James keeps the balance well. He has shown the wisdom of good listening.
Now he proves the futility of mere listening with no effort to put into
practice what one hears. There is life in the Word of God if it is
lived. It is quick with life-giving energy for those who put it to the
test of life. One may hear and not heed. The Greek used the same word
for both ideas. One is reminded of the parable of the sower again, for
only one of the four classes of hearers brought forth fruit. That is the
test. “By their fruits ye shall know them.” The reception of the Word
will only bring final salvation in case the fruit is borne.
James knew only too well the empty ceremonialism of the Jews who said
and did not. Jesus (see Matt. 23) arraigned the hypocrisy of the
Pharisees in the most scathing denunciation of all time. “But be ye
doers of the word, and not hearers only, deluding your own selves.” Show
yourselves “word-doers” (Hort). By “word” it is not clear whether is
meant the Torah (Oesterley) or any word of authority (Hort), or the
rooted word just mentioned (Plummer). The latter is most likely, though
the partial personification of “word” here reminds one of the opening
verses of the Fourth Gospel and of Philo and the Targums.
The “hearers only” did nothing else but listen. They were true “sermon
tasters” who fed upon the ministry of the Word or the written word, only
to fatten into sloth and spiritual inertia. They got the hookworm
disease in religion and belonged to the shirkers, not the workers. Rabbi
Chananiah used to say: “Whosesoever works are in excess of his wisdom,
his wisdom stands; and whosesoever wisdom is in excess of his works, his
wisdom stands not.”[64] The rabbis said there were two crowns, one for
doing and one for hearing, based on Exodus 24:7: “we will do, and we
will be obedient” (“hear”). The word for hearers appears nowhere else in
the New Testament and was used for attendants at the lectures of
philosophers and other public speakers rather than learners or
disciples. One thinks of the public reading of the Word in the
synagogues. But even so, “Act on the Word,” Moffatt has it. Else it is
like pouring water into a sieve. It is in one ear and out of the other.
Some people have a sort of religious dissipation in attending revival
services and imagine that they have accomplished a great deal if they
simply go. People easily acquire itching ears that love to be tickled
with some sensation. The word takes no root in the hearts of such men.
They run from church to church to get a new word, a sort of soda-water
habit. They deceive themselves but nobody else. These spiritual
“gadabouts” are shallow and skim the surface only. They make a sort of
motion picture but accomplish nothing substantial in their own lives or
in the work of the kingdom. They are guilty of a logical fallacy and are
the victims of their own delusions (cf. Col. 2:4). One has thus a case
of autointoxication. He has inoculated himself with the virus of his own
error.
And now James draws a wonderfully vivid picture of the idle hearers, the
hangers-on in revival meetings, like the scum that comes first to the
surface, lighthearted, impulsive, nonchalant, without depth of purpose
or seriousness in life. Such a frivolous listener glances at his face in
a mirror, taking note to see that he looks natural and proper. A quick
look suffices for that, for “his natural face,” the face of his birth,
the only one that he has. If nothing is awry about his appearance
reflected in the mirror, he is satisfied (or dissatisfied) with the
momentary glance. The mirror was probably of metal, and the word is
often used by the poets (Mayor). Here the mirror is the Word of God
(spoken or written) by which one takes a look at himself, and the quick
and superficial view brings satisfaction or a passing pang. See 1
Corinthians 13:12 for the use of “mirror” for the imperfect knowledge of
Christ through reflection in the Word of God and in life contrasted with
the blessed reality when face to face with him (Mayor). But here in
James the man tarries by the mirror for a moment and soon moves off.
All that he saw in the Word of God is now out of sight and out of mind,
like the wayside hearers in Christ’s parable. If it was a sermon that he
heard, the impulses for good quickly die away. He is back at his
business, at his club, or in his home. He straightway forgets what he
was like, what sort of man he was in the mirror. In particular, any
unpleasant features are forgotten. The momentary trembling of the
conscience no longer bothers him. Alas, how easily the burning heat of
the day withers the tender shoots in the stony ground; the weeds and
thorns choke to death the pious aspirations of the better hours.