_THE DELUSION OF HEARING WITHOUT DOING.
THE MIRROR OF GOD'S WORD._
"But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deluding your
own selves. For if any one is a hearer of the word, and not a doer,
he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a mirror: for he
beholdeth himself, and goeth away, and straightway forgetteth what
manner of man he was. But he that looketh into the perfect law, the
law of liberty, and so continueth, being not a hearer that
forgetteth, but a doer that worketh, this man shall be blessed in
his doing."--ST. JAMES i. 22-25.
Here we reach what on the whole seems to be the main thought of the
Epistle--_the all-importance of Christian activity and service_. The
essential thing, without which other things, however good in
themselves, become insignificant or worthless, or even mischievous, is
_conduct_. Everything else, if not accompanied by practice, by
avoiding evil and doing good, is vain. In Bishop Butler's words,
religion "does not consist in the knowledge and belief even of
fundamental truth," but rather in our being brought "to a certain
temper and behaviour;" or as St. John puts it still more simply, only
"he who _doeth_ righteousness is righteous." Suffering injuries,
poverty, and temptations, hearing the Word, teaching the Word, faith,
wisdom (i. 2, 9, 12, 19; ii. 14-26; iii. 7-13), are all of them
excellent; but if they are not accompanied by a holy life, a life of
prayer and gentle words and good deeds, they are valueless.
There are two or three other leading thoughts, but they are all of
them subordinated to this main thought of the necessity for Christian
conduct as well as Christian belief and wisdom. One of these secondary
thoughts has already been noticed more than once--the blessedness of
enduring temptations and other trials; it is specially prominent in
the first and last chapters (i. 2-4, 12; v. 7-11). Another of the
secondary topics which have a prominent place in the letter is the
peril of much speaking. It introduces and closes the section which
lies immediately before us (i. 19, 26), and it is dwelt upon at length
in the third chapter. Yet a third topic which cannot fail to attract
the attention of the reader is the preference given to the poor over
the rich as regards their spiritual opportunities, and the stern
warnings addressed to all those whose wealth leads them to become
tyrannical. This subject is specially prominent in the first, second,
and last chapters (i. 10, 11; ii. 1-7; v. 1-6). But all these matters
are looked at from the point of view of Christian conduct and service.
They are not in any one case the idea which binds together the whole
Epistle, but they lead up to it and emphasize it. If we were to single
out one verse as in a special way summing up the teaching of the whole
letter, we could hardly find one more suitable for the purpose than
the first of the four which stand at the head of the present chapter:
"Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deluding your own
selves." It will be worth while to examine this simple and most
practical exhortation somewhat in detail.
It is one of the many sayings in the Epistle which irresistibly remind
us of the teaching of Jesus Christ; not as being a quotation from any
of His recorded discourses, but as being an independent reproduction
of the substance of His conversation by one who was quite familiar
with it, but was not familiar with the written Gospels. Had the writer
of this letter been well acquainted with any of the four Gospels, he
could hardly have escaped being influenced by them, and the echoes of
Christ's teaching which we find in its pages would have been more
closely in accordance with the reports of His words which they
contain. This feature of the Epistle harmonizes well with its being
written by the Lord's brother, who must have been very familiar with
the Lord's teaching, and who wrote before A.D. 62, _i.e._ at a time
when perhaps not one of our Gospels was written, and when certainly
none of them can have had a very wide circulation. More will be said
upon this point hereafter (p. 308): for the present it suffices to
point out the resemblance between this warning against the delusion of
thinking that hearing without doing is of any avail, and the warning
which closes the Sermon on the Mount: "Every one which heareth these
words of Mine, and doeth them, shall be likened unto a wise man, which
built his house upon the rock.... And every one that heareth these
words of Mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish
man, which built his house upon the sand: and the rain descended, and
the floods came, and the winds blew, and smote upon that house; and it
fell: and great was the fall thereof" (Matt. vii. 24-27).
"Be ye doers of the Word." Both verb and tense are remarkable
(γίνεσθε): "_Become_ doers of the Word." True Christian practice is a
thing of growth; it is a process, and a process which has already
begun, and is continually going on. We may compare, "_Become_ ye
therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves" (Matt. x. 16);
"Therefore _become_ ye also ready" (xxiv. 44); and "_Become_ not
faithless, but believing" (John xx. 27; where see Westcott's note).
"Become doers of the Word" is more expressive than "Be doers of the
Word," and a good deal more expressive than "Do the Word." A "doer of
the Word" (ποιητὴς λόγου) is such by profession and practice; the
phrase expresses a habit. But one who merely incidentally performs
what is prescribed may be said to "do the Word." By the "Word" is
meant what just before has been called the "implanted Word" and the
"Word of truth" (w. 21, 18), and what in this passage is also called
"the perfect law, the law of liberty" (ver. 25), _i.e._ the Gospel.
The parable of the Sower illustrates in detail the meaning of becoming
an habitual doer of the implanted Word.
"And not hearers only." The order of the words in the Greek is a
little doubtful, the authorities being very much divided; but the
balance is in favour of taking "only" closely with "hearers" (μὴ
ἀκροαταὶ μόνον rather than μὴ μόνον ἀκροαταί); "Be not such as are
mere hearers and nothing more." The word for "hearer" occurs nowhere
else in the New Testament, excepting in the singularly similar passage
in the Epistle to the Romans, which is one of the passages that give
support to the theory that either St. Paul had seen this Epistle, or
St. James had seen St. Paul's: "Not the hearers (ἀκροαταί) of a law
are just before God, but the doers of a law shall be justified," (Rom.
ii. 13; see above, p. 57). The verb (ἀκροάομαι) does not occur in the
New Testament; but another cognate substantive (ἀκροατήριον), meaning
"a place of hearing," is found in the Acts (xxv. 23). In classical
Greek this group of words indicates _attentive_ listening, especially
in the case of those who attend the lectures of philosophers and the
addresses of public speakers. It is thus used frequently in Plato,
Aristotle, Thucydides, and Plutarch. It is somewhat too hastily
concluded that there is nothing of this kind included either in this
passage or in Rom. ii. 13. Possibly that is the very thing to which
both St. James and St. Paul allude. St. James, in the address which he
made to the so-called Council of Jerusalem, says, "Moses from
generations of old hath in every city them that preach him, being read
in the synagogues every Sabbath" (Acts xv. 21). The Jews came with
great punctiliousness to these weekly gatherings, and listened with
much attention to the public reading and exposition of the Law; and
too many of them thought that with that the chief part of their duty
was performed. This habitual public testimony of respect for the
Mosaic Law and the traditional interpretations of it, and this zeal to
acquire a knowledge of its contents and an insight into its meaning,
was the main portion of what was required of them. This, St. James
tells them, is miserably insufficient, whether what they hear be the
Law or the Gospel, the Law with or without the illumination of the
life of Christ. "Being swift to hear" (ver. 19) and to understand is
well, but "apart from works it is barren." It is the habitual practice
in striving to _do_ what is heard and understood that is of value.
"Not a hearer that forgetteth, but a doer that worketh" is blessed,
and "blessed in his doing." To suppose that mere hearing brings a
blessing is "deluding your own selves." Bede rightly quotes Rev. i. 3
in illustration: "Blessed are they that hear the words of the
prophecy, and _keep_ the things which are written therein."
The word here used for deluding (παραλογιζόμενοι) is found nowhere
else in the New Testament, excepting in one passage in the Epistle to
the Colossians (ii. 4), in which St. Paul warns them against allowing
any one to "delude them with persuasiveness of speech." But the word
is fairly common both in ordinary Greek and in the Septuagint. Its
meaning is to mislead with fallacious reasoning, and the substantive
(παραλογισμός) is the Aristotelian term for a fallacy. The word does
not necessarily imply that the fallacious reasoning is known to be
fallacious by those who employ it. To express that we should rather
have the word which is used in 2 Peter i. 16 to characterize
"cunningly devised fables" (σεσοφισμένοι μῦθοι). Here we are to
understand that the victims of the delusion do not, although they
might, see the worthlessness of the reasons upon which their
self-contentment is based. It is precisely in this that the danger of
their position lies. Self-deceit is the most subtle and fatal deceit.
The mere knowledge of the law derived from their attentive listening
to it does but increase their evil case, if they do not practise it.
"To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin"
(iv. 17).
The Jews have a saying that the man who hears without practising is
like a husbandman who ploughs and sows, but never reaps. Such an
illustration, being taken from natural phenomena, would be quite in
harmony with the manner of St. James; but he enforces his meaning by
employing a far more striking illustration. He who is a hearer and not
a doer "is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a mirror."
Almost all the words in this sentence are worthy of separate attention.
"Is like unto a _man_" (ἔοικεν ἀνδρί). St. James uses the more
definite word, which usually excludes women, and sometimes boys also.
He does not say, "is like unto a _person_" (ἀνθρώπῳ), which would have
included both sexes and all ages. A somewhat quaint explanation has
been suggested by Paes, and adopted as probable elsewhere; viz. that
men, as a rule, give only a passing look to themselves in the glass;
whereas it is a feminine weakness to be fond of attentive
observations. But it is fatal to this suggestion that the word here
used for beholding (κατανοεῖν) means to fix one's mind upon, and
consider attentively. It is the word used in "Consider the ravens,"
and "Consider the lilies" (Luke xii. 24, 27). Moreover, the Greeks
sometimes do what we very frequently do in speaking of the human race;
they employ the male sex as representative of both. This usage is
found in the New Testament; _e.g._ "The queen of the South shall rise
up in the judgment with _the men_ (τῶν ἀνδρῶν) of this generation, and
shall condemn them.... _The men_ (ἄνδρες) of Nineveh shall stand up in
the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it" (Luke xi. 31,
32). Here it is impossible that the women are not included. And this
use of "man" (ἀνήρ) in the sense of human being is specially common in
St. James. We have it four times in this chapter (vv. 8, 12, 20, 23),
and again in the second (ver. 2) and third (ver. 2).
This man, then, attentively studies his natural face in a mirror. The
words for "his natural face" literally mean "the face of his birth"
(τὸ πρόσωπον τῆς γενέσεως αὐτοῦ), _i.e._ the features with which he
was born; and the mirror would be a piece of polished metal, which,
however excellent, would not reflect the features with the clearness
and fidelity of a modern looking-glass. Hence the necessity for
attentive observation, the result of which is that the man recognizes
his own face beyond all question. But what follows? "He beheld
himself, and he has gone away, and he straightway forgot what manner
of man he was." The perfect tense between two aorists gives a lively
simplicity to the narration (κατενόησεν ... ἀπελήλυθεν ... ἐπελάθετο).
This is represented as a common case, though not an invariable one.
Most of us know our own features sufficiently well to recognize them
in a good representation of them, but do not carry in our minds a very
accurate image of them. But what has all this to do with being
hearers, and not doers, of the Word?
The spoken or written Word of God is the mirror. When we hear it
preached, or study it for ourselves, we can find the reflexion of
ourselves in it, our temptations and weaknesses, our failings and
sins, the influences of God's Spirit upon us, and the impress of His
grace. It is here that we notice one marked difference between the
inspiration of the sacred writers and the inspiration of the poet and
the dramatist. The latter show us _other people_ to the life;
Scripture shows us _ourselves_.
"Our mirror is a blessed book,
Where out from each illumined page
We see one glorious image look,
All eyes to dazzle and engage,
The Son of God; and that indeed
We see Him as He is we know,
Since in the same bright glass we read
The very life of things below.
Eye of God's Word, where'er we turn
Ever upon us! thy keen gaze
Can all the depths of sin discern,
Unravel every bosom's maze.
Who that has felt thy glance of dread
Thrill through his heart's remotest cells,
About his path, about his bed,
Can doubt what Spirit in thee dwells?"[51]
Keble's metaphor is somewhat more elaborate than St. James's. He
represents the Bible as a mirror, out of which the reflected image of
the Son of God looks upon us and reads our inmost selves. St. James
supposes that in the mirror we see ourselves reflected. But the
thought is the same, that through hearing or reading God's Word our
knowledge of our characters is quickened. But does this quickened
knowledge last? does it lead to action, or influence our conduct? Too
often we leave the church or our study, and the impression produced by
the recognition of the features of our own case is obliterated. "We
straightway forget what manner of men we are," and the insight which
has been granted to us into our own true selves is just one more
wasted experience.
But this need not be so, and in some cases a very different result may
be noticed. Instead of merely looking attentively for a short time, he
may _stoop down and pore over it_. Instead of forthwith going away, he
may _continue_ in the study of it. And instead of straightway
forgetting, he may prove a mindful _doer that worketh_. Thus the three
parts of the two pictures are made exactly to balance. The word for
"looking into" is an interesting one (παρακύπτειν). It indicates
bending forward to examine earnestly. It is used of Peter looking into
the sepulchre (Luke xxiv. 12, a verse of doubtful genuineness); and of
Mary Magdalene doing the same (John xx. 11); and of the angels
desiring to look into heavenly mysteries (1 Peter i. 12). He who does
this recognizes God's Word as being "the perfect law, the law of
liberty." The two things are the same. It is when the law is seen to
be perfect that it is found to be the law of liberty. So long as the
law is not seen in the beauty of its perfection, it is not loved, and
men either disobey it or obey it by constraint and unwillingly. It is
then a law of bondage. But when its perfection is recognized men long
to conform to it; and they obey, not because they must, but because
they choose. To do what one likes is freedom, and they like to obey.
It is in this way that the moral law of the Gospel becomes "the law of
liberty," not by imposing fewer obligations than the moral law of the
Jew or of the Gentile, but by infusing into the hearts of those who
welcome it a disposition and a desire to obey. Christian liberty is
never licence. It is not the relaxation of needful restraints, but the
spontaneous acceptance of them as excellent in themselves and
beneficial to those who observe them. It is the difference between a
code imposed by another, and a constitution voluntarily adopted. To be
made to work for one whom one fears is slavery and misery; to choose
to work for one whom one loves is freedom and happiness. The Gospel
has not abolished the moral law; it has supplied a new and adequate
motive for fulfilling it.
"Being not a hearer that forgetteth." Literally, "having become not a
hearer of forgetfulness" (οὐκ ἀκροατὴς ἐπιλησμονῆς γενόμενος);
_i.e._ having by practice come to be a hearer, who is characterized,
not by forgetfulness of what he hears, but by attentive performance of
it.[52] The unusual word "forgetfulness" occurs nowhere else in the
New Testament, nor in classical Greek; but it is found in
Ecclesiasticus (xi. 27), "The affliction of an hour causeth
forgetfulness of pleasure;" and this adds a trifle to the evidence
that St. James was acquainted with that book (see above, p. 71). "A
hearer of forgetfulness" exactly balances, both in form and in
thought, "a doer of work;" and this is well brought out by the
Revisers, who turn _both_ genitives by a relative clause: "a hearer
that forgetteth," and "a doer that worketh." The Authorized Version is
much less happy: "a forgetful hearer, but a doer of _the_ work." There
is no article in the Greek, and the translation of one genitive by an
adjective, and of the other by a genitive, is unfortunate. "A doer of
_work_" (ποιητὴς ἔργου), or "a doer that _worketh_," is an expression
that emphasizes just what St. James wishes to emphasize, viz. the
necessity of actively practising what is attentively heard. "A doer"
would have sufficed, but "a doer that worketh" makes the idea of
habitual action still more prominent.
"This man shall be blessed in his doing" (ἐν τῇ ποιήσει). Once more we
have a word which is found nowhere else in the New Testament, but
occurs in Ecclesiasticus (xix. 20), and with much the same meaning as
here: "All wisdom is fear of the Lord; and in all wisdom there is
doing of the law" (ποίησις νόμου). The correspondence between the
meaning of St. James and the meaning of the son of Sirach is very
close. Mere knowledge without performance is of little worth: it is in
the doing that a blessing can be found.
The danger against which St. James warns the Jewish Christians of the
Dispersion is as pressing now as it was when he wrote. Never was there
a time when interest in the Scriptures was more keen or more widely
spread, especially among the educated classes; and never was there a
time when greater facilities for gratifying this interest abounded.
Commentaries, expositions, criticisms, introductions, helps of all
kinds, exegetical, homiletic, historical, and textual, suitable both
for learned and unlearned students, multiply year by year. But it is
much to be feared that with many of us the interest in the sacred
writings which is thus roused and fostered remains to a very large
extent a literary interest. We are much more eager to know all _about_
God's Word than from it to learn His will respecting ourselves, that
we may do it; to prove that a book is genuine than to practise what it
enjoins. We study Lives of Christ, but we do not follow the life of
Christ. We pay Him the empty homage of an intellectual interest in His
words and works, but we do not the things which He says. We throng and
press Him in our curiosity, but we obtain no blessing, because in all
our hearing and learning there is no true wisdom, no fear of the Lord,
and no doing of His Word.
[51] _The Christian Year_, St. Bartholomew's Day.
[52] This "characterizing genitive" is not exactly a Hebraism, like
"children of wrath," "son of perdition," "son of light," and the like;
but the use of the genitive in place of an adjective is more common in
Oriental languages, and therefore in Greek which is under Oriental
influences. See p. 122.