James 1:23

23 Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his own face^[a] in a mirror;

James 1:23 Meaning and Commentary

James 1:23

But if any man be a hearer of the word, and not a doer,
&c.] The Arabic version here again reads, "a hearer of the law", and so some copies; not hearing, but practice, is the main thing; not theory, but action: hence, says R. Simeon, not the word, or the searching into it, and the explanation of it, is the root, or principal thing, (hvemh ala) , "but the work" ^F16: and if a man is only a preacher, or a hearer, and not a doer,

he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass;
or, "the face of his generation"; the face with which he was born; his true, genuine, native face; in distinction from any counterfeit one, or from the face of his mind: it means his own corporeal face. The Ethiopic version renders it, "the lineaments of his face".

---

FOOTNOTES:

F16 Pirke Abot, c. 1. sect. 17.

James 1:23 In-Context

21 Therefore, ridding yourselves of all moral filth and evil excess, humbly receive the implanted word, which is able to save you.

22 But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

23 Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his own face in a mirror;

24 for he looks at himself, goes away, and right away forgets what kind of man he was.

25 But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer who acts-this person will be blessed in what he does.

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit at the face of his birth