22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. 23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: 24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. 25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. James 1:22-25 KJV.
In this part of scripture, we as believers are told to “be ye doers” (v.22) or to be a “performer” [i.e., “doers” (4]) or to “bring about” [i.e. “performer”(1)] the Word or “treatise” (4) or all of which is in the Holy Bible, all which discusses the “Divine Expression” [i.e., “word” (4)] “carefully and thoroughly,” (2) and not just to let the Word go through one ear and out the other. In hearing the Word “only” (v. 22), we deceive, delude, and beguile ourselves (4), delude meaning we “impose a misleading belief,” (3) and we think that not to act and live the Word is okay when it is not.
We are to act and live on the Word of the Holy Bible, and not just hear the Word only and forget The Word as one would look at his/her image in a mirror, and forget “immediately” [i.e., “straightway” (4)] what his/her image looked like. To look at the “natural face” or the “outward appearance” [i.e., “face” (4)] of the Word (hearing only) is to “glance” or to have “a brief or hurried look” (3) at the Word with no deep “introspection” or “a reflective looking inward” (2) of the Word. To look at the “outer appearance,” or “face” of The Word (hearing only) would lend one to not go deeper into one’s understanding of the Word so as to act or live accordingly to the Word. One does that “glance” of the “natural face” of the Word (hearing only), and of course one does forget or not realize what “manner of man” he/she is as he/she is in the image of Christ.
We are to be “doers of the word” as we take in the “perfect law of liberty,” “liberty” meaning “freedom” (4) that is found in the Word, and thus to do as God commands us to do in our actions and lives. But not to take in the “perfect law of liberty” (v. 25) in our forgetfulness or “lapse of memory” (3) of the Word is deception. To be a “doer of the work,” “work” meaning “as an effort or occupation” (4) as a “performer” [i.e., “doer” (4)] is to take in, act and live, the “regulation of Moses and also of the Gospels” [i.e., “law” (4)], not just hear The Word only!
God Bless Everyone!
Brenda A. McGee has attended New York Theological Seminary in New York, NY, and Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, CA as a Master of Divinity student.