James 1:19 - Meaning and Application

In this part of the chapter, James teaches us to hold back our strong emotions. We especially need this lesson in times of trouble, and we will learn it if we have truly been born again through the word of truth. An angry and hasty spirit is quickly stirred to evil by affliction, and our own bad and empty desires often spread error and wrong thinking. But God’s renewing grace and the gospel teach us to bring those desires under control. So James says, “My beloved brothers, let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger” (James 1:19).

These words may point back to the word of truth mentioned just before. If so, the lesson is that we should be quicker to hear God’s word and to think carefully about it than to speak from our own ideas or from other people’s opinions. We should not rush into heat and anger over errors, and especially not over ideas like the claim that God is the cause of human sin. Instead, we should be ready to listen and consider what God’s word teaches in such matters.

These words may also apply to the trials and temptations James has already mentioned at the start of the chapter. Then the lesson is that we should be quicker to hear how God explains his providence, meaning his wise rule over our lives, and what he is doing through our sufferings, than to speak rashly as David did when he said in haste, “I am cut off,” or as Jonah did when he said in anger, “I do well to be angry.” Instead of judging God in our troubles, we should open our ears and hearts to hear what he says to us.

A third way to understand these words is in connection with the disputes and divisions Christians were having in those days of testing. In that case, each side should be willing to hear the other. People often cling to their own opinions because they refuse to listen to what may be said against them. We should be quick to hear reason and truth from every side, and slow to say anything that would stop honest discussion. And when we do speak, there should be no anger in it, for a gentle answer turns away wrath. Since this letter corrects many disorders among Christians, this is a very fitting way to read James’s words, “swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.” We can also learn this: if people want to control their tongues, they must first control their passions. When Moses was provoked in spirit, he spoke thoughtlessly with his lips. If we want to be slow to speak, we must be slow to anger.

James gives a strong reason for this restraint: “The wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God” (James 1:20). It is as if he were saying that people often act with heat and anger while claiming to be zealous for God’s honor, but God does not need our passions. His cause is served better by gentleness and meekness than by rage and fury. Solomon says, “The words of the wise are heard in quiet more than the cry of him who rules among fools” (Ecclesiastes 9:17). As Dr. Manton noted, in some church gatherings there would be less anger and more usefulness if people were as quick to hear as they are to speak. He also remembered how, when a Manichee kept interrupting Augustine and loudly demanded, “Hear me! Hear me!” Augustine replied with humility, “Neither let me hear you nor you hear me, but let us both hear the apostle.”

The worst thing we can bring into a religious dispute is anger. Even if anger seems to rise from a concern for what is right, it cannot be trusted. Human wrath is only human, and it stands against the righteousness of God. Those who claim to defend God’s cause by such anger show that they do not really know God or his cause. We must be especially careful of this when we are hearing God’s word (see 1 Peter 2:1-2).

James also calls us to put away other corrupt desires, not only rash anger: “Lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness” (James 1:21). The word translated “filthiness” points to lusts that are especially ugly and sinful. The phrase translated “overflow of wickedness” may mean the overflowing of malice or other kinds of spiritual evil. So as Christians, we must guard against and put away not only the more open and fleshly sins that make a person filthy, but every disorder of a corrupt heart that would turn us against God’s word and ways. Sin defiles. That is why it is called filthiness itself. There is also much evil within us, a real overflow of wickedness, and we must watch against it. It is not enough to hold evil desires back. They must be cast off and laid aside (Isaiah 30:22). This includes not only outward sins and major evil deeds, but also every sin of thought, feeling, speech, and action.

This fits the earlier parts of the chapter. A time of trial and affliction calls for laying aside all filthiness, and it is also necessary if we want to avoid error and receive and use the word of truth properly. That brings James to clear teaching about hearing God’s word. First, we must prepare ourselves for it. We need to put away every corrupt desire, every prejudice, and every fixed opinion that bends our judgment and blinds our minds. All the filthiness and overflow of wickedness already mentioned must be especially subdued and cast off by all who hear the gospel.

Then James tells us how to hear it: “Receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls” (James 1:21). In hearing God’s word, we must receive it, agreeing with its truths and submitting to its commands. We should receive it as a branch receives a graft, so that the fruit produced comes not from our old, sour nature, but from the nature of the gospel word planted within us. We must therefore come to God’s word with the most humble, teachable, and submissive spirit. That is what it means to receive it with meekness. We should be willing to hear our faults, take correction not only patiently but thankfully, and allow the gospel to shape and form us.

In all our hearing, we should aim at the salvation of our souls. God’s word is meant to make us wise for salvation, and anyone who comes to it for a lesser purpose dishonors the gospel and harms his own soul.

We should come to the word of God, both when we read it and when we hear it, as people who know it is God’s power to save everyone who believes (Romans 1:16).

James then tells us what must come after hearing the word: “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (James 1:22). Hearing is meant to lead to doing. No matter how carefully or how often we hear God’s word, it will not help us unless we also obey it. Even if we heard a sermon every day, and an angel from heaven preached it, bare hearing would never bring us to heaven.

The apostle presses this strongly because it is truly necessary. There must be inward practice through meditation, and outward practice through real obedience. It is not enough to remember what we hear, repeat it, testify to it, praise it, write it down, or keep a record of it. All of that should lead to one thing, doing the word. Bare hearers deceive themselves. The word used here points to clever but false reasoning, when people try to excuse themselves from one duty because they have done another. They may think filling their minds with ideas is enough, even if their hearts are empty of good desires and their lives show no good works. Self-deception turns out to be the worst kind of deception.

James then shows the proper use of God’s word, and also the wrong use of it, in James 1:23-25. We can learn its purpose from the picture of a mirror, where a person sees his natural face. Just as a mirror shows spots and dirt on the face so they can be washed off, God’s word shows us our sins so we can repent, seek forgiveness, and correct what is wrong. There are mirrors that flatter people, but the true word of God does not flatter anyone. If people flatter themselves, that is their own fault. The truth, as it is in Jesus, flatters no one.

If we pay close attention to the word of truth, it will show us the corruption of our nature and the disorder in our hearts and lives. It will tell us plainly what we are. Paul describes himself as not sensing the corruption of his nature until he saw himself in the mirror of the law (Romans 7:9). He says, in effect, that he thought all was well with him until the commandment came, then sin came alive, and he saw his own spots and deformities. He then realized that he was in a state of death and condemnation. In the same way, when we look into God’s word so that we may see ourselves truly, correct what is wrong, and shape our lives by it, we are making the right use of it.

James also describes those who do not use this mirror rightly: the one who looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of person he was (James 1:24). This is a true picture of someone who hears God’s word and does not obey it. Many people, while hearing the word, are stirred by their own sin, misery, and danger. They admit the evil of sin and their need for Christ. But after the hearing is over, it is all forgotten. Their convictions fade, their good feelings disappear, and they pass away like floodwater. They straightway forget.

God’s word shows us how to put away our sins and how to adorn our souls with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Our sins are the stains the law reveals, and Christ’s blood is the cleansing water the gospel shows us. But it is useless to hear God’s word and look into the gospel mirror if we go away and forget our stains instead of washing them off, and forget our remedy instead of applying it.

Those who hear rightly are described and called blessed in James 1:25: “Whoever looks into the perfect law of liberty, and continues in it,” and so on. The gospel is a law of liberty, or a law of freedom, because it gives deliverance from the Jewish ceremonial law, and from sin, guilt, wrath, and death. The ceremonial law was a burden, but the gospel of Christ brings freedom. It is also a perfect law, with nothing needing to be added to it.

When we hear the word, we look into this perfect law for counsel and direction. We look into it so that we may take our measure from it. But we only look into the law of liberty as we should when we continue in it, that is, when we stay in its teaching until it becomes a living part of us. We must not be forgetful, but doers of the work it sets before us. We should keep it always before our eyes, make it the steady rule of our speech and conduct, and shape the temper of our minds by it.

Those who do this, and continue in God’s word, are blessed in what they do. They will be blessed in all their ways, as the first Psalm teaches, and James may be pointing to that here. The psalmist says that the one who meditates on God’s law and walks by it will prosper in whatever he does. James says that the one who is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, will be blessed.

Some have tried to use this to claim that we are blessed because of our good deeds. But the wording of Scripture must be watched closely. James does not say that anyone is blessed for his deeds, but in his deed. Good deeds are the way where blessedness is found, but they are not its cause. Blessedness is not in knowing God’s will, but in doing it (John 13:17). It is not talking, but walking, that brings us to heaven.

James next tells us how to tell the difference between empty religion and religion that is pure and approved by God. People argue much about this in the world. They dispute what religion is false and vain, and what is true and pure. It would be best if people simply let Scripture settle the matter here, for it speaks plainly and firmly.

What is empty religion? James says, “If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless.” Here we should notice three things.

First, empty religion often has a lot of show. A person cares more about seeming religious in other people’s eyes than being truly godly. The word “seemeth” matters here, because it points to people who want the appearance of faith more than the reality. Religion itself is not worthless, and it is wrong to say, “It is useless to serve the Lord.” But people can make it empty if they only have an outward form of godliness and not its power.

Second, empty religion often shows itself in criticizing, insulting, and speaking badly of others. When James speaks of not bridleing the tongue, he mainly means not holding back from these sins of speech. If we hear someone quick to talk about other people’s faults, to spread harsh claims about their beliefs, or to make others seem small so they can appear wise and good, that is a bad sign. A person with a slandering tongue cannot have a truly humble and gracious heart. Anyone who enjoys harming a neighbor cannot honestly claim to love God, so a reviling tongue shows a hypocrite. Criticizing others is an easy sin, very natural to us, and it shows a person is still living by nature, not grace.

These speech sins were common in James’s day, as the rest of this letter shows. Dr. Manton says that it is a strong sign of empty religion to follow the evil habits of the times. Hypocrites have always been this way: the harder they try to look good themselves, the more freely they put others down. The tongue and the heart are closely linked, so one often shows the other. For that reason, the apostle treats an ungoverned tongue as clear proof of a worthless religion. There is no real strength in any religion that cannot teach a person to control his speech.

Third, empty religion ends in self-deception. A person goes on speaking against others and trying to make himself look important, until at last he fools his own soul. When religion becomes a mere show, how great that emptiness becomes!

James then plainly tells us what true religion is: “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this” (James 1:27). Religion is honorable when it is pure and clean, unmixed with human inventions and the corruption of the world. False religions can often be known by their impurity and lack of love. John says, “Whoever does not do what is right is not of God, nor is anyone who does not love his brother” (1 John 3:10). By contrast, a holy life and a loving heart show true religion. As Dr. Manton says, our religion is not made beautiful by ceremonies, but by purity and charity. He also wisely notes that a religion which is pure must be kept undefiled.

That pure religion is also what is pure and undefiled before God and the Father. What is right is what is right in God’s sight, and what mainly seeks his approval. True religion teaches us to live as if we are always before God. It leads us to seek his favor and to aim to please him in all we do.

Compassion and charity to the poor and suffering are a very great and necessary part of true religion. James speaks of “visiting the fatherless and widows in their affliction.” Here “visiting” means giving every kind of help we can. Fatherless children and widows are named because they are often neglected or oppressed, but the same rule applies to all who are fit objects of mercy, all who are in trouble. It is striking that if religion were summed up in two main duties, one of them would be to show mercy and relieve the afflicted.

An honest life must go with sincere love and charity: “to keep himself unspotted from the world.” The world easily stains the soul. It is hard to live in it and deal with it without being defiled, but that must remain our steady aim. This is part of pure and undefiled religion. The things of the world can soil our spirits if we spend too much time with them, and the sins and lusts of the world stain them far more deeply. John sums up what is in the world, and what we must not love, under three headings: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. To keep ourselves unspotted from all these is to keep ourselves unspotted from the world. May God, by his grace, keep both our hearts and our lives clean from love of the world and from the temptations of wicked worldly people.