James 1:19–27

1:19–21 Through a formulaic imperative (“Know this”) and a vocative form (“my beloved brothers”), James indicates a shift in topic. In repeatedly addressing the congregation as “beloved brothers,” James keeps at the forefront of his correspondence the filial status he shares with his readers, as well as the reassurance of his genuine love for them.

In the previous subsection (1:12–18), James concluded by emphasizing God’s regeneration of believers by “the word of truth,” resulting in their being “a kind of firstfruits” (v. 18). As firstfruits of God’s renewed creation, Christians should exhibit in their conversations and emotional expressions the reality of the new creation. James, in unadorned proverbial style, tells believers to listen more, speak less, and resist anger (v. 19). One might protest that not all anger is bad and that God is frequently described as wrathful (e.g., Ex. 4:14; Num. 22:22; Deut. 11:17), but God is completely holy, and so his anger is without sin. Not so for humans, says James: “The anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God” (James 1:20). In other words, man’s anger (i.e., the anger of a fallen human) is almost always tainted with sin (but cf. Eph. 4:26). Such anger does not manifest itself in obedient behavior reflecting God’s righteousness.

In light of our corrupt speech patterns and overflowing anger, how can James’s exhortation assist us? The answer to our dilemma is not to attempt to pull ourselves up by our own moral bootstraps but to respond with repentance and faith, to which James calls his readers in verse 21. James writes, “Put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness” (v. 21). “Filthiness” (rhyparia) emphasizes the dirty, rotten, unclean, defiling nature of wicked speech and sinful anger. By describing wickedness as “rampant,” James acknowledges the powerful, contagious, and multifarious expressions of sin we find in this broken world—especially in relation to sins of speech and anger.

Having established a call to repentance in the first half of verse 21, James moves on to the exercise of faith in the latter half of the verse. In humility, Christians are to recognize their utter spiritual bankruptcy and inability to transform themselves. We require a salvation from outside ourselves. Thankfully, when God regenerates the believer by “the word of truth” (v. 18), he also implants his saving and instructive Word in the believer’s heart. In Jeremiah 31:33, God promises that in the new covenant era, “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” James writes to new covenant believers who experience the fulfillment of this promise.

James declares that the divine Word implanted in Christians is “able to save your souls.” It is important to recognize that when NT authors use the verb sōzō (“save”) to refer to salvation (and not temporal healing), they are usually referring to a future deliverance from God’s wrath at the final judgment (e.g., Rom. 5:10). Modern, English-speaking evangelicals, on the other hand, frequently use the verb “save” to refer to one’s initial regeneration or coming to faith. James here clearly has the future aspect of salvation in mind. By focusing on the power of the implanted divine Word to save them ultimately, James implicitly warns his audience against presumption. In other words, James calls these ancient Christians not to passivity and nominalism but to a believing and obedient response to the Christ-wrought act of God in their hearts. The teaching of the apostle Paul is similar: “We are [God’s] workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10).

1:22–25 Although the Word of God is implanted into the Christian (v. 21), paradoxically, James can also speak of the Word of God as something external, to be heard and obeyed. The believer in whom the Word is implanted is called both to hear and to obey the external Word that resonates with the implanted Word. To respond to the external Word with passive hearing (and no visible response) is delusional. That is, the passive hearer is self-deceived, thinking he is spiritual simply because religious instruction is vibrating his auditory nerves. No, says James, you must put the Word into practice, not simply listen to it! Obedience to the Word of God is the true test of spirituality.

As a skilled preacher, James paints a scene from everyday life to illustrate his point. James declares that a man who hears the Word of God but does not obey it is like a person who looks in the mirror and, after stepping away, immediately forgets what he looks like (vv. 23–24). Commentators debate some of the finer points of this illustration. Why does James attach the genitival qualifier “natural” (tēs geneseōs) to the noun “face”? Most likely, tēs geneseōs means little more than we would mean by “own” in the English phrase, “his own face.”¹ Other scholars question how tightly James is drawing the analogy between a mirror and the Word of God. Is James perhaps implying that the man in his illustration has a visible flaw on his face that he should see and correct (analogous to the way the Word of God reveals our sin)? The most prudent path is to exercise exegetical restraint and not offer debatable nuances drawn from the illustration. The main points of comparison are clear: a superficial glance, followed by forgetfulness rather than action.

Rather than a quick glance, Christians are called to “look” into the “perfect law” or “law of liberty” (v. 25). The qualifiers “perfect” and “of liberty” remind us that James is not exhorting OT saints merely to study their Torah more thoroughly. Christians now live in the day of new covenant fulfillment, and while they must study, love, believe, and obey the Law (or OT Scripture), they do so recognizing it as fulfilled in Christ. Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matt. 5:17). Similarly, the apostle John speaks of the light and victorious burden regenerate Christians take upon themselves in obeying God’s commands (1 John 5:3–4; cf. also Matt. 11:30).

James says believers are called to both “look” and “persevere” in their sanctifying relationship to the Word of God (1:25). A heart with the implanted Word of God will love to continue hearing the external Word of God (i.e., the Word of God preached or read). And as a believer’s mental, emotional, volitional, and spiritual focus is on the external Word, he will gain a maturing faith, bearing the external fruit of obedience. He will be “a doer who acts,” not a “hearer who forgets” (v. 25). As this transformed Christian goes about his life of faith-fueled, Word-empowered obedience, God’s warm fatherly approval will rest upon him (i.e., he will be “blessed”; v. 25).

1:26–27 In these final two verses of this section, James confronts false religion by exposing its corrupt fruit. James’s diction is instructive. It is quite possible to “think” of oneself as “religious” while actually deceiving one’s own heart as to its true spiritual state (v. 26). Modern evangelicals often avoid the word “religion” and its cognates when describing true Christianity. In the evangelical subculture, the word “religion” connotes institutionalized or cultic observances without reference to saving faith. Interestingly, the Greek words here rendered “religious” (thrēskos) and “religion” (thrēskeia) also connote “religious service . . . especially as expressed in a system of external observances.”² Outside of James 1:26–27, only the noun form (thrēskeia) occurs elsewhere in the NT (Acts 26:5; Col. 2:18). Perhaps James alludes to the neutral or potentially negative sense of the words thrēskos and thrēskeia—pointing out that the world views the external observances of religion differently than how God weighs such behavior. It is also important to note that the English word “religion” (and its cognates) did not carry such negative connotations in previous generations, nor does it currently in all Christian traditions.

James homes in on unbridled speech as a representative sign of false religion. A man may go through all the outward motions of religion (e.g., attending worship services, observing Christian sacraments, giving to the church), but if sinful patterns (e.g., gossip, coarse joking, spiteful words) characterize his speech, then his religion is exposed as an empty shell.

When James speaks of “visiting” orphans and widows, he refers to visiting for the purpose of providing for their needs (James 1:27). True religion cares for the needy, with orphans and widows being the two primary classes of needy persons in ancient society. In highlighting these representative classes, James does not mean to exclude other needy or marginalized members of society (e.g., refugees or disabled persons).

In addition to engaging in visible acts of material sacrifice (mirroring God’s fatherly providential care), true religion also reflects God’s holiness. A Christian is to keep himself “unstained from the world” (v. 27). The choice of language here reminds us that we are surrounded by sin-tainted people and sin-tainted societal structures embodying an ongoing rebellion against God. The “world” (both people and structures) seeks to “squeeze us into its mold” (Rom. 12:2 PHILLIPS). Just as we seek to keep our clothes from being stained, so we should guard our hearts and minds from the moral filth of this world.