02.01. Chapter 1 - Verse 23, 24

James 1:23-24, For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like to a man beholding his natural face in a glass: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.

Here James amplifieth the former reason, which was taken from the vanity and unprofitableness of bare hearing, by a similitude taken from a man looking in a glass.

If any be a hearer of the word and not a doer; that is, contenteth himself with bare hearing, or bare knowing the word of God, and doth not come away with impulses of zeal, and resolutions of obedience. Is like a man:—In the original it is ἀνδρὶ, a word proper to the masculine sex, and therefore some frame a criticism. The apostle doth not say, ‘like a woman;’ they are more diligent and curious. They view themselves again and again, that they may do away every spot and deformity. But this is more witty than solid. The apostle useth ἀνὴρ promiscuously for man and woman, as James 1:12, ‘Blessed is the man that endureth temptation,’ the man or woman: only the masculine sex is specified, as most worthy. That beholdeth his natural face, τὸ πρόσωπον τῆς γενέσεως, ‘the face of his nativity.’—What is intended by that? Some say, the face as God made it at its birth, that he may behold God’s work in it, and so take occasion to condemn painting, and the artificial cerusse and varnish of the face; or his natural face, upon which men bestow least care. In painting, there is more exactness: or natural face, as importing a glance, as a man passeth by a glass, and seeth that he hath the face of a man, not exactly surveying the several lineaments. Others think the apostle hinteth the thing intended by the similitude—our natural and original deformity—represented in the words, and that he complicateth and foldeth up the thing signified with the expressions of the similitude; but that seemeth forced. I suppose, by ‘natural face,’ he meaneth his own face, the glass representing the very face which nature gave him.

He goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.—He forgetteth the fashion of his countenance, the spots represented therein, and so fitly noteth those weak impressions which the discoveries of the word leave upon a careless soul, who, after his deformity is represented, is not affected with it so as to be brought to repentance. The notes are these:—

Obs. 1. That the word of God is a glass. But what doth it show us? I answer (1.) God and Christ: 2 Corinthians 3:18, ‘We all with an open face behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord, and are changed into the same image from glory to glory.’ A glass implieth the clearest representation that we are capable of here upon earth. I confess a glass is sometimes put for a dark vision; as 1 Corinthians 13:12, ‘Now we see but as in a glass, darkly; but then we shall see face to face.’ Then we shall see God himself: 1 John 3:2, ‘We shall see God as he is.’ But here we have his image and reflection in the word: as sometimes the ‘heart of flesh’ is put for an earthly mind, sometimes for a tender heart. In opposition to ‘a heart of stone,’ the ‘heart of flesh’ is taken in a good sense; but, in opposition to pure and sublime affections, in a bad sense. So, in opposition to the shadows of the law, seeing in a glass importeth a clear discerning; but in opposition to ‘face to face,’ but a low and weak conception of the essence of God. Oh! study the glory of God in the word. Though you cannot exhaust and draw out all the divine perfections in your thoughts, yet ‘your ear may receive a little thereof,’ Job 4:12. When we want the sun, we do not despise a candle. (2.) The word is a glass to show us our selves; it discovereth the hidden things ‘of the heart,’ all the deformities of the soul: Mark 4:22, ‘There is nothing hidden that shall not be made manifest.’ The word discovereth all things. Our sins are the spots which the law discovereth; Christ’s blood is the water to wash them off, and that is discovered in the gospel.¹ The law discovereth sins: Romans 7:9, ‘I was alive without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.’ We think ourselves well and in a good case, till the law falleth upon the spirit with full conviction, and then we see all the spots and freckles of our souls. The gospel discovereth how we may do away our sins, and deck and attire our souls with the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

¹ ’Maculæ sunt peccata quæ ostendit lex; aqua est sanguis Christi quem ostendit evangelium.’

Use. It ministereth a meditation to you. When you are at your glass, consider the word of God is a glass: I must look after the estate and complexion of my soul. Take but a part of the law and exercise yourself with it every day, and you will soon see the deformity of your own spirit: do not look in a flattering glass. We love a picture that is like us, rather than that which is flourished and varnished with more art.

Obs. 2. That the knowledge of formal professors is but slight and glancing: like a man beholding his face in a glass, or like the glaring of a sunbeam upon a wave, it rusheth into the thoughts, and it is gone. The beast under the law that did not chew the cud was unclean. There is much in meditation and a constant light. Some men, if they should be considerate, would undo all their false hopes; therefore, usually, carnal men’s thoughts are but slight and trivial; they know things, but are loath to let their thoughts pause upon them: Luke 2:19 it is said, ‘Mary pondered all these sayings.’ A slippery, vain, inconsistent mind will be hardly held to truths. When we apprehend a thing, curiosity being satisfied, we begin to loathe it; and, therefore, it is an hard matter to agitate the thoughts again to that point to which they have once arrived; the first apprehension doth, as it were, deflower it.

Obs. 3. Vain men go from the ordinances just as they came to them: he beholdeth, and goeth away. Like the beasts in Noah’s ark, they went in unclean, and came out unclean. So many come unhumbled and unmortified, and so they go away. Oh! let it never be said of you.

Obs. 4. Slight apprehensions make a very weak impression: things work when the thoughts are serious and ponderous: musing maketh the fire burn, Psalms 39:3. When God’s arrows stick fast, they make us roar to the purpose, Job 5:4. And David, when he would express his deep affection, he saith, Psalms 51:3, ‘My sin is ever before me:’ it would not out of his thoughts. Well, then, a weak impression is an argument of a slight apprehension: thoughts always follow affection. They that ‘heal their wounds slightly,’ Jeremiah 6:14, show that they were never soundly touched and pricked at heart. Men thoroughly affected say I shall remember such a sermon all my life time. David saith, Psalms 119:93, ‘I will never forget thy precepts; for by them thou hast quickened me.’ Others let good things slip, because they never felt the power of them.