James 1:22Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

"The face of being" means knowledge of oneself through the law. Therefore the Apostle added the word "being" to the word "face."

Through the law we learn what we were when we came into the world. We also understand into what state the spiritual law regenerates us through the washing of regeneration.

Then, when we do not remain in such contemplation through activity, we forget the spiritual gift we have received. For whoever gives himself to evil works does not remember how he has been benefitted by God.

If he remembered that he had been born from above, justified, and numbered among the sons of God, he would not give himself to works that reject the grace granted to him.

Neither I nor anyone else preaching the word to you sees your heart. No preacher can judge what you conceive in your thoughts, because man cannot see. God sees, and the human heart cannot remain hidden from Him. Consider this: if hearing is good, how much better is doing. If you do not hear, you do not care about what was not heard, and in this way you contribute nothing. But if you hear and do not do, you contribute to your fall.

The Apostle knows that people often attend to words eagerly, but their zeal is extinguished even before the speech is over. Therefore he now says this. The Apostle especially insists: be zealous not only in hearing, but much more in doing.

Paul also says this concerning those who honor the law: "It is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified"; Rom 2:13. And in the Apocalypse, John first says, "Blessed is the one who reads, and those who hear, the words of the prophecy of this book." Then he adds, "and who keep what is written in it"; Rev 1:3.

Fulfill, he says, my Christian brethren, the law of God by deeds, and do not merely hear and read it. If you think that you preserve the law of God by hearing alone, you think wickedly and deceive yourselves, despising your salvation.

The one who only hears the words of the divine law without fulfilling them is like a man who looks at the face of his being in a mirror.

"The face of being" means that a man comes to know himself through the old law of Moses. Through the old law we are taught how we came to be, having been brought from non-being into being.

We were created according to the image and likeness of God. Then we behold and understand what most radiant state the spiritual law of grace has given us through the washing of the second regeneration, that is, through holy Baptism.

Since those who merely hear the word of God are not blessed, but those who hear and keep it, as Christ says, "Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it" (Lk 11:28), we must strive both to hear and, with God's help, to keep what we have heard.

Therefore the Apostle exhorts Christians: "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone hears the word and does not do it, he is like a man observing the natural features of his face in a mirror. He observed himself, went away, and immediately forgot what he was like" (Jas 1:22-24).

For God did not declare His word so that it would lie only outwardly, on parchment, as some dead inscription. He declared it so that inwardly, in our hearts, it might have its fruit.

Spiritual discernment is acquired by reading Holy Scripture, chiefly the New Testament, and by reading the holy Fathers whose writings correspond to the manner of life led by the Christian.

A Christian living in the midst of the world should read the Fathers who wrote instruction for all Christians in general.

A Christian living in a cenobitic monastery should be nourished by reading patristic instructions for cenobitic monks.

A Christian living in solitude should plunge into the depths of the teaching of the holy hermits. They dwelt constantly in self-contemplation, and from spiritual, grace-filled vision of themselves passed to spiritual, grace-filled vision of God.

"But be doers," and so forth. For the implanted word to act toward the salvation of the soul, it is not enough for a man to be swift to hear it (Jas 1:19).

He must be a doer of the word he hears. He must make it his own so that it is realized in his actions and in his life.

The whole activity of man must express what this word of truth contains and teaches.

Otherwise, the one who only hears the word and does not fulfill it will merely deceive himself. He may imagine that by hearing alone he can be perfect and blessed (Jas 1:25).

Yet this cannot be. Thus such a man deceives himself, for perfection and blessedness are not in hearing or knowledge, but in activity conformed to the heard and known word of truth (cf. Mt 7:24-26).

The Apostle then clarifies this truth by a vivid example: blessed is not the hearer of the word, but its doer.

That the holy Apostle James is speaking in the passage under explanation precisely about the Christian's relation to the word of Gospel truth is clear from his further instructive words.

Therefore, he says, "laying aside all impurity" of the Old Testament order, and "the remnant of malice" toward unbelieving pagan persecutors, "receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls" (Jas 1:21).

Here is a lesson for Christians of every age and time. We must receive the Gospel word with readiness of faith and obedience.

Yet we must preach it with humility and meekness to our blind and ignorant neighbors. In this case, the active example of our own pious life may be our best preaching of Christian truth.

Therefore the Apostle says, "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves" (Jas 1:22).

As if recalling the Lord's preceding and other comparisons about those who hear the word of truth in different ways, for example after the Sermon on the Mount (see Mt 7:24-29), the Apostle James also speaks through an example.

He depicts those who hear the word of God but do not fulfill it by an example familiar to all. A man looks in a mirror, goes away from it, and easily forgets the features of his face.

But whoever looks deeply into the law and considers its demands, its perfection, and its spirit, unlike the law of bondage, will not be a forgetful hearer of it. He will become its doer, and blessedness will be his portion here and in heaven.

The holy king and prophet David spoke especially often about the blessedness of fulfilling the law (see Ps 1:1-2; cf. Josh 1:8).

Should one not, someone may say, exercise caution also when listening to spiritual and moral teaching?

Indeed, one must exercise caution. It is precisely the caution of not becoming, in the Apostle James's expression, a "forgetful hearer," like a man who looked at himself in a mirror, went away, and forgot what he was like.

For it is not the forgetful hearer, but "the doer of the work" who "will be blessed in his doing" (Jas 1:22-25). Amen.

The word of truth must be received not only with a meek disposition of spirit, but also with zeal to fulfill it. For salvation it is not enough to assimilate this word by mind, memory, and heart. One must also order one's whole life according to its guidance. Whoever does not consider this obligatory for himself should not think that he has the right to be called a true Christian. He deceives himself if he thinks so.