James 1:23

23 For anyone who hears the word but does not carry it out is like a man who looks at his face 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, get rid of all moral filth and every expression of evil, and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save your souls.

22 Be doers of the word, and not hearers only. Otherwise, you are deceiving yourselves.

23 For anyone who hears the word but does not carry it out is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror,

24 and after observing himself goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.

25 But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom, and continues to do so—not being a forgetful hearer, but an effective doer—he will be blessed in what he does.