from his mind as quickly as the echoes of the preacher’s words. At the best the knowledge was only superficial, perhaps momentary, widely different from that which comes of a holy walk with God.—E. G. Punchard, M.A.
Jas_1:25. The Perfect Law.—That must be the law which secures to man the liberty and the power to do right. And that liberty and that power are precisely the things which man supremely needs, seeing that he finds himself under persuasion and constraint to do wrong.
The Perfect Law and its Doers.—St. James is the preacher of works, but of works which are the fruit of faith.
I. The perfect law.—In every part of the revelation of Divine truth contained in the gospel there is a direct moral and practical bearing. No word of the New Testament is given to us only in order that we may know truth, but all in order that we may do it. No man can believe the principles that are laid down in, the New Testament, and the truths that are unveiled there, without their laying a masterful grip upon his life, and influencing all that he is. In the very central fact of the gospel there lies the most stringent rule of life. Jesus Christ is the pattern, and from those gentle lips which say, “If ye love Me, keep My commandments,” law sounds more imperatively than from all the thunder and trumpets of Sinai. In the great act of redemption, which is the central fact of the New Testament revelation, there lies a law for conduct. God’s love redeeming us is the revelation of what we ought to be; and the cross, to which we look as the refuge from sin and condemnation, is also the pattern for the life of every believer. It is a law just because it is a gospel. If your conception of Christianity has not grasped it as being a stringent rule of life, you need to go to school to St. James. This thought gives the necessary counterpoise to the tendency to substitute the mere intellectual grasp of Christian truth for the practical doing of it. Not what we believe, but what we do, is our Christianity; only the doing must be rooted in belief. Take this vivid conception of the gospel as a law, as a counterpoise to the tendency to place religion in mere emotion and feeling. Notice that this law is a perfect law. James’s idea, I suppose, in that epithet, is not so much the completeness of the code, or the loftiness and absoluteness of the ideal which is set forth in the gospel, as the relation between the law and its doer. He is stating the same thought of which the psalmist of old time had caught a glimpse. “The law of the Lord is perfect,” because “it converts the soul.” That is to say, the weakness of all commandment—whether it be the law of a nation, or the law of moral text-books, or the law of conscience, or of public opinion, or the like—the weakness of all positive statute is that it stands there, over against a man, and points a stony finger to the stony tables, “Thou shalt!” “Thou shalt not!” but stretches out no hand to help us in keeping the commandment. It simply enjoins, and so is weak—like the proclamations of some discrowned king who has no army at his back to enforce them, and which flutter as waste-paper on the barn-doors, and do nothing to secure allegiance. But, says James, this law is perfect, because it is more than law, and transcends the simple functions of command. It not only tells us what to do, but it gives us power to do it; and that is what men want. The world knows what it ought to do well enough. There is no need for heaven to be rent, and voices to come to tell men what is right and wrong; they carry an all but absolutely sufficient guide to that within their own minds. But there is need to bring them something which shall be more than commandment, which shall be both law and power, both the exhibition of duty and the gift of capacity to discharge it. The gospel brings power because it brings life. “If there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness had been by the law.” In the gospel that desideratum is supplied. Here is the law which vitalises, and so gives power. The life which the gospel brings will unfold itself after its own nature, and so produce the obedience which the law of the gospel requires. Therefore, says James further, this perfect law is freedom. Of course, liberty is not exemption from commandment, but the harmony of will with commandment. Whosoever finds that what is his duty is his delight is enfranchised. We are set at liberty when we walk within the limits of that gospel; and they who delight to do the law are free in obedience,—free from the tyranny of their own lusts, passions, inclinations; free from the domination of men, and opinion, and customs, and habits. All those bonds are burnt in the fiery furnace of love into which they pass, and where they walk transfigured and at liberty, because they keep that law. Freedom comes from the reception into my heart of the life whose motions coincide with the commandments of the gospel. Then the burden that I carry carries me, and the limits within which I am confined are the merciful fences put up on the edge of the cliff to keep the traveller from falling over, and being dashed to pieces beneath.
II. The doers of the perfect law.—James has a long prelude before he comes to the doing. Several things are required as preliminary. The first step is, “looketh into the law.” The word employed here is a very picturesque and striking one. Its force may be seen if I quote to you the other instances of its occurrence in the New Testament. It is employed in the accounts of the Resurrection to describe the attitude and action of Peter, John, and Mary as they “stooped down and looked into” the empty sepulchre. In all these cases the Revised Version translates the word as I have just done, “stooping and looking,” both acts being implied in it. It is also employed by Peter when he tells us that the “angels desire to look into” the mysteries of redemption, in which saying, perhaps, there may be some allusion to the silent, bending figures of the twin cherubim, who, with folded wings and fixed eyes, curved themselves above the mercy-seat, and looked down upon that mystery of propitiating love. With such fixed and steadfast gaze we must contemplate the perfect law of liberty if we are ever to be doers of the same. A second requirement is, “and continueth.” The gaze must be, not only concentrated, but constant, if anything is to come of it. Old legends tell that the looker into a magic crystal saw nothing at first, but, as he gazed, there gradually formed themselves in the clear sphere filmy shapes, which grew firmer and more distinct until they stood plain. The raw hide dipped into the vat with tannin in it, and at once pulled out again, will never be turned into leather. Many of you do not give the motives and principles of the gospel, which you say you believe, a chance of influencing you, because so interruptedly and spasmodically, and at such long intervals, and for so few moments, do you gaze upon them. Steadfast and continued attention is needful if we are to be “doers of the work.”—Homiletic Review.
Practical Exhortation.—
1. Cultivate the habit of contemplating the central truths of Christianity as the condition of receiving in vigour and fulness the life which obeys the commandment.
2. Cultivate the habit of reflective meditation upon the truths of the gospel as giving you the pattern of duty in a concentrated and available form.
3. Cultivate the habit of meditating on the truths of the gospel, in order that the motives of conduct may be reinvigorated and strengthened. Make of all your creed deed. Let everything you believe be a principle of action too; your credenda translate into agenda.—A. Maclaren, D.D.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 1
Jas_1:22. Doers of the Word.—Cromwell is said to have once entered a church where stood gold and silver figures of the twelve apostles. “What do these here?” said he. “Nothing,” was the reply of the priest in charge. “Very well,” said Cromwell, “take them away; melt them down, and send them about doing good.”
Hearing and Doing.—There is a story told of two men who, walking together, found a young tree laden with fruit. They both gathered, and satisfied themselves for the present; but one of them took all the remaining fruit, and carried it away with him, the other took the tree, and planted it in his own ground, where it prospered and brought forth fruit every year; so that though the former had more at present, yet this had some when he had none. They who hear the word, and have large memories, and nothing else, may carry away most of the word at present, yet he that perhaps can but remember little, who carries away the tree, plants the word in his heart, and obeys it in his life, shall have fruit when the other has none.—Old Writer.
Religious Excitement ineffective.—A celebrated preacher of the seventeenth century, in a sermon to a crowded audience, described the terrors of the last judgment with such eloquence, pathos, and force of action, that some of his audience not only burst into tears, but sent forth piercing cries, as if the Judge Himself had been present, and was about to pass upon them their final sentence. In the height of this commotion the preacher called upon them to dry their tears and cease their cries, as he was about to add something still more awful and astonishing than anything he had yet brought before them. Silence being obtained, he, with an agitated countenance and solemn voice, addressed them thus: “In one quarter of an hour from this time the emotions which you have just now exhibited will be stifled, the remembrance of the fearful truths which excited you will vanish; you will return to your carnal occupations or sinful pleasures with your usual avidity, and you will treat all you have heard ‘as a tale that is told.’ ”
Jas_1:23. Seeing Ourselves.—The wife of a drunkard once found her husband in a filthy condition, with torn clothes, matted hair, bruised face, asleep in the kitchen, having come home from a drunken revel. She sent for a photographer, and had a portrait of him taken in all his wretched appearance, and placed it on the mantel beside another portrait taken at the time of his marriage, which showed him handsome and well-dressed, as he had been in other days. When he became sober he saw the two pictures, and awakened to a consciousness of his condition, from which he arose to a better life. Now, the office of the law is not to save men, but to show them their true state as compared with the Divine standard. It is like a glass, in which one seeth “what manner of man he is.”
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v21 (See Scofield "Rom 1:16").
save
(See Scofield "Rom 1:16").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v22 Doers of the Word:
Doers of the Word:
v. 22. But be ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
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v. 23. For if any be a hearer of the Word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass;
v. 24. for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
v. 25. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
v. 26. If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.
v. 27. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
The words which introduce this paragraph may be said practically to form the topic of the entire letter, the apostle’s aim being to combat the mere head Christianity which, even in those days, threatened the life of the Church: But become doers of the Word, and not only hearers, deceiving yourselves. The Jewish Christians of Judea had now heard the Gospel-message for about a generation, and they were in danger of falling away from the first love. They still came to hear the Word, but there the matter ended. There was no evidence in their lives of their possessing the fruit-bearing faith which should come by hearing, Rom 10:17. The hearing of the Gospel, of all the preaching which they were blessed with so richly, had become a mere dead custom with them, a habit without life. But hearing should be accompanied by a living faith, by a faith which gives evidence of its existence in the entire life of the believer. Sanctification is the correlate of justification. The preaching of sin and grace is not to pass through the hearing of the Christian like a dead sound, but the spiritual life which was worked in the Christians through the Gospel should find its expression in deed and in truth, should be living and powerful in good works. Unless there is such evidence of faith in the life of people professing to be Christians, unless sanctification follows upon justification, they are deceiving their own hearts, they are reasoning themselves into a state of carnal security.
The apostle explains his meaning by a comparison: For if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like a man who glances at his natural face in a mirror; for he glances at himself, and goes away, and at once forgets what he was like. A person whom this description fits, with whom the hearing of the Word has become a mere dead habit, without meaning and life, is well compared to the average person who merely glances into the mirror to see whether his face is clean, whether his clothing is arranged properly. There are very few persons that would be able to recall their own features even after using a mirror hundreds of times. Thus the mere hearers of the Word go back to their every-day lives and neither retain the Gospel-message with a believing heart, nor do they bring forth fruit with patience, Luk 8:15.
With such forgetful, vain hearers of the Word the apostle contrasts the true believer: But he that looks closely into the perfect law, that of liberty, and remains thus, proving himself not a forgetful listener, but a doer of the Word, he will be blessed in his doing. It is God’s will that the believers, having been regenerated through His almighty power through faith, should grow in holiness, in perfection, according to His holy will. The perfect law or institution of liberty is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, for it teaches us wherein true liberty consists, namely, in serving our heavenly Father through Christ. The true believer does not merely glance at this fact in passing, but takes time to study carefully all those things which, he knows, have the approval of the Lord. It is just because he realizes the extent and the wonderful richness of his liberty in Christ Jesus that he strives to be a doer of the Word, to make progress in sanctification. And he that is thus employed in the service of his heavenly Father, for the love which he bears Him in faith, will be happy and blessed in his doing, the very fact of his being engaged in works which are well-pleasing to his Lord and Master is a satisfaction and a reward which fully repays him, not to speak of the reward of grace which the Lord will pay out to him on the last day. In doing the will of God, a Christian realizes and experiences on his part what the Word of God is able to perform in him, that it is a power of God unto salvation.
That sanctification must thus follow justification the apostle shows in conclusion: If anyone fancies himself to be a religious man, but does not control his tongue and rather deceives his own heart, his religion is vain; pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to care for orphans and widows in their tribulation, to keep oneself unspotted from the world. If Any person thinks he is, imagines himself to be, such a one as has the reverence of God in mind at all times, probably making a boast of his religion and of his zeal for God’s Word, and at the same time is guilty of the threefold misuse of the tongue, slander, swearing, and impure speaking, he thereby deludes himself. His own words and actions give the lie to his protestations; he denies by his life during the week what he proudly boasts of on Sundays, and therefore his so-called religion is a futile, useless thing. The power and efficacy of the Word, as the author points out, will rather, in all true believers, give evidence of its presence in a far different way. That is pure, real, unsoiled, selfless religion, a real fruit of faith as it is active and effective in love, if Christians make the care of the fatherless, of widows, of all such as are deprived of their natural protectors, their special purpose, thus alleviating their affliction as much as lies in their power. And another way in which true religion will become evident is in this, that the believers preserve themselves unspotted from the world, that they have no communion with the unfruitful works of darkness which soil the hearts and minds and drive faith out of the heart. Thus shall the sanctification of the Christians go forward all along the line and their faith and love be exercised in accordance with the will of their heavenly Father.
Summary
After the address the apostle speaks of the temptations which beset the Christians, of the power of prayer, of the need of humility, of the real source of temptations, of the fatherhood of God, of the acceptance of His Word with meekness, and of sanctification as a fruit of justification.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v22 Be doers of the word
Be doers of the word
"Be people who follow God's instructions"
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deceiving yourselves
"fooling yourselves"
For if anyone is a hearer of the word
"For if anyone listens to the God's message in the scriptures"
but not a doer
The word "is" and "of the word" are understood from the previous phrase. The noun "doer" can also be expressed with the verbs "do" or "obey." AT: "but is not a doer of the word" or "but does not obey the word" (See: Ellipsis)
he is like a man who examines his natural face in a mirror
A person who hears God's word is like someone who looks in the mirror. (See: Simile)
his natural face
The word "natural" clarifies that James is using the ordinary meaning of the word "face." AT: "his face"
then goes away and immediately forgets what he was like
It is implied that though he may see that he needs to do something, such as wash his face or fix his hair, he walks away and forgets to do it. This what a person who does not obey God's word is like. AT: "then goes away and immediately forgets to do what he saw he needed to do" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information and Simile)
the person who looks carefully into the perfect law
This expression continues the image of the law as a mirror. (See: Simile)
the perfect law of freedom
The relationship between the law and freedom can be expressed clearly. Here "freedom" probably refers to freedom from sin. AT: "the perfect law that gives freedom" or "the perfect law that makes those who follow it free" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
this man will be blessed in his actions
This can be stated in active form. AT: "God will bless this man as he obeys the law" (See: Active or Passive)
translationWords
word of God
deceive
law
free
bless
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv21–22 1:21 get rid of: Literally put off, like filthy…
1:21 get rid of: Literally put off, like filthy clothing; cp. Eph 4:22; 1 Pet 2:1. • the word God has planted . . . has the power to save your souls: James emphasizes that Christians are called to respond to a word that God himself has put within our very beings (in fulfillment of Jer 31:31-34). • The soul refers to the whole person (so also in Jas 5:20; see Gen 2:7; 1 Pet 3:20).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.