James 1:19-27

IV. SECOND ADMONITION WITH REFERENCE TO THE SECOND FROM OF TEMPTATION—FANATICISM

CAUTION AGAINST YIELDING TO THE WARTH OF MAN (SEXUAL), WHICH THANKS ITSELF COMPETENT TO ADMINSTER THE JUSTICE OF GOD BUT IS INCOMPETENT TO DO IT. THE INSTRUMENT OF DELIVERANCE AND PRESERVATION FROM THIS ZEAL.: THE CULTURE OF INNER LIFE IN FAITH AND THE VERITABLE RELIGIOUS PROOF OF THIS FAITH IN ACTS OF MERCY.

James 1:19-27

(James 1:22-27. Epistle for 5th Sunday after Easter)

19 Wherefore,38 my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow 20, 21to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh39 not the righteousness of God. Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. 22But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only,40 deceiving your own selves. 23For 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: 24For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. 25But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work41, this man shall be blessed in 26his deed. If42 any man among you43 seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. 27Pure religion and undefiled before God44 and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from, the world.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Analysis. Caution against the second form of temptation—fanatical, angry zeal. The clemency of the man who is called to be the child of God or who is already begotten, should be in comformity to the clemency of God James 1:19.—The wrath of man [sexual] is not adapted So the ministering of the righteousness of God, James 1:20.—They were to purify themselves from this temptation, by acknowledging said sin as a pollution (not peradventure as zeal for Judaistic purity) and as natural maliciousness and putting it off, and on the other hand, by thoroughly appropriating with meekness the word of Christian truth unto the furthering of their salvation, James 1:21.—Such an appropriation of the word will be most readily accomplished by their becoming doers of the word and by ceasing to be mere hearers, James 1:22-24.—The real doer of the word has two distinguishing marks: he is absorbed with the eye of faith in the contemplation of the perfect law, the free law of Christian truth and proves his perseverance in this contemplation by the full consistency of Christian activity (as described more particularly). By such full energy of life he attains the enjoyment of blissful life James 1:25.—Whoever imagines that he is a real worshipper of God and a zealot for the honour of God and corrupts his heart in giving the reins (in fanatical zeal) to his tongue, his religious service is vain. But the counterpart, true worship of God corresponding to the true image-of-God-the-Father, is Christian care of the helpless members of the Church accompanied by a decided shunning of polluting worldly-mindedness. James 1:26-27.

The clemency which shuns fanaticism and conforms to the clemency of the Father in heaven.

James 1:19. Know however, my beloved brethren.—The connection indicated by the reading ὥστε (see App. Crit.) deduces from the clemency of God the exhortation that the Christian also should exhibit corresponding clemency. But that reading makes this verse dependent on what precedes, as if it were simply an application, which is not correct. On the contrary we have here the beginning of a new leading thought, viz.: the guarding of Christians against the temptation of fanatical zeal by fully yielding to the spirit of meekness and liberty in Christianity. Hence the reading ἴστε is also preferable on internal grounds. Huther’s observation is correct: “James 1:18, connects primarily with the exhortation to hear—and then with the further exhortation in James 1:22 to be not only hearers but doers of the word.” “But the hearing here insisted upon must evidence itself as decided, (according to Matthew 13:23) as a full and unreserved yielding to the word of truth and consequently as the foundation and not as the contrast of doing. Semler takes ἴστε as an Indicative; non ignoratis istud carmen Sir. James 1:11, but apart from the difference in expression there and here, the indicative sense weakens without reason the energetical tone of the exhortation. Huther remarks that ἴστε answers to the μὴ πλανᾶσθε James 1:16, which view is further confirmed by the use of the same address: ὰδελφοὶ μου here and there; of also James 2:5. [But it is not necessary to connect the ἴστε taken indicatively with the exhortation at all: it therefore cannot weaken its energetical tone, on the contrary it strengthens it by its very abruptness. Adopting the indicative sense of ἴστε I connect it therefore with the preceding, as follows: Ye know it, my beloved brethren, but let every man, etc.; or paraphrasing: Ye know that these things are so, but possessed of this very knowledge let every man, etc. ἴστε is used in this sense in Ephesians 5:5; Hebrews 12:17.—M.].

Also let every man.—καί (see App. Crit.) indicates that the conduct of man should be in conformity to the conduct of God. It remains to be ascertained in what sense we are to take this sentence. Laurentius and al. make it a general direction; Gebser, Wiesinger and al. give it a distinct reference to “the word of truth;” Huther, Theile and al., say that the general direction had primarily the specific aim of inculcating upon Christians the right conduct also in respect of the word of truth. But all this hardly does full justice to the double antithesis in the words: slow to speak, slow to wrath. The Apostle indicates the point in which Christ and Christian religiousness should evidence itself as humanity, but true humanity also as piety—even the centre of faith and humanity as contrasted with inhuman and impious conduct. Hence the express declaration: πᾶς ἄνθρωπος. It is a fundamental law of humanity, which is here described by the antithesis ταχύς and βραδύς (found in Philo, but in no other place of the New Testament, and expressed by Rückert thus: “thou hast two ears and one mouth.”)—Being swift to hear denotes entire readiness, constancy and thoughtfulness of hearing (Matthew 13:23) and shows that such real hearing contains the germ of obedience to the truth, just as real “tasting and seeing” involves the experience “that the Lord is good.” Being slow to speak of course does not exclude all speaking but rash, immature, thoughtless and immoderate talking (λαλεῖν), especially dogmatical speaking James 3:1, although the expression is not confined to it (Pott and al.). The Apostle demands cautious, thoughtful speaking, a speaking flowing from an inward calling and therefore a weighty speaking. Being slow to wrath applies in like manner to anger, which is consequently not absolutely disallowed (as Hornejus has truly remarked). Eagerness in speaking by warmth leads one easily to eagerness of passion [Alford: The quick speaker is the quick kindler.—M.]. Huther justly rejects the reference of this wrath to God (Calvin, Bengel, Gebser: “impatience towards God on account of persecution”). For in that case James ought not to have allowed any slowness to wrath. Huther capitally explains this wrath of “carnal zeal aiming at the mastering of our neighbour, the fruit of which is not εἰρήνη but ἀκαταστασία James 3:16; the caution is directed against Christians, who—as did the Pharisees in respect to the law—instead of using the Gospel for their own sanctification, were abusing it in gratifying their love of condemnation and quarrelsomeness.” Thus our exhortation in its particular direction is addressed not only to the Jewish Christians but to all the twelve tribes, whose ancestors in fanaticism, Simeon and Levi (Genesis 34:0), disapproved by their father (Gen 34:49), were afterwards mentioned as patterns worthy of imitation (Judith 9).

The wrath of man not a suitable organ of the righteousness of God.

James 1:20. For the wrath of man worketh not.—Our verse gives the reason of the preceding one, but contrasts the two modes of conduct, the right one there and the wrong one here. We attach importance to the distinction that in the former verse reference is made to the wrath of man in general and here to the wrath of man sexually. Thomas perceives in the expression an antithesis between the man and the child, Bengel one between man and woman but neither does conform to or satisfy the historical significance of our expression. We agree with Huther that this sentence must not be referred to the state of being righteous before God (Gebser, Grashof), and with Wiesinger that it must not be to the personal doing of men which is well-pleasing to God (so Huther following Luther—δικαιοσύνη τὸ δίκαιον a meaning of frequent occurrence in both Testaments); but we cannot stop with Wiesinger at the interpretation of Hofmann that “the wrath (zeal) of man is unable to effect in others (i.e., as a zeal of conversion) the righteousness of God, i.e., that “state of being righteous” [Rechtsbeschaffenheit45], which God begets by this word of truth. For James evidently has respect to the fanatical delusion of wrath, which imagines to administer and work out in the world the righteousness of God especially with reference to unbelievers by passionate words and deeds, in that it only gives reality to its unamiable ebullitions. Such was specifically the Judaistic delusion, which begot Ebionism and the Jewish war and which also found afterwards its expression in Mohammedanism and even in the Christian crusades, in the ecclesiastical persecutions of heretics and also in several fanatical heretics (Eudo de Stella, Thomas Münzer, etc.). But that the subjects of this delusion at the same time believe that their wrath (zeal) is the true way of converting men, that thus they are doing a work well-pleasing to God and that thus they will become righteous before God are features which, although we cannot set them aside, must remain subordinate to the leading idea of passionate ebullitions in majorem gloriam Dei, i.e., here justitiæ Dei. Our translation would be more strongly expressed by the reading κατεργάζεται than by the better authenticated ἐργάζεται; but the latter taken in a pregnant sense, does also give the force of the former.

Shunning the temptation to unholy and hypocritical wrath (zeal) by means of true sanctification, negatively and positively.

James 1:21. Wherefore removing etc.—James bidding his readers purify themselves from the false zeal for their imaginary Jewish purity sounds like an oxymoron; for it is just their kind of zeal for purity which he characterizes as impurity and their imaginary piety as inhuman maliciousness. But true purifying is to him sanctification, that is, it is on the one hand the result of a negation (putting off impurity, etc.), and on the other, the result of a positive act, viz., the full receiving of the word of truth. However the two acts do not absolutely succeed one another (remove and receive), but with the removing of impurity (take note of the Participle) the real appropriating of the evangelical word of God is to take place. The negative element, however, has here a conditional precedence, repentance before faith (Mark 1:15); hence it is here subordinated by the Participle to the positive element on which it depends (cf. Romans 13:12; Ephesians 4:22-23). But the Participle must also be noted as enforcing constancy in purifying.—ἀποθέμενοι we cannot translate “putting off,” for the reference is not figuratively to the putting off of filthy garments and to the opposite putting on of clean ones. The antithesis is: to remove, do away with; and to acquire, appropriate (see Ephesians 4:25 and other passages).

All filthiness (impurity).—ῥυπαρία (in the New Testament only here) is doubtless a stronger expression than ἀκαθαρσία (Romans 6:19). It denotes filth in a religious, theocratical sense like the filthy garment James 2:2, like ῥύπος 1 Peter 3:21, and ῥυπαρός and ῥυπαρεύειν Revelation 22:11. To take the word in a general sense of moral uncleanness (Calvin and al.), is inadequate; still less apposite are the specific renderings “avarice” (Storr), “whoring” (Laurentius), “intemperance” (Heisen); but least of all its reduction to an attribute of the following κακία (Huther: putting off all uncleanness and abundance of malice; similarly. Theile, Wiesinger and al.). It is sufficiently manifest that James sees in the carnal wrath (zeal) exerted in the interest of piety an antithesis, viz., impurity towards God (on the Atheistical in the heart of fanaticism see Nitzsch System, p. 39), and malice towards man.

All out-flowing (communication of life) of malice.—Huther: περισσεία, foreign to classical Greek, denotes in the New Testament “abundance,” really superabundance. The substantive and the corresponding verb περισσεύειν signify in the New Testament the overflowing of a fulness of life, on the one hand as a development of life (a passing over into the life which continues to procreate itself Matthew 5:20; Romans 15:13, etc.), on the other hand as a communication of life (a passing over upon others, Romans 5:15; Romans 5:17; 2 Corinthians 8:2; James 5:15, etc.). Here the word is evidently used in the latter sense. This follows also from the proper definition of the term κακία, which here is not synonymous with πονηρία (1 Corinthians 5:8)=vitiositas (Semler, Theile and al.), but according to the connection as the opposite of ἐν πραΰτητι, as Ephesians 4:31; Colossians 3:8; Titus 3:3; 1 Peter 2:1. A more specific idea, namely the inimical disposition towards one’s neighbour, which we express by “animosity” (Pott)! Huther.—(Wiesinger: ὀργή, Rosenmüller: morositas; Meyer: malice). The overflowing of maliciousness is therefore the malicious, hateful communication which passes from the fanatical wrath (zeal) of the propagandists on those whom they influence, according to Matthew 23:15; Romans 2:24 and according to ecclesiastical history, especially the history of the persecution of the Donatists, the Paulicians and the Camisards, etc. The definition of περισσεία = περίσσωμα (Bede); outgrowth, efflorescence (Schneckenburger, de Wette);=the remnant surviving from former times (Gebser and al.=περίσσευμα), are thus set aside. [Alford joins ῥυπαρίαν with περισσείαν, as belonging to the Genitive κακίας and remarks that “it seems better for the context, which concerns not the putting away of moral pollution of all kinds, but only of that kind, which belongs to κακία. And thus taken it will mean that κακία pollutes the soul and renders it unfit to receive the ἔμφυτος λόγος. It is very possible that the agricultural similitude in ἔμφυτος may have influenced the choice of both these words, ῥυπαρία and περισσεία. The ground must be rid of all that pollutes and chokes it, before the seed can sink in and come to maturity; must be cleaned and cleared. περισσεία, if the above figures be allowed, is the rank growth, the abundant crop.”—M.].

Receive (acquire, appropriate) in meekness.—In meekness, in virtue of a meek disposition, and not only with meekness. Meekness stands first in a pregnant sense. In meekness acquire, i.e. a meek demeanour, the opposite of wrathfulness, exhibited towards their brethren of different opinions is not only the condition, the vital element of the reception of the Gospel on the part of the Jews but also of the right appropriation of the same on the part of the Jewish Christians. Although the word denotes not directly the docilis animus (Grotius, similarly Calvin and al.), yet the first condition and proof of the same. The reference, to be sure, is not to meekness as the fruit of the reception of the word (Schneckenburger), although the morally calm and gentle spirit engendered under the influence of Christianity must be manifested in its highest perfection as its fruit. Want of meekness destroys the power of the Gospel (Matthew 18:23, etc.); the fourth and the seventeenth centuries prove this in a remarkable manner Receive. δέξασθε is emphatic and denotes the right attitude under right hearing with right doing. The rooting and growing of Paul is here strikingly described as a fuller making one’s own [appropriation], because the Jewish-Christians were in great danger of again losing their own (property) and the Jews were on the point of losing their ancient title to it (cf. 1 Thessalonians 1:6).

The word implanted in [and among] you.—This word is the objective Gospel (Huther: neither “innate or connate reason” [Oecumenius], nor the inner light of the mystics, for δέχεσθαι forbids that) as in James 1:18, but in its subjective form of life, as the spiritual and vital principle in believers or as the seed of regeneration (1 Peter 1:23). In this form it is implanted in believers but likewise implanted as a principle of conversion in the Jews as a whole; the latter meaning must not be not passed over. Hence the δέξασθε is relevant both with reference to the first reception and the further appropriation of it. In consequence of the difficulty arising from the idea of receiving a word already implanted, Calvin made ἔμφυτος proleptic and explained it “ita suscipite, ut vere inseratur;” and others similarly. But the word received subjectively does not thereby cease to be objective and to be received. [It is doubtful whether Lange’s solution of the difficulty will stand the ordeal of logical analysis. There is no such double sense in ἔμφυτος. Nor is the more clearly expressed exposition of Alford more satisfactory. He sees in ἔμφυτος an allusion to the parable of the sower and makes “the λόγος ἔμφυτος=the word which has been sown, the word whose attribute and ἀρετή it is to be ἔμφυτος, and which is ἔμφυτος, awaiting your reception of it to spring up and take up your being into it and make you new plants.” His exposition is open to the same objection that something which is already sown in another soil can be implanted in us, if he understands by λόγος ἔμφυτος the word written or preached. Adhering however to the real meaning ἔμφυτος=innate, τὸ ἐν φύσει (Hesych.) we may remove all difficulty. Then the λόγος ἔμφυτος is=the innate Word, that is, the Word which has been born in our nature, i.e. Christ. So Wordsworth who produces much illustrative matter of the use of ἔμφυτος and thus sums up the whole: While it is true, that Christ by his Incarnation is properly said to be ἔμφυτος innate, born in us, and to be indeed Emmanuel, God with us, God manifest in our flesh, God dwelling forever in the nature of us all; or, if we adopt the other sense of ἔμφυτος, while it is true, that Christ is indeed grafted in us as our Netzer or Branch (see Matthew 2:23), yet will not this avail for our salvation, unless we receive Him by faith. We must be planted in Him and He in us by Baptism (Galatians 3:27), we must dwell in Him and He in us, by actual and habitual communion with Him in the Holy Eucharist, we must, abide and bring forth fruit in Him, by fervent love and hearty obedience. Christ, who is the Branch (Zechariah 6:12), is engrafted on the stock of our nature; but a scion grafted on a tree will not grow unless it is received and take root in the stock; so His Incarnation will profit us nothing, unless we receive Him in our hearts and drink in the sap of His grace and transfuse the life-blood of our wills into Him, and grow and coalesce with Him and bring forth fruit in Him.”—M.].

Which is able to save your souls.—The idea of individual salvation is allied here with that of the national deliverance of the Israelites as in John 10:28. Hence stress is here laid not only on the salvation of the soul but also on the salvation of the life and τὰς ψυχὰς ὑμων is stronger than simply ὑμᾶς. [Alford says: “It is the ψυχή which carries the personality of the man; which is between the πνεῦμα drawing it upwards and the σάρξ drawing it downwards; and is saved or lost, passes into life or death, according to the choice between these two. And the λόγος ἔμφυτος, working through the πνεῦμα and by the Divine πνεῦμα, is a spiritual agency, able to save the ψυχή”—M.]. It is able (cf. Romans 1:16, δύναμις θεοῦ), but you are unable, incompetent for the carrying out of your judaistic plans of salvation. [Calvin: “Magnificum cœlestis doctrinæ encomium, quod certam ex ea salutem consequimur. Est autem additum, ut sermonem illum instar thesauri incomparabilis et expetere et amare et magnificare discamus. Est ergo acris ad castigandam nostram ignaviam stimulus, sermonem cui solemus tam negligenter aures præbere, salutis nostræ esse causam. Tametsi non in hunc finem servandi vis sermoni adscribitur quasi aut salus in externo vocis sonitu inclusa foret, aut servandi munus Deo ablatum alio transferretur. Nam de sermone tractat Jacobus qui fide in corda hominum penetravit: et tantum indicat, Deum salutis auctorem evangelio suo earn peragere.”—M.].

But you will really appropriate the word by becoming doers of the word and by ceasing to remain hearers only, James 1:22-24.

James 1:22. But become ye doers of the word.—γίνεσθε=be ye (Huther against Wiesinger, Theile and al.) who render=became ye. Huther refers to Matthew 6:16; Matthew 10:16 and other passages. We take it with Wiesinger, of course not in the sense of Semler, as if the word indicated perpetuam successionem horum exercitiorum, but in the sense of a perfect development of their Christian life. This demand on the Jewish Christians and the Jews was the cause of the martyrdom of Simon, the brother of James under the reign of Trajan; it was also the cause of the early martyrdom of James, not long after he wrote this Epistle, and this is just his idea of the deed, the doing and the work, as it here for the first time takes a distinct shape: you must become wholly consistent Christians, if Christianity is to effect your salvation. As the warning against apostasy forms the negative side of his Epistle, so this exhortation to consistency constitutes its positive side. For the word is more clearly defined in James 1:18; James 1:21 as the Gospel. They must become doers of the same in respect of its organic unity: this cannot be done by isolated acts, but only by one general act of practical life. Cf. James 4:11; Romans 2:13. The ποιητής, who as such is the real ἀκροατής, is contrasted with the μόνον . To the theocracy in its practical direction the ἀκροατής as such is insufficient, while the Greek school understood by ἀκροατής per se a praiseworthy hearer. Cf. Matthew 7:21; Luke 11:28; John 13:17.

As those who ensnare themselves.—See James 5:26; Colossians 2:4; Gal 4:3; 1 John 1:8; παραλογίζεσθαι—to reckon beyond the mark, to reason falsely, to use fallacies,—in its practical tendency becomes deceiving, cheating and ensnaring by fallacies. Thus the “hearer only” deceives and ensnares himself. Huther refers παραλογιζομένοι to γίνεσθε in opposition to Gebser and Schneckenburger who connect it with ἀκροαται; but the latter are right, because the imaginary merit of hearing is the fallacy whereby they deceive themselves and thus properly ensnare themselves.

James 1:23. For [because] if any is a hearer.—Demonstration of the preceding by means of a simile, which is not, however, a mere figure.

Is like to.—The οὖτος emphatically repeated.

A man.—There must be some good reason for the recurrence of the specific man (sexual) and not only of man in general. Huther ought not to have despatched as curious the exposition [of Paes—M. ] “viri obiter tantum solent specula intueri” [muliebri autem est curiose se ad speculum componere.—M.]. The exposition of the word ἀνήρ is connected with that of κατανοεῖν which according to Rosenmüller, Pott and al. is here used in the secondary sense of hasty observation, but is disputed by Wiesinger and Huther. Now it is correct that in Luke 12:24; Luke 12:27; Acts 7:31-32; Acts 11:6, the word denotes attentive contemplation or consideration. Primarily it signifies simply, to observe, perceive, contemplate, understand, and if the expression is opposed, as is the case here, by the more important contemplation παρακύτειν, and we have in narrative form the statement, that the man observed himself, went away and forthwith forgot etc., the reference is only to a somewhat imperfect, momentarily-sufficient self-contemplating, such as before the mirror is rather peculiar to man than to woman. It is moreover to be borne in mind that the ideas “to hear the word,” and “to contemplate oneself in a mirror” do not exactly coincide; it is only in the moment of a knowledge of oneself, of an incipient repentance that the word, which per se however is a mirror throughout, becomes efficient as a mirror. The countenance or πρόσωπον, although it need not denote the whole figure (so Pott and Sckneckenburger), is not necessarily confined to the face (so Huther); the addition τῆν γενέσεως renders the word more expressive. Τένεσις denotes according to Wiesinger and Huther only the sphere of sensuous perception as distinguished from the ethical sphere, the face, such as a man has by natural birth. That is, James is again made to remind his readers that he only refers to a figure. We consider such an interposed explanation of the figure here also not only superfluous but inappropriate to symbolical diction, for what is the real meaning of τροχὸς τῆς γενέσεως James 3:6? According to Wiesinger, to be sure, “the wheel revolving from a man’s birth;” but that would be an unintelligible expression and the exposition of Grotius and al. “cursus naturæ” has more in its favour. For life is also a genesis in a higher degree, and the fluctuating πρόσωπον is just the signature of the stages and states through which this genesis runs. This would also enable us to fix the reference of αὐτοῦ here to γένεσις (Huther), as opposed to its reference to the general idea (Wiesinger). The Jews, as Jewish-Christians, for a while attained self-knowledge, in that they saw [knew, recognized—M.] themselves in the mirror of the Gospel according to their national and individual course of development, and thus they saw also the maculas of this development and appearance, hence the allusion to this circumstance (Wolf) must not be rejected with Huther. In a more general sense, πρόσωπον etc., can neither denote the natural corruption of man per se (Pott), nor the ideal form of the new man (Wiesinger). To stop at the figure itself (with Huther) would be tantamount to making the figure unmeaning. But it simply signifies the image of the inner man’s appearance as to his sinful condition modified now this way, now that way by his actual conduct. On the mirrors of the ancients see the respective article in Winer.

James 1:24. For he observed himself.—The narrative form represents as in James 1:11, an incident quickly accomplished in the rapid succession of the fleeting stages of its brief duration. The εὐθέως ἐπελάθετο is the most important point, as Huther remarks, but each separate stage has a meaning of its own. The stage of self-knowledge in the mirror of the word, believing hearing, is followed by speedy departing, the averting of the mind from the objective fulness and depth of the word (not only from what had been heard subjectively, as Huther explains); the departing is attended by the forgetting of the mirror-image, i.e., the loss of self-knowledge conscious of the necessity of salvation which would have impelled the man to the consequence of Christian renovation of life. The loss accruing from such a course, is referred to by James in James 5:26, but especially in James 5:0. [The Perfect ἀπελήλυθεν standing between the Aorists κατενόησεν and ἐπελάθετο is striking and imports that the departing denotes a permanent neglect and disuse of the mirror.—M.].

The real doer of the word according to his marks of distinction: his being absorbed in the contemplation of the free-making word, his constancy, the blessedness.

James 1:25. But he who became absorbed.—The pure antithesis of the former figure. Huther: “παρακύψας corresponds with κατενόησεν, παραμείνας with ἀπελήλυθεν, and οὐκ with ἐπελάθετο.” The Participles have the effect of strengthening the already strong expressions, especially in the Aorist, while taken together they indicate: γενόμενος, that it is only by constancy that a man becomes a real doer of the word. This passage must not be construed as if James wanted to distinguish the doing of the word as something separate from the looking into and abiding in it. The παρακύψας and παραμείνας, as such, is ποιητὴς ἔργου γενόμενος. This has an important bearing on the right understanding of the passage and is also very—Pauline. Constant looking into the word of salvation by faith is preëminently the doing which is followed by outward proof. This construction therefore must not be altered by resolving γενόμενος into γίνεται (Pott), or by saying with Wiesinger that right hearing and appropriating leads to doing and (thereby) to the blessedness of doing. Even Huther, who rejects Wiesinger’s exposition, does not strictly adhere to the full energy of the idea, for he says that the doing of the law is the necessary consequence of persevering looking into the same; although prominence must be given to the fact that he characterizes the consequence as necessary.—Παρακύπτειν to stoop aside, to stoop over a thing in order to examine it closely (Luke 24:12; John 20:5; John 20:11; 1 Peter 1:12); to sink into it, to be absorbed in its contemplation. Schneckenburger thinks: perhaps ad imaginem speculi humi aut mensæ impositi adaptatum. But this is not the most fitting way to look into a mirror. The remaining, persevering in it, Wiesinger explains as appropriating. But it is just the remaining in the yielding oneself to the object by contemplating it, whereby the appropriating of it is effected. [One of the best illustrations of the force of παρακύψας is given by Coleridge, Aids to Reflection, p. 15, note: “It signifies the incurvation or bending of the body in the act of looking down into; as, for instance, in the endeavour to see the reflected image of a star in the water at the bottom of a well. A more happy and forcible word could not have been chosen to express the nature and ultimate object of reflection and to enforce the necessity of it, in order to discover the living fountain and springhead of the evidence of the Christian faith in the believer himself, and at the same time to point out the seat and region where alone it is to be found. Quantum sumus scimus. That which we find within ourselves, which is more than ourselves, and yet the ground of whatever is good and permanent therein, is the substance and life of all other knowledge.”—M.].

Into the completed law.—We translate completed because of the weighty adjective τέλειος, which here again makes prominent the N. T. completion of the O. T. (cf. the τέλειοι and the ἔργον τέλειον James 5:4, and the ἁμαρτία James 5:7; the Sermon on the Mount, the πληροῦν Matthew 2:0, etc.). It is not therefore the lex naturalis (Schulthess), or in general the λόγος , inasmuch as it is the means of regeneration and the norm of the new life (Wiesinger, Huther: the norm of the new life), or on the one hand the O. T. law as simply perfect, or on the other the Gospel in a general sense; but it is the Gospel conceived as that completion of the law which transforms the outward, enslaving law into a new principle of life communicating itself to the inner man and absolutely liberating him. And just as the expressions of Paul: the law of the Spirit (Romans 8:2), the law of faith (Romans 3:27), always contain an oxymoron alluding to the higher unity of the antithesis: law and spirit, etc., so likewise in the expressions of James: the perfect law, the law of liberty, although an imitation of Pauline modes of expression is out of the question (Kern). The law as law made men servants (slaves); in its N. T. completion it makes them free. In the same sense it is also called the νόμος βασιλικός which is fulfilled by love (James 2:8), and again the law of liberty (James 1:12). The passages of the Old Testament, which speak of the glory of the law (Deuteronomy 33:2-3), or of its sweetness (Psalms 19:8), denote the prophetical transition from the Sinaitical standpoint to the Evangelical, which was decidedly foretold by the prophets (Jeremiah 31:33). Those who attribute to James an Ebionite glorification of the law, put him back behind Jeremiah or rather remove him even out of the Old Testament. But James had special reasons for calling the Gospel a law of (liberating) liberty inasmuch as his people were tempted to seek in their O. T. zeal for the law the means of chiliastico-revolutionary liberation (cf. John 8:32, etc.). The Gospel is moreover a law of liberty in that it asserts, along with the Christian’s liberty of faith, the liberty of conscience of those of a different mind and in this form also breaks the fetters of fanaticism.

Not a hearer unto forgetting.—Properly a hearer of forgetfulness (ἐπιλησμονῆς, ἄπαξ λεγ. in the N. T.), stronger than a forgetful hearer. The antithesis ποιητὴς ἔργου brings out the idea that forgetfulness was, as it were, the object of hearing (“in futuram oblivionem”). The expression “doer of the work” (as follows from the construction as stated above) cannot signify here a work-activity separated from, or only clearly distinguished from faith, but it denotes the perseverance of the life of faith, which owing to its oneness of energy leads of its own accord to a consistent exhibition of corresponding outward deeds.

The same shall be blessed.—See the beatitude James 5:12.

In his doing,—(ποίησις in the N. T. ἄπαξ λεγόμ., occurs only, besides here, in Sir 19:20), not in his deed. In the ever diligent (efficient) energy which is the soul of his deeds. Schneckenburger: “ut ipsa actio sit beatitudo.”—The striving spiritual life-motion or the doing becomes a, festive spiritual life-motion, perfect joy. This factual becoming blessed lies according to circumstances in confession, and Romans 10:9-10 exhibits a near affinity with this passage. It is noteworthy that Paul also in that passage was particularly referring to Jewish Christians and that James above all things felt anxious that the Jews should confess Christ and that the Jewish Christians should make full and common cause with their Gentile brethren.

False and true religious service or zeal for religion and the glory of God. James 1:26-27.

James 1:26. If any man fancieth himself.—Δοκεῖν denotes primarily to suppose with reference to appearance and without any higher ground of certainty (Matthew 24:44; hence 1 Corinthians 7:40, an expression of modesty), hence according to the connection also to imagine erroneously (Matthew 6:7) or as here to be spiritually conceited, [ i.e., the man thinks, fancies that he is religious.—M.].

To be a religious man.—Θρῆσκος is peculiar to James. The sense of the adjective is clear from Acts 26:5 and Colossians 2:18. James has formed the adjective in a masterly manner: one who plumes himself (seeks his being in) on his pretended serving of God. The word certainly implies the exhibition of a presumed εὐσέβεια in external acts of religious worship (Huther), not exclusively however in the outward observance of religion, but in the permanent soldier or knight-service for glory of god. so the Jews supposed that they the servants of God among the nations (Romans 2:17), so did the Mohammedans and Crusaders at a later period and so the Jesuits suppose now. But at that time the Jewish Christians, conceited of their God-serving, in various ways separated themselves from intercourse with Gentile Christians and in preparing for the Jewish war, the Jews supposed they were making ready for “the glory of God.” [There is no one word in English which gives the exact meaning of θρῆσκος and θρησκεία. The words religious and religion at one time were used in the sense of outward ceremonial worship. An example from Milton and another from the Homilies may prove serviceable. Some of the heathen idolatries Milton characterizes as being

——“adornedWith gay religions full of pomp and gold.”

Par. Lost. 61.

“Images used for no religion, or superstition rather, we mean of none worshipped, nor in danger to be worshipped of any, may be suffered.” Homily against Peril of Idolatry. See Trench, Synonymns of the N. T., p. 233. A propos of this θρησκεία, Coleridge (Aids to Reflection, p. 14) has these beautiful remarks: “The outward service of ancient religion, the rites, ceremonies and ceremonial vestments of the old law, had morality for their substance. They were the letter, of which morality was the spirit: the enigma, of which morality was the meaning. But morality itself is the service and ceremonial ( cultus exterior, θρησκεία) of the Christian religion. The scheme of truth and grace that became (ἐγένετο) through Jesus Christ, the faith that looks down into the perfect law of liberty, has light for its garment: its very robe is righteousness.”—M.].

Not bridling his tongue.—Not exempli causa (Rosenmüller); nor must we with the majority of commentators resolve the Participle into “although,” as Huther rightly remarks, adding: “James wants to censure those to whom zeal in talking was a sign of θρησκεία.” That is: those who by their fanatical zeal wanted to make good their pretensions of being the true soldiers of God. Χαλιναγωγεῖν, an expression found only in profane authors’ of the later period has been added by James to the fund of N. T. language (cf. Acts 3:2).

But deceiving his heart.—̓Απατᾷν καρδίαν αὐτοῦ is not exactly synonymous with παραλογίζεσθαι ἑαυτόν (Huther), but denotes the same act of self-deception in a much higher degree. From the inward self-deceit of the thoughts protrudes false zeal and this has the effect that the zealot completely deceives his heart by false self-excitement [échauffement and bad consequences). The fanatic, by false exaggerations outwardly, at last makes himself inwardly a false and bad character.

His religion (in the sense as defined above, his zeal for the imaginary cause of God) is vain.—The blinding effects of his blinding passion yield no fruit of blessing to himself and others and pass as follies (Quixotisms in a higher style) from history into the judgment.

James 1:27. Religion pure and unprofaned.—The two adjectives are not strictly synonymous (Theile, Huther), nor do they simply denote the contrast of the outward and the inward (Wiesinger and al.). The expression “pure” requires the Christian realization of the symbolical, theocratical purity; the sequel shows that it is to exhibit itself in the pious life of merciful love. The expression “unprofaned” (we supply this rendering in order to give more marked force to its literal meaning; the difference between ἀμίαντος and ἄσπιλος also must be brought out in the translation) requires in the same sense real preservation of purity and purifying. The legal Jew became unclean by natural and pagan uncleannesses, the Christian must keep himself clean and cleanse himself from worldly-mindedness and vain worldly doings. Such a Divine service, therefore, denotes here the true life and work for the glory of God.—

Before the God and Father.—This again lays stress on the Christian conception of God, as in James 1:5; James 1:17 and παρὰ τῷ θεῷ refers not only to the Divine judgment (Huther) but more especially to the attitude of the servant before the face and mouth of the commanding Lord. (Huther rightly observes concerning καὶ πατρί “God in virtue of His love can only consider pure that religious service which is the expression of love.” [Chrysostom in Catena says: οὐκ εἶπεν ἐὰν νηστεύητε, ὅμοιοι ἐστὲ τῷ πατρὶ ὑμῶν, οὐδὲν γὰρ τούτων παρὰ θεὸν οὐδὲ ἐργάζεταί τι τούτων ὁ θεός ̇ ἀλλᾶ τί; γίνεσθε οἰκτιρμονες ὡς ὁ πατὴρ ὑμῶν ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς ̇ τοῦτο θεοῦ ἔργον ἐᾶν οὖν τοῦτο μὴ ἔχῃς, τί ἔχεις; ἔλεον θέλω, φησί, καὶ οὐ θυσίαν.—M.].

To be careful of the orphans and widows.—We translate thus because it brings out the antithesis to be careful of worldly affairs, which James has doubtless before his mind’s eye, like Peter in his ἀλλοτριοεπίσκοπος 1 Peter 4:15. Although the verb is frequently applied to visiting the distressed (Huther: Matthew 25:36; Matthew 25:43; Jeremiah 23:2 etc.), it has also in this form a wider meaning (Theile: the species pro genere). The wider sense: to be careful of, to care for, to protect one, is directly brought out in Acts 15:14; Hebrews 2:6 and elsewhere; Philo calls ἐπίσκεψις providentia. “The ὀρφανοί are named first as those in want of help, as in Deuteronomy 10:18; Job 29:12-13 etc.” Huther. This Divine service answers to the fatherhood of God; those who engage in it do His work in love and compassion, because He is a Father of the orphans and a Judge (a Protector of the rights of) the widows, Psalms 68:6 and other passages. Now according to the book of Tobit it was the ideal of a true Israelite to protect the distressed among the captives of his people and Tob 1:6-7 we read that it was an integral part of the religious service of Tobit that every third year he gave the tithe to the strangers, the widows and the fatherless. In this manner the Israelite of the New Testament was called upon to help his poor people especially the distressed in their affliction. The state of affliction in its concrete form is most frequently and most touchingly exhibited in the distress of widows and orphans. In this direction we may have to seek the sense of keeping oneself unspotted from the world; and this probably explains the asyndeton of the two sentences (cf. Huther). They are not strictly coördinate, but the second is the reverse or the sequence of the first, its pure antithesis. Hence ἄσπιλον comes emphatically first. Cf. 1 Peter 1:19; 2 Peter 3:14. The expression ought really to be resolved into two ideas, firstly, to keep oneself from the world, secondly to keep oneself unspotted from the world, that is, from the world is connected with the two elements of the sentence: to keep oneself unspotted. The ethical idea of κόσμος is everywhere the personal totality of life converted into the Impersonal, i.e. mankind as to its ungodly bias. The peculiarity of this idea in James comes out more clearly in James 4:4. What heathenism was to the Jew, the antithesis of the holy people, to which it might apostatize by spiritual idolatry, such was to the apostolical mind, the ungodly doing of the world, whether manifested in Judaistic visionariness or in a heathen form. Oecumenius’s idea of the δημώδης καὶ συρφετὸς ὄχλος, ὁ κατὰ τὰς ἐπιθυμίας τῆς was consequently not far from the image of the excited condition of the world, which was floating before the Apostle’s imagination; but the Judaistic ὄχλος assumed a prouder and more spiritual shape. This specific reference, of course does not exclude the more general. [Alford: “The whole earthly creation, separated from God and lying in the sin, which, whether considered as consisting in the men who serve it, or the enticements which it holds out to evil lust (ἐπιθυμία) is to Christians a source of continual defilement.”—M.]

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. The purity of the moral teaching of James also is conclusive from what he says concerning wrath. James is far from holding a quietistic or ascetico-rigoristic view which did approve of all anger absolutely, as unworthy of man or the Christian. He recognizes with Christ (Matthew 5:22; Mark 3:5) and Paul (Ephesians 4:26) lawful anger as opposed to unlawful. As in the case of the Master, so also in that of the disciple anger should be the extreme point of the flame, with which love strikes. But although anger is permitted up to a certain degree, it is nevertheless restricted within fixed limits by the limiting direction βραδὺς εἰς ὀργήν. One has only to look at the deplorable mischief that may be produced by excessive anger in order fully to justify the necessity and wisdom of this precept. Peculiarly Christian is the triplex officium, which in James 5:19 is commanded in so brief and pithy a manner. The exhibition of such a frame of mind affords proof that the regeneration spoken of in James 5:18 is a reality. The natural man is the very opposite: he is slow to hear, swift to speak and swift to wrath. It is also note worthy that James 5:19 contains properly the text, the exposition and development of which are treated of in the remainder of the Epistle. The exhortation to be swift to hear is expounded from James 1:21—ch. James 2:26 with simultaneous reference to a fruitful hearing; the admonition to be slow to speak is emphatically urged in James 3:0 and that to be slow to wrath in James 4:5.

2. Because on the Israelite standpoint no justification before God was possible without the fulfilling of the law, the chief demand of which is love, while wrath is the very expression of the most unbridled selfishness, there are no ideas more decidedly opposed to one another than ὀργὴ and δικαιοσύνη θεοῦ.

3. Slowness of hearing was, it would seem, an evil not peculiar to the first readers of this Epistle, but also common to others, and particularly to Jewish Christians. Cf. Hebrews 5:11; Hebrews 10:25. The emphatic urging of the opposite quality is therefore not superfluous. Here also the words of James echo the words of Christ. Luke 11:28; Matthew 7:24-27; Matthew 13:23.

4. Real inward hearing is ever to receive anew the word, implanted and already extant within us as the seed of regeneration, which in an inexhaustible richness of forms is ever brought home to us as a new word of life. What would the preached word avail unless it had hidden points of contact in the hearts and consciences of Christians? cf. 1 Thessalonians 1:6. The forgetful hearer, whom James describes in James 1:22-24 fully corresponds with the second class of men depicted by our Lord in the parable of the sower (Matthew 13:20-21).

5. James’ view of the connection of faith and hearing is identical with that of Paul. Romans 10:14-17.

6. The representation of the Gospel as the perfect law of liberty is as correct as it is important. Paul, who contrasts generally the law and the Gospel, acknowledges a law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, Romans 8:2. This law is perfect because it presents at once the most perfect and most judicious directory of the life of belivers; it is the law of liberty because the faithful practice of it leads men to true, moral liberty. Here the saying is fully valid legum servi sumus est liberi esse possimus. Cf. John 8:36; Matthew 5:17-20.

7. Care must be had that James be not misunderstood in the description of the pure and unspotted religious service (James 1:23), as if these words contained an exact definition of the inner side of true religious service in general. Any one somewhat philanthropically inclined and at the same time keeping himself outwardly free from worldly contamination is on that account far from being entitled to say that in so doing he is practising the pure and unspotted religious service in the sense of James. In order to prevent any possible misapprehension of his language we have to notice that he refers not indefinitely to the Divine service, but to a pure and unspotted service (θρηκεία without the Article) and states merely in a general way what is above all things essential to the being and efficacy of a practical religiousness in its outward manifestation. “As if one addicted to drink were to boast of his morality and were to be told in reply that a moral man does not get drunk, it would not be the latter’s purpose to represent thereby the sum-total of a Christian conversation.” Chrysostom. The great and principal condition is taken for granted, viz.: repentance and faith; besides, this exhortation is also addressed to Christians already regenerate, James 1:18. James insists upon the duty we owe to our neighbour, who is here represented by widows and orphans as those most in want of help, and upon the duties we owe to ourselves by the practice of self-denial and vigilance. These two points reveal at the same time the true disposition toward God. Besides James does not say that the man who applies himself to the discharge of these duties shall be blessed by this his doing but that he shall have even here a taste of bliss in this his doing (ἐν τῇ ποιήσει) so that this doing as such is to him the highest bliss. 5. Gerlach: “In this doing of the law he will feel himself truly blessed, as he must be esteemed blessed. To fulfil the commandments of God, to progress in holiness, is an ever-growing enjoyment of blessedness, granted more and more to the believer and the faithful already here on earth.”

8. Widows and orphans so highly favoured even by the Mosaic law (Exodus 22:22-24 and elsewhere), are also emphatically protected by Christian morality. The difference between the philanthropy of the Church and that of a mere humanism.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Christians are called constantly to adopt the prayer of David, Psalms 141:3.—It is impossible that the bitter root of wrath can produce the sweet fruit of righteousness.—Difference between holy and unholy anger.—Ira furor brevis.—The causes and excuses of the frequent dulness of hearing.—The development of spiritual life ever conditioned by the use of the means of grace.—The preaching of the Gospel a constant watering of the seed of regeneration already planted in us.—What we have to lay aside and what we have to bring with us in order to serve God in public (i.e., make a public profession of religion).—Many hearers put rigorous demands on the preacher but hardly any on themselves; it ought to be the reverse.—True meekness in the hearing of the word.—The Gospel a power of God unto salvation etc. Romans 1:16.—The self-deception of the hearer of the word who becomes not a doer, cf. Proverbs 16:25; 1 Corinthians 3:18.—Three classes of men: 1, those who neither hear nor do the word; 2, those who hear it but do it not; 3, those who both hear and do it.—Even Herod heard John the Baptist gladly and for his sake did many things, but not the one thing needful, Mark 6:20.—The word of God a bright mirror which must be attentively looked into, would we attain true self-knowledge. The true hearer of the Gospel looks as carefully into the mirror as do the angels into the plan of salvation, 1 Peter 1:12.—The Gospel 1, a law; 2, a perfect law; 3, a perfect law of liberty.—The blessedness of the doer of the word, Psalms 119:1 etc.—The absolute incompatibility of the service of sins of the tongue with a truly religious life.—The Christian life a service of love.—Only that Divine service is the true, which is a Divine service before “God and the Father,” 1 Samuel 16:7.—The practice of the duties of love must be joined with conscientious watchfulness of ourselves.—The Christian’s relation to the world: 1, to its distressed ones; 2, to its temptations.—The fruit of righteousness is a tree of life, Proverbs 11:30.—How eloquently James has recommended his instruction concerning active fear of God by his own example.—(James 1:19-27). A direction for and eulogy of the right hearing of the Gospel. James urges us 1, to devout hearing (James 1:19-20), 2, to meek receiving (James 1:21), 3, to active practice (James 1:22-24), and 4, to constant searching of the word (James 1:25-27).—(James 1:25-27) 1, What one enjoys (James 1:25), 2, avoids (James 1:26), and 3, practises in the way of active piety.—True Christianity the most practical matter in the world.

Starke:—Believers are more eager to learn than to teach, for the cause of regeneration makes us real hearers of the word. John 8:47.

Luther:—Blessed is the man whose mouth is in his heart and whose heart is not in his mouth; the one is wisdom, the other folly.

Starke:—He who along with other sins does not overcome his carnal anger, cannot enter into the Kingdom of God, Galatians 5:20-21.—Sins are also in believers, who must more and more cleanse themselves from them, Hebrews 12:1.

Quesnel:—He only loves the word of God in truth, who performs it by love, 1 John 5:3.

Langh Op:—To deceive others is bad, to deceive oneself worse, and the latter is more common than the first, Proverbs 24:8.

Starke:—The word of God is here compares with a mirror not only on account of its intrinsic brightness and purity, but chiefly because of its use and benefit. For it not only shows us (according to the law) the detestable and sinful form of our souls which we derive from the first Adam and wherein alas, we resemble Satan, but it shows us also (according to the Gospel) the beauteous, glorious and lovely form which we may receive from Christ, the second Adam, and His Spirit by means of the new birth and wherein we resemble Him.

Quesnel:—He that doeth not what he heareth, forgetteth more than he heareth and his latter end will be worse than the beginning, 2 Peter 2:20; 2 Peter 2:22.—Blessed is the man who receives his own testimony against himself. 1 Corinthians 11:31.

Starke:—Fear not, believers, if you hear the Gospel called a law and that it enters as much and more into hearts of poor sinners with lightning and thunder than the old law of Sinai; for it is a law of liberty. Such a liberty which is more valuable than all treasures, more pleasant than life itself and more precious than all the goods of the world; none know what it is worth but those who have lost it and those who have it, although they esteem it most highly, yet do they not esteem it according to its value, Galatians 5:1-13.—Whoso truly serves God in the spirit, his tongue also is governed by the Spirit of God, Psalms 39:2.—Many whose mouth is full of the praise of the truth and who are proud of their Divine service are their own worst deceivers and seducers, Romans 2:23.—Many a service is well-pleasing to God which is despised and even rejected by men, Acts 24:14.

Cramer:—Widows and orphans are privileged individuals before God.—He that keeps himself unspotted before the world, does the will of God and is greatly blessed, 2 Corinthians 6:17-18.

James 1:16-21. Epistle for the 4th Sunday after Easter (Cantate).

Luther:—Because the Epistle of James James 1:0 has been read from of old on this Sunday, being also good for instruction and exhortation, we will also retain it for those who would have it continued and say something concerning it, lest it be thought we wanted to reject it, although the Epistle has not been written by an Apostle nor does set forth everywhere the manner and stamp of apostolical teaching nor quite conformable to pure doctrine. Therefore James concludes: “Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.” That is: be taught, admonished by God’s word, reproved and comforted, be swift in these things; but be not fluent in speech, in murmuring, cursing and railing against God and man. Hereby he does not forbid us all speaking, reproving and being angry, if the commandment of God or necessity require us so to do, but that we for ourselves shall not rashly and vehemently engage in it, although we be irritated thereto—and the rather hearken to and suffer us to be taught by the word; which is the true and real word, which we should ever let govern and lead us, and from which should flow whatsoever we say, blame and rebuke. Hence it is said soon afterwards to receive the word with meekness, that we may not be angry if it reprove us, or murmur if we have to suffer somewhat for it.

Heubner:—Talkativeness the mark of a weak mind.—The word of God the best bridle for the government of the tongue and the affections.—Never act while thou art angry.—(James 1:16-21.) The Christian’s belief in the presiding control of an all-good God. 1. Nature and reason, 2. Effects of this belief.—Self-deceit in the service of God.

Porubszky:—Of ungodly anger. 1. What is anger? 2. What does anger? 3. How is anger conquered?

Couard:—Contemplations on the precious gift of the Gospel.

Kapff:—Whereto we are impelled by the absolute perfection of God.

Palmer:—Good works: 1, their inward origin (James 1:16-18), 2, their outward form (James 1:19-21).

Souchon:—Receive the word daily.

Standt:—What we may expect from God: 1, what He gives (James 1:16-18), 2, what He removes (James 1:19-21).

Von Harless:—Who walks in the right way to the end of life?

Arndt:—The sins of the tongue.

Herberger:—Like as a wagon runs in two ruts, like as a man stands on two legs unless he be a cripple, like as he consists of two parts, body and soul, so Christianity also runs in two parts, in faith and works. 1. God the good gives good gifts, 2, and expects good to be returned to Him.

Lisco:—The fountain and the vessel of all good gifts.—Spring’s threefold address to us the children of God.—The holiness of God in its incompatibility with human sin.

Fuchs:—The word of truth as the perfect gift of God.

James 1:22-27. Epistle for 5th Sunday after Easter (Rogate).

Heubner:—Other laws bind and are often burdensome to us: the law of God delivers us from the bands of sin.—Those, otherwise free from gross sins, yet sin with the tongue.—Sefishness turns even religion into an instrument of self-sufficiency.—All religion must be moral.—We should take to the necessitous not only our gifts but ourselves.—Comparison of the true and false religious service as to 1, their nature, 2, their influence and 3, their relation to God.—Caution against the abuse of the doctrine of justifying faith.

Porubszky:—Be doers of the word and not hearers only !—Our Divine service is a surrender to God.

Löhe:—There is no doer but is also a true hearer. First a hearer, then a doer; true hearers, true doers.

Lange:—If the word seizes not thyself, it will be a burden to thy head.

Stier: James 5:27.—He refers less to the work itself than to the disposition and impulse of heart which impels us to the distressed in their affliction. Hence he says nothing of our feeding, clothing and providing for widows and orphans, but he specifies our visiting them in their affliction, protecting them, assisting them and carrying to them the best of our possessions, true consolation. We understand, it is to be hoped, how much this requires, how the duty of love drives us constantly into the world and among men, and how it is incompatible with pharisaic or pietistic separateness and monkish solitariness.—How the hearing of the word is to become saving work.

Von Kapff:—Who is blessed in his doing?

Florey:—How differently Christians use the mirror of the Divine Word!

Schmid:—The apothegm of wisdom concerning self-vigilance: 1. Mirror aright and see thyself; 2. See aright and know thyself; 3. Know (thyself) aright and think thee small; 4. Who thinks him (self) small is wise in all.

Herberger:—The keeping of God’s word makes it ours unto salvation.

Couard:—Caution against self-deceit in Christianity.

Souchon:—Be doers of the word.

Westermaier:—The same.

J. Saurin:—An excellent sermon on James 5:25, entitled: Sur la manière d’étudier la Religion, Serm. Tom. 4. p. 1–48.

Lisco:—Of true religion.—Be doers of the word and not hearers only. 1. When we shall be it? and 2, Whereby is it seen that we are it.—Of the nature of true religion.

Ledderhose:—The right hearing of the word.

Neiling:—Ye shall be not only hearers of the word, but doers also [in a rhyme which hardly deserves reproduction.—M.].

[This section is already so full of homiletical matter that instead of supplying additional ones, I refer the reader to the new matter given under “Exegetical and Critical” and to the following standard works which will furnish him with much that is excellent and full of thought.

On James 1:22. The Sermon of Bp. Andrews, V. p. 195; also Bp. Sanderson, III. p. 366.

On James 1:26. Bp. Butler’s Sermon IV.; Dr. Barrow, Serm. XIII., Vol. I. p. 283.—M.].

Footnotes: 

[38] James 1:19. ἴστε is the most authentic reading. A. B. C. Vulg. al. ὥστε found in G. K. [Rec. L. Sin.] is evidently a correction designed to establish a clearer connections, which has however obscured the peculiar import of this section. De Wette and Wiesinger, indeed advocate the retention of ὥστε on internal grounds against Lachmann, Huther and al., but the internal grounds are also in favour of ἴστε and even Tischendorf’s reädoption of the reading of the Text. Rec. cannot affect the question. We also read with A. δὲ after ἴστε and καί before ἔστω. Tischendorf now decidedly favours ὥστε; so does Bouman p. 84 sqq.

Lange: Know however … also let every man etc. [ye know it … but let etc.—M.]

[39] James 1:20. ἐργεάζεται A. B. [C.3] Sin., Lachmann; κατεργάζεται C.* G. K. al. Tisch. The former seems to preponderate, but ἐργάζεται has here surely a peculiarly emphatic meaning.

Lange: For the man’s [vir] wrath doth not accomplish [execute] etc.

James 1:21. Lange: Wherefore, removing all filthiness and all out-flowing [communication of life] of malice [malignity] acquire in gentleness the word implanted in [and among] you, which etc.

Wherefore putting off all filthiness and superabundance of maliciousness, receive in meekness the innate Word, which etc.—M.]

[40] James 1:22. μόνον before ἀκροαταί Rec. A. C. K. L. Theile; after B. Vulg. Alford.—M.]

Lange: But become ye doers … as those who ensnare themselves. [But become ye … deceiving etc.—M.]

James 1:23. Lange: For if … this man is like to a man who observes the countenance [image of appearance] of his birth [of his development-image, of his life-form, the momentary formation of his continual development] in a mirror.

Because (ὅτι)… this man is like to a man considering the face of his birth in a mirror—M.].

James 1:24. Lange: For he observed himself and went away and forthwith forgot of what manner he was. For he considered himself and is gone away … what he was like (ὁποῖος ἧν’ i. e. how he looked in the mirror)—M.].

[41] James 1:25. A. B. C. Sin. and al. omit οὗτος before ἀκροατής, so Lachmann; Tischendorf following G. K. [and Rec.—M.] inserts it. The omission may have arisen from the supposition that the word was superfluous, its pregnant force having been misapprehended.

Lange: But he, who became absorbed in the completed law, that of liberty, and remained thus, who became not a hearer unto forgetting, but a doer of the work, the same shall be blessed in his doing.But he who looked into the perfect law, that (τὸν) of liberty, and perseveres doing so, being … in his doing—M.].

[42] James 1:26, δὲ after εἰ, inserted by Lachmann following C, has the most important Codd. against it. It weakens also the recapitulatory character of the sentence.

[43] James 1:26. A. B. C. omit ἐν ὑμῖν.

Lange: If any man [among you] fancieth himself to be a religious man [one theocratically zealous of the honour of God] etc.German for religious man, “Gottesdiener”=a servant of God, one observant of God’s outward service s religion “Gottesdienst”=outward service of God.—M.]

[44] James 1:27. τῷ before θεῷ recommended by A. B. C. * Sin. al. and Lachmann. This reading is also in consonance with the thought, the reference being to the God of the Christian revelation.

Lange: A pure and unprofaned religion [outward service—M.] before the God and Father is this: to be careful of the orphans and widows in their tribulation [to have the oversight of them, and not to be engrossed with politics], to preserve himself unspotted from the world.… before our God and Father (τῷ θεῷ καὶ πατρὶ) etc.; παρά=with, in the estimation of Alford,—M.]

[45]We consider this term, which through Hofmann has crept into theology, as an abortive improvement on the term “righteousness” (German: Rechtschaffenheit or Gerechtigkeit).