James 1:23

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 (κατενόησεν γὰρ ἑαυτόν), but who instantly departing forgets what manner of man he was. That is, if a man listens for a time only to divine teaching and is made to understand himself, to see himself in God’s word, and then abandons it, the impression made by reading or instruction is momentary. He is like the seed that fell in stony places or among thorns. On the other hand the ποιητὴς λόγου, he who does the word, looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, i.e. the word of God, and there sees reflected as in a mirror his own personality as it was created in the likeness of God (comp. ch. James 3:9); he abides in it, continues that earnest gaze, never losing sight of his ideal, of that which he was intended to be according to the purpose of his γένεσις or creation. “Is it not remarkable that St James dwells not on what the man learns about God in the Scripture, but on what he sees of God’s design, or delineation of what he, the beholder, was meant and made to be?” Archbp Benson, Communings of a Day, p. 8.

κατανοοῦντι, closely observing, attentively considering. Comp. Matthew 7:3 δοκὸν οὐ κατανοεῖς; Luke 12:24; Luke 12:27 κατανοήσατε τοὺς κόρακας … τὰ κρίνα, Luke 20:23 κατανοήσας δὲ αὐτῶν τὴν πανουργίαν; Acts 7:31-32; Acts 11:6 εἰς ἣν�: Romans 4:19; Hebrews 3:1 κατανοήσατε τὸν�.τ.λ.; Hebrews 10:24 κατανοῶμεν�, ‘take careful note of.’

τὸ πρόσωπον τῆς γενέσεως αὐτοῦ. Vultum nativitatis suae, V. The countenance (vultum as expressive of character) of his birth or creation in the image of God (see ch. James 3:9 and above, James 1:18); that is to say, as the next clause shews, his real self or personality (κατενόησεν γὰρ ἑαυτόν). Comp. ἐπὶ τῆς ἐν τῷ κατόπτρῳ μορφῆς ἡ εἰκὼν πρὸς τὸ�, Greg. Nyssen, quoted in Suicer. Comp. the later use of πρόσωπον to signify the Persons or ὑποστάσεις of the blessed Trinity.

For the thought comp.

“As when a painter poring on a face
Divinely, through all hindrance finds the man
Behind it, and so paints him that his face,
The shape and colour of a mind and life,
Lives for his children ever at its best
And fullest.” (Tennyson.)

ἐν ἐσόπτρῳ. A mirror of polished metal.