James 1:25

James 1:25. Now follows the application of the metaphor.

But. The doer of the word is now described.

whoso looketh into: literally, ‘stoopeth down to look into,' representing the earnest inspection: ‘whoso fixedly contemplatech' (comp. 1 Peter 1:12; John 20:5).

the perfect law of liberty: corresponding to the glass in the metaphor, the same as the word of truth or the implanted word, namely, the Gospel of Christ. By this, then, is not meant the natural law, nor the moral law as such, but the Gospel in so far as it becomes a law of life and morals. There is hardly any implied contrast between the law of Moses and the Gospel. The moral law itself was a perfect law: it was the transcript of the Divine character; and, of all the writers of the New Testament, St. James would be the last to depreciate it. But the perfection which belongs to the Gospel is that it is ‘the law of liberty.' This could not be said of the Mosaic law: in many respects, it was a law of bondage (Galatians 5:1). The moral law was a rule of conduct a law of commands and prohibitions a law which by reason of its violation brought all men under sentence of condemnation. But the Gospel is a law of liberty: it not only delivers man from condemnation, but, by implanting within him a new disposition, it causes him of his own free will and choice to obey the moral law; it not only imparts to him the power of obedience, but the will to obey: the law of God is written on his heart: obedience to it is not so much a yoke as a pleasure: ‘he delights in the law of the Lord after the inward man' (Romans 7:22). The perfect law of liberty, then, is not lawlessness; on the contrary, it is holiness a disposition to obedience ‘the moral law transfigured by love.' ‘As long,' observes Calvin, ‘as the law is preached by the external voice of man, and not inscribed by the finger and Spirit of God on the heart, it is but a dead letter, and as it were a lifeless thing. It is then no wonder that the law is deemed imperfect, and that it is a law of bondage: for, as St. Paul teaches, separated from Christ, it generates to bondage, and can do nothing but fill us with diffidence and fear.'

and continueth therein. The word ‘therein' is in italics, and not in the original. The meaning therefore is not ‘and continueth in the law,' but ‘and continueth to look.'

he being not a forgetful hearer: literally, a hearer of forgetfulness, to whom forgetfulness as a property belongs.

but a doer of the work: literally, ‘a doer of work,' with the omission of the article; ‘work' is added to ‘doer,' in order to give greater prominence to the doing: or taken as a Hebraism, ‘an active doer.'

this man is blessed in his deed, or rather, ‘in his doing.' The righteous shall be rewarded for their doing: to those on the right hand, the King will say, ‘Well done.' The point of comparison then is evident. The word of God, especially in its moral requirements, is the glass, in which a man may behold his moral countenance, wherein the imperfections of his character may be clearly discerned. Both to the mere hearer of the word and to the doer of the word, the Gospel is compared to a glass, wherein a man may behold his natural face: but whereas the one sees his imperfections, and immediately forgets them; the other not only sees, but endeavours to remove them. ‘Blessed,' says our Saviour, ‘are they that hear the word of God and keep it'(Luke 11:28).