James1:1 James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad: Greetings.
“James—Jacobus, the name which our English language has made Jacob in the Old Testament it has capriciously shortened to James in the New.” (Whedon Commentary) The patriarch, Jacob, wrestled with God in the flesh and prevailed… and was named Israel. (Gen. 32:22-32)
Likewise, at first, the Lord’s brothers did not believe in Him. (John 7:5) But now as a part of spiritual Israel, James considered himself “a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.” “The Ethiopic version reads this in connection with the former clause, without the copulative ‘and’, ‘James, the servant of God, our Lord Jesus Christ’: and so some consider the copulative as explanative of who is meant by God, even the Lord Jesus Christ...” (John Gill) “Some read the words conjoined, others disjoined: conjoined thus, James, a servant of Jesus Christ, who is God and Lord; and thus the fathers urged this text against the Arians, to prove the Divinity and Godhead of Christ.” (Burkitt Notes)
"In the first Christian sermon Jesus' lordship is made central to salvation (Acts 2:21). [Sometimes Yahweh was translated Lord in the New Testament quotes of the Old Testament.] It appears that the public confession of Jesus as Lord was the approved focus and expression of Christian faith, and the basis of membership in the apostolic church (Acts 16:31; Rom 10:9; 1 Cor 12:3; Phil 2:11)…. From the first, such a confession was fraught with meaning. In common usage ‘lord’ reflected the slave system and implied the absolute power exercised by the master over the purchased slave. So Paul [and here James] unhesitatingly expounds the moral implications of Christian redemption (1 Cor 6:19-20; 7:22-23; see photo on p. 822). To Jewish minds, the title had messianic overtones of kingship and authority (Lk 20:41-44), offending both Jews and Romans. Politically, ‘Lord’ was a title claimed by Caesar. Therefore, it is significant that Jesus is called ‘King of kings and Lord of lords’ during the age of Domitian when Caesar worship was mandated (Rv 17:14; 19:16).
Among Greek-speaking Jews of the dispersion, familiar with the Septuagint, as among Gentiles, for whom ‘Lord’ was the customary title for the many gods of polytheism, the application to Jesus of the epithet belonging to godhead was blasphemous, especially when associated with ‘Son of God,’ prayer, praise, total devotion, and hope (1 Cor 8:5-6; Phil 2:9-11; 1 Thes 4:14-17). On every level, therefore, the adoring tribute given to Jesus was loaded not only with spiritual meaning but with positive and imminent danger.” (Tyndale Bible Dictionary)
The letter is written “’to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad’ being one of the apostles of the circumcision, Galatians 2:9, he writes to all his believing countrymen wherever dispersed, as they were upon several occasions, and at several times, into divers countries, Acts 2:9-11. [This includes natural born and converts to the faith.] ‘Greeting’; a salutation usual, not only among the heathen, but the Jews, Matthew 26:49 27:29; and used by the Christians, Acts 15:23. It seems to answer to the Hebrew salutation, peace, which was comprehensive of all happiness; and so is this here to be understood.” (Matthew Poole)
James 1:2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
“‘My brethren’— Observe, that it is the brethren to whom the Apostle speaks, that is, brethren in Christ, partakers of the heavenly calling.“ (Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary)— “‘count it all joy’— esteem it so by a spiritual judgment, though the flesh judge otherwise.” (Matthew Poole)— “when you fall into”— implying “an unlooked-for concurrence of adverse circumstances— ‘various trials’ divers temptations. The word, as commonly in the NT, stands for trials that take the form of suffering, rather than for the enticements of pleasure. Comp. Luke 22:28; Acts 20:19; 1 Corinthians 10:13; 1 Peter 1:6. Its use implies accordingly that those to whom the Epistle was written were passing through a time of adversity. This was true, more or less, of the whole Jewish race, everywhere, but it was specially true of those who being of the Twelve Tribes, also held the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ, and of those most of all who were most within the writer’s view. Comp. 1 Thessalonians 2:14; Hebrews 10:32-33, for the sufferings of Jewish and specially of Hebrew Christians.” (Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges)
Sufferings for Christ sake— These trials or sufferings “put religion, and all the graces of which it is composed to proof; the man that stands in such trials gives proof that his religion is sound, and the evidence afforded to his own mind induces him to take courage, bear patiently, and persevere.’’ (Adam Clarke) “It does not appear from the rest of this letter that the persons to whom it was addressed were under the pressure of any particular trouble or affliction. Seeing that they are ‘the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad,’ the width of that superscription makes it improbable that the recipients were undergoing any common experience.” (Alexander MacLauren)—
“knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.” —
“Do not think the grace will come to its full beauty in an hour. Emotion and sentiment may have their place in the beginning of a Christian career, but the end thereof is not yet. Until the soul be quite unmoved by any attack of Satan, the work cannot be deemed ‘perfect.’ The doctrine is not mere quietism, much less one of apathy, but rather this, that the conscious strength of patient trust in God is able to say at all times (comp. Psalms 63:8)— ‘My soul hath followed hard on Thee; Thy right hand hath upholden me.’ And if in this patience we can learn to possess our souls (Luke 21:19) the perfect work of God will be wrought within us.” (Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers)
“But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete,”—“We are to endure trials without seeking a quick deliverance, so that the full work may be done, the lesson well learned. We must not grow weary and seek a premature relief. We must not resign from the race, but we must endure to the end that we might be fully developed and mature in grace.— ‘Wanting nothing,’ that is, lacking nothing essential to a strong, mature believer in Christ, being grounded and settled in faith! We must be gracious in love, as well as grounded in truth. We must be strong in practice, as well as sound in principle. We must be givers of mercy, as well as receivers of mercy.” (Henry Mahan)
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord ; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
“I humbly conceive, that the wisdom here spoken of means Christ, and His graces. For Christ is the wisdom of God, as well as the power of God, for salvation to everyone that believeth, 1 Corinthians 1:24. And Christ is made of God to all His people, wisdom as well as righteousness; and sanctification as well as redemption, 1 Corinthians 1:30.” (Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary) “If we desire grace under trial, ask God. If we desire patience and wisdom under trial, ask God. ‘But let him ask in faith.’ We must not only go to the right place, but we must approach him in the right manner – believing! Faith in the existence of God, faith in the power and purpose of God and faith in the wisdom and will of God are essential to prayer (Hebrews 11:6; Matthew 22:21).” (Henry Mahan)— “with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind” “‘For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.’ Now on the shore, now sinking back, now driving fearlessly ahead, then sinking down. This is not the kind of man that prevails with God in prayer, it is not the kind of faith we ought to have in God a faith that is very brilliant on the Sunday, and very dull on the Monday: a faith that is triumphant after a sermon, but which seems to be defeated when we get into actual trouble.” (C. H. Spurgeon)
“’For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.’ The unsure, wavering man (who is in today and out tomorrow, divided in his interests, and whose heart is not fixed toward a definite commitment to Christ and his will) can receive nothing from God; he is double-minded, uncertain. He is inclined to God and to the world. He has a desire toward God, but a reluctance to let go of the world. He wants the grace of patience, but not the trial which is necessary to the grace. He wants to be used of God, but in the way and place he chooses. He wants the crown without the cross. Such a man may not be a hypocrite (pretending to be what he is not), but he is simply unsure, unsettled and uncommitted! Job said, ‘Though he slay me, yet will I trust him.’ A divided heart is attributed to lack of purpose and lack of faith.” (Henry Mahan's Commentary)
James 1:9 Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation, 10 but the rich in his humiliation, because as a flower of the field he will pass away. 11 For no sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat than it withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beautiful appearance perishes. So the rich man also will fade away in his pursuits.
“‘Let the lowly brother’— the poor, destitute Christian— ‘glory in his exaltation,’— in the blessed hope laid up for him in heaven” (Adam Clarke)— or his own personal assurance thereof. “The new creature is a freed man in the kingdom of Christ; the serf is now a son, and sits in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. His family and cottage are clean, wisdom and love dwell in his house, old things are passed away.” (Joseph Sutcliffe) “‘but the rich’— not, as we might have expected, ‘the brother of high degree’ — 'in his humiliation.’ ‘The rich’, as James uses the term, mean the unbelieving rich, the leading men of wealth and influence and religious sanctity, who were almost to a man in deadly opposition to Christ, as is shown to us throughout the Acts of the Apostles.” (F. B. Hole)
Before Christ is received, the religious man must be brought low. Only then can he be exalted. “When mankind were in their infancy God rewarded them as infants; but on their attaining to years of discretion He sets before them worthier treasures than those things that perish in the using. When, therefore, Christians look on wealth [or types] as the reward of righteousness, they are as grown-up sons mistaking nursery toys for their inheritance. God has, as it were, opened our nursery door, and shown to us the splendid domain to which we are heirs, and does bid us go forth and fit ourselves for the larger life.” (The Christian World Pulpit)— “‘because as a flower of the field he will pass away.’ An Old Testament figure applied to man in general, Job 14:2; Psalm 103:15, to the ungodly with particular emphasis, Psalm 37:2 ( Psalm 92:8). But here it is not to be explained with reference to the ungodly (so Huther), but as a historical figure with reference to the decay of the Old Testament glory, which in a surprising manner exhibits the realization of the law of the universal decay of human glory, even as foretold by Isaiah 40:6 etc. to which this passage doubtless has special reference. But in this decay there lay really concealed a consolation (just as in the universal decay of man), at which the thoughtful theocrat might well rejoice. The flower of the Old Testament glory was decaying, but the fruit-time of the Gospel of the New Testament had set in.” (Lange's Commentary)
“For no sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat than it withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beautiful appearance perishes. So the rich man also will fade away in his pursuits.” Not only would the Old Testament economy soon be done away with but the rich man- the adherents to that system- and all of his works will likewise be destroyed at the Jesus’ Coming. But Christ says: “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people.”
James 1:12 Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.
13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. 14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. 15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.
“Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.” This implies direct personal agency. “Those who meet trials in the right attitude will grow in their understanding and enjoyment of the life God has given them (12). It is important to recognize the difference between the outward trial and the inward temptation. When people are experiencing trials, they can easily be tempted to do wrong and then blame God for their failure. God can neither tempt nor be tempted, because he is holy (13). Giving in to temptation prevents people from experiencing the sort of life that God intended for them.” (Bridgeway Bible Commentary) When persecuted, we are largely tempted to give in, returning to sin- but here the true cause is revealed as: “Man is regarded as tempted by his own lust or desire, here personified.” (Cambridge Greek Testament) The end thereof, when it is full-grown, is death.
“‘Blessed is the man that endureth temptation,’ as Moses bore with the Hebrews for forty years; as David, when he said, ‘let Shimei curse’; as Jeremiah, who fought against idolatry till the city was burned, and the idols in it. Our afflictions work together for good. In the furnace the Lord purifies his saints as gold, and prepares them for thrones of glory, and crowns of life eternal.” (Joseph Sutcliffe) “Reader! let you and I attend to the subject a little. There can be no crown of victory without a battle. And the very enduring of temptation, which is this battle, is declared to be blessed. And first, It is so, because Satan makes this furious attack upon the child of God, because he is the child of God. His bitterness is against Christ and his seed, Christ and his Church. Hence, blessed is the man that endureth temptation on this account. The Lord said at first to the serpent, ‘I will put enmity between thee and the woman: and between thy seed, and her seed,’ Genesis 3:15. And here it is seen to our joy [ or blessedness]; in the Devil's malice to Christ's seed, and on Christ's account.” (Hawker's Poor Man's Commentary)
In His humanity, could Jesus Christ have sinned? There is little doubt that He was tempted, but He was found spotless and pure. Those who believe that He could have sinned “generally quote in connection with this Hebrews 4:15, that He was tempted in all points as we are. They claim that ‘all points’ includes temptation to sin coming from within. Even excellent Christians are at sea about this question. Our Lord Jesus Christ is very God. Being manifested in the flesh does not mean that He laid aside His Deity. James says, ‘God cannot be tempted with evil,’ for God is absolutely holy. Therefore our Lord could not be tempted with evil. He had nothing of fallen man in Him; the prince of this world (Satan) came and found nothing in Him. Furthermore, the correct translation of Hebrews 4:15 is as follows: But was in all points tempted like as we are, apart from sin. In all other points our blessed Lord was tempted, but never by indwelling sin, for He was absolutely holy in His human nature, given to Him by the Holy Spirit.” (Gaebelein) It is otherwise for fallen man.
James 1:16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. 18 Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.
“‘Do not be deceived my beloved brothers.’ Viz. in imputing your sins to God, and saying, that when you are tempted you are tempted of Him.” (Matthew Poole) Your calling by Him is an antithesis to this, as in 1 Peter 1:15: “But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do.”
”Every good gift and every perfect gift”—the power to will and to do His good pleasure— “literally, ‘every good giving and every perfect gift.’ Both the act of giving [these sanctifying graces] and the gift are named, one as good and the other as perfect.” (Whedon’s Commentary) These gifts are available through Christ, who came down from the Father of lights, referring “to the heavenly bodies, of which God may be said to be the Father, in that He is their Creator (for ‘Father,’ in the sense of Creator, cf. Job 38:28).... From Him who ‘made the stars also’ comes down every good and perfect gift, and with Him and literally ‘there can be no variation, neither shadow that is cast by turning.’” (Pulpit Commentary)
“‘Of his own will begat he us by the Word of truth,” even the Word made flesh who dwelled among us. “For while the sustaining of Creation was left to the glorious heavenly lights and the sustaining seasons, the begetting of His own people occurred directly through His own determined will and purpose, a begetting which took place through the Word of truth. And He brought it about by His own divine action at the time of His own planning (Gal 4:4-7). Behind this statement is the thought of the One Who has recently walked the earth and brought God’s truth to men. Here was God’s will very much in action, manifesting His glory (John 1:14), a glory greater far than that of sun or moon…” (Peter Pett)
"‘Hear,’ says the prophet, ‘and your souls shall live.’” (H. McNeile, D. D.) Jesus spoke only... and it came into being. “Though the Holy Spirit is the efficient cause of this great change in our moral state and condition, so that we are said to be born of the Spirit, and born of God, yet it is effected by means of the Word. Paul said he had not known sin but by the law, and we had never known the way of deliverance from it, and from its consequences, but for the gospel which reveals to us a Saviour. It is by means of the Word of truth that the mind at first becomes impregnated with convictions, leading to repentance and to faith in Jesus.” (Sutcliffe)
“We must listen to the Word of God most carefully and diligently, seeing it is the seed, through which God by His free favour and love has begotten us to Himself, picking us out of the number of his creatures.” (Geneva Study Bible)—“that we might be a kind of first-fruits of His creatures.”
“According to the Levitical ceremonial, the first sheaf of the new crop, accompanied with sacrifice, was presented in the Temple on the day after the Passover Sabbath. No part of the harvest was permitted to be used for food until after this acknowledgment, that all had come from God and belonged to Him. A similar law applied to the first-born of men and of cattle. Both were regarded as in a special sense consecrated to and belonging to God.
Now, in the New Testament, both these ideas of ‘the first-born’ and ‘the first-fruits,’ which run as you see parallel in some important aspects, are transferred to Jesus Christ. He is ‘become the first-fruits of them that slept’: and it was no mere accidental coincidence that, in this character, He rose from the dead on the day on which, according to the law, the sheaf was to be presented in the Temple. In His case the ideas attached to the expression are not only that of consecration, but that of being the first of a series, which owes its existence to Him. He makes men ‘the many brethren,’ of whom He is ‘the first-born’; and He, by the overflowing power of His life, raises from the dead the whole harvest of which He is the first-fruits.” (Alexander MacLaren)
“Why is it said, ‘a kind of first-fruits?’ Because the parallel is not exact. Christ is the first-fruits of the Church. The Church, as the first objects of His care, are to be brought to see what He is. We shall be like Him when we see Him as He is.’ As the harvest is like the first sheaf, so shall the Church be like Christ.” (H. McNeile, D. D.)
James 1:19 So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; 20 for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
“As the objects of such matchless grace it surely becomes us to be careful to represent aright the One to whom we owe so much. Therefore we are exhorted as beloved brethren to be quick to hear and heed the Word, slow to express ourselves, unless instructed by the Spirit of God.” (Harry Ironside) Moreover: “The bitter words and angry passions of men will never bring about that righteousness—that entire and loving obedience to His divine will—which God requires from His children.” (John Dummelow) Receive the Lord's chastening here. It is needed in all quarters. But people along the political spectrum today think they already know the Word of God concerning all things. James pleads:
“‘Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak,”— Primarily: “Swift means eager or ready to hear the Word of the Lord.” (E. R. Zerr) We must be willing to let Him rebuke us with our current perspective. “At the same time, though this is the primary sense of the phrase here, it may be regarded as inculcating the general doctrine that we are to be more ready to hear than to speak; or that we are to be disposed to learn always, and from any source. Our appropriate condition is rather that of learners than instructors; and the attitude of mind which we should cultivate is that of a readiness to receive information from any quarter.
The ancients have some sayings on this subject which are well worthy of our attention. ‘Men have two ears, and but one tongue, that they should hear more than they speak.’ ‘The ears are always open, ever ready to receive instruction; but the tongue is surrounded with a double row of teeth, to hedge it in, and to keep it within proper bounds.’... How noble was the response of Xenocrates! When he met the reproaches of others with a profound silence, someone asked him why he alone was silent. ‘Because,‘ says he, ‘I have sometimes had occasion to regret that I have spoken, never that I was silent.’ See Wetstein. So the son of Sirach, ‘Be swift to hear, and with deep consideration give answer.’” (Albert Barnes)
And then based on careful consideration, not only the facts, but also consideration of the likely consequences of rash actions,
“‘Be slow to wrath’ — A zeal in matters of religion is detestable in the sight of God; He will have no sacrifice that is not consumed by fire from His own altar. The zeal that made the Papists persecute and burn the Protestants, was kindled in hell. This was the wrath of man, and did not work any righteous act for God; nor was it the means of working righteousness in others; the bad fruit of a bad tree. And do they still vindicate these cruelties? Yes: for still they maintain that no faith is to be kept with heretics, and they acknowledge the inquisition.” (Adam Clarke)
Therefore, let us listen to all— “For even a blind hog finds acorn every once in a while.” If I am quick to destroy heretics, I shall save none… or I will not be saved by their Word from God. So do not assume that your opinion is superior to mine. “Let us not be quick to reply, or to grow angry. Let us be slow — very slow — to wrath; it will be our wisdom, for no good comes of human wrath." (Spurgeon) "The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.” “The righteousness of God here includes all duties prescribed by Him, and pleasing to Him.” (John Wesley)
James 1: Doers—Not Hearers Only
21 Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted Word, which is able to save your souls. 22 But be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.
“Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness,”— “This is the same putting off of [the old man] which we read in the Pauline Epistles ( Col. 3:1-25, etc).” (Arno Gaebelein) — “‘And receive with meekness the engrafted Word, etc.” “Engrafted Word—It can mean inborn in the sense of implanted, as a seed is planted in the ground. In Ezra 9:31 we read of God saying: ‘Behold, I sow my law in you, and you shall be glorified in it for ever.’ If James is using the word in this sense, the idea may well go back to the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:1-8), which tells how the seed of the Word is sown into the hearts of men. Through His prophets and His preachers, and above all through Jesus Christ, God sows His truth into the hearts of men and the man who is wise will receive it and welcome it.” (William Barclay) “When ‘engrafted’ into the mind, as the scion into the stock, it changes the very nature of its produce. Where there was before nothing but grapes of wormwood and of gall like the vine of Sodom, there are now found the fruits of paradise, which in ‘agglomerated clusters hang.’ It contains all that is necessary to be known, and directs to all that is necessary to be done in order to salvation, without borrowing light from any other source, or needing the aid of any other authority. Like the pillar of fire that guided the Israelites through the desert, it is able to conduct us safely to the promised land. By it the man of God is made perfect, and thoroughly furnished unto all good works. 2 Timothy 3:16-17. James 1:22-25. “ (Joseph Sutcliffe)
“But be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”“Reflection should follow to digest the discourse. Our hearts, like Lydia’s, should be open to receive the Word in the love of it. Hear with prayer for the blessings that are set forth, and with an obedient mind to every duty which God enjoins: be ye doers, and not hearers only.” (Joseph Sutcliffe) “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 Butler’s 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, [James 1:2; James 1:9; James 1:12; James 1:19; James 2:14-16; James 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.” (Expositor’s Commentary)
“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.” (The Popular Commentary by Paul E. Kretzmann)
Repent and be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. (Acts 2:38) “If we heard a sermon every day of the week, and an angel from heaven were the preacher, yet, if we rested in hearing only, it would never bring us to heaven. Mere hearers are self-deceivers; and self-deceit will be found the worst deceit at last. If we flatter ourselves, it is our own fault; the truth, as it is in Jesus, flatters no man. Let the Word of truth be carefully attended to, and it will set before us the corruption of our nature, the disorders of our hearts and lives; and it will tell us plainly what we are. Our sins are the spots the law discovers: Christ's blood is the laver the gospel shows. But in vain do we hear God's Word, and look into the gospel glass, if we go away, and forget our spots, instead of washing them off; and forget our remedy, instead of applying to it. This is the case with those who do not hear the Word as they ought. In hearing the Word, we look into it for counsel and direction, and when we study it, it turns to our spiritual life. Those who keep in the law and Word of God, are, and shall be, blessed in all their ways. His gracious recompence hereafter, would be connected with his present peace and comfort. Every part of Divine revelation has its use, in bringing the sinner to Christ for salvation, and in directing and encouraging him to walk at liberty, by the Spirit of adoption, according to the holy commands of God. And mark the distinctness, it is not for his deeds, that any man is blessed, but in his deed. It is not talking, but walking, that will bring us to heaven. Christ will become more precious to the believer's soul, which by his grace will become more fitted for the inheritance of the saints in light.” (Henry)
James 1:Pure and Undefiled Religion
26 If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless. 27 Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.
“‘If any man among you seem to be religious,’ by his preaching, or praying, and hearing [of the Word of God preached or taught], and other external duties of religion, he is constant in the observance of; and who, upon the account of these things, ‘thinks himself to be a religious man’, as the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Arabic versions render it; or is thought to be so by others— ’and bridleth not his tongue’; but boasts of his works, and speaks ill of his brethren; backbites them, and hurts their names and characters, by private insinuations, and public charges; who takes no care of what he says, but gives his tongue a liberty of speaking anything, to the injury of others, and the dishonour of God, and His ways: there seems to be an allusion to Psalm 39:1.” (John Gill)
“I will guard my ways, lest I sin with my tongue; I will restrain my mouth with a muzzle.”— Psalm 39:1
“‘but deceives his own heart’ The heart first deceiveth us with colours, and when we are once doting after sin, then we join and deceive our hearts by fallacious reasonings.” (John Trapp) This man deceives even his own heart, thinking himself to be of the remnant of believers “with his show of religion, and external performances; on which he builds his hopes of salvation; of which he is confident; and so gives himself to a loose way of talking what he pleases: ‘this man's religion is vain’; useless, and unprofitable to himself and others; all his preaching, praying, hearing, and attendance on the ordinances will be of no avail to him; and he, notwithstanding these, by his evil tongue, brings a scandal and reproach upon the ways of God, and doctrines of Christ.” (John Gill)
“When men take more pains to seem religious than really to be so, it is a sign their religion is in vain. The not bridling the tongue, readiness to speak of the faults of others, or to lessen their wisdom and piety, are signs of a vain religion.” (Matthew Henry)
“‘Pure religion’; he described religion by its fruits, and that on two sides: first, that of love and mercy; secondly, that of purity from worldly defilements.” (Justin Edwards) Firstly, ‘to visit orphans and widows in their trouble’; these represent special objects of God’s compassion and kindness. We should be fathers to the fatherless. And, we should visit widows in their afflictions. “A vine whose root is uncovered thrives not; a widow whose covering of eyes is taken away, joys not.” (John Trapp) “And”— secondly— “to keep oneself unspotted from the world,’ from all the enticements to sin which the world offers.” (Justin Edwards) “A true life of self surrender and separation, is generally overlooked.” (Gaeblien)
“That religion which does not govern the tongue and make men beneficent and holy, is not the religion of Christ, and will not secure salvation.” (Justin Edwards) This man who practices a religion without this end might actually be communing with devils.
“The world is like a very miry place in which all too many love to disport themselves... The true Christian does not wallow in the mire. Quite true! But if he practices pure religion he goes further. He walks so apart from the miry place that not even splashes of the mud reach him. Alas! for the feebleness of our religion. If it consisted in outward observances, in rites, in ceremonies, in sacraments in services, Christendom might yet make a fair show of it. Whereas it really consists in the outflow of divine love which expresses itself in compassion towards and service to those who have no ability to recompense again, and a holy separateness from the defiling world-system that surrounds us.” (F. B. Hole)
“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 God’s 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… 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.”
(Expositor's Bible Commentary)