Kretzmann's Popular Commentary
James 1:23
For 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;
For 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;
Verse 23. _BEHOLDING HIS NATURAL FACE IN A GLASS_] This metaphor is very simple, but very expressive. A man wishes to see his own face, and how, in its natural state, it appears; for this purpose he...
FOR IF ANY BE ... - The ground of the comparison in these verses is obvious. The apostle refers to what all persons experience, the fact that we do not retain a distinct impression of ourselves after...
ANALYSIS AND ANNOTATIONS I. TRIALS AND THE EXERCISE OF FAITH CHAPTER 1 _ 1. Trials and the power of faith (James 1:1)_ 2. The resources of faith (James 1:5) 3. The realization of faith (James 1:9...
Be sure of it (_cf. mg.),_ he goes on, and turns to ask what conduct right views of God should produce. Humility and self-control, firstly, then purity, gentleness, and teachableness, with unsparing h...
GREETINGS (James 1:1) _ 1:1 James, the slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, sends greetings to the twelve tribes who are scattered throughout the world._ At the very beginning of his letter Ja...
Prove yourselves to be doers of the word, and not only hearers, for those who think that hearing is enough deceive themselves. For, if a man is a hearer of the word and not a doer of it, he is like a...
UNTO. to. BEHOLDING. Greek. _katanoeo._ Genitive rendered "consider. " App-133. HIS NATURAL FACE. Literally the face (James 1:11) of his birth (Greek. _genesis._ Only here, James 3:6, and Matthew 1:...
_he is like unto a man_ The instance is chosen to illustrate the nature of the _paralogism_or fallacy by which the man deceived himself. It lies, as said above, in forgetting the self-knowledge which...
ἈΚΡΟΑΤῊΣ ΛΌΓΟΥ, ‘he who only hears the word,’ is compared to a man who by looking into a mirror observes (κατανοεῖ) the face of his γένεσις—his true individuality—the real meaning of himself (κατενόησ...
19–27. THE CHRISTIAN LIFE, CHARACTER AND WORSHIP This theme incidentally arises from the thought of temptation, as moral or religious error, and is immediately connected with the expression ἀπαρχήν τ...
_SCRIPTURAL VIEW OF THE_ WORD OF GOD -- JAMES 1:18-25 : The person who loves God will respond to his word. It is God alone who is able to save us. "Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth.....
ΈΟΙΚΕΝ _perf. act. ind. от_ ΕΟΙΚΑ (G1503) быть подобным (_см._ James 1:6). ΚΑΤΑΝΟΟΫ́ΝΤΙ _praes. act. part. от_ ΚΑΤΑΝΟΈΩ (G2657) настраиваться на что-л., внимательно рассматривать, обращать внимание,...
LIKE UNTO A MAN BEHOLDING HIS NATURAL FACE, &C.— By way of opposition to the moral temper and disposition of his mind;—which he is to view in the glass of the gospel, and carefully regulate thereby; J...
CHAPTER III _RECEIVING FROM GOD_ James 1:16-27 _Introduction_ After fourteen verses of showing the Way of the Wise, James has concluded that our trials are good for us, producing steadfastnessthat...
SERMON OUTLINES HOW TO LISTEN TO A SERMON James 1:20-25 Introduction: If a sermon is wasted, the time gone is multiplied by every person who fails to hear. If 100 people fail to hear one half-hour s...
LISTENING IS POINTLESS WITHOUT DOING _Text 1:22-25_ James 1:22. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deluding your own selves. 23. For if any one is a hearer of the word and not a d...
For 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: FOR - the logical self deceit (James 1:22) illustrated. The true disciple, say the...
VERSE 23. FOR IF ANY BE A HEARER OF THE WORD, AND NOT A DOER. James illustrates such by the man that looked at himself in a mirror so negligently he could not soon thereafter describe his own persona...
1 James is never called an apostle and does not write this epistle in that character. Rather, he puts himself in the place of a slave. Hence the epistle is not concerned with authoritative teaching so...
THE POWER OF FAITH UNDER TEMPTATION 1. Servant] better, 'slave.' The word does not suggest any degradation, but only absolute surrender to the Master. St. James's humility prevents the mention of the...
WHAT *FAITH SHOULD DO JAMES _IAN MACKERVOY_ The word list at the end explains words with a *star by them. INTRODUCTION 1 THE WRITER James is the writer of the letter. But he does not tell us...
(2-27) Immediately after the salutation, and with more or less a play upon the word which we translate “greeting” (“rejoice,” James 1:1; “count it all joy,” James 1:2) there follow appeals on behalf o...
HE IS LIKE UNTO A MAN BEHOLDING HIS NATURAL FACE IN A GLASS. — The Apostle points grimly to an example of this self-deception. _He_ (literally, _this_)_ is like unto a man beholding his natural face i...
CHAPTER 9 THE DELUSION OF HEARING WITHOUT DOING-THE MIRROR OF GOD'S WORD. James 1:22 HERE we reach what on the whole seems to be the main thought of the Epistle - the all-importance of Christian act...
οὗτος ἔοικεν ἀνδρὶ. ἐν ἐσόπτρῳ : With the thought here contained, _cf._ Pseudo-Cyprian in _De duobus mont._, chap. 13: “Ita me in vobis videte, quomodo quis vestrum se videt in aquam aut in speculum”...
James 1:21-25 form a self-contained section. By putting away all impurity the “implanted word” can influence the heart; but it is necessary not only to hear the word but also to act in accordance with...
DOERS, NOT HEARERS ONLY James 1:19 Keep your mouth closed when you are angry; the inner fire will die out of itself, if you keep the doors and windows shut. In James 1:18 we are taught that God's tru...
James wrote to Christians in the midst of temptation and trial. He showed first that the issue of testing is that they "may be perfect and entire, lacking in nothing." It is therefore to be looked upo...
DOING WHAT WE HEAR The word is only able to save if we hear and do what we hear (Matthew 7:21-27; Romans 2:13). Woods says the verb tense here in the word "doers" is such that it denotes a continuous...
(17) For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his (u) natural face in a glass: (17) Secondly: because they lose the most important use of God's word, if the...
_He shall be compared to a man, &c. The sense is, that it is not enough for a man to examine and look into his interior, and the state of his conscience in a negligent and superficial manner, no more...
But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. (23) For 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: (24)...
To the reader who enters on the consideration of the epistle of James from the epistles of Paul, the change is great and sudden, and by no means least of all from the epistle to the Hebrews, which, in...
23_He is like to a man_. Heavenly doctrine is indeed a mirror in which God presents himself to our view; but so that we may be transformed unto his image, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:18. But here...
The Epistle of James is not addressed to the assembly, and does not take the ground of apostolic authority over the persons to whom it is sent. It is a practical exhortation which still recognises the...
BUT IF ANY MAN BE A HEARER OF THE WORD, AND NOT A DOER,.... The Arabic version here again reads, "a hearer of the law", and so some copies; not hearing, but practice, is the main thing; not theory, bu...
For 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: Ver. 23. _His natural face_] Gr. the face of his nativity, that wherewith he was born...
_If any be a hearer of the word_ merely, _and not a doer_ If he do not comply with its design, do not so consider and believe it as to lay it to heart, and be influenced by its doctrines, obey its pre...
This chapter has a very close relationship to the Old Testament, for all is seen in connection with God; and Christ is not yet spoken of as the center and essence of all blessing and of all direction...
What is the purpose of looking in a mirror? How can you identify a hearer only? How can you tell if one is a hearer AND doer?...
'For if anyone is. hearer of the word and not. doer, he is like. man who looks at his natural face in. mirror;' 'if anyone' -This isn't. hypothetical situation. This really could and does happen among...
22-25 If we heard a sermon every day of the week, and an angel from heaven were the preacher, yet, if we rested in hearing only, it would never bring us to heaven. Mere hearers are self-deceivers; an...
HE IS LIKE UNTO A MAN: the Greek word here used, properly signifies the sex, not the species, but is indifferently used by this apostle with the other, as JAMES 1:12,20, so that by a man looking at hi...
James 1:23 For G3754 anyone G1536 is G2076 (G5748) hearer G202 word G3056 and G2532 not G3756 doer...
‘For if any one is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like to a man beholding his natural face in a mirror, for he beholds himself, and goes away, and immediately forgets what manner of man he...
IT IS NOT SUFFICIENT ONLY TO BE A HEARER, IT IS NECESSARY ALSO TO BE A DOER (JAMES 1:22). Having laid a careful foundation in demonstrating that God's People are those whom He has sovereignly begotten...
James 1:23. FOR. The above exhortation is enforced by a comparison. A hearer of the word, who is not a doer, resembles a man seeing his face in a mirror, without its making any permanent impression up...
James 1:19-27. In this passage St. James exhorts his readers to be not only hearers but doers of the word. They are to be swift to hear, and to receive the word implanted within them with freedom from...
AND NOT A DOER (κα ου ποιητης). Condition of first class, assumed as true, and ου (rather than μη) contrasts ποιητης with ακροατης.UNTO A MAN BEHOLDING (ανδρ κατανοουντ). Associative instrumental...
James 1:22 The Danger of mistaking Knowledge for Obedience. I. Knowledge without obedience ends in nothing. It is, as St. James says, like a man who looks at his own face in a glass. For a time he ha...
James 1:1. _James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting._ According to the teaching of some in the present day, the apostle should...
James 1:1. _James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting._ James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was an apostle,...
James 1:1. _James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting._ «Where are the lost ten tribes?» asks somebody. They never were lost. Tha...
James 1:1. _James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting._ The apostle James evidently believed in no lost ten tribes, as some nowad...
CONTENTS: Testing of faith. Solicitation to evil not of God. Obedience as a test of true faith. CHARACTERS: God, Christ, James. CONCLUSION: Such as have a true title in Jesus Christ through faith may...
James 1:1. _James, a servant of God, and of the Lord Jesus Christ._ He does not style himself an _apostle,_ because he would not assume any superiority; yet the majesty of his address is the language...
IS LIKE A MAN. "A man looks into a mirror and a few minutes later has forgotten what he looked like....
MIRRORS A mirror. James 1:23. The text today is one you all know. Perhaps the girls know it better than the boys, but I think the boys may have seen something like it occasionally. The girls use it...
JAMES—NOTE ON JAMES 1:23 It is useless for a man to look INTENTLY AT HIS NATURAL FACE IN A MIRROR and then forget WHAT HE WAS LIKE. This shows the foolishness of examining oneself in God’s “mirror,” t...
JAMES—NOTE ON JAMES 1:19 Hearing and Doing the Word. This section focuses on living as a Christian directed by “the word of truth,” the gospel (v. James 1:18). Christian living
_CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES_ James 1:23. NATURAL FACE.—Lit. “face of his birth”; “the face he has by corporeal birth.” γενέσεως is used in distinction from the notion which follows of spiritual fe...
EXPOSITION JAMES 1:1 SALUTATION. JAMES, A SERVANT OF GOD AND OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. (On the person who thus describes himself, see the Introduction) It is noteworthy that he keeps entirely out of...
Let's turn to James chapter one. James introduces himself as the bondslave of God and of Jesus Christ. It's a title that most of the apostles delighted to take. Renouncing any claim for any rights, tu...
Ezekiel 33:31; Ezekiel 33:32; James 2:14; Jeremiah 44:16; Luke 6:47
Beholding [κ α τ α ν ο ο υ ν τ ι]. With the notion of attentively considering (kata, down into, or through; compare eijv, into, ver. 25). Compare Luke 12:24; Luke 12:27; Hebrews 3:1. So that the contr...
Beholding his face in a glass — How exactly does the scripture glass show a man the face of his soul!...
In these words our apostle declares the vanity and unprofitableness of. bare hearing of the word, by. similitude taken from. man looking in. glass; though he sees in. glass his own natural face, which...