THE EXHORTATION. The doers of the Word are those who are ruled by it, who practically comply with its requirements, who not only read, understand, and believe it, but submit to its authority, regulate their tempers and lives by its precepts. The term, too, is expressive of continuance, permanence. We must live and move in this element, we must find our occupation here the chief delight of our existence. It is only such doing that constitutes a doer of the Word. “And not hearers only.” This is what the apostle is anxious to guard against. Mark what it really is which he condemns. It is not being hearers--very far from that. It is the slopping short here, resting in it which he condemns. He finds no fault with those who are hearers, it is with those who are hearers simply and “not doers.” He adds, “Deceiving your own selves.” Whatever the foundation on which they build, whatever the process by which they reach the conclusion in their own favour--all who think well of themselves, who believe that they are God’s people, and on the way to heaven, while they are hearers only and not doers--all such must, and do delude themselves. They are helped to this result. The father of lies tries to persuade them that they are all right as to their spiritual character. He labours to hide from us the truth, and to draw us into the meshes of soul-ruining error.
II. THE ILLUSTRATION.
1. A picture of the mere hearer. “He is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass”--literally, “the face of his birth,” the countenance with which he was born--marking out the external, material sphere within which the figure lies, and suggesting all the more vividly the spiritual counterpart, the moral visage which belongs to us as the posterity of Adam, the sin-marred lineaments of the soul. He sees it with all its peculiarities, more or less pleasing, reflected in the glass before which he stands, there confronting him so that he cannot but note its features. The hearer of the gospel does something remarkably similar. In his case the glass, that into which he looks, is the Divine Word. It unfolds the corruption which has put its foul impress on every part of our being, the dark lusts and passions that hold sway within us, the features and workings of our carnal, enmity-possessed minds. It is the great business of the preacher to raise aloft the glass of Divine truth, to set forth faithfully alike the law and the gospel. The hearer does not thrust it away from him, and he turns not aside from it as do many. He does not withdraw to a distance, or push the mirror toward his neighbour. He looks into it more or less closely. The likeness varies greatly as to distinctness of outline and depth of impression. Self is in some measure presented to view and is recognised. The apostle proceeds with the comparison. The man having beheld himself, “goeth his way,” is off to his business or his pleasure, to meet his friends, or pursue his journey. He is soon engaged with other matters. In a few moments the appearance he presented is forgotten. The beholding in this ease corresponds to the hearing and its effects in the other. As the looker turns away from the glass, so does the mere hearer from the Word. The latter leaves the sanctuary, and the bodily departure is connected with a mental one far greater. The attention is relaxed, or rather drawn off, and directed toward an entirely different class of subjects. The mind goes back to its pursuit of lying vanities; and thus comes the deep and sad forgetfulness. Convictions fade away, feelings cool down, and the old security returns.
2. A picture of the real doer (verse 25). Here the comparison begins to be dropped. The figure and the thing represented, symbol and substance, blend together; no longer kept separate, they pass into each other. Observe what this man looks into. It is “the perfect law of liberty.” He calls it “perfect.” It is so in itself as the transcript of God’s perfect character, and as leading all who apprehend and use it aright forward to man’s perfect stature. It is this alike in its nature and its effect. And it is “the perfect law of liberty.” It is a law of bondage to those who leek into it in its covenant form, and strive to earn heaven by their own merits. But in regeneration it is written on the heart, and the new creature is in harmony with it, delights in it, so that conformity to it is no longer a forced but a spontaneous thing. Thus he is free, not by being released from law, but by having it wrought into his being, made the moving, regulating power of his new existence. Notice, now, how this man deals with the mirror thus described. “Whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty.” We have here a different word from that which expresses the beholding in the former instance. It signifies to stoop down and come close to an object so as to see it clearly and fully. It points to a near, minute, searching inspection. And, in this ease, it is not a temporary exercise. The eyes are not soon averted and directed to other objects. For it is added, “and continueth therein”--continueth still looking into the perfect law, meditating on its requirements, seeking to understand their nature and feel their power. He is arrested, and cannot turn his steps or his eyes towards other objects. This is characteristic of every one truly subdued by the inspired Word. He continues and the effect appears. Such a man is “not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work.” He remembers the truth apprehended, and strives to reduce it to practice. It sets all his powers of mind and body in motion. He is a “doer of the work,” or literally of work, pointing not to this or that act of obedience, but to a constant, thorough, loving, free course of service. In all things he aims at doing the will of God, and he so far succeeds. “This man”--emphatically, not the other, not any other--this man, he, he alone--“shall be blessed in his deed” or his doing. He shall be blessed, not only after or through his doing, not merely on account of it or by means of it, but in his doing. Obedience is its own reward. It yields an exquisite satisfaction, and, while it leads on in a heavenward progress, draws down large foretastes of the fulness of joy, the rivers of pleasure, which are at God’s right hand for evermore. (John Adam.)
Two sorts of hearers
James has no speculations. He is not satisfied with the buds of hearing, he wants the fruits of obedience. We need more of his practical spirit in this age. Preachers must preach as for eternity, and look for fruit; and hearers must carry out what they hear, or otherwise the sacred ordinance of preaching will cease to be the channel of blessing.
I. THE UNBLEST CLASS.
1. They are hearers, but they are described as hearers who are not doers. They have heard a sermon on repentance, but they have not repented. They have heard the gospel cry, “Believe!” but they have not believed. They know that he who believes purges himself from his old sins, yet they have had no purging, but abide as they were, Now, if I address such let me say to them--it is clear that you are and must be unblest. Hearing of a feast will not fill you; hearing of a brook will not quench your thirst. The knowledge that there is a shelter from the storm will not save the ship from the tempest. The information that there is a cure for a disease will not make the sick man whole. No: boons must be grasped and made use of if they are to be of any value to us.
2. Next, these hearers are described as deceiving themselves. You would very soon quit my door, and call me inhospitable, if I gave you music instead of meat; and yet you deceive yourselves with the notion that merely hearing about Jesus and His great salvation has made you better men. Or, perhaps, the deceit runs in another line: you foster the idea that the stern truths which your hear do not apply to you.
3. And then, again, according to our text, these people are superficial hearers. They are said to be like to a man who sees his natural face in a glass. When a g]ass is first exhibited to some fresh discovered negro tribe, the chieftain as he sees himself is perfectly astonished. He looks, and looks again, and cannot make it out. So is it in the preaching of the Word; the man says, “Why, those are my words; that is my way of feeling.” To see yourself as God would have you see yourself in the glass of Scripture is something, but you must afterwards go to Christ for washing or your looking is very superficial work.
4. The text accuses these persons of being hasty hearers--“he beholdeth himself and goeth his way.” They never give the Word time to operate, they are back to business, back to idle chit-chat, the moment the service ends.
5. One other thing is said about them, namely, that they are very forgetful hearers--they forget what manner of men they are. They have heard the discourse, and there is an end of it. That travelling dealer did well who, while listening to Mr. William Dawson, when he was speaking about dishonesty, stood up in the midst of the congregation and broke a certain yard measure with which he had been in the habit of cheating his customers. That woman did well who said that she forgot what the preacher talked about, but she remembered to burn her bushel when she got home, for that too had been short in measure. You may forget the words in which the truth was couched, if you will, but let it purify your life. It reminds me of the gracious woman who used to earn her living by washing wool. When her minister called upon her and asked her about his sermon, and she confessed she had forgotten the text, he said, “What good could it have done you?” She took him into her back place where she was carrying on her trade. She put the wool into a sieve, and then pumped on it. “There, sir,” she said, “your sermon is like that water. It runs through my mind, sir, just as the water runs through the sieve; but then the water washes the wool, sir, and so the good word washes my soul.” Thus I have described certain hearers, and I fear we have many such in all congregations; admiring hearers, but all the while unblest hearers, because they are Hot doers of the work. One thing they lack--they have no faith in Christ. It does surprise me how some of you can be so favourable to everything that has to do with Divine things, and yet have no personal share in the good treasure. What would you say of a cook who prepared dinners for other people and yet died of starvation? Foolish cook, say you. Foolish hearer, say
I. Are you going to be like. Solomon’s friends the Tyrians, who helped to build the temple and yet went on worshipping their idols?
II. BLESSED HEARERS--those who get the blessing.
1. Now, notice that this hearer who is blest is, first of all, an earnest, eager, humble hearer. He does not look upon the law of liberty and go his way, but he looketh into it. He hears of the gospel, and he says, “I will look into this. There is a something here worth attention.” He stoops and becomes a little child that he may learn. He searches as men do who are looking after diamonds or gold. That is the right kind of hearer--an earnest listener whose senses are all aroused to receive all that can be learned.
2. It is implied, too, that he is a thoughtful, studious, searching hearer--he looks into the perfect law. He is sacredly curious. He inquires; he pries. He asks all those who should know. He likes to get with old Christians to hear their experience. He loves to compare spiritual things with spiritual, to dissect a text and see how it stands in relation to another, and to its own parts, for he is in earnest when he hears the Word.
3. Looking so steadily he discovers that the gospel is a law of liberty: and indeed it is so. There is no joy like the joy of pardon, there is no release like release from the slavery of sin, there is no freedom like the liberty of holiness, the liberty to draw near to God.
4. But it is added that he continues therein. If you hear the gospel and it does not bless you, hear it again. If you have read the Word of God and it has not saved you, read it again. It is able to save your soul.
5. Lastly, it is added that this man is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the Word, and he shall be blessed in his deed. Is he bidden to pray? He prays as best he can. Is he bidden to repent? He asks God to enable him to repent. He turns everything that he hears into practice. I remember reading of a certain person who heard of giving a tenth of our substance to God. “Well,” said he, “that is right, and I will do it”: and he kept his promise. He heard that Daniel drew near to God three times a day in prayer. He said, “That is right; I will do it”; and he practised a threefold approach to the throne of grace each day. He made it a rule every time he heard of something that was excellent to practise it at once. Thus he formed holy habits and a noble character, and became a blessed hearer of the Word. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
The Word of words
I. The Word As MERELY HEARD.
1. It is only superficially known.
2. It leaves men in self-ignorance.
II. THE WORD RIGHTLY PRACTISED.
1. It is thoroughly investigated.
2. It confers the highest blessing.
(1) Imparts complete liberty.
(2) Ensures constant happiness. (U. R. Thomas.)
Hearing and doing
I. THE IMPORTANCE OF HEARING THE WORD.
1. The Word tells us whence we are.
2. The Word tells us what we are.
3. The Word tells us how to get rid of sin.
4. The Word helps us to form character for heaven.
II. THE GREATER IMPORTANCE OF DOING THE WORD.
1. Hearing is but the preliminary of doing.
2. Hearing can never shake off the load of sin; while doing lays the burden upon Christ.
3. In the all-important work of cultivating character, mere hearing hardens and distorts; while doing the will of God is the way to become like Him.
4. Doing the will of God is the only adequate test of love, which is the essence both of religion and salvation. (J. T. Whitley.)
The danger of mistaking knowledge for obedience
1. Knowledge without obedience ends in nothing. This is the folly which our Lord rebukes in the parable of the man that built his house upon the sand.
2. It inflicts a deep and lasting injury upon the powers of our spiritual nature. In childhood, boyhood, manhood, the same sounds of warning, and promise, and persuasion, the same hopes and fears, have fallen on a heedless ear, and a still more heedless heart: they have lost their power over the man; he has acquired a settled habit of hearing without doing. The whole force of habit--that strange mockery of nature--has reinforced his original reluctance to obey.
3. It is an arch-deceiver of mankind. It deceives the man into the belief that he really is what he so clearly knows he ought to be. Again, there are men who can never speak of religious truth without emotion; and yet, though their knowledge has so much of fervour as to make them weep, it has not power enough to make them deny a lust.
4. This knowing and disobeying, it is that makes so awful the responsibilities of Christians. Knowledge is a great and awful gift: it makes a man partaker of the mind of God; it communes with him of the eternal will, and reveals to him the royal law of God’s kingdom. To hold this knowledge in unrighteousness, to imprison it in the stifling hold of an impure, a proud, or a rebellious heart, is a most appalling insult against the majesty of the God of truth. (Archdeacon Manning.)
Profitless hearing
The necessity of good preaching is well understood among men. The importance of good hearing is not so well understood. To render the message effective, it is not enough that the former be furnished. Be it as faultless as was the preaching of the Son of God, a man may sit under it and go from it totally unbenefited. It leaves on his heart the impression, not of the seal upon the plastic wax, but such an impression as the face makes upon the mirror which for a moment reflects its features--transient as the glancing sunbeam. It therefore becomes an imperative duty to keep clearly before the minds of our hearers their liability to the danger of rendering the gospel ministry wholly ineffectual for good to themselves.
I. THE VACANT HEARER. God’s Word is weighty truth. Its topics are God’s nature, acts, the human soul, its condition, responsibilities, destiny. The subjects of its principal concern lie not on the surface of things, to be grasped without an effort. But whether simple or recondite, its teachings will teach him nothing who will not meet that demand of intellectual attention which instruction on any theme necessarily imposes on the learner. There are many such vacant listeners in God’s house. With some it is a constitutional mental sluggishness, a mind untaught to reflect. But with many more it is an aversion of heart to religious thought, which arms the will against it. Add also the many who bring the world with them into Jehovah’s temple, and there worship Mammon instead of God.
II. THE CURIOUS HEARER. This spirit brings the attention to bear upon a subject, but merely to dissect, to criticise. It is an active spirit far removed from the unconcernedness of the vacant hearer, and the sanctuary affords a favourite scene for its exercise. It may employ itself upon the subject of discourse, and enjoy the pleasure of remarking the beauties, the well-timed proprieties of its presentation; or, more commonly, it may busy itself with taking exceptions at the taste, or the judgment, which has guided the selection or treatment of the theme. Or the attention fastens itself upon the manner of the preacher, forgetful from whose court the speaker holds his commission, and what words of life and death hang on his lips.
III. THE CAPTIOUS HEARER. Here the attention is excited, only to be turned against the teachings of religion. There are those who occasionally attend upon God’s worship, as they sometimes read His Word, for no other end but to cavil, to deny, to oppose. Their business is just what was that of some in former days, in whose hearts Satan reigned; who followed Christ’s ministrations for the--shall I say, magnanimous or pitiful--purpose to catch Him in His words! But sometimes, where the mind likes not to confess itself sceptical upon the subject of Christian doctrine, it covers its hostility to this by a very ingenious, not ingenuous transfer of its dislikes to the announcer of this doctrine.
IV. THE FASHIONABLE HEARER. The Sabbath is welcomed, as it helps them to show off an equipage more elegant than some rival’s; or to display to advantage their personal attractions. Their own proud selves are the centres round which every thought revolves.
V. THE SPECULATING HEARER. I use this phrase in its mercantile sense, to indicate those whose selfishness leads them to make a pecuniary gain of godliness. These visit the sanctuary to further their business facilities. It is respectable to attend Divine worship. The influential, the wealthy, the intelligent, are found there, at least once on the Sabbath. And he submits to the irksomeness of a weekly visit to this uncomgenial spot as a cheap price for the custom, the patronage of the community. On the whole, it is to him a fair business transaction. A similar conduct is theirs who sustain the gospel because of the pecuniary value of churches and ministers to any community. These have their secular advantages. Truth and piety should be prized for more spiritual reasons than these. They refuse their choicest blessings to such sordid calculators.
VI. THE SELF-FORGETFUL HEARER. Many never listen to a sermon which “reproves, rebukes, exhorts,” for their own benefit. They may indeed listen; but it is with a keen sense of their neighbour’s defects, not their own.
VII. THE PRAYERLESS HEARER. Without prayer, earnest, habitual, personal, God’s Spirit will not visit your bosom with life-imparting grace. A prayerless hearer of truth must, therefore, be an unblessed hearer. He turns the ministry of mercy into a ministry of condemnation.
VIII. THE UNRESOLVED HEARER. The communications of God to man all relate to action. They direct to duty. They aim not to amuse, to surprise, or to instruct, but to produce a voluntary movement of man’s moral powers in the path by them indicated. They bring their unseen influences to bear upon his rational faculties to secure compliance with their demands, and in effecting, by God’s grace, this object they secure the salvation of his soul. But this they never do effect except through his deliberate purpose of willing obedience. (J. T. Tucker.)
Necessity of adding doing to hearing
I. THE CHARACTER OF THOSE WHO MAY BE SAID TO BE HEARERS ONLY.
1. The inattentive hearer (Heb_2:1; Deu_32:46). He who never intends being a doer of what he hears will probably little regard what he hears.
2. The inconsiderate hearer, that never ponders what he hears, nor compares one thing with another.
3. The injudicious shearer, that never makes any judgment upon what he hears, whether it be true or false; all things come alike to him.
4. The unapprehensive hearer, who hears all his days, but is never the wiser 2Ti_3:7). No light comes into him.
5. The stupid, unaffected hearer that is as a rock and a stone under the Word. Nothing enters or gets within.
6. The prejudiced, disaffected hearers, who hear with dislike, especially those things which relate to practice; they cannot endure such things as relate to the heart.
7. The fantastical, voluptuous hearers, that hear only to please their fancy; flashes of wit are what they come to hear.
8. The notional hearers, who only aim merely to please their fancy; they come to learn some kind of novelty.
9. Those talkative persons, who only come to hear that they may furnish themselves with notions for the sake of discourse.
10. The censorious and critical hearers; who come not as doers of the law, but as judges.
11. The malicious hearers that come on purpose to seek an advantage against those they come to hear.
12. The raging, exasperated hearers; such were Stephen’s at his last sermon.
II. WHAT IT IS TO BE A DOER OF THE WORD.
1. It doth suppose a fixed design that this shall be my course (Psa_119:106; Psa_119:112).
2. It carries with it a serious applying of our minds to understand what is the mind and will of God which is held forth to us in His Word.
3. It implies the use of our judgment in hearing the Word, in order to distinguish what is human and what is Divine.
4. It requires reverence to be used in hearing: so to hear as that we may be doers requires a revere, dial attendance upon it. Considering it as a revelation come from heaven.
5. To be a doer of the Word supposes that we believe it; or that our hearing of it is mingled with faith. The Word of God worketh effectually in thrum that believe (1Th_2:13; Heb_4:2; Heb_11:1; Rom_1:16).
6. It requires love. It is said of some that they received not the love of the 2Th_2:10; Psa_119:97; Psa_119:105; Jer_15:16).
7. It requires subjection: a compliance of the heart with it. “Receive with meekness” (verse. 21). The gracious soul is always ready to say, “Good is the Word of the Lord.”
8. It requires a previous transformation of the heart by it. The Word can never be done by the hearer, but from a vital principle.
9. It requires also a faithful remembrance of it (verses 23, 24).
10. There must be an actual application of all such rules in the Word to present cases as they occur (Psa_119:11).
III. THE SELF-DECEPTION OF THOSE WHO ARE HEARERS OF THE WORD, AND NOT DOERS OF IT.
1. Wherein they are deceived.
(1) They are deceived in their work. They commonly think they have done well; find no fault with themselves that they have been hearers only.
(2) As to their reward they are also deceived; their labour is lost.
2. The grossness of this deception.
(1) They are deceived in a plain case. It is the plainest thing in the world that the gospel is sent for a practical end.
(2) It is a self-deception. They are said to deceive themselves: they impose on themselves. It is soul-deception: “Deceiving your own souls.”
APPLICATION:
1. In the very hearing of the Word there is danger of self-deception.
2. The whole business of the gospel hath a reference to practice.
3. If ye would be doers of the Word, “Be swift to hear: faith cometh by hearing.”
4. It is of the greatest consequence to add doing to hearing (Mat_7:24-27). (T. Hannam.)
Hearing and doing
You have heard, let me suppose, an eloquent sermon on alms-giving, or on loving one’s neighbour as one’s self. You have been so moved that you resolve to commence a new habit of life. Well, you begin to give to the poor, and you soon find that it is very hard so to give as not to encourage indolence, vice, dishonesty, very hard to do a little good without doing a great deal of harm. You are brought to a stand, and compelled to reflect. But if the word you heard really laid hold upon you, if you are persuaded that it is the will of God that you should give to the poor and needy, you do not straightway leave off giving to them. You consider how you may give without injuring them, without encouraging either them or their neighbours in habits of laziness and dependence. Again and again you make mistakes. Again and again you have to reconsider your course, and probably to the end of your days you discover no way of giving that is quite satisfactory to you. But while you are thus doing the word, is it possible for you to forget it? It is constantly in your thoughts. You are for ever studying how you may best act on it. So far from forgetting the word, you are always learning more clearly what it means, and how it may be applied beneficially and with discretion. Or suppose you have heard the other sermon on loving one’s neighbour, and set yourself to do that word of God. In the home, we may hope, you have no great trouble in doing it, though even there it is not always easy. But when you go to business, and try, in that, to act on the Divine commandment, do you find no difficulty there? Now that is not easy. In many eases it is not easy even to see how the Christian law applies, much less to obey it. If, for instance, you are rich enough, or generous enough, to give your work-people higher wages than other masters give or can afford to give, you may at once show a great love for one class of your neighbours, and a great want of love for another class. Thus, in many different ways, the very moment you honestly try to love your neighbours all round as you love yourself, you find yourself involved in many perplexities, through which you have carefully to pick your way. You have to consider how the Christian law bears on the complex and manifold relations of social life, how you may do the word wisely and to good effect. But can you forget the commandment while you are thus assiduously seeking both to keep it and how to keep it? It is impossible. The more steadfastly you are the doer of it, the more constantly is it in your mind, the mine clearly do you know what it means and how it may be obeyed. (S. Cox, D. D.)
Hearing and doing
Here we reach 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 even mischievous, is conduct. Suffering injuries, poverty, and temptations, hearing the Word, teaching the Word, faith, wisdom Jam_1:2; Jam_1:9; Jam_1:12; Jam_1:19; Jam_2:14-26; Jam_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. “Be ye doers of the Word.” Both verb and tense are remarkable (
ãé́íåóèå
): “Become doers of the Word.” True Christian practice is a thing of growth; it is a process, and a process which has already begun, and is continually going on. We may compare, “Become ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves” (Mat_10:16); “Therefore become ye also ready” (Mat_24:44); and “Become not faithless, but believing (Joh_20:27). “Become doers of the Word” ismore expressive than “Be doers of the Word,” and a good deal more expressive than “Do the Word.” A “doer of the Word” (
ðïéçôç̀ò ëḯãïõ
) is such by profession and practice; the phrase expresses a habit. But one who merely incidentally performs what is prescribed may be said to” do the Word.” By the “Word” is meant what just before has been called the “implanted Word” and the “Word of truth” (Jam_1:18; Jam_1:21), and what in this passage is also called “the perfect law, the law of liberty” (verse 25), i.e., the gospel. The parable of the sower illustrates in detail the meaning of becoming an habitual doer of the implanted Word. “And not hearers only.” St. James, in the address which he made to the Council of Jerusalem, says, “Moses from generations of old hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath” (chap. 15:21). The Jews came with great punctiliousness to these weekly gatherings, and listened with much attention to the public reading and exposition of the law; and too many of them thought that with that the chief part of their duty was performed. This, St. James tells them, is miserably insufficient, whether what they hear be the law or the gospel, the law with or without the illumination of the life of Christ. “Being swift to hear” (verse 19) and to understand is well, but “apart from works it is barren.” It is the habitual practice in striving to do what is heard and understood that is of value. “Not a hearer that forgetteth, but a doer that worketh” is blessed, and “blessed in his doing.” To suppose that mere hearing brings a blessing is “deluding your own selves.” The word here used for deluding (
ðáñáëïãéæï ìåíïé
) does not necessarily imply that the fallacious reasoning is known to be fallacious by those who employ it. To express that we should rather have the word which is used in 2Pe_1:16 to characterise “cunningly devise fables” (
óåóïöéóìǻíïé
). Here we are to understand that the victims of the delusion do not, although they might, see the worthlessness of the reasons upon which their self-contentment is based. It is precisely in this that the danger of their position lies. Self-deceit is the most subtle and fatal deceit. The Jews have a saying that the man who hears without practising is like a husbandman who ploughs and sows, but never reaps. Such an illustration, being taken from natural phenomena, would be quite in harmony with the manner of St. James; but he enforces his meaning by employing a far more striking illustration. He who is a hearer and not a doer “is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a mirror.” The spoken or written Word of God is the mirror. When we hear it preached, or study it for ourselves, we can find the reflection of ourselves in it, our temptations and weaknesses, our failings and sins, the influences of God’s Spirit upon us, and the impress of His grace. It is here that we notice one marked difference between the inspiration of the sacred writers and the inspiration of the poet and the dramatist. The latter show us other people to the life; Scripture shows us ourselves. Through hearing or reading God’s Word our knowledge of our characters is quickened. But does this quickened knowledge last? does it lead to action, or influence our conduct? Too often we leave the church or our study, and the impression produced by the recognition of the features of our own case is obliterated. “We straightway forget what manner of men we are,” and the insight which has been granted to us into our own true selves is just one more wasted experience. But this need not be so, and in some cases a very different result may be noticed. Instead of merely looking attentively for a short time, he may stoop down and pore over it. Instead of forthwith going away, he may continue in the study of it. And instead of straightway forgetting, he may prove a mindful doer that worketh. He who does this recognises God’s Word as being “the perfect law, the law of liberty.” The two “things are the same. It is when the law is seen to be perfect that it is found to be the law of liberty. So long as the law is not seen in the beauty of its perfection it is not loved, and men either disobey it or obey it by constraint and unwillingly. It is then a law of bondage. But when its perfection is recognised men long to conform to it; and they obey, not because they must, but because they choose. To be made to work for one whom one fears is slavery and misery; to choose to work for one whom one loves is freedom and happiness. The gospel has not abolished the moral law; it has supplied a new and adequate motive for fulfilling it. “Being not a hearer that forgetteth.” Literally, “having become not a hearer of forgetfulness,” i.e., having by practice come to be a hearer, who is characterised, not by forgetfulness of what he hears, but by attentive performance of it. “A hearer of forgetfulness “exactly balances, both in form and in thought, “a doer of work”; and this is well brought out by the Revisers, who turn both genitives by a relative clause: “a hearer that forgetteth,” and “a doer that worketh.” “This man shall be blessed in his doing.” Mere knowledge without performance is of little worth: it is in the doing that a blessing can be found. The danger against which St. James warns the Jewish Christians of the Dispersion is as pressing now as it was when he wrote. 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. 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 practise what it enjoins. We study lives of 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. (A. Plummer, D. D.)
Knowledge and duty
It has been said of St. James that his mission was rather that of a Christian Baptist than a Christian apostle. A deep depravity had eaten into the heart of the national character, and this, far more than any outward cause, was hastening on their final doom. The task, therefore, which fell to the lot of that apostle, in whom the Jew and the Christian were inseparably blended, and who stands in the unique position midway between the old dispensation and the new, was above all things to prolong the echo of that Divine Voice which in the Sermon on the Mount had first asserted the depth and unity of the moral law. In St. James’s view the besetting peril of the spiritual life was the divorce of knowledge and duty: “To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not,” he says, “it is sin.” And you see how he enforces this lesson in the text by a fresh and striking illustration of his own. He is contemplating, perhaps experiencing some barbarian who, in days when a mirror was a rare and costly luxury among civilised nations, happened for the first time to see his face reflected in one. What would be the effect upon the mind of the man? First, no doubt amusement at a new discovery, and then recognition of identity in a way undreamed of before. And yet the impression, however sharp and startling, would be but temporary; unless renewed it would soon vanish away. Remove a savage into some centre of culture, and you may indeed quicken his intelligence by the sudden shock of contact with the efforts and appliances of civilised life; but let him return to his old surroundings, and presently no trace will be found in his habits, and little enough in his memory, of the spectacle set before him. Stimulated faculties subside again to the old level; full of amazement and admiration to-day, he sinks tomorrow into his wonted apathy and ignorance. Such, according to St. James, is the moral effect of hearing the Word without acting upon it. The clearest revelation of character photographed upon the soul by the Divine Sun of the spiritual world, and therefore intensely vivid and true at the time, will inevitably vanish unless it is fixed by obedience. The Bible, so rich in illustration of all moral strength and weakness, presents us with a striking example of insight into duty absolutely disconnected with performance of duty; it describes to us a man who had the very clearest intuition of God’s will, and yet remained totally untouched by what he knew. Balaam had an open eye, but an itching palm; a taste for heavenly things, but a stronger love for earthly things; he could be rapped out of his lower self to behold the image of the Almighty, and listen to the announcement of His will; but that sublime revelation left not a trace upon his own soul. It is that which may be safely predicted not of rare geniuses alone, but of men of ordinary mould. It is the sure Nemesis wherever the light flashed in is not suffered to guide, wherever there is an eye clear enough to see the better with heart gross enough to choose the worse. But let us come back to the searching language of the apostle. Has there not been in the personal experience of many of us something very like what he here describes--I mean a time when God’s Word suddenly became to us what it had never been before--a bright gospel mirror, imaging to us our own likeness with a startling distinctness--showed us to ourselves as God sees us, with every intent of our heart, every recess of our character laid bare? It seemed as if this new knowledge would be itself a safeguard against relapsing into the sins we saw so clearly and deplored so sincerely. Remembering the degraded features of “the old man, which is corrupt, according to the deceitful lusts,” the lust of pride, of evil temper, of impurity, covetousness, of unbelief, we could not imagine ourselves capable of being lowered again into fellowship with things so hateful; and turning from this dark picture of self to that other mirrored in the Divine Word by its side in all the spotless beauty of holiness, it seemed as if this alone could satisfy the new-born aspiration of the soul. What has become of the impression of that memorable hour? To know and not to do, to have the heavenly vision without being obedient to it, this is enough to account for the loss of that knowledge which was once so clear and seemed likely to be so lasting. Ah! which of us does not know full well, when he is true to himself, that just in proportion as he has forgotten what God’s Word once told him about himself, it is to this he must trace his forgetfulness? One act of carelessness, one act of disobedience after another, one weak compliance after another, has enfeebled discernment and confused memory, and to-day he knows not what he was, or what he is, or what God would have him to be. “Deceiving your own selves,” says the apostle. Yes; there is no snare more perilous than that which we lay for ourselves when we stop short at the discovery of our own imperfections and sins. It is so easy to be a hearer, so easy to rest in a taste for religion, to take credit to ourselves for the interest we feel in expositions of truth, to have the notions, theories, doctrines, and ritual of religion, and yet to live on from day to day without prompt obedience, apart from which the closest familiarity with sacred things is worse than useless. “Deceiving your own selves.” It is quite possible to have forfeited a power which we imagine to be still ours, and simply because we have failed to use it. Spiritual blindness is the penalty of wasted light; it is the penalty which ever waits upon ineffectual seeing. Such a revelation as God has given, when His Word mirrors our natural face to us, is no casual opportunity; it is the gift of His grace, and it involves the deepest responsibility on the part of each who receives it. As soon as we neglect it the disposal of it begins to pass out of our hands. God’s law is that as soon as you let it be idle you forfeit your title to it, and before you know it, it shall be utterly and irrevocably gone. (Canon Duckworth.)
Hearing and doing
I. THE FATHER SPEAKS (Jam_1:18; Jam_1:21; Jam_1:24-25). We have a clearly-spoken Word, the Word of truth, an implanted Word, a law perfect and liberating. My Father’s Word I and it is like Him! A life-giving Word: in it, God, who raiseth the dead, works by His renewing Spirit to summon out of their spiritual graves His innumerable children; “of His own will begat He us with the Word of truth.” My Father’s Word I and it is like Him! Who by searching can exhaust it? It will stand looking into (Jam_1:25). Let us be found bending over it, searching into it, meditating on it day and night: delight thyself in the law of the Lord. My Father’s Word t and it is like Him! It is the kingly Word of the King of kings--the royal law--the perfect law. Obeyed, this law is perfection, for the law lived out is the life of Christ. And the world under its sway would be a perfect world. My Father’s Word! and it is like Him! The law that makes free, the law that is for free souls, the law of love that casts out fear, that binds me to my Father’s heart and shows that man is my brother; the law of life and love that lifts me above the slave’s cowering service; the full, sweet, comforting Word, freeing me when in Christ from all condemnation, from all fear of men, of death and the future.
II. THE CHILD HEARS. Obedience is the proof of the new birth. As the prerogative of the Father is to speak out His will, which is law, so the privilege of the child is to hear His Father’s good pleasure. “I will hear what God the Lord will speak.” In this filial hearkening are found three marked and distinguishing features.
1. There is, first, the attentive silence of warmest affection (Jam_1:20). The thoughtful and loving child will be swift to hear, slow to speak.
2. The child will hear with the filial submissiveness of true humility.
3. The child will hear with eager desire and honest efforts to fulfil the Father’s law. Sonship and service are proportionate--as the son, so is the service. The perfect Son yielded the perfect service. The truer and higher our childhood, the truer and higher will be our obedience. We are not to hear merely to learn, but learn that we may live. Christianity is both a science and an art: it is exact hearing of exact truth, and the appropriate embodiment of that sublime truth in worthy forms.
III. THE OBEDIENT CHILD GROWS GODLIKE. The true hearer becomes a joy to the brokenhearted and strength to the weak (Jam_1:27). Can it be otherwise when we sit at His feet who is a husband to the widow and a Father to the fatherless? (J. S. Macintosh, D. D.)
Hearing and doing
1. Hearing is good, but should not be rested in. They that stay in the means are like a foolish workman, that contents himself with the having of tools.
2. The doers of the Word are the best hearers. The heater’s life is the preacher’s best commendation. They that praise the man but do not practise the matter are like those that taste wines that they may commend them, not buy them. Others come that they may better their parts and increase their knowledge. Seneca observed of the philosophers, that when they grew more learned they were less moral. And generally we find now a great decay of zeal, with the growth of notion and knowledge, as if the waters of the sanctuary had put out the fire of the sanctuary, and men could not be at the same time learned and holy. Others hear that they may say they have heard; conscience would not be pacified without some worship: “They come as My people use to do” (Eze_33:31); that is, according to the fashion of the age. Duties by many are used as a sleepy sop to allay the rage of conscience. The true use of ordinances is to come that we may profit. Usually men speed according to their aim and expectation (1Pe_2:2; Psa_119:11). The mind, like the ark, should be the chest of the law, that we may know what to do in every ease, and that truths may be always present with us, as Christians find it a great advantage to have truths ready and present, to talk with them upon all occasions (Pro_6:21-22).
3. From that
ðáñáëïãéæïìǻíïé
. DO not cheat yourselves with a fallacy or false argument. Observe that self-deceit is founded in some false argumentation or reasoning. Conscience supplieth three offices--of a rule, a witness, and a judge; and so accordingly the act of conscience is threefold. There is
óõíôḉñçóéò
or a right apprehension of the principles of religion; so conscience is a rule: there is
óõíåé́äçóéò
, a sense of our actions compared with the rule or known will of God, or a testimony concerning the proportion or disproportion that our actions bear with the Word: then, lastly, there is
êñé́óéò
, or judgment, by which a man applieth to himself those rules of Christianity which concern his fact or state.
4. That men are easily deceived into a good opinion of themselves by their bare hearing. We are apt to pitch upon the good that is in any action, and not to consider the evil of it: I am a hearer of the Word, and therefore I am in good ease.
(1) Consider the danger of such a self-deceit: hearing without practice draweth the greater judgment upon you.
(2) Consider how far hypocrites may go in this matter. Well, therefore, outward duties with partial reformation will not serve the turn.
(3) Consider the easiness of deceit (Jer_17:9). Who can trace the mystery of iniquity that is in the soul? Since we lost our uprightness we have many inventions (Ecc_7:29). (T. Manton.)
Doers and non-doers
I. THE DOER.
1. Like every other practical man, he acts with a view to the attainment of some object. He acts intelligently, as a moral and responsible agent. Admitting the veracity and authority of the Word, he sets about thoroughly understanding it for one tiling, and then, guided by reason and conscience, he obeys its injunctions for another.
2. He pays strict obedience to the essential elements of active and daily engagements--earnestness, honesty, correctness, steady obedience, and watchfulness with respect to favourable opportunities.
3. There is another thing involved in the character we speak of, namely, the following of the guidance of infinite wisdom, and the being sustained by infinite power.
4. The deer of the Word fulfils his part, too, in the world of which he is an inhabitant. He is no clog on the wheel of Providence--no dead weight on the machinery of energetic and industrious employment. He does not become a fruitless and rotten branch upon the human tree; but his example is like the fresh and balmy air of the mountains, or like the blossom passing into a fuller and riper fruitfulness. But setting aside all figure, the life of such a person is a Divine purpose accomplished.
II. THE NON-DOER.
1. One of the chief features of this character is indifference to the great and solemn truths of the Christian religion.
2. Another feature of this character is forgetfulness.
3. Self-deception. (W. D. Horwood.)
Hearing without doing
I. The apostle speaks in the text of “HEARERS ONLY.” When are we so? It is when all the good we get ends with the hearing, and goes no further. This is easy work. It requires no self-denial, no dying to the world, no newness of heart and life. Are we hearers only?
1. We are surely so, if the Word of God which we hear does not separate us from our sin.
2. We are “hearers only” when the Word of God makes no more than a passing impression.
3. Another reason why so few of us who are hearers of the Word are doers of it also, is because faith is wanting--faith to receive it as the Word of God.
4. To faith must be added self-application. Place yourselves honestly in the light of Scripture. Let it bring to your own view the very secrets of your heart. Let your most besetting sin be judged by it. Let us be only brought to feel that we are labouring under a sickness which none but God can heal. Let us be fully persuaded of this, and then the Scriptures will be no longer a source of pain, but a comfort to us. For if they wound, they also have power to cure.
II. WHEN THE WORD OF GOD IS THUS APPLIED TO US IN SPIRIT AND IN POWER, THEN WE BECOME DOERS OF IT, AND NOT HEARERS ONLY.
III. BE YE THUS “DOERS OF THE WORD, AND NOT HEARERS ONLY, DECEIVING YOUR OWN SELVES.” What has our “hearing,” what has our religion done for us? Has it convinced us of our sin? humbled us before God? (E. Blencowe, M. A.)
Doing the Word
The admonition, Be ye doers of the Word, not hearers only. St. James having not in vain learned in the parable of Christ that the seed being cast into the four several grounds, yet fructifieth but in one only, and seeing by daily experience that many men make show of religion, but yet live careless in their conversation, showeth most notably what manner of hearers the gospel requireth, even such as hear not only, but do also. To do the Word is double.
1. To do it absolutely and perfectly, so that both the heart consent and the outward life answer fully to the law of God in perfect measure. To which doing God in the law did promise life (Lev_18:5). This no man can possibly perform; for what man ever could love God with a perfect heart, with all his soul, with his whole affection, strength, and power? What man ever loved his neighbour as himself? Where is he, and who is he, that continueth in all things that are written in the law to do them? The holy men of God, therefore, seeing themselves to come short of the doing of the Word and law in this matter and manner of doing, have, in the humility of their minds, accounted themselves as sinners, and therefore have confessed their transgressions before the Lord.
2. Seeing that no man is able thus to do the Word, there must some other kind of doing the Word be by St. James here required; therefore there is a doing of the Word and law under the gospel, when Christ, for us and our salvation, fulfilled the law in perfect measure, and therefore is called the fulfilling of the law to all that believe the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of sanctification, that thereby they, after some measure, may truly do His will, earnestly cleave unto His Word, faithfully believe His promises, unfeignedly love Him for His goodness, and fear Him with reverence for His mighty power. This performance of obedience offered to God must shine in the saints, which, as necessary in all professors of God’s Word, is joined with the hearing thereof (Mat_7:24; Mat_12:30; Luk_8:20; Luk_11:28). To hear or know, then, the Word of God, and not to do His will, prevaileth nothing. This knew the holy prophets, who therefore joined practice of the will and the hearing of the Word and law of God. This the holy angel in the Revelation, weighing and pronouncing them blessed only which join practice with hearing of the Word, breaketh out and crieth (Rev_1:3). “Be ye doers of the Word, not hearers only.” Of which admonition there are two reasons. The first is from detriment and hurt. They that hear only, and do not the Word also, are hurtful to themselves; for they deceive themselves in a vain persuasion, and thereby hurt themselves to their own juster condemnation. The second reason why we must be doers of the Word, not hearers only, is drawn from the use of the Word, which is to reform in us those things that are amiss; this profit and use we lose when we hear the Word only, and do not thereafter. This use of’ God’s law and Word Moses commendeth unto princes and people (Deu_17:18). This use was respected when he willed the Levites to teach the law unto the people (Deu_31:12). David, disputing the use and end of the law, maketh it the former of our manners, the director of our paths, the line and level of our life, and the guide of our ways to godliness (Psa_119:9). St. Paul affirmeth that all Scripture is inspired from above, and is profitable (2Ti_3:16) to teach such as are ignorant, to convince such as are repugnant, to correct such as err and wander in conversation, to instruct in righteousness--wherefore? to what end? to what use? to what purpose? Even thatthereby the man of God may be absolute and perfect to every good work. (R. Turnbull.)
The due receiving of God’s Word
The text is a severe caveat for the due receiving the Word of God. And it is framed in that manner as is like to be most effectual; and that is, by forewarning us of a great mischief that will befall us if we fail in the duty.
I. First, come we to THE DUTY PRESCRIBED. The duty presupposed. That we must be hearers. And because there are many things that wilt crave our audience, and the ear lies open to every voice (Ecc_1:8), therefore, in point of faith and religion, the apostle limits our hearing to the only and proper object, and that is the Word of God.
1. All our religious hearing must be conversant about this one thing, the Word of God. The text places us, like Mary, at Christ’s feet, commends unto us that one thing necessary.
(1) It is proper to the blessed Word to enlighten us and to acquaint us with the mind of God. This Word made David wiser than than his elders, for all their experience; it made him wiser than his teachers, for all their craft Psa_119:98-100).
(2) It is proper to this good Word of God to regenerate, to sanctify, and reform us (verse 18).
(3) Salvation--it is proper to this Word of God (Joh_5:39). Some sober truths may be in other words; but saving truth is only to be found in the Word of God.
2. Our attention and hearing of this blessed Word--it is enjoined us. It is no indifferent, arbitrary thing left to our own liking--come to it at your leisure, or stay at home at your pleasure--but imposed upon us by a strong obligation.
(1) It is enjoined us as a duty. It is the preface which God premises to His law, “Hear, O Israel.” Necessity is laid upon us, and woe be to us if we do not. So St. James (verse 19): “Let every man be swift to hear.” Swift, ready, quick, diligent, suffer not a word to fall to the ground.
(2) It is a weighty duty, not slightly to be esteemed. It is a great part of our religion. In it we make a real protestation of our allegiance and humble subjection, Which we owe to our God.
(3) It is a fundamental duty, the prime, original duty of our religion, the mother and nurse of all other duties which we owe to God. Hearing and receiving the Word, it is the inlet and entrance of all piety.
(4) It is a duty exceeding beneficial to us. Many rich and precious pro-raises are made to the due receiving of the Word of God. See two main ones in the context: It is an engrafted Word, able to alter and change our nature; of a wild crab-stock, it will make it a kindly plant. It sanctifies our nature, and makes it fructify. It is able to save our soul. “Hear, and your soul shall live” (Isa_4:1-6). There is in it a Divine power to free us from perdition, to give us entrance and admission into heaven.
(5) It is not only a duty and means to beget grace at first, but of perpetual use to increase and continue it. It is not only incorruptible seed to beget us 1Pe_1:23), but milk to nourish us (1Pe_2:2), not only milk, but strong meat to strengthen us (Heb_5:1-14.).
II. THE MISTAKE WE MUST BEWARE OF IN PERFORMING THIS DUTY. Hear we must, but we must not only hear. There are more duties than only hearing which we owe to this Word of God. Take it in these particulars:
1. Hearing is not the whole sum and body of religion; it is but a part only. The body of religion is like the natural body of a man; it consists of many members and parts. So religion consists of several services--hearing, praying, practising, doing holily, suffering patiently--it puts all graces to their due exercise. He cannot be accounted a man who is destitute of any vital or substantial part; nor can he go for a good Christian who wilfully fails in any of those holy duties that are required of him.
2. Hearing, as it is but one part of piety, so it is but the first part and step of piety, Now as he who only tastes meat and goes no further is far off from nourishment, because he stays at the beginning: or as he who travels must not only set out, but hold on, or he will not finish his journey, so in piety hearing is but the first step--a progress must be made in all other duties.
3. Hearing is a religious duty; but not prescribed for itself, but in reference and subordination to other duties. Like those arts that are called instrumental arts, and are only to fit us for other and higher performances, their use is only for preparation.
4. In comparison with the substantial parts of piety, bare hearing is but an easy duty. Indeed, to hear as we should do, attentively, reverently, devoutly, is a task of some pains, but yet of a great deal easier discharge than other duties are. Thus we see that only hearing of God’s Word falls short of our main duty, makes us no good Christians. It may be, we will grant, that the bare, outward bodily hearing of the Word may be justly reprovable; but yet we think if our hearing be attended with some commendable conditions, which we hope will be accepted and stand us in some stead. As--
(1) If it be a diligent hearing, constant, and assiduous upon all occasions. St. Paul tells of some that are always learning, and so would be taken for devout Christians, and yet he passeth an hard censure upon them.
(2) What if it be hearing with some proficiency, when we so hear as that we understand and grow in knowledge, and our mind is edified, such as do as Christ bids them do (Mat_15:10; Mar_13:14); such an hearing, we trust, will serve the turn. Even this great progress in knowledge, if thou stoppest there, will stand thee in no stead. Hell is full of such auditors; beware of it. Even this hearing, with proficiency in knowledge, if thou go no further, will fail thee at last.
(3) But what if our hearing go another step further, and so it be an affectionate hearing, that we hear the Word with great warmth of affection, sure then we are past danger. But a reverend hearing will not suffice if it stops there and comes short of practising. What if we bring with us another commendable affection in our hearing--the affection of joy, and gladness, and delight in hearing? As for those who are listless in this duty, who find no sweetness in the Word of God, we condemn them for unworthy auditors. Nay, not only such, but thou mayest hear the Word of God with joy, and yet if thou failest in point and obedience, thy religion is vain. But what if this hearing of the Word of God doth so much affect us that it begets many good motions in us, and we find ourselves inwardly wrought upon; then we conclude that we are right good auditors, and have heard to purpose. Ye may have sudden flashes, good moods, passionate wishes, nay, purposes and good intendments, at the hearing of God’s Word, and yet ye may miscarry. It is not purposes, but performances, that will bring us to heaven.
III. BE DOERS OF, THE WORD. And here comes in the conjunction of both duties--hearing and doing. These put together make up a good Christian. And great reason there is for this conjunction, to know and to perform. Not to hear nor know breeds a blind religion; we would be doing, but we know not what. To know and not to do breeds a lame religion; we see our way, but we walk not in it. Both are requisite to true religion (Pro_19:2). And if it hath knowledge without practice, it is never a whit the better. For as the bare knowledge of evil, if we do not practise it, makes us never the worse,
