James 1:22-26 – Be Hearers Who Are Doers

Sermon & Translation by Nate Wilson for Christ the Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS, 2 Apr. 2023

Introduction

vs.19-20 Christianity vs. Humanism Regarding Anger

v.21 Repent and Believe

      1. For one thing, you want him to be wearing clean clothes. (I’m a bit wary of picking up toddlers when there’s a suspicious-looking wet spot – or worse, a suspicious mustard-colored spot – on their clothes.)

      2. But it doesn’t do much good to change a toddler with diarrhea into clean clothes, because they’re just going to soil the new clothes, as long as “filth” is still “overflowing” out of them!

v.22 Become Doers Of The Word

vs.23-25 Mirror Illustration

vs.26-27 Applications to Speech, Charity, and Purity

1. One way that we apply repentance, faith and obedience to the Gospel of Jesus is by “bridling/reigning in/holding our tongue in check”

2. Visit/look after/watch over orphans and widows in their distress

3. Keep oneself unstained/unpolluted/unspotted by the world


James 1:19-27 – Comparison Of Textual Traditions & Versions

Byzantine

NAW

KJV

Vulgate

Murdock Peshitta

17 πᾶσα δόσιςA ἀγαθὴ καὶ πᾶν δώρημα τέλειον ἄνωθένB ἐστι καταβαῖνον ἀπὸ τοῦ πατρὸς τῶν φώτωνC, παρ᾿ ᾧ οὐκ ἔνιD παραλλαγὴEτροπῆς ἀποσκίασμαF.

17 Every good gift and every perfect endow­ment is from above, coming down from the Father of Lights, in the presence of whom there is no fluctuation or shading due to revolution.

17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

17 omne datum optimum et omne donum perfectum desursum est descendens a Patre luminum apud quem non est transmutatio nec vicissitud­inis obumbratio

17 Every good X and X per­fect gift cometh down from above, from the Father of lights, with whom is no mutation, not [even the] shadow of change.

18 βουληθεὶς ἀπεκύησεν ἡμᾶς λόγῳ ἀληθείαςG εἰς τὸ εἶναι ἡμᾶς ἀπαρχήν τιναH τῶν Iαὐτοῦ κτισμάτων.

18 After planning it, He gave birth to us by means of the word of truth in order for us to be a particular first­fruit out of His creations.

18 [Of] his [own] will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

18 voluntarie genuit nos verbo veritatis ut simus initium aliquod creaturae eius

18 He saw fit, and begat us by the word of truth; that we might be the first-fruit[s] of his creatures.

19 ῞ΩστεJ, ἀδελφοί μου ἀγαπητοί, ἔστω δὲ πᾶς ἄνθρω­πος ταχὺς εἰς τὸ ἀκοῦσαι, βραδὺς εἰς τὸ λαλῆσαι, βρα­δὺςK εἰς ὀργήν·

19 You should be in-the-know, my dear brothers. So let every man be quick to listen, slow to speak, [and] slow to anger,

19 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, X let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:

19 scitis fratres mei dilecti sit autem omnis homo velox ad audiendum tardus autem ad loquendum [et] tardus ad iram

19 X And be ye, my be­loved brethren, every one [of you], swift to hear, [and] slow to speak; [and] slow to wrath:

20 ὀργὴ γὰρ ἀνδρὸς δικαιοσύνην Θεοῦ οὐκ Lκατεργάζεται.

20 because the anger of man does not accomplish the righteousness of God.

20 For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

20 ira enim viri iustitiam Dei non operatur

20 for the wrath of man worketh not the righteous­ness of God.

21 διὸ ἀπο­θέμενοιM πᾶσαν ῥυπαρ­ίανN καὶ περισ­σείανO κακίας ἐν πρᾳότητι δέξασθε τὸν ἔμφυτονP λόγον τὸν δυνάμενον σῶσαι τὰς ψυχὰς ὑμῶν.

21 Therefore, after putting away all filthiness and overflow of evil, y’all must receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls,

21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.

21 propter quod abicientes omnem inmun­ditiam et abun­dantiam mali­tiae in mansue­tudine suscipite insitum verbum quod potest salvare animas vestras

21 Wherefore, remove [far from you] all impurity, and [the] abundance of wickedness; [and], with meek­ness, receive the word that is implanted [in our nature], which is able to vivify [these] your souls.

22 Γίνεσθε δὲ ποιηταὶ λόγου καὶ μὴ μόνον ἀκροαταὶ πα­ραλογιζόμενοιQ ἑαυτούς.

22 and y’all must become doers of the word, and not just hearers who are delud­ing themselves.

22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your [own] selves.

22 estote autem factores verbi et non audi­tores tantum fallentes vosmet ipsos

22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only; [and do not] deceive yourselves.

23 ὅτι εἴ τις ἀκροατὴς λόγου ἐστὶ καὶ οὐ ποιητής, οὗτος ἔοικενR ἀνδρὶ κατανοοῦντι τὸ πρόσωπον τῆς γενέσεωςS αὐτοῦ ἐν ἐσόπτρῳT·

23 For if some­one is a hearer of the word and not a doer, this one is comparable to a man taking cog­nizance of the family-resemb­lance of his face in a mirror:

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:

23 quia si quis auditor est verbi et non factor hic conparabitur viro consider­anti vultum nativitatis suae in speculo

23 For if any man shall be a hearer of the word, and not a doer [of it], he will be like one who seeth X X X his face in a mirror:

24 κατενόησε γὰρ ἑαυτὸν καὶ ἀπελήλυθε, καὶ εὐθέως ἐπελάθετο ὁποῖος ἦν.

24 once he took cogniz­ance of himself and went away, he then forgot immediately of what kind he was.

24 For he be­holdeth him­self, and goeth [his] way, and straightway forgetteth what manner [of man] he was.

24 consideravit enim se et abiit et statim oblitus est qualis fuerit

24 for he seeth himself, and passeth on, and forgetteth XU what [a man] he was.

25 ὁ δὲ παρακύψας εἰς νόμον τέλειον τὸν τῆς ἐλευθερίας καὶ παραμείνας, οὗτοςV οὐκ ἀκροατὴς ἐπιλησμονῆςW γενόμενος, ἀλλὰ ποιητὴς ἔργου, οὗτος μακάριος ἐν τῇ ποιήσει αὐτοῦ ἔσται.

25 But the one who peers into the perfect law – that of liberty – and remains beside it, this person has become – not a forgetful hearer, but rather – a doer of the work. This is the one who will be blessed in his doing!

25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

25 qui autem perspexerit in lege perfecta libertatis et permanserit non auditor obliviosus factus sed factor operis hic beatus in facto suo erit

25 But [every] one that looketh upon the perfect law of liberty and abideth in it, is not a hearer of something to be forgotten, but a doer of the things; and he will be blessed in his work.

26 XΕἴ τις δοκεῖ θρησκὸςY εἶναι ἐν ὑμῖνZ, μὴ χαλιναγωγῶν γλῶσσαν αὐτοῦ ἀλλ᾿ ἀπατῶν καρδίαν αὐτοῦ, τούτου μάταιος ἡ θρησκεία.

26 If someone among y’all reckons that he is religious, but is deceiving his heart while not holding his tongue in check, the religion of this one is vain.

26 If any man among you seem to be religious, [and] bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain.

26 si quis autem putat se religiosum esse non refrenans linguam suam sed seducens cor suum huius vana est religio

26 And if any one thinketh that he X wor­shippeth [God, and] doth not restrain his tongue, but X his heart deceiveth him; his worship is vain.

27 θρησκεία καθαρὰ καὶ ἀμίαντοςAA παρὰ τῷ Θεῷ καὶ πατρὶ αὕτη ἐστίν, ἐπισκέπτεσθαι ὀρφανοὺς καὶ χήρας ἐν τῇ θλίψει αὐτῶν, ἄσπιλονAB ἑαυτὸν τηρεῖν ἀπὸ τοῦ κόσμου.

27 This is pure and undefiled religion according to our God and Father: to watch over orphans and widows in their distress, [and] to keep oneself unsullied from the world.

27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit [the] fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

27 religio munda et inmaculata apud Deum et Patrem haec est visitare pupillos et viduas in tribulatione eorum inmaculatum se custodire ab hoc saeculo

27 [For the] worship that is pure and holy before God X the Father, is this: to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction, and that one keep himself unspotted from the world.


1This is a different Greek word (μολυσμοῦ), but a synonym to the one translated “filthiness” in James 1 (ῥυπαρίαν).

2The Greek grammar of this sentence with an Aorist participle (“putting aside”) followed by an Imperative (“receive”) indicates that there is a sequence of repentance before faith, although this shouldn’t be pressed too far.

3This is, of course a noun form, but verbal forms of the same root are cited here. cf. other Greek synonyms for “deceit” such as ἀπατάτω in Eph. 5:6, εδολιουσαν in Rom. 3:13 and πλανᾶσθε in 1 Cor. 6:9 and 15:33.

4The Hebrew tamiymah in Psalm 19 does mean “perfect,” but the LXX chose to render it ἄμωμος – without blemish.

5This is the cognate verb for the Greek noun James used.

7Other notable references include:
Psalm 39:1 "I will keep my ways from sinning with my tongue; let me keep a muzzle against my mouth while yet an evil person is in my presence." (NAW)
Psalm 34:13 “Maintain your tongue away from evil and your lips away from speaking deceit.” (NAW)
Psalm 141:3 “Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; Keep watch over the door of my lips.” (NKJV)
1 Pet. 3:10 "The one who wants to love life and to see good days, let him stop his tongue from bad and his lips such that they don't utter deceptiveness.” (NAW)
Prov. 10:19 “In the multitude of words sin is not lacking, But he who restrains his lips is wise.” (NKJV)
Eph. 4:29 “Do not continue to let any rotten word proceed out of your mouth, but rather it should be something good toward building up of the needy in order that it might give grace to the hearers.” (NAW)
Col. 4:6 “Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.” (NKJV)

8See Mal. 3:14 for an example of complaining against God.

9See Matt. 6:2 for an example of this.

10Exod. 22:21, Deut. 14:29; 16:11, 14; 24:17, 19-21; 26:12-13; 27:19 – and then there’s the prophets: Zech. 7:10; Mal. 3:5; Isa. 1:17, Jer. 7:6, etc.

APhil. 4:15 (the Philippians’ financial support of Paul in prison in Rome) is the only other occurrence of this noun in the NT.
Faussett: “‘gift ... gift’ — not the same words in Greek: the first, the act of giving, or the gift in its initiatory stage; the second, the thing given, the boon, when perfected.” Later commentators noted that since this line is in a poetic meter, perhaps the three-syllable dorema was chosen to fit the meter and not because of a difference in meaning.

BThis adverb usually means “top” (like the temple curtain ripping from “top” to bottom), or “beginning” (like Luke investigated the Gospel from “the beginning”), or “again” (as in, “you must be born again”), but there is one other place outside of James in the N.T. where it is translated “from above,” and that is John 19:11 (“you would have no authority except it has been given to you from above”). James 3 goes on to use it in the same sense, and it is often used that way in the Greek O.T., especially in conjunction with “heaven”: Genesis 27:39 (“ the dew of heaven from above”), 49:25 (“blessings of heaven above”), Isaiah 45:8 (“Let the heaven rejoice from above”), Jeremiah 4:28 (“...let the sky be dark above”), cf. Job 3:4 (“...let not the Lord regard it from above”). (Brenton)

CThe plural form of “lights” occurs only four other times in the Greek Bible, half referring to a multiplicity of oil lamps (1 Mac. 12:29, Ezek. 42:11), and the other half referring to the sun, moon, & stars (Jer. 4:23, Ps. 136:7), which is probably why the NIV added the word “heavenly.” Two other possibilities are suggested in the three other N.T. passages which mention both “father” and “light”: 1) “Light” could be a metaphor for “life” as it is in Ps. 48:20 & Matt. 5:16, meaning “the Father who created human life,” or 2) “Light” could be a euphemism for “heaven” as it is in Col. 1:12 (“the saints in light”).

DSinaiticus and a handful of miniscules instead read estin (“it is”) which means practically the same thing.

ELit. “transition to otherness” Only here and 2 Kings 9:20 (describing Jehu’s “crazy” driving).

F Hapex Legomenon. Sinaiticus and Vaticanus, two of the oldest-known manuscripts spell this in the genitive case (“turn­ing of shadow”), but all the other manuscripts spell it in the nominative case. Together with the previous word, it appears to be denoting the way we get shades of light and darkness due to the rotation of the earth and due to its revolution around the sun. Trope is not used anywhere else in the NT, but it is in the O.T. in Exod. 32:18; Deut. 33:14; 1 Ki. 22:35; 1 Ma. 4:35; 5:61; 2 Ma. 12:27, 37; Job 38:33; Wis. 7:18; Sir. 45:23; Jer. 30:27. The Deut. 33 instance seems to be denoting seasonal changes, but all the rest have to do with political “revolutions” where one leader loses in battle to another.
Vincent: “This is popularly understood to mean that there is in God not the faintest hint or shade of change, like the phrase, ‘a shadow of suspicion.’ But the Greek has no such idiom… Compare Plato, Republic, vii., 530: ‘Will he (the astronomer) not think that the heaven and the things in heaven are framed by the Creator in the most perfect manner? But when he reflects that the proportions of night and day, or of both, to the month, or of the month to the year, or of the other stars to these and to one another, are of the visible and material, he will never fall into the error of supposing that they are eternal and liable to no deviation (οὐδὲν παραλλάττειν) - that would be monstrous.”

G“word of truth” is in the LXX of Ps. 118:43, 160 (that’s Psalm 119 in English versions); Prov. 22:21; and Eccl. 12:10.

HBlass & Debrunner suggested in their Grammar that this word is used “to soften the metaphorical expression.” (Hanna)

IThis is the reading of half of the oldest-known manuscripts (That is, the Vaticanus and Sinaiticus) as well as of the overall majority of manuscripts. The other half (That is, the Alexandrinus and Ephraemi Rescriptus) add an emphatic epsilon prefix (“his own” instead of “his”), which doesn’t substantially change the meaning.

J“Subsequently” is the reading of the majority of Greek texts, the oldest of which is dated at the 6th century (hence the KJV “wherefore”). But the four oldest-known manuscripts instead read iste (“Y’all should know” or, as ATR advocated, “y’all have known”), and this presumably-older reading is supported by several more-recent manuscripts as well as the ancient Latin and Coptic translations. Curiously, the majority of ancient lectionaries omit the word all together. All three variants are represented among Syriac versions, for instance Lamsa renders “Therefore,” whereas Murdock omits.

KThis word only here and Luke 24:25 (“slow to believe”)
“ingressive aorist active infinitive, slow to begin speaking, not slow while speaking” ~ATR

LAbout 5 Greek manuscripts (including 3 of the 5 oldest-known) omit the verb prefix, and this is reflected in the 3rd and 4th editions of the UBS Greek New Testaments, but it doesn’t significantly change the meaning. The vast majority of manuscripts (Including the 5th century Ephraemi Rescriptus, and another uncial from the 6th century) include the prefix kata- (emphasizing the ultimate result of the work more than the process of the work), and this is reflected, not only in the Byzantine and Greek Orthodox texts, but also in the Nestle-Aland 28th and the UBS 5th edition text.

M All the English versions translated this participle as though it were Present tense and therefore simultaneous to the main verb (“receive”), but this verb is Aorist tense, and, as a participle, this should indicate prior action. “Repent and believe” comes in sequence.

NHapex legomenon, but forms of this word also occur in Zech. 3:3-4 & Jas. 2:2 (referring literally to dirty clothes) and Rev. 22:11 (referring to morally-polluted persons).

O The Bible book which uses this Greek word the most is Ecclesiastes (1:3; 2:11, 13; 3:9; 5:8, 15; 6:8; 7:11-12; 10:10-11) primarily in the context of financial “profit” but also in the figurative sense of “advantage.” It is also in Rom. 5:17 (“abundance of grace”), 2 Cor. 8:2 (“abundance of joy”) and 2 Cor. 10:15 (“we shall be greatly enlarged”). Nowhere else does it modify “evil.”

POnly elsewhere in the LXX in Wisdom 12:10 “their malice was bred in them.” However, if you break the Greek com­pound word apart, the verb phuw was used by Jesus in the Parable of the Sower, in Luke 8, where He said that “the seed is the word of God.” This Greek word, by the way, does not contain the meaning of “graft” as in splicing together two different plants.

QThe only other place this word appears in the GNT is Col. 2:4 (“in order that no one may deceive you with persuasive speech”), but it shows up several places in the LXX where one person deceived another (Gen. 29:25; 31:41; Jos. 9:22; Jda. 16:10, 13, 15; 1 Sam. 19:17; 28:12; 2 Sam. 19:27; 21:5; Est. 8:12; Ps. Sol. 4:11; Lam. 1:19; Bel. 1:7).

RRare word only elsewhere in the Bible in v.6 and in Job 6:3 & 25.

SFrequently used in LXX having to do with “generation,” but in GNT only here and 3:6 (“the tongue… sets on fire the course of the generation”) and Matt. 1:1 (“genealogy”) and Mat. 1:18 & Lk. 1:14 (“birth” of Christ). Syriac omits, and so does NIV and ESV.

TOnly other occurrence of this word in the Bible is 1 Cor. 13:12. (The Apocrypha has it in Wis. 7:26 & Sir. 12:11.)

ULamsa also omits the “immediately.”

VThe 5 oldest-known manuscripts of James omit this word, so it is not in the UBS GNT or the Latin versions, but it is in the majority of Greek manuscripts, so it is in the Textus Receptus and in modern Greek Orthodox editions of the GNT. It doesn’t change the meaning of the sentence; it just emphasizes “this.”

W Noun form of the verb in the previous verse. Appears nowhere else in the Greek Bible except in the apocryphal Sir. 11:27.

XA very few manuscripts (including the Ephraimi Rescriptus) and versions add a conjunction de here.

YOnly two other Biblical occurrences of any form of this word: Acts 26:5 ("the strictest sect of our religion”) and Col. 2:18 (“worship of angels”) (plus apocryphal citations in 4 Mac. 5:7, 13 and Wis. 14:18, 27).
Vincent & ATR: “external observances of public worship”

ZAlthough the majority of Greek manuscripts (and therefore the Patriarchal Greek Orthodox edition of the GNT) read “among y’all,” all 4 of the oldest-known manuscripts omit this phrase, so it is not in the Nestle-Aland or UBS or Modern Greek Orthodox editions of the GNT, and it’s also not in the ancient Latin, Syriac, and Coptic versions. The difference between “someone” and “someone among you” isn’t significant, considering that whereever the letter is read it would apply “among you.”

AA 2 Ma. 14:36; 15:34; Wis. 3:13; 4:2; 8:20; Heb. 7:26; 13:4; 1 Pet. 1:4
“pure and undefiled, present the positive and negative sides of purity.” ~Vincent

AB 1 Tim. 6:14; 1 Pet. 1:19; 2 Pet. 3:14

10