James 1:26Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

He speaks as if saying: "You who boast in fulfilling the law, do not think that you will receive blessedness for fulfillment alone."

For this is not pleasing to God. Rather, pleasing to Him is the man who fulfills and, at the same time, is far from conceit and does not condemn those who do not fulfill.

"Deceives his heart" means that he, as it were, chokes it, and through conceit, as a doer of the law, deceives his conscience.

Here "heart" means the same as in the words, "A broken and humbled heart" (Ps 50:19).

Rather, the man pleasing to God is the one who, on the one hand, does what the law commands, and, on the other, does not proudly condemn those who do not.

The expression "deceives his heart" shows that the one who fulfills what is in the law, but has an unbridled tongue against others, mocks his own conscience and is harmed.

Here conscience means heart, according to the psalm: "A broken and humbled heart," that is, conscience, "God will not despise" (Ps 50:19).

The divine Mitrophan excellently explains this saying. Blessed James arranges his words like a kind of ladder, but in reverse order.

He places the top below, and the bottom above. The first thing is man's thought, the second is word, and the third is deed.

But the Brother of the Lord placed deed first, word second, and thought third. Thus, above he rebuked those who hear the law and do not fulfill it by deeds, while he praised those who practice it.

Now here he forbids those who speak bitter words against their neighbor. Third, he hinders the thoughts of the heart, ascending from coarse and sensible things to the most subtle and noetic.

See that first he said, "not bridling his tongue," and then, "deceives his heart." This is because an unbridled tongue follows deception of the heart.

When the heart, that is, the rational part of man, by which we are called rational, stands and wages war against passions and provocations of thoughts, with attention and discernment, then it does not allow the tongue to speak bitter words.

Nor does it allow the body to do indecent deeds. But when, through negligence, it is overcome by provocations and gives consent to passions, then the tongue speaks what is improper and the body does what is indecent.

Therefore the Lord said, "Out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks" (Lk 6:45). Again: "A good man brings forth good things from the good treasure, and an evil man brings forth evil things from the evil treasure" (Mt 12:35).

Why did James say "deceiving his heart," and not "deceived by his heart"? Listen.

The heart, or in other words the rational part of man, has the law of God written within itself and the natural discernment of good and evil.

It always wishes to separate the good from the evil. But man, in order to be self-governing, deceives the rational part and freely chooses evil.

He loves pleasures, wealth, glory, and the desires of the senses. By all these, the natural discernment of the rational part is darkened, and thus it is overcome by passions.

As Paul said of the ancient wise men, "their foolish heart was darkened" (Rom 1:21).

He "committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth" (1 Pet 2:22). The tongue spews blasphemies against the great, holy, and dread name of God.

In a word, the tongue leaves nothing untouched, but spews upon everything the poison hidden in the human heart.

"And does not bridle his tongue": this expression points to the earlier phrase, "slow to speak, slow to anger" (v. 19).

It indicates qualities opposite to those named in that last phrase: attachment to self-willed teaching, talkativeness, and contentiousness.

"But deceives his heart": this expression means the same as the earlier phrase, "deceiving yourselves" (v. 22). Such self-deception is ascribed to hearers only of the law, and not to doers.

Therefore, if someone considers himself a worshipper of God while not bridling his tongue, being attached to teaching, talkativeness, and contentiousness, and only hearing the word of truth without doing it, his piety is empty.

It is not true piety, but only the appearance of piety or divine worship, arising from an incorrect relation to the word of truth, or to the perfect law.

"The Jews, fulfilling the prescriptions of the law to the smallest detail, thought highly of themselves. They placed all piety toward God in observing them, and, occupied only with them, imagined they would acquire blessedness through them.

Warning against such an erroneous view, the Apostle gives the present instruction. Having mentioned the doer of the work and called him blessed, he immediately corrects the evil that creeps into many during the fulfillment of works" (Theophylact).

The writer indicates that empty piety can exist both in fulfilling the law of Moses and in fulfilling the perfect law of freedom, the law of Christ.

He was not like other men, or like this publican standing behind him in the same temple. Other men were robbers, unrighteous men, and adulterers, while he fasted twice a week and gave a tenth of his possessions to the temple.

By these deeds of devotion the Pharisee imagined that he had rightly deserved God's favor, but he was deceived.

He lowered himself in the eyes of God because, while praising himself, he despised others.

It was not he who went down from the temple justified, but the publican. Although the publican truly was a great sinner, he repented of his sins and awaited mercy for himself from the sole compassion of God.

The Apostle James has in view boasters like the Pharisee.

In vain do they "think themselves to be pious." In vain do they value highly the works of their devotion. They only deceive their heart, deceiving themselves.

Their piety has no worth before God if they do not bridle their tongue and, like the Pharisee of the Gospel parable, despise their neighbors.

They consider themselves incomparably better than others in moral respect, and say that they are not robbers, oppressors, or adulterers.

Let us suppose that they do not commit criminal offenses against the honor and property of their neighbors. Yet if, while doing no evil to their neighbors, they also do them no good, then their superiority over others has very little worth.