James 1:23

23 because if anyone is a hearer of the message and not a doer, this one is like someone^[a] staring at {his own face}^[b] 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".

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FOOTNOTES:

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

James 1:23 In-Context

21 Therefore, putting aside all moral uncleanness and wicked excess, welcome with humility the implanted message which is able to save your souls.

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

23 because if anyone is a hearer of the message and not a doer, this one is like someone staring at {his own face} in a mirror,

24 for he looks at himself and goes away and immediately forgets what sort of [person] he was.

25 But the one who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues [to do it], not being a forgetful hearer but a doer who acts, this one will be blessed {in what he does}.

Footnotes

• [a] Literally "a man," but clearly in a generic sense here meaning "someone, a person"
• [b] Literally "the face of his existence"