James 1:25

Jam_1:25

The perfect law of liberty

The perfect law of liberty

I.

Here is a summary of THE CHARACTERISTICS OF GODS ROYAL WORD. It is brought before us in its authority, in its sufficiency, and in its freedom.

1. It is, in the first place, a law. It is not an opinion amenable to the caprice of the individual, to be obeyed or to be ignored at the bidding of an arbitrary will. It is a law, a supreme and an authoritative obligation issued by one who has a right to claim unquestioning obedience, and enforced by sanctions which it were madness to disregard. Herein does the teaching of Christ, the great Gospel Lawgiver, differ largely from the teaching of all others. He does not argue, He pronounces; He does not suggest, He commands. His words are veiled in no confusion and are prefaced by no apology. They are not opinions to be canvassed, perhaps refuted, but eternal truths, principles of conduct and of action, marching at once in their unconscious royalty to the lordship of the inner man. And with like majesty does the Word of God, our corn-men and precious Bible, present itself as a claimant for the sovereignty of the human mind. It is the province of your intellect to examine its evidence, to elicit its hidden meanings. Then your conscience should acknowledge its supremacy, and then your hearts, with loyal affections, should apply its truths and reduce them into the practice of the life.

2. I observe, secondly, this Word is presented to us not only in its authority, but in its sufficiency--it is a perfect law, given originally in fragments: it is presented now as the completed canon of Jehovahs will, the last, sufficient, everlasting message of Gods love to man. It is a perfect law--then it can be followed by no supplement. Perfect--then it can be superseded by no supplement. Perfect--then it can be ignored by no school of modern illuminators. Coming from a holy God, its morality is spotless. Issuing from the Just One, its decisions are equitable. It is a sufficient revelation. It is enough; not as if God had begun to build and was not able to finish His work.

3. And then, thirdly, I observe, the Word is presented to us not only in its authority, and in its sufficiency, but also in its freedom. It is a perfect law of liberty. it has been well observed that the highest liberty is a self-imposed restraint. The lark enjoys as rare a sense of freedom when it nestles in the tuft of grass as when it trills its sky-song in the visionless heights. We do not wonder that James, and Peter, and Jude, so delighted to call themselves servants, or, as the word might be with equal accuracy rendered, slaves of the Lord Jesus; that Christ Himself should have presented it as the condition of Christian discipleship; that we should take His yoke upon us, which is easy; or that the heart, in the fulness of its new experience, should exultingly exclaim--Thy service is perfect freedom. And this is the liberty promised by the perfect law. And this inner freedom extends to all needs, and is poured over every department and every faculty of a man.

4. And this law of liberty is perpetual. It perpetuates this freedom. There is now, therefore, no condemnation, &c. Such is the glorious freedom conferred by this law of liberty upon every believing soul. It is a freedom which the universe cannot parallel. There is a magic, you know, in the very name of liberty to which every heart re-spends. Poets have sung its praises; painters have immortalised its heroes upon canvas, and sculptors upon marble; patriots have looked proudly to heaven from its death-beds: its associations have glorified the commonest and least interesting spots of earth into holy shrines beaten with the pilgrim-feet of the world. The Theropylae of the worlds liberties; the Marathon of its triumph; the flat marsh upon the banks of the Thames where the charter of our freedom was wrung from a monarchs dastard soul; that field upon the Belgian plains which has grown up into, the Waterloo of a nations prowess--these flush our cheek, brighten our eye, and send the blood pulsing through our veins. But political liberty, dearly as we love it, though it has entailed sacrifice of blood and treasure, exerts no liberating influence upon the inner man, and can benefit any individual only for a few brief and fleeting years. But moral freedom is gained with no such price. We wade through no slaughtered hosts to reach it. Every individual is a partaker of its benefits. It dies not with the death of time; it is not an earthly boon or charter of victories that have turned tribunes into autocrats of a mob. There is no law of liberty here. It is there, if you choose to look for it, where frail and erring men--men of like passions with yourselves--have won, by the grace of God, the victory over their own hearts and passions, have pressed on in holiness of life and philanthropic service, resulting in blessing, and, at last, in the recompense of the conquerors heaven.

II. THE HEARERS OF THE WORD. If there be such a Word, so authoritative, so perfect, so free, and if that Word be the gospel which is preached unto you, there is a very solemn obligation resting upon you to take heed how ye hear. Those who fulfil this duty aright will not be forgetful hearers, to whom the truth comes in monotonous accents, as the dull sound of apology. (W. M. Punshon, D. D.)

The perfect law of liberty

I. A DIVINE DESCRIPTION OF THE GOSPEL.

1. A law. Not a mere set of propositions, theories, doctrines, which need not concern us; but a rule of life and conduct.

2. A perfect law.

(1) Made by the only and absolute Sovereign of mankind.

(2) Based upon a perfect knowledge of mans entire nature, conditions, and relationships in every place and time.

(3) Adapted to promote the highest ends of law in every way perfectly.

3. A law of liberty.

(1) It accepts only willing obedience.

(2) Submission to it brings liberty from--

(a) guilt;

(b) fear,

(c) sinful habits and propensities,

(d) the everlasting consequences of past (forgiven) transgressions.

II. MANS DUTY TO THE GOSPEL.

1. Careful personal investigation.

2. Retention of the truth thus learned.

3. Continual obedience.

III. THE BLESSINGS OF THE GOSPEL.

1. Approval of conscience.

2. Assurance of Divine favour.

3. The delight of conscious moral progress.

4. The joys of usefulness. (Systematic Bible Teacher.)

The perfect law of liberty

I. A PARTICULAR DESIGNATION GIVES TO THE GOSPEL. Modern legislation is very largely a history of repeal--the repeal of unjust laws; and this will go on until all inequalities and injustice are swept away. The gospel is perfect. You cannot improve it.

II. A PARTICULAR CONDUCT TOWARD THE GOSPEL DESCRIBED. A persistent childlike look of a trustful obedient child.

III. A PARTICULAR ASSURANCE made to him who maintains that conduct toward the gospel. Virtue is its own reward, so is obedience in this case. (J. Lewis.)

The gospel the perfect law of liberty

I. THE GOSPEL IS A LAW. The gospel may be called a law, because everything that concurreth to the right constitution and making of a law is found in the gospel; as--

1. Equity. All precepts of the gospel are just and equitable (Rom_7:12).

2. Promulgation, which is the life and form of a law (Mar_16:15; Isa_61:1).

3. The author, God; who has a right to prescribe to the creature (1Ti_1:11).

4. The end, public good; and the end of the gospel is salvation (Rom_1:16).

5. By this law we must walk (Gal_6:16; Isa_8:20; Rom_2:16).

II. A LAW OF LIBERTY.

1. Because it teacheth the way to true liberty (Joh_8:36; Rom_6:18).

2. The bond of obedience, that is laid on us in the gospel, is perfect freedom.

(1) The matter. Duty is the greatest liberty, and sin the greatest bondage (Psa_119:45, 2Pe_2:19).

(2) We do it upon free principles (Rom_12:1; Tit_2:12).

(3) We have the assistance of a free Spirit (Psa_51:12).

(4) We do it in a free state (Rom_8:15; Gal_4:31; Luk_1:74).

III. A PERFECT LAW OF LIBERTY.

1. When compared with the law of Moses (Heb_10:1-2).

2. It directs us to the greatest perfection (1Jn_4:18).

3. Because it is pure, free from error (Psa_119:140). And, lastly, because it maketh perfect (Psa_19:7).

IV. WHOSO LOOKETH.

1. Deepness of meditation (Psa_119:97).

2. Diligence of inquiry (Pro_2:3-4).

3. Liveliness of impression (2Co_3:18). As Mosess face shone by talking with God; and we, by conversing with the Word, carry away the beauty and glory of it in our spirits.

V. AND CONTINUETH THEREIN; i.e. persevereth (Joh_8:31; 2Jn_1:9). He being not a forgetful hearer, but remembereth, so as to reduce to practice; Jam_1:23-24. (Pro_4:20-21; Luk_2:19); a doer of the work. The gospel was not ordained only for speculation (Mat_3:8; Joh_6:29; Heb_6:10). The apostle speaks of a form of knowledge (Rom_2:20). Let not the tree of knowledge deprive us of the tree of life. Work the works of God: faith is our work, repentance our business, and the life of love and praise our duty. This man shall be blessed in his deed, alluding to Psa_1:3; in his deed, net for it Psa_19:11). He shall be blessed here with peace (Gal_6:16), and hereafter with eternal happiness (Rev_22:14). (T. Hannam.)

Looking into the perfect law

Whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty. A law must in the first instance be known and understood. It is by means either of the eye or the ear; by examining it for ourselves, or by receiving an account of it from the testimony of others. Both of these are alluded to in our text. The man whom the apostle pronounces blessed is he who looketh into the perfect law of liberty. He does not merely look at it; he looks into it. The word is expressive of fixed, earnest, and scrutinising inspection. Such is the disposition of the Christian inquirer, looking into the perfect law of liberty. He does not take matters on trust, or at second-hand. It is not enough that he has been instructed in the truths of the gospel in his youth by parents and others. He must look into it with his own eyes, and form a judgment of it from personal observation. Nor is he satisfied with a superficial inspection, or a general survey: He must look into it particularly--embracing in his inquiry every doctrine it reveals, every precept it recommends, and every ordinance it appoints; considering the nature and importance of each separately, estimating the evidence and excellence of the whole collectively. He gives it not a mere passing glance, but considers it with a steady, deliberate attention; reflecting on it calmly, dispassionately, with personal application and fervent prayer. It discloses to him the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ: it unfolds the plan of redeeming mercy; opens up the way of reconciliation; makes manifest the privileges of the people of God, both in a state of grace, and in the kingdom of glory. He looks into them not merely with the bodily eye, but with the eye of faith, realising their truth, persuaded of their necessity, continually discovering more and more of their grandeur, contemplating them with unfeigned growing delight; and by each new discovery animated to pursue his researches, until, in the light of eternity dissipating every shade of ignorance and error, he shall in Gods light see light, and know even as he is known. A hearer of it, and attends to the preaching of the Word, as well as the reading of it. I might enumerate classes of hearers in great variety, all of them equally in error, but time does not permit, nor does the subject call for it. Our text contains a description that includes them all. They are all forgetful hearers. They all forget the very thing which they should be most concerned to remember; and that is, their own personal interest in what they hear. They forget that their design in hearing should be the same with Gods design in speaking, and that is, that the heart may be made better. What they hear, however, makes no lasting or practical impression. But the man whom the apostle declares to be blessed, is not a forgetful hearer. He listens with deep attention, having both the understanding, the conscience, and the heart in exercise. He mingles faith with what he hears. Above all, he endeavours to follow up the design, and to secure the profit of hearing, by a course of devoted obedience. For true religion is altogether a practical thing. In this view, the apostle here contemplates it. The man whom he pronounces blessed, is, in opposition to the forgetful hearer. A doer of the work. It is observable that he says nothing of believing, and speaks only of doing. Nor was it necessary that he should. The doer of the work must, in the first instance, be a believer of the Word. The fountain must be cleansed that her streams may be pure. The tree must be made good that the fruit may be good. But as principle must precede, so it will produce practice. The believer, in obedience to the impulses of his renewed nature, will also become a doer. The man who from right principles yields obedience to any one precept of the law, will, under the impulse of the same principles, yield obedience to every other precept; will resist sin in all its forms, and pay a regard to duty in all its branches. What he ought to be at any time, he desires and endeavours to be at all times. To complete the description of the man whom he pronounces blessed, the apostle includes this thought. It is added, that he continueth therein. Of what use are momentary impulses and superficial impressions? There is a goodness which promises fair, but it soon vanishes, like the morning cloud and the early dew. The apostle has said of him, in most emphatic language, This man shall be blessed in his deed. This blessedness, though principally future, is partly present. He is even now blessed with an assured confidence, he is blessed with an approving conscience, which bears testimony to the sincerity of his profession, or the genuineness of his character, and holding out to him the prospect of a gracious reception, and a triumphant acquittal, at the tribunal of his Judge. He is blessed with a good hope, which rests on the surest foundation, is warranted by the clearest evidence. He is blessed with a contented mind, satisfied with the dealings of his heavenly Father, thankful for His mercies, patient under His chastisements. The consummation of blessedness is reserved for the just made perfect, who Shall suffer neither the misery of desire ungratified, nor the sickness of hope deferred; who shall drink deep in the river of pleasures, and be replenished with that fulness of joy which is at Gods right hand for evermore. (James Barr, D. D.)

The perfect law of liberty

I. What is THE LAW--THE PERFECT LAW OF LIBERTY? This question I have no hesitation in answering. It is the gospel. And, as a designation of the gospel, it is full of encouragement.

1. In the first place, the gospel is a law. Let none be alarmed. Instead of there being anything fearful in this view of it, there is everything that is fitted to impart the surest confidence to our souls. Were it not a law, no such confidence could be ours. It is as much the law, or revealed will of God, that man the sinner should be justified by faith, as it was that man the innocent should be justified by works. The way of deliverance from the laws curse has the same authority as the law itself, and the laws sanction.

2. In the second place, the gospel is a law, as coming with the full force of a Divine command. And strange that sinners should refuse submission to it!--strange that they should not embrace it with gratitude and joy!--for itis the law of liberty. Now, in the terms of prophetic intimation, the gospel proclaims, with the full authority of the Supreme Lawgiver, liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound: and various are the descriptions of liberty which it imparts. And it is the perfect law of liberty. All that is Divine is perfect. All Gods doings, in creation, in providence, and in redemption, are perfect.

This law of liberty is perfect, in two senses

1. It is perfect, in regard to the ground of freedom which it reveals. That ground is perfect, as it perfectly provides for the unsullied glory of all the attributes of God; as it perfectly answers the demands of His pure and holy law; and as it perfectly secures the principles of His moral government, and the stability of His throne.

2. It is perfect also in its effect on the conscience and on the heart. In this respect, it stands in contrast with the institutes of the Mosaic dispensation; which is termed a yoke of bondage, a yoke, says Peter, which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear.

II. THE DUTY OF LOOKING INTO THIS LAW: Whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth.--that is, I apprehend, continueth looking. There is apparently an intended contrast between the transient and careless beholding of the natural face in a glass referred to in the preceding verses. The looking is not, in this case, cursory and forgetful, but steady, and constant, and mindful. The full contents of the law of liberty--the glorious gospel of the blessed God--are full of sublimity and interest, in all the manifestations they make of the Divine Being, and of His relations to His creatures. They are inexhaustible. The duty incumbent upon us, then, is that of close, constant, unwearied contemplation.

III. THE INFLUENCE OF THIS LOOKING UPON THE CHARACTER: Whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work. How is this? Mere looking is not doing. Contemplation is not action. No; but doing is the result of looking; action of contemplation. The contemplation will increase faith: and the faith will work by love; producing, by the efficacy of what God reveals, a growing conformity to what God enjoins. The effect, indeed, may be traced to two principles--that of fear, as well as that of love. The more we contemplate the wonders of Christs work in the gospel, the more must we see of the purity, the perfection, and the irrepealable sanction of the Divine law--of which the transgression by men mingled for Him the inexplicably bitter cup of mediatorial suffering; and, as inseparable from this, the holiness, the justice, the truth, and the avenging judicial jealousy of the Lawgiver: and the more must we be filled with a salutary fear of offending, and so of incurring His displeasure, who has thus testified how infinitely hateful in His sight all sin is. Then, on the other hand, the love of God, and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, so marvellously discovered in the gospel--in the law of liberty--cannot fail, the more closely they are contemplated, to animate the great principle of all godly practice--the principle of love--of love at once complacential and grateful--love for what God is, and love for what God hath done, delightfully harmonising, and blending into one irresistible impulsive affection--the moving power of active and devoted service.

IV. THE HAPPINESS THENCE RESULTING: This man shall be blessed in his deed. In holy obedience to Gods will--in the filial and free service of this Divine Master--there is true happiness; happiness with which a stranger cannot intermeddle; which no man can take from its blessed possessor. He is blessed in his deed. Whatever enjoyment he might have in the contemplation, there could be no blessing upon him from God, without the result of the contemplation the holy practice. He enjoys subdued and regulated desires and affections; and has thus peace within. He has the inward consciousness of love to God and love to men; and thus a participation in the blessedness of the Divine benevolence. (R. Wardlaw, D. D.)

Law and liberty

Law--merely law--law only--is a bondage harsh and severe. Liberty alone, and unguarded, passes into licentiousness, runs riot, and becomes tyranny. Law needs to be sweetened by liberty, and liberty is no liberty without the fences of law. St. James strikingly blends them, and finds the blending where only it exists--in Gods Word: The perfect law of liberty. It is just, what all good legislation has as its aim: Law which is no less than liberty, and liberty which is compatible with law. But what human legislation has ever yet reached it? It would not be too much to say that the Christian religion is the only code in the whole world which ever has united, or can perfectly unite, those two things, so as to make them really one. See how it is in Gods method. And, first, we look at the liberty. Every man who becomes a real Christian becomes a free man: and the more he is a Christian the more he is free. The date and the measure of his Christianity are also the date and measure of his liberty. For, as soon as ever we really know Christ, and come to Christ, and believe in Christ, our sins are all forgiven. Therefore we are free from our past. And then, the Christian now, by his union with Christ, made, in a higher sense than before, a child of God, is undertaken for in everything: so that he need have no anxiety about what is coming. Every needful thing is covenanted to him for time and eternity: therefore that man is free from his future--he is liberated from the bonds of care. And the liberty is not only thus of a negative character. He is free, every moment of his life he is free, to go to the throne of God by a new and living way; to his own God, and to open there his whole heart and to tell Him everything; and have the closest communion with Him. And then to listen for still small voices which shall speak back to him. He is free to claim every promise. He is free to lay his hand of faith upon the Cross, and all that Cross has purchased, and say, It is mine! He is a freed man of the heavenly city, free, as a child of God is free of his Fathers house. To him the doors of glory are flung wide open! And he is free to mingle with the saints; to sit down at the feast; to join in the song; free, to the very feet of Jesus; to know as he is known, and love as he is loved. That is liberty! Now see the law--the perfect law of liberty. God has given, since the creation, four laws to man; but only one of the four can be rightly called a law of liberty. The original law of all was the law of conscience, a law which if man had not fallen would have been, we must believe, a perfect guide. But as man is now, conscience is only law in so far as it is the reflection of other laws which God has given us. Secondly, there was a law given to Adam and Eve in Paradise. This was a law of prohibition. Therefore it was not a law of liberty. The next law which God gave was the law enacted from Mount Sinai. But neither was this a law of liberty. Almost the whole of it is negative; it tells what we are not to do: and negatives can never be liberty. Fourthly, came the law of the Lord Jesus Christ. See what is the basis and the character of that fourth law. Every other law had failed; no man did keep it, or could keep it. If a mans eternal happiness depended upon any law which could be given, no man, from Adam to the latest man, could have fulfilled the condition. Christ saw that, and He came, and He Himself fulfilled all the law, to the minutest point. He carried out the whole mind of God. He fulfilled it as a Representative Man, that His fulfilment might be our fulfilment. And so God accepted it. What, then, is our law? Love, love, love for a law which has been kept for us. It is the strictest law that was ever made on earth. It binds every thought, every moment: but it has no shackles. It is more than voluntary: it is happy, quite happy--the only thing that is happy and makes everything else happy. It is free, quite free--the only thing that is tree and makes everything else free. It is the outcome of the heart. It is the law of angels. It is the law of the saints in heaven. It is the law of love; and the law of love is the law of liberty. (James Vaughan, M. A.)

The perfect law of liberty

I. THE OBJECT.

1. The gospel, therefore, has all the qualities and characteristics of a Divine legislation.

(1) A law is the mandate of a superior, who is supposed to possess judicial authority.

(2) A law is supposed to be founded in equity; and it is assumed that its requirements and exactions are such as justice cud reason bind its subjects to observe.

(3) A law is established for the public good, and is beneficial in its operations.

(4) A law must be promulgated or made known to those who are under it.

(5) A law has certain punishments annexed to the violation of its institution.

2. This system of religious truth, which we designate the gospel, is emphatically a perfect law.

(1) It is perfect, having nothing either deficient or redundant.

(2) It is pure.

(3) It is perfect, contrasted with the ceremonial ritual of the Mosaic law.

3. The gospel is also a law of liberty.

(1) The gospel exhibits to us the privilege of liberty.

(2) The gospel exhibits the means necessary for the attainment of this liberty.

(3) The gospel is the instrument of liberty.

II. AN ACTION.

1. This action implies--

(1) Attention to the letter of the gospel.

(2) That it is our duty to search into its signification.

(3) It implies also a participation in the benefits of the gospel.

2. It is necessary that we not only look into the perfect law of liberty, but that we continue therein.

(1) There must be a continuance in the possession of gospel privileges.

(2) Constant use of its ordinances.

(3) A constant exercise of gospel graces.

3. We now proceed to consider another branch of Christian duty He being not a forgetful hearer.

(1) The man who is entitled to the blessedness of the text must be a hearer. Endeavour to cultivate an affection for the Word of God--it requires no labour to remember what we love. Let us meditate on its precepts, not only when we are in the house of God, but when we have returned to our several occupations (Psa_119:97). That we may not be forgetful hearers, we must seek Divine assistance (Joh_14:26).

(2) In order to profit by what we hear, it is necessary that we reduce it to practice.

III. THE BENEFIT RESULTING FROM THE PERFORMANCE OF THIS DUTY. The reward here mentioned does not consist in the acquisition of worldly wealth, nor yet in freedom from trials or persecutions. If implies that his soul shall receive such a measure of the favour of God as shall enable him to find comfort and satisfaction in every dispensation of Providence. He shall be blessed with the approbation of God. He has also peace of conscience. He enjoys heavenly protection. (R. Treffry.)

The gospel law

I. THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST, HERE COMPARED TO A LOOKING-GLASS, IS ALWAYS BEFORE THE EYES OF THE CHRISTIAN, AND IS CALLED THE PERFECT LAW OF LIBERTY.

1. By this glass the soul discovers its filthiness (Joh_16:8-9).

2. This points him to Christ for cleansing (1Jn_1:7).

3. This shows him his perfect purification (Heb_10:14).

4. And freedom from condemnation (Rom_8:1).

5. Hence the gospel is called a law (Rom_3:27).

(1) It is perfect (Psa_19:7).

(2) It is the law of liberty from sin, Satan, the world, death, hell; to love, know, enjoy, and believe in God (Rom_8:21).

II. THE BELIEVERS CONDUCT IN RESPECT OF THIS GOSPEL LAW. He looketh into it.

1. He has now spiritual eyes to see (Isa_29:18).

2. To look is to understand (1Pe_1:12).

3. To look is to believe (Isa_45:22).

4. To look is to expect (Psa_123:2).

5. By metaphorical usage, it denotes to look into by way of examination: and by implication, to comprehend. Hence, believers look--

(1) Diligently.

(2) Anxiously.

(3) Constantly.

(4) Prayerfully.

(5) And with faith in Christ.

III. His PERSEVERANCE AFTER DIVINE KNOWLEDGE. And continueth therein.

1. God has pledged the grace of continuance (Jer_32:40).

2. The believer desires to continue (Psa_17:8).

3. The Scriptures exhort to continuance (Heb_13:9).

4. The gospel is a means of continuance (2Co_4:7).

5. Through this glass he continues to look unto Christ, and is saved Joh_15:9).

IV. THE INDIVIDUAL CONSEQUENCE OF UNDERSTANDING THE GOSPEL. He being not a forgetful hearer, &c.

1. Being conscious of his weak memory, he prays for the Spirit as his Remembrancer (Joh_14:26).

2. And of his wavering heart, that the gospel may be written therein Psa_119:80).

3. He is a doer of the work of faith and love (1Th_1:3).

4. It is not mans, but Gods work (Joh_6:38).

5. It is not performed by mans but Gods strength (Php_4:13).

6. It is done to Christs glory (Rom_11:36).

V. THE RESULTS OF BELIEVING THE GOSPEL. This man shall be blessed in his deed.

1. Not for what he does, but in what he does (Psa_19:11).

2. He shall be blessed providentially (Rom_8:28).

3. He shall be blessed graciously (Psa_132:15).

4. It also denotes that the Christian shall be blessed with--

(1) A knowledge of himself.

(2) A knowledge of God.

(3) A knowledge of His Word.

(4) A knowledge of salvation.

(5) The fulfilment of the promises.

(6) Deliverance from enemies.

(7) Support in difficulties.

(8) Joy in death.

(9) Everlasting glory of both soul and body in the life to come. (T. B. Baker.)

Christianity in three aspects

I. As A SYSTEM TO BE PROFOUNDLY STUDIED.

1. Its subjects have the highest claims to intellectual investigation.

2. Its method of revealing its subjects requires intellectual investigation.

3. Its blessed effects upon the heart can only be realised by intellectual investigation.

II. AS A LAW TO BE CONTINUALLY OBEYED. There are three things implied in a law--authority, publicity, and power of obedience. This law has the highest authority; is widely published; and all who bear it have the power to obey. The law of the gospel consists of two elements: the evangelical and the moral; the first, involving repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ; and the second, love to our neighbour and our God.

III. As A BLESSING TO BE NOW ENJOYED. This man is blessed, not in his ideas, sentiments, talk, lint in his deeds; not for deeds in some future state, but in his deeds now. (D. Thomas.)

The law of liberty

I. THE NATURE AND PROPERTIES OF THIS LAW. The law by which Christ governs is holy, just, and good. It unites the glory of the sovereign with the good of the subject.

II. MANS DUTY IN RELATION TO THIS LAW.

III. THIS ADVANTAGES RESULTING. This man shall be blessed in his deed.

1. He shall have the approval of his own mind.

2. He shall be blessed with increasing light and knowledge.

3. That which he doeth shall prosper.

4. He shall be blessed after his deed. God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love. Every man shall be rewarded according to his works. (Joseph Taylor.)

The perfect law

1. We should with all seriousness and earnestness apply ourselves to the knowledge of the gospel. Jewels do not lie upon the surface; you must get into the caverns and dark receptacles of the earth for them. No more do truths lie in the surface or outside of an expression. The beauty and glory of the Scriptures is within, and must be fetched out with much study and prayer. A glance cannot discover the worth of anything to us. He that doth but cast his eye upon a piece of embroidery cloth not discern the curiousness and the art of it. So to know Christ in the bulk doth not work half so kindly with us as when we search out the breadth, and the depth, and the length, the exact dimensions of His love to us.

2. The gospel is a law, according to which--

(1) Your lives must be conformed (Gal_6:16).

(2) All controversies and doctrines must be decided (Isa_8:20).

(3) Your estates must be judged (Rom_2:16).

3. The Word of God is a perfect law.

(1) It maketh perfect.

(2) It directeth us to the greatest perfection, to God blessed for ever, to the righteousness of Christ, to perfect communion with God in glory.

(3) It concerneth the whole man, and hath a force upon the conscience: men go no further than outward obedience; but the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul (Psa_19:7). It is not a lame, defective rule; besides outward observances, there is somewhat for the soul.

(4) It is a perfect law, because of the invariable tenor of it; it needeth not to be changed, but is always like itself: as we say, that is a perfect rule that needeth no amendment.

(5) It is pure, and free from error. There are no laws of men but there are some blemish in them.

(6) Because it is a sufficient rule. Christ hath been faithful in all His house, in all the appointments of it. Whatever is necessary for knowledge, for regulating of life and worship, for confirmation of true doctrines, for confutation of false, it is all in the Word That the man of God may be perfectly furnished unto every good work (2Ti_3:17). Well, then--

(1) Prize the Word. We love what is perfect.

(2) Suffer nothing to be added to it: Ye shall not add to the Word which I command you. So the whole Bible is concluded (Rev_22:18).

4. That the gospel, or Word of God, is a law of liberty. As it is a perfect, so it is a free law. So it is in divers respects.

(1) Because it teacheth the way to true liberty, and freedom from sin, wrath, death (Joh_8:36). There is no state so free as that which we enjoy by the gospel.

(2) The bond of obedience that is laid upon us is in deed and in truth a perfect freedom.

For--

1. The matter itself of our obedience is freedom.

2. We do it upon free principles.

3. We have the help of a free Spirit.

4. We do it in a state of freedom. Well, then, consider whether you be under a law of liberty, yea or no. To this end--

(1) Ask your souls, which is a bondage to you, sin or duty? When you do complain of the yoke, what is grievous to you, the commandment or the transgression?

(2) When you do duty, what is the weight that poiseth your spirits to it? Your warrant is the command; but your poise and weight should be love.

(3) What is your strength for duty--reason or the assistance of the free Spirit? When our dependence is on Christ, our tendency is to Him.

(4) Would you have the work accepted for its own sake, or your persons accepted for Christs side? It is an ill sign when a mans thoughts run more upon the property and quality of the work than upon the propriety and interest of his person.

5. From that and abideth therein. This commendeth our knowledge of and affection to the Word, to con-throe in it. Hypocrites have a taste; some mens hearts burn under the ordinances, but all is lost and drowned in the world again If ye continue ill the Word, then are ye My disciples indeed Joh_8:31). There may be good flashes for the present, but Christ saith, If ye continue, if ye ripen them to good affections. So 2Jn

1:9.

6. From that being not a forgetful hearer. Helps to memory--

(1) Attention. Men remember what they heed and regard.

(2) Affection. An old man will not forget where he laid his bag of gold.

(3) Application and appropriation of truths. We will remember that which concerns ourselves.

(4) Meditation, and holy care to cover the Word, that it be not snatched from us by vain thoughts.

(5) Observation of the accomplishment of truths.

(6) Practise what you hear (Psa_119:93).

(7) Commit it to the Spirits keeping and charge (Joh_14:26).

7. From that he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer. Sin cometh for want of remembering: forgetful hearers are negligent (Psa_103:18). There are some truths that are of a general use and benefit; others that serve for some cases and seasons. In the general, hide the whole Word in your heart, that ye may have a fresh truth to check sin in every temptation Psa_119:11). Remember and forget not how thou provokedst the Lord thy God in the wilderness (Deu_9:7). Labour thus to get a present ready memory, that will urge truths in the season when they do concern us.

8. From that but a doer of the work. The Word layeth out work for us.

9. From that shall be blessed in his deed. There is a blessedness annexed to the doing of the work of the Word; not for the works sake, but out of the mercy of God. See, then, that you hear so that you come within the compass of the blessing; the blessing is usually pronounced at the time of your addresses to God in this worship. (T. Manton.)

The perfect law and its doers

I. THE PERFECT LAW.

1. No word of the New Testament is given to us only in order that we may know truth, but all in order that we may do it. Every part of it palpitates with life, and is meant to regulate conduct.

2. In the very central fact of the gospel there lies the most stringent rule of life. Jesus Christ is the Pattern, and from those gentle lips which say, If ye love Me keep My commandments, law sounds more imperatively than from all the thunder and trumpets of Sinai.

3. In the great act of redemption, which is the central fact of the New Testament revelation, there lies a law for conduct. Gods love redeeming us is the revelation of what we ought to be, and the Cross, to which we look as the refuge from sin and condemnation, is also the pattern for the life of every believer.

4. This law is a perfect law. It not only tells us what to do, but it gives us power to do it: and that is what men want. The gospel brings power because it brings life.

II. THE DOERS OF THE PERFECT LAW.

1. Cultivate the habit of contemplating the central truths of the gospel, as the condition of receiving in vigour and fulness the life which obeys the commandment.

2. Cultivate this habit of reflective meditation upon the truths of the gospel, as giving you the pattern of duty in a concentrated and available form.

3. Cultivate the habit of meditating on the truths of the gospel, in order that the motives of conduct may be reinvigorated and strengthened.

4. The natural crown of all contemplation and knowledge is practical obedience.

III. THE BLESSEDNESS OF THE DOERS OF THE PERFECT LAW. Notice the in, not after, not as a reward for, but blessed in his deed. In keeping Thy commandments there is great reward. The rewards of this law are not arbitrarily bestowed, separately from the act of obedience, by the will of the Judge, but the deeds of obedience automatically bring the blessedness. This world is not so constituted as that outward rewards certainly follow on inward goodness. Few of its prizes fall to the lot of the saints. But men are so constituted as that obedience is its own reward. There is no delight so deep and true as the delight of doing the will of Him whom we love. There is no blessedness like that of increasing communion with God, and the clearer perception of His will and mind which follow obedience as surely as the shadow does the sunshine. There is no blessedness like the glow of approving conscience, the reflection of the smile on Christs face. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

The blessedness of doing

To have the heart in close communion with the very Fountain of all good, and the will in harmony with the will of the best Beloved; to hear the Voice that is dearest of all, ever saying, This is the way, walk ye in it; to know a spirit in my feet impelling me upon that road; to know that all my petty deeds are made great, and my stained offerings hallowed by the altar on which they are honoured to lie and to feel fellowship with the Friend of my soul increased by obedience; this is to taste the keenest joy and good of life, and he who is thus blessed in his deed need never fear that that blessedness shall be taken away, nor sorrow though other joys be few and griefs be many. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Forgetteth what manner of man he was

Self-forgetfulness

There are some who have not forgotten what manner of men they are, simply because they have never known it. From childhood they have been brought up with utterly false notions of themselves. Subservience and flattery may create convictions which take such firm hold of the mind that it can never get free from them; or constant engrossing work may so expend its forces as to leave none for introspection. But most of us at times Lave had little glimpses of ourselves. We have been worsted in some conflict; and although we do say to ourselves that the contest was not quite fair, yet there is the fact that we have been beaten, that perhaps we have been beaten often; and there does come the little suggestion of disappointment at times, that perhaps we are not quite so wise and competent as once we took ourselves surely to be. Or some friend whose affection for us determines that we shall not think, without protest, more highly of ourselves than we ought to think--called the malice of kind people--such a friend feels it a duty to tell us of some fault which people talk about and think such a pity, and the spiteful truth, or lie truth-tinged, gives us a side view of ourselves which we have never seen before, and we do not like it much. Or people talk about graces and gifts which so eminently distinguish others, when, to tell the truth, if anybody is remarkable for possessing them, certainly we thought we were. It was mortifying that nobody seemed to know it. Then, again, there have been moments when, as it were, the devil himself has entered into us, and, by the lurid light of his presence, we have for an instant seen inside some of the dark chambers of our heart, and looked upon the unclean spirits which hide there, yet ready at any moment to go forth on an evil work. Or the vision of some beauty or purity with which the trust of love had endowed us, but which we knew was not ours, or some voice of God which seemed to draw the soul up from its low dwelling-place to fairer regions, have made us dissatisfied with ourselves and shown us our grievous faults, and yet filled us with the hope of rising above them. Few men thoroughly know themselves, few men can look upon their characters as upon a geological map, with each stratum clearly marked, showing its colour and extent and fossil history, so that a man can stand before his mapped-out character and see what manner of man he is. If the dead are able to read their own memoirs, how startled at times they must be, how mortified, how indignant! How should one of us like to read these words about ourselves: His life was one long series of tricks--mean and malicious. He was all stiletto and mask. To injure, to insult, to save himself from the consequences of injury and insult by lying and equivocating, was the habit of his life. Besides his faults of malignity, of fear, of interest, and of vanity, there were frauds which he committed for love of fraud alone? Do you think the man about whom such words were written thought himself all that? Yet that is Macaulays estimate of the character of Pope. But, as I have said, if we know ourselves very imperfectly, we do at times get glimpses of ourselves, and these transient glimpses should be turned to profit in new labour of caution and prayer. In the first place, I think we may say that there are those who not merely forget what manner of men they are, but who almost forget the fact that after all they are only men. Because circumstantially they differ from their fellows, they think that they belong altogether to another race. The vauntings of Nebuchadnezzar; the bursting ostentation of Herod Agrippa; the frenzy of some of the Roman emperors, whose deity compelled obsequious courtiers to shade their eyes; the punctilios of abject daily observance demanded by Louis XIV., these are types of moral dementia. But the same kind of improper forgetfulness extends through all ranks of life. It is sometimes seen in the mental arrogance of some powerful mind, which has nothing but scorn for the simple and the dull It is seen in that overweening sense of social superiority which is a fertile parent of bad manners, If, instead of this weak, foolish self-importance, we realised the Churchs teaching, All ye are brethren, the lot of the humbler and less fortunate of our fellow-men would be alleviated by the tender consideration and affectionate courtesy of those more highly favoured. But if we are in danger of forgetting that we, however highly placed, are only men, is it not a fact that we still more frequently forget that we are weak, faulty, and, indeed, too often fallen men? When one thinks of it, how few things can be more surprising than the readiness with which the mass of mankind are prepared to pass decisive judgment on anything which may come under their notice. They allot approval to this, and pronounce condemnation upon that, and have forgotten what manner of men they are--for-gotten that they possess nothing but inherited prejudices, or capricious partialities, or fugitive reflections from other minds on which to found their assumption. And, more especially, would not the hardness and intolerance which is shown by thousands towards certain Churches and certain parties be shamed away, if only those parties and Churches were thoroughly understood; and if only we all remembered how apparently accidental is our own position, that but for chance, as we say, we might have been that which now we denounce. But, again, if men forget their intellectual poverty, do they not oftener forget their moral depravity? Certainly there is a great deal of evil in the world, but it does not strike one that the mass of mankind are possessed by a sense of their own badness. Take those we severely blame in our tenants, servants, dependants. Have we not quite forgotten that something like the same thing is done by ourselves? Even a fraudulent bank director has sentenced a petty thief to gaol without blushing. The things we have done, and the things we should like to do if we dared--these tell us something of our nature, and should tinge all our judgments with pity. Or, take it again in the quiet scenes of worship, when the tumult of life is stilled, and we draw nigh in confession to the great throne of renewal. There are uttered the solemn words of confession, and on bended knees we join with the priest and make our self-revelation. But what is there we see when we pour forth the litauies of the penitent? Is it a line of hated foes through which we have passed, and by which we have been smitten on every hand, and does the new week show the same dark gauntlet to be run again? and is the cry, Lord, have mercy upon us, our cry of conflict with recognised evils? Then the pangs of memory become a cross of salvation. Or, on the other hand, when we make our confession, is the only thing we have forgotten our faults and the ruin they are working, our moral diseases and the grave to which they are leading us; and the only thing we see--ourselves arrayed in Sunday graces? Oh, we forget the days of the week, each with its evil of temper, intention, and indulgence, its meanness, its frivolity, its cruelty; the scenes of home, and work, and reelection--the scenes which, if some one for whon we cared had seen, would have compelled an unaccustomed blush--all these we forget as we kneel and confess. Oh! it is time that we remembered ourselves, so would a humbler and more gentle spirit rule us. It is time that we remembered ourselves, so would a regenerating intention inspire us. And if we would indeed see ourselves, and, having seen, see that same self no more, we must Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. (W. Page Robert. , M. A.)

The nature or the gospel law

Christ did not make laws for His Church as Phaleas, in Aristotle, did for his commonwealth, who took good order for preventing of smaller faults, but left way enough to greater crimes. No; He struck down all, digged up all by the roots, both the cedars and the shrubs, both the greatest and the smallest. He laid His axe to the very beginnings of them, and would not let them breathe in a thought, nor be seen in a look. Nor did He, like that famous Grecian painter, begin His work, but die before He could perfect it. It were the greatest opposing of His will to think so. He left nothing imperfect, but sealed up His evangelical law, as well as His obedience, with a Consummatum est. What He began He ever finished. In a word, His will is most fully and perspicuously expressed in His gospel. But yet, to urge this home, this giveth no encouragement to condemn those means which God hath reached forth to direct us in our search. Though the lessons be plain, yet we see many times negligence cannot pass a line, when industry hath run over the whole book. Nor can We think that that truth which will make us perfect is of so easy purchase that it will be sown in Any ground, and, like the devils tares, grow up whilst we sleep (Mat_13:25). (A. Farindon, B. D.)

True liberty

Horace Bushnell speaks of a liberty above, and a liberty below the elbows; and Charles Kingsley says, There are two freedoms--the false, where a man is free to do what he likes; the true, where a man is free to do what he ought.

Slavery and liberty

James II., on his death-bed, thus addressed his son:--There is no slavery like sin, and no liberty like Gods service. Was notthe dethroned monarch right? (H. Melvill, B. D.)

And continueth therein

Continuance

I commend perseverance unto you as a condition annexed to every virtue; so Bernard--as that which compasseth every good grace of God about as with a shield; so Parisiensis--as that gift of God which preserveth and safeguardeth all other virtues; so Augustine. For though every good gift and every perfect gift be from above (Jam_1:17), though those virtues which beautify a Christian soul descend from heaven, and are the proper issues as it were from God Himself; yet perseverance is unica filia, saith Bernard, his only daughter and heir, and carrieth away the crown (Mat_24:13). He runneth in vain, who runneth not to the mark. He runneth in vain, that fainteth in the way, and obtaineth not. Whatsoever is before the end, is not the end, but a degree unto it. What is a seed, if it shoot forth and flourish, and then wither? What is a gourd, which groweth up in a night, and shadoweth us, and then is smitten the next morning with a worm and perisheth? What is a fair morning to a tempestuous day? What is a Sabbath-days journey to him who must walk to the end of his hopes? What is an hour in Paradise? What is a look, an approach towards heaven, and then to fall back and be lost for ever? A good beginning must be had, but let the end be like unto the beginning. Let not Jupiters head be set upon the body of a tyrant; as the proverb is, A young saint, and an old devil: but let holiness, like Josephs coat of many colours, be made up of many virtues, but reaching down to the very feet, to our last days, our last hour, our last breath. For this is our eternity here on earth; et propter hoc aeternun consequimur aeternum: Our remaining in the gospel, our constant and never-ceasing obedience to it, is a Christians eternity below; and for this span of obedience, which is the mortals eternity, we gain right and title to that real eternity of happiness in the highest Leavens. To remain in the gospel and to be blessed for ever, are the two stages of a Christian; the one here on earth, the other in the kingdom of heaven: to look into the gospel, that is the first; and the second is like unto it, to remain in it, to set a court of guard about us, that no deceitful temptation remove us out of our place. Our perseverance is a virtue which is never in actu complete, never hath its complete act in this life. (A. Farindon, B. D.)

The eye effects the sight

There is much in the eye. For the law of liberty is still the same; it moulteth not a feather, changeth not its shape and countenance: but it may appear in as many shapes as there be tempers and constitutions of the eyes that look into it. An evil eye seeth nothing but faction and debate. A lofty eye seeth nothing but priority and preeminence. A bloodshot eye seeth nothing but cruelty, which they call justice. All the errors of our life, as the philosophers speak of the colours of the rainbow, are oculi opus, the work of the eye. For the law itself can lend nothing towards them, but stareth them in the face, when the eye hath raised them, to shake and demolish them. It were good, then, to clear our eye before we took into the law, lest whilst we find what pleaseth us, we find what will ruin us. But oh that we should have such eagles eyes in the things of this world, and be such bats in the gospel of Christ! The covetous looketh into the world, and that hath power to I transform his soul into earth. The wanton looketh upon beauty, and that turneth his into flesh. David beholdeth Bathsheba in her bath, and is on fire. Ahab looketh upon Naboths vineyard, and is sick. The eye of flesh pierceth deep into the object, and the object pierceth as deep into the soul. But we look and look again into the law of liberty, but so faintly that we draw no power from it to renew us in the inward man (Eph_3:16). It is a law of liberty, and we look upon it, and yet are slaves. (A. Farindon, B. D. )

Not a forgetful hearer

Spiritual mnemonics; or rules for improving the memory

It is a bad thing to have a poor memory. What a difference there is between people in this respect! How little impression events make on some persons! How easily they forget names, dates, faces, the books they have read, the scenes they have visited! And how wonderfully others remember all these things!

Macaulay could repeat from memory books he had read when he was a boy; could repeat the whole of Paradise Lost, or one of the books of Homer. Indeed, there seems to be hardly any limit to the power of memory. Generals have been known who recollected the name of every soldier in their army, and politicians who could call by name every man to whom they have been introduced. A good memory is the necessary basis of all intellectual action. I think the time will come when we shall know how to educate and discipline the memory, and keep it from forgetting. There will be rules for memorising taught in our schools, to strengthen the memory and keep it in a healthy condition. The most important element of such a system will probably be to form a habit of attention with the purpose of remembering. How we recollect times, places, scenes, adventures, experiences, in which our whole soul was interested! I have heard a woman describing the last days of her husbands life, or that of her child, and every minutest incident was photographed on her brain. So the Evangelists recollect and record all the sayings of their Master, word for word. So the man who has been in a shipwreck, or a railroad accident, or a battle, describes, with intense minuteness and accuracy, all the details, till it rises before you a vivid picture, which you also will remember always, though hearing it at second hand. The stories of travellers are interesting for the same reason, because the novelty of the scenes they visit rouses their attention, and the vivid impressions made on their own minds excite a like interest in ours. We remember that in which we are interested, because we give our attention to it. But when we are not interested in anything, and so do not give our attention to it, we are sure to forget it. Facts and lessons which do not interest us are like the plants which have no root in themselves, and soon wither away. I heard a worthy gentleman arguing that studies ought not to be made too interesting, because boys and girls should have the discipline of hard work. But who works the hardest, I should like to know, he whose heart is not in the work, and who has to force himself to do it by main strength of will, or he who enjoys it while he does it, or does it with the hope of future joy. It is hope and joy which give us strength to work, not disgust or indifference. But we weaken the memory by inattention, which results from the absence of a deep interest and a living purpose. The general rule, then, for improving the memory is, Take an interest in anything, and you will attend to it; attend to it, and you will recollect it. But what cure is there for moral forgetfulness? Here is a man who forgets all the lessons of experience. He commits the same faults over and over again. Each time, he says to himself, This is the last time; I will never do so again; I will keep my resolutions hereafter. But he goes his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he is. When I was a boy at the Boston Latin School, our master introduced one day a learned-looking gentleman, who, he told us, had come to teach us a new system of intellectual mnemonics. The thing was done by help of the law of association. We first fixed in our mind a list of familiar objects, and then associated them with the names of kings and queens. But where is the science of spiritual mnemonics? Who shall teach the conscience to remember its duty in the hour of temptation? the heart to remember its best love when drawn aside to the world. There are many marked instances of moral forgetfulness, which show the importance of such a science as this. We are very apt, for example, to forget the religious and moral truth which we hear. We are forgetful hearers of the Word. Where is all the instruction which has been poured into our ears and heart from childhood, by ever-faithful parents, by teachers, professors and guardians. It has all gone. Again, how we forget our own good resolutions! We arrange our life, at the beginning of the year, into a perfect order. We select the faults to be conquered, the virtues to be acquired, the studies to be pursued, the good actions to be done. At the end of the year we look back and find that all these resolutions were presently forgotten, and we went on as before. Again, we forget our duties. You are one of the most perfect of men, said Lamb to Coleridge, with only this one slight fault, that if you have any duty to do, you never do it. We remember everything but our duties--these slip from our memory too easily. We forget our promises andengagements. How very mortifying to find that we have promised to do a multitude of things, and that we have forgotten them all! Alas I and worse, we forget the kindness done to us. At the time we feel very grateful, but gratitude becomes burdensome, and so, after a while, we have forgotten our benefactors and their deeds. We forget them, but do not forget those who have injured us, who have wounded our pride. Ah! we remember that too well; the deadly arrow adheres to our side. We forget the holy love of Christ, the ever-present providence of God, the impending judgments of the future. Who shall give us the system of moral mnemonics by which to remember these things? The difficulty is that we are not really as much interested in the love of God, in duty and spiritual progress, as we are in other matters. But we have all seen those who did not suffer from this fatal want of memory. How is it that they remember so well? It is love which quickens all the powers, memory among the rest. Did Dr. Howe ever forget his blind people? Did Mr. Garrison ever forget his slaves? Did Howard ever forget his prisoners? Did Dorothea Dix ever forget her insane persons? Did Florence Nightingale forget the sick soldiers? Did Lincoln forget the dangers of the country which he served? Or did Jesus ever forget His disciples or His work? No. All these, having loved their own, loved them to the end. Where the heart goes, there memory watches, a sleepless sentinel, ready for every occasion. Only to hear about truth, therefore, profits nothing. We must do it ourselves in order to know it. Lazy acquiescence in anothers opinion is not knowledge. Easy assent to the established creed is not belief. Enthusiastic admiration of the eloquence of some favourite teacher is not faith. Truth helps no one who has only heard about it. Until we are doers of the Word, as well as hearers, we are like the clocks and watches in the watchmakers shop. He sets them all to the right time, and winds them up; but till he touches the pendulum and sets in motion they cannot keep time. So we go to church every Sunday, and the minister winds us up by convincing arguments and by the truths of the gospel; and then he appeals to our feelings, and touches our hearts, and we are set exactly right. The hour-hand and minute-hand are right to a moment. The moral chronometer is regulated to a second. But we ourselves must set the pendulum in motion, and begin to go; else what does it profit us? To be set right and regulated every Sunday morning, what use is there in that, unless we keep going through the week? When we are hearers and not doers, we deceive ourselves. All our thoughts are excellent, our ideas of duty correct, our sentiments noble: we take the highest grounds on all occasions. But this is all outside of our central life. We wash our hands, but not our hearts. Because we are so familiar with what is true and right, we forget at last what manner of men we are. Hearing the truth, when we refuse to act it out, ends in opinion, and opinion in talk, and talk in self-deception. There is a good deal of cheating in the world, but people usually cheat themselves more than they do others. We repeat by rote what we hear, and think that we know it. We talk well and imagine that we are what we say. We hear a truth, and imagine that it is a part of our own character. So we deceive ourselves. Until we have put a truth into action, we do not really know it. The artist may study colours and forms for ever; but until he tries to paint a picture he is only a dilettante artist. The carpenter may hear lectures on the use of tools, but till he learns to use them we do not call him a carpenter. The youth who graduates in a law-school, full of the theory of law, is not yet a lawyer. Do anything, and you come to know it, and then truth becomes knowledge and creates love. We have in Boston a Free Religious Association, as it is called. Yet true religion is always free, and always sets us free. It is a law of liberty; liberty and law in one. Religion is the source of all real freedom, for true freedom is not wilfulness, but self-direction. And we can only direct ourselves when we have some rule or law by which to direct ourselves; some aim of life, and some method by which to pursue that aim. The rule for strengthening the memory, then, so that we shall not be forgetful hearers, is, first, to give our attention to what we hear, to put our mind into it. A common phrase in English is to mind a thing, meaning to remember it. Another meaning of mind is to obey. Mind your father and mother, child! To put our mind seriously into anything, leads, first to memory; next, to action. And this action, if we continue therein, becomes at last interesting for its own sake, and so we make it a part of ourselves. We eat it and drink it, and it enters into our life, and lifes most secret joy, so that finally we become blessed in our deed. Thus continued, persistent attention, given to what is true and right, leads to action; and persistent, continued action, leads to love, and deed. (J. Freeman Clarke.)

Forgetful hearers

Were you to stand at the door of many of our churches, and ask the people as they came out what had been the subject principally dealt with, or the point aimed at by the discourse they had just been listening to, how many would be able to give an intelligible and satisfactory answer? In a large number of cases even the text is, I fear, forgotten before the ascription is reached. Only a short time ago a friend of mine was preaching in one of our cathedral churches. As he was going to select for his text a prominent passage in one of the portions for the day, he thought it expedient to inquire of the clerk, What did the Canon preach from this morning? The clerk became very pensive, seemed quite disposed to cudgel his brain for the proper answer; but, somehow or other, he really could not think of it just then. But there were all the men of the choir robing in the adjacent choir vestry; he would go and ask them. Accordingly the same question was passed round the choir, and produced the same perplexity. At length the sagacious clerk returned with the highly explicit answer, It was upon the Christian religion, sir! I think those good people must have needed a reminder as to how we should hear, dont you? (W. H. M. H. Aitken, M. A.)

But a doer of the work

Doctrine rendered into life

The truth in Jesus is not a comet, attracting attention, awakening wonder, appearing for a little time and then vanishing away; it is the sun which makes and which rules our spiritual day, and it is the moon relieving the darkness of spiritual night. The truth in Jesus is not like the pictures on the walls of our dwellings, pleasant rather than serviceable, or if useful, not essential; it is as the necessary furniture of our homes. It is not as the garnish of the dishes of a feast, it is as the viands themselves; it is not as honey to bread, but is itself bread of life. It is not as unimportant appendage to Christian character, it is that characters necessary foundation. Let us not neglect doctrine, and let us be careful to render it into action and life. (S. Martin.)

This man shall be blessed in his deed

Happiness connected with obedience to the law of Christ

I. THE DESCRIPTION OF THE GOSPEL REVELATION.

1. James calls it the law, the law of liberty, and the perfect law of liberty. The gospel revelation is the law of the Christian. It is a law of life in contrast with a law of sin and death. It is revealed by Christ Jesus in contrast to that revealed by Moses; it is a law of grace and truth: The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

2. The gospel revelation is the law of liberty, in describing which we cannot, perhaps, more simply and impressively dwell upon it than by keeping before the mind the contrast between the Old and the New Testament revelations. The moral and ceremonial laws enslave their subjects, or rather, they are in bondage who are under the law. But the law of the gospel is a law of liberty; it is a provision of mercy and love to set free from the law of sin and death. The son who loves his father feels a delight in doing his fathers will; the service done is perfect freedom, and the law of the father is perfect liberty. It is just in this spirit and in this way the gospel is a law of liberty to us. It is true that the natural man cannot understand this, for the service of religion appears to him servile duty; he cannot find interest nor pleasure in it, and by his own feelings and inclination he judges of others. He is, it may be, a very slave to the vilest propensities of his fallen nature, and yet never dreams that he is suffering himself to be led captive by the devil at his will.

3. The gospel revelation is the law of perfect liberty. There is perfection in everything that originates with God. This law is perfect with respect to its completeness and the liberty it affords. As a revelation from God, it contains a full development of the mind of God concerning the covenant of His grace with men; it contains a perfect directory to us as sinners; it opens up and points out the way to happiness and God. It is perfect in all its provisions; perfect in the sinless obedience of the Son of God, who engaged in covenant with the Father for our salvation; perfect in the infinite satisfaction given by Him to Divine justice; perfect in the spotless sacrifice He offered for our sins; perfect in the complete salvation obtained for us and therein revealed. It is perfect in its precepts, perfect in its promises, perfect in its doctrines, and perfect in the countless blessings it brings to men.

4. Now, this perfect law of liberty is given to us that we may know the mind and will of God concerning our salvation. We have not to say, Who shall ascend into heaven? or, Who shall descend into the deep? to obtain this law of the gospel for us, for the word is nigh us, even in our mouth and in our heart.

II. THE CONDUCT OF THOSE WHO ARE INFLUENCED BY IT.

1. Such conduct is described in our text as looking into it, continuing therein, and doing the work. Looking into it signifies no superficial investigation, nor casual perusal, such as the uninterested and unconcerned would give it under some conviction of conscience arising from a sense of duty. A profound meditation is directed into the word of the gospel, with a view to comprehend the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge. When savingly interested in the gospel, we look into it so as to find the virtue of it in our hearts. It cannot be better explained, perhaps, than in the words of the apostle (2Co_3:18). The Christian cannot rest satisfied unless he is looking into the law of the gospel so as to be transformed by it into the likeness of Christ.

2. The continuance therein proves that with the true Christian religion is not of an evanescent character. It is true that the Christian is the subject of many changes. The liveliness of his impressions may not always be the same. Clouds may cover his mind, temptations may assault his soul, unbelief may distress his spirit. But under all such painful exercises he does not despise the perfect law of liberty; he rather turns to it with solicitude and prayer. It is his chart to heaven; it sheds a light upon his path to cheer and comfort his distressed spirit.

3. Continuing therein presents a line of conduct directly in contrast with that of the casual observer or the individual who discovers in it the deformity of his own character, add straightway goeth his way and forgetteth what manner of person he was, or that of a hearer and not a doer of the work.

4. Doing the work is knowledge reduced to practice, theory carried to a living embodiment of truth, and principle fell wed to active development.

Where there is sincerity of heart, obedience will follow. The glory of the gospel revelation is, that God, by implanting a gracious principle in the souls of the regenerate, gives power to the Christian to do all that He requires. Though we are not under the moral law as working for life, we are under it as a rule of action, and every Christian delights in it. The commands of the New Testament are to repent, believe, love, serve, worship, and praise God. The individual who doeth these doeth the Christian work--the work that God requires of us in the gospel of His grace--and such shall be saved.

III. THE HAPPINESS OF THE PRACTICAL CHRISTIAN This man shall be blessed in his deed. It is not every man nor every professor of Christianity to whom attention is directed, but that individual who lives his profession by learning from the revealed will of Heaven what is required of him, and who reduces it to practical godliness. He may, in his onward course to heaven, experience rebuffs, assaults, and various trials; but with all these the Lord points him out as the object of His favour and delight. It is in his deed he is to be blessed, for in the practice of godliness the blessing comes. It is a medium or a channel through which the Lord visits him with blessing, or makes him happy. It is as impossible to separate happiness from religion as it is to separate sensation from life. The seraphic joys of heaven spring from likeness to God and from doing His will; and were it not for the remaining corruption of nature and the imperfect knowledge and service of the Christian on earth, the bliss of a paradise would be experienced. The devoted Christians happiness is a combination of spiritual peace, love, joy, fellowship and communion with Jehovah. The experience of this blessedness is not in its full measure. There are degrees of happiness, and for the most part in this life moderately and faintly experienced. But the lowest degree makes the Christian feel how foolish, vain, and hurtful are the highest enjoyments of sinful and worldly pleasures, so that he turns from what the world calls happiness with sorrow and disgust. It must not be forgotten that the devoted Christian is not exempt from trials and afflictions as diversified and multiplied as those of men generally, and by reason of mental and bodily infirmities may have sorrow, distress, and darkness of soul. He has seasons when he is in the valley as well as on the mount, but he is blessed notwithstanding. God is still his covenant Father; Jesus Christ is still his Saviour, Friend, and Brother; the Holy Spirit is still his Sanctifier and Comforter; the promises of God are still his. He is pardoned, he is justified, and he is sanctified. The life of Christian devotedness is, then, a life of happiness. There is blessedness in all spiritual exercises of the Christian heart, blessedness in all the performances of Christian devotion and duties, and blessedness in all the benevolent operations of the Christians life and actions; so that not even a cup of cold water can be administered in the name of a disciple unregarded by the Lord or unblessed by Him. (S. Wills, D. D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jas 1:25. But whoso looketh — Not with a transient glance, but, as παρακυψας signifies, bending down, as it were, with an intention to fix his eyes upon, examine with accuracy, and search all things to the bottom. The expression implies much thought and meditation, joined with self- examination: into the perfect law — Namely, that of the gospel, termed a law, as being a rule of faith and practice, obligatory upon all to whom it is made known, acquitting or condemning men, (for by it they will be judged at the last day,) and determining our state for ever: called a perfect law, 1st, Because it is clear, concise, full, having no deficiency, and yet containing nothing superfluous. 2d, Because of its superiority to the law of Moses, which made no man perfect, either in respect of justification or sanctification, Heb 7:10; whereas the gospel is calculated to make men perfect in both respects. And the apostle terms it the law of liberty, 1st, In opposition to the ceremonial law, which was a yoke of bondage the Jews could not bear, and from which it freed all that received it; Christ’s yoke being easy, his burden light, and his commandments not grievous. 2d, Because it delivers all true believers from the guilt of past sin, from the curse of the law, and from the wrath of God. 3d, Because it rescues them from the power of sin and Satan, of the world and the flesh, and from the slavery of their lusts and passions, restoring the dominion of reason and conscience in their minds, which is true liberty. 4th, Because it saves those, on whom it has its designed influence, from all slavish fear of God, all tormenting fear of death and hell, and the whole spirit of bondage. Observe, reader, he who receives the gospel in faith, love, and new obedience, is free; he that does not is not free, but a slave to sin, and a criminal before God. And continueth therein — Perseveres in the study, consideration, and belief of it, and in obedience to it; see Joh 8:31; being not a forgetful hearer — Like the person above described; but a doer of the work — Of the duty which the gospel requires; this man — There is a peculiar force in this repetition of the word; shall be blessed — Μακαριος, happy; in his deed — Not only in hearing, but especially in doing the will of God.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

James

THE PERFECT LAW AND ITS DOERS

Jas 1:25.

AN old tradition tells us that James, who was probably the writer of this letter, continued in the practice of Jewish piety all his life. He was surnamed ‘the Just.’ He lived the life of a Nazarite. He was even admitted into the sanctuary of the Temple, and there spent so much of his time in praying for the forgiveness of the people that, in the vivid language of the old writer, his ‘knees were hard and worn like a camel’s.’ To such a man the Gospel would naturally present itself as ‘a law,’ which word expressed the highest form of revelation with which he was familiar; and to him the glory of Christ’s message would be that it was the perfecting of an earlier utterance, moving on the same plane as it did, but infinitely greater.

Now that, of course, is somewhat different from the point of view from which, for instance, Paul regards the relation of the Gospel and the Law. To him they are rather antitheses. He conceived mainly of the law as a system of outward observances, incapable of fulfilment, and valuable as impressing upon men the consciousness of sin.

But, though there is diversity, there is no contradiction, any more than there is between the two pictures in a stereoscope, which, united, represent one solid reality. The two men simply regard the subject from slightly different angles. Paul would have said that the gospel was the perfection of the law, as indeed he does say that by faith we do not make void, but establish, the law. And James would have said that the law, in Paul’s sense, was a yoke of bondage, as indeed he does say in my text, that the gospel, in contrast with the earlier revelation, is the law of liberty.

And so the two men complement and do not contradict each other. In like manner, the earnest urging of work and insisting upon conduct, which are the keynote of this letter, are no contradiction of Paul. The one writer begins at a later point than the other. Paul is a preacher of faith, but of faith which works by love. James is the preacher of works, but of works which are the fruit of faith.

There are three things here on which I touch now. First, the perfect law; second, the doers of the perfect law; and third, the blessedness of the doers of the perfect law.

I. First, then, the perfect law.

I need not dwell further upon James’s conception of the gospel as being a law; the authoritative standard and rule of human conduct. Let me remind you how, in every part of the revelation of divine truth contained in the gospel, there is a direct moral and practical bearing. No word of the New Testament is given to us only in order that we may know truth, but all in order that we may do it. Every part of it palpitates with life, and is meant to regulate conduct. There are plenty of truths of which it does not matter whether a man believes them or not, in so far as his conduct is concerned. Mathematical truth or scientific truth leaves conduct unaffected. But no man can believe the principles that are laid down in the New Testament, and the truths that are unveiled there, without their laying a masterful grip upon his life, and influencing all that he is.

And let me remind you, too, how in the very central fact of the gospel there lies the most stringent rule of life. Jesus Christ is the Pattern, and from those gentle lips which say, ‘If ye love Me, keep My commandments,’ law sounds more imperatively than from all the thunder and trumpets of Sinai.

Let me remind you, too, how in the great act of redemption, which is the central fact of the New Testament revelation, there lies a law for conduct. God’s love redeeming us is the revelation of what we ought to be, and the Cross, to which we look as the refuge from sin and condemnation, is also the pattern for the life of every believer. ‘Be ye imitators of God, as dear children, and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us.’ A revelation, therefore, of which every truth, to the minutest fibre of the great web, has in it a directly practical bearing; a revelation which is all centred and focused in the life which is example because it is deliverance; a revelation, of which the vital heart is the redeeming act which sets before us the outlines of our conduct, and the model for our imitation - is a law just because it is a gospel.

Such thoughts as these are needful as a counterpoise to one-sided views which otherwise would be disastrous. God forbid that the thought of the gospel of Jesus Christ as primarily a message of reconciliation and pardon, and providing a means of escape from the frightful consequences of sin, even separation from God, should ever be put in the background! But the very ardour and intensity of man’s recognition of that as the first shape which Christianity assumes to sinful men, has sometimes led, and is always in possible danger of leading, to putting all other aspects of the gospel in the background. Some of you, for instance, when a preacher talks to you about plain duties, and insists upon conduct and practical righteousness, are ready to say, ‘He is not preaching the gospel.’ Neither is he, if he does not present these duties and this practical righteousness as the fruits of faith, or if he presents them as the means of winning salvation. But if your conception of Christianity has not grasped it as being a stringent rule of life, you need to go to school to James, the servant of God, and do not yet understand the message of his brother Paul The gospel is a Redemption. Yes I God be thanked; but because a Redemption, it is a Law.

Again, this thought gives the necessary counterpoise to the tendency to substitute the mere intellectual grasp of Christian truth for the practical doing of it. There will be plenty of orthodox Christians and theological professors and students who will find themselves, to their very great surprise, amongst the goats at last. Not what we believe, but what we do, is our Christianity: Only the doing must be rooted in belief. In like manner, take this vivid conception of the gospel as a law; as a counterpoise to the tendency to place religion in mere emotion and feeling. Fire is very good, but its best purpose is to get up steam which will drive the wheels of the engine. There is a vast deal of lazy selfishness masquerading under the guise of sweet and sacred devout emotion. Not what we feel, but what we do, is our Christianity.

Further, notice how this law is a perfect law. James’s idea, I suppose, in that epithet, is not so much the completeness of the code, or the loftiness and absoluteness of the ideal which is set forth in the gospel, as the relation between the law and its doer. He is stating the same thought of which the Psalmist of old time had caught a glimpse. ‘The law of the Lord is perfect; because it ‘converts the soul.’ That is to say, the weakness of all commandment - whether it be the law of a nation, or the law of moral textbooks, or the law of conscience, or of public opinion, or the like - the weakness of all positive statute is that it stands there, over against a man, and points a stony finger to the stony tables, ‘Thou shalt!’ ‘Thou shalt not!’ but stretches out no hand to help us in keeping the commandment. It simply enjoins, and so is weak; like the proclamations of some discrowned king who has no army at his back to enforce them, and which flutter as waste paper on the barn-doors, and do nothing to secure allegiance. But, says James, this law is perfect - because it is more than law, and transcends the simple function of command. It not only tells us what to do, but it gives us power to do it; and that is what men want. The world knows what it ought to do well enough. There is no need for heaven to be rent, and divine voices to come to tell men what is right and wrong; they carry an all but absolutely sufficient guide as to that within their own minds. But there is need to bring them something which shall be more than commandment, which shall be both law and power, both the exhibition of duty and the gift of capacity to discharge it.

The gospel brings power because it brings life. ‘If there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness had been by the law.’ In the gospel that desideratum is supplied. Here is the law which vitalises and so gives power. The life which the gospel brings will unfold itself after its own nature, and so produce the obedience which the law of the gospel requires.

Therefore, says James further, this perfect law is freedom. Of course liberty is not exemption from commandment, but the harmony of will with commandment. Whosoever finds that what is his duty is his delight is enfranchised. We are set at liberty when we walk within the limits of that gospel; and they who delight to do the law are free in obedience; free from the tyranny of their own lusts, passions, inclinations; free from the domination of men and opinion and common customs and personal habits. All those bonds are burnt in the fiery furnace of love into which they pass; and where they walk transfigured and at liberty, because they keep that law. Freedom comes from the reception into the heart of the life whose motions coincide with the commandments of the gospel. Then the burden that I carry carries me, and the limits within which I am confined are the merciful fences put up on the edge of the cliff to keep the traveller from falling over and being dashed to pieces beneath.

II. Now notice, secondly, the doers of the perfect law.

James has a long prelude before he comes to the doing. Several things are required as preliminary. The first step is, ‘looketh into the law.’ The word employed here is a very picturesque and striking one. Its force may be seen if I quote to you the other instances of its occurrence in the

New Testament. It is employed in the accounts of the Resurrection to describe the attitude and action of Peter, John, and Mary as they ‘stooped down and looked into’ the empty sepulchre. In all these cases the Revised Version translates the word as I have just done, ‘stooping and looking,’ both acts being implied in it. It is also employed by Peter when he tells us that the ‘angels desire to look into’ the mysteries of Redemption, in which saying, perhaps, there may be some allusion to the silent, bending figures of the twin cherubim who, with folded wings and fixed eyes, curved themselves above the mercy-seat, and looked down upon that mystery of propitiating love. With such fixed and steadfast gaze we must contemplate the perfect law of liberty if we are ever to be doers of the same.

A second requirement is, ‘and continueth.’ The gaze must be, not only concentrated, but constant, if anything is to come of it. Old legends tell that the looker into a magic crystal saw nothing at first, but, as he gazed, there gradually formed themselves in the clear sphere filmy shapes, which grew firmer and more distinct until they stood plain. The raw hide dipped into the vat with tannin in it, and at once pulled out again, will never be turned into leather. Many of you do not give the motives and principles of the gospel, which you say you believe, a chance of influencing you, because so interruptedly, and spasmodically, and at such long intervals, and for so few moments, do you gaze upon them. Steadfast and continued attention is needful if we are to be ‘doers of the work.’

Let me venture on two or three simple practical exhortations. Cultivate the habit, then, of contemplating the central truths of the gospel, as the condition of receiving in vigour and fulness the life which obeys the commandment. There is no mystery about the way by which that new life is given to men. James tells us here, in the immediate context, how it is. He speaks of ‘God of His own will begetting us with the word of truth’; and of the ‘engrafted word, which,’ being engrafted, ‘is able to save your souls.’ Get that word - the principles of the gospel and the truths of revelation, which are all enshrined and incarnated in Jesus Christ - into your minds and hearts by continual, believing contemplation of it, and the new life, which is obedience, will surely spring. But if you look at the gospel of your salvation as seldom and as superficially and with as passing glances as so many of you expend upon it, no wonder that you are such weaklings as so many of you are, and that you find such a gulf between your uncircumcised inclinations and the commandment of the living God.

Cultivate this habit of reflective meditation upon the truths of the gospel as giving you the pattern of duty in a concentrated and available form. It is of no use to carry about a copy of the ‘Statutes at Large’ in twenty folio Volumes in order to refer to it when difficulties arise and crises come. We must have something a great deal more compendious and easy of reference than that. A man’s cabin-trunk must not be as big as a house, and his goods must be in a small compass for his sea voyage. We have in Jesus Christ the ‘Statutes at Large,’ codified and put into a form which the poorest and humblest and busiest amongst us can apply directly to the sudden emergencies and surprising contingencies of daily life, which are always sprung upon us when we do not expect them and demand instantaneous decision. We have in Christ the pattern of all conduct. But only those who have been accustomed to meditate upon Him, and on the truths that flow from His life and death, will find that the sword is ready when it is needed, and that the guide is at their side when they are in perplexity.

Cultivate the habit of meditating on the truths of the gospel, in order that the motives of conduct may be reinvigorated and strengthened. And remember that only by long and habitual abiding in the secret place of the Most High, and entertaining the thoughts of His infinite love to us, as the continual attitude of our daily life, shall we be able to respond to His love with the thankfulness which springs to obedience as a delight, and knows no joy like the joy of serving such a Friend.

These requirements being met, next comes the doing. There must precede all true doing of the law this gazing into it, steadfast and continued. We shall not obey the commandment except, first, we have received and welcomed the salvation. There must be, first, faith, and then obedience. Only he who has received the gospel in the love of it will find that the gospel is the law which regulates his conduct. ‘Faith without works is dead’; works without faith are rootless flowers, or bricks hastily and incompletely huddled together without the binding straw.

But, further, the text suggests that the natural crown of all contemplation and knowledge is practical obedience. Make of all your creed deed. Let everything you believe be a principle of action too; your crendenda translate into agenda. And, on the other hand, let every deed be informed by your creed, and no schism exist between what you are and what you believe.

III. Lastly, note the blessedness of the doers of the perfect law.

There is an echo in the words of my text, of the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount, the form in which the gospel was, perhaps, dearest to this Apostle. He uses the same word - ‘Blessed.’

Notice the in; not ‘after,’ not ‘as a reward for, ‘ but ‘blessed in his deed.’ It is the saying of the Psalmist over again, whose words we have already seen partly reproduced in the former portion of this text, who, in the same great psalm, says: ‘In keeping Thy commandments there is great reward.’ The rewards of this law are not arbitrarily Bestowed, separately from the act of obedience, by the will of the Judge, but the deeds of obedience automatically bring the blessedness. This world is not so constituted as that outward rewards certainly follow on inward goodness. Few of its prizes fall to the lot of the saints. But men are so constituted as that obedience is its own reward. There is no delight so deep and true as the delight of doing the will of Him whom we love. There is no blessedness like that of an increasing communion with God, and of the clearer perception of His will and mind which follow obedience as surely as the shadow does the sunshine. There is no blessedness like the glow of approving conscience, the reflection of the smile on Christ’s face.

To have the heart in close communion with the very Fountain of all good, and the will in harmony with the will of the best Beloved; to hear the Voice that is dearest of all, ever saying, ‘This is the way, walk ye in it’; to feel ‘a spirit in my feet’ impelling me upon that road; to know that all my petty deeds are made great, and my stained offerings hallowed by the altar on which they are honoured to lie; and to be conscious of fellowship with the Friend of my soul increased by obedience; this is to taste the keenest joy and good of life, and he who is thus ‘blessed in his deed’ need never fear that that blessedness shall be taken away, nor sorrow though other joys be few and griefs be many.

But, remember, first believe, then work. We must begin where Paul told the Philippian gaoler to begin ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved’ - if we are to end where James leads us. Do not begin your building at the roof, but put in the foundations deep in penitence and faith. And then, let every man take heed how he buildeth thereon.

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1:25 law that sets you free: God’s word gives us new birth and salvation (1:18, 21) but demands that we do what it says (1:22-25).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Jas 1:25. Παρακύψας, whoso looketh into) This answers to Jas 1:24, he beholdeth himself. The word παρακύπτω gives the idea of such a search after an object which is concealed as does not confine itself to the surface of the mirror, but penetrates to that which is within. Sir 14:23, Ὁ παρακύπτων διὰ τῶν θυρίδων τῆς σοφίας, he that prieth in at the windows of wisdom. A blessed curiosity, if it is efficacious in bearing fruit.—εἰς νόμον τέλειον τὸν τῆς ἐλευθερίας, into the perfect law of liberty) He applies this appellation to the law, inasmuch as [in so far as] it is established by faith: Rom 3:31. Comp. the notes on ch. Jas 2:12; Jas 2:8. St James takes care that no one should abuse the peculiar expressions employed by St Paul respecting the bondage and yoke of the law. He who keeps the law is free: Joh 8:31-32. Man ought to agree with the perfection of the law, in the perfection of his knowledge and obedience; otherwise he is not free, but guilty. Comp. Jas 2:10.—καὶ παραμείνας, and continueth) This is antithetical to goeth his way, Jas 1:24.—οὗτος—οὗτος) this man—this man, I say. The words here inserted express the reason of the assertion (of the predicate), and the repetition has weight.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jam_1:25 does not give the simple application of the image, but rather describes, with reference to the foregoing image, the right hearer, and says of him that he is μακάριος ἐν τῇ ποιήσει αὐτοῦ. In this description the three points named in Jam_1:24 are carefully observed: παρακύψας εἰς κ.τ.λ. answers to κατενόησεν (ἐν ἐσόπτρῳ), παραμείνας to ἀπελήλυθεν, and οὐκ ἀκροατὴς ἐπιλησμονῆς to ἐπελάθετο. The sentence consists of a simple combination of subject and predicate; γενόμενος is not to be resolved into the finite verb γίνεται (Pott). The predicate commences, after the subject is summed up, in οὗτος with μακάριος.

This is also the case with the textus receptus, where a οὗτος is put before οὐκ ἀκροατής; for, since with this reading the first οὗτος is simply resumed by the second οὗτος (before μακάριος), equivalent to hic, inquam, the words οὐκ ἀκροατὴς … ἔργου only serve to give a more exact designation of the subject, παρακύψας … καὶ παραμείνας being thus more clearly defined. Thus these words begin not the apodosis or principal sentence, as if James would here, in contrast to Jam_1:24, show that the right hearing and appropriation leads to the doing, (and thereby) to the blessedness of doing (against Wiesinger). Were this his object, he would have been obliged to put the finite verb instead of the participle γενόμενος, and a καί after ἔργου. The subject is accordingly: but whosoever looks into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein, being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man.

The aorist participles are explained from the close connection of this verse with the preceding, where the same tense was used. There is no copulative καί before the participial clause οὐκ ἀκροατὴς κ.τ.λ., because the doing of the law is the necessary consequence of the continued looking into it, and it would otherwise have the appearance as if παρακύπτειν and παραμένειν could take place without ποιεῖν following.[102] The verb ΠΑΡΑΚΎΠΤΕΙΝ (properly bending oneself near an object in order to view it more exactly, Luk_24:12; Joh_20:5; Joh_20:11; 1Pe_1:12; Sir_14:23; Sir_21:23) refers back, indeed, to ΚΑΤΑΝΟΕῖΝ, but is a stronger idea. James has fittingly chosen this verb as verbum ad imaginem speculi humi aut mensae impositi adaptatum (Schneckenburger; see also Theile, Wiesinger). Luther inaccurately translates it: looketh through. As the accent is on παρα, the verb ΠΑΡΑΜΕΊΝΑς is used afterwards. By ΕἸς is expressed not only the direction to something, but the intensity of the look into the inner nature of the law. παραμείνας (not continueth therein, as Luther translates it, but thereat) is added to παρακύψας,without the article, because the two points are to be considered as most closely connected,indicating the continued consideration of the ΝΌΜΟς, from which action necessarily follows. Schneckenburger incorrectly gives to the verb ΠΑΡΑΜΈΝΕΙΝ here (appealing to Act_14:22; Gal_3:10; Heb_8:9) the meaning to observe the law; but the subject treated of here is not the observance, but the appropriation which leads to action (Wiesinger), or the remaining in the yielding of oneself to the object by contemplating it (Lange). By νόμος τέλειος ὁ τῆς ἐλευθερίας[103] is meant neither the O. T. law, nor lex naturalis (Schulthess), but λόγος ἀληθείας (Jam_1:18), thus the gospel, inasmuch as it places before the Christianby reason of redemptionthe rule of his life. This evangelical νόμος, indeed, resembles the O. T. νόμος in expressing no other will of God, but differs from it in that it only is the νόμος τῆς ἐλευθερίας, the νόμος τέλειος. It not only confronts man as enjoining, but, resting on the love of God, it creates the new life from which joyful obedience springs forth voluntarily and unconstrained; it gives ἐλευθερία, which the O. T. νόμος was not able to give, and thus proves itself as the perfect law in contrast to the imperfect law of the Old Covenant. It is true that even in the O. T. the sweetness of the law was subject of praise (Psa_19:8-11), but the life-giving power belonged to the law only in an imperfect manner, because the covenant on which it rested was as yet only one of promise and not of fulfilment. It is accordingly incorrect to explain the additional attribute as if James considered the O. T. law, according to the Pauline manner, as a ζυγὸς δουλείας (Gal_5:1), for of this there is no trace.[104] Many expositors understand by ΝΌΜΟς ΤΈΛΕΙΟς Κ.Τ.Λ. the gospel, as the joyful message of salvation, or the doctrina evangelii, or simply gratia evangelii, namely, in contrast to the O. T. economy, which, however, corresponds neither to the language of James nor to his mode of contemplation.

In the additional participial sentence, the ideas ἈΚΡΟΑΤῊς ἘΠΙΛΗΣΜΟΝῆς and ΠΟΙΗΤῊς ἜΡΓΟΥ are opposed to each other. ἈΚΡΟΑΤῊς ἘΠΙΛΗΣΜΟΝῆς (the word, foreign to classical Greek, is in the N. T. a ἍΠ. ΛΕΓ.; it is found in Sir_11:27; among classical writers: ἘΠΙΛΉΣΜΗ, ἘΠΙΛΗΣΜΟΣΎΝΗ) is = ἈΚΡ. ἘΠΙΛΉΣΜΩΝ, a hearer to whom forgetfulness belongs. To ΠΟΙΗΤΉς ἜΡΓΟΥ is attached in order to make still more prominent the idea of activity, which indeed is already contained in ΠΟΙΗΤΉς. The singular does not properly stand for the plural (Grotius: effector eorum operum, quae evangelica lex exigit), but is designed to import that it here results in something, in the doing of work (Wiesinger). Those ideas, which appear not to correspond, yet form a true antithesis, since the law is inoperative on the forgetful hearer, but incites him who is an attentive hearer to a corresponding activity of life. James says of him who is thus described: he (οὗτος) is blessed in his deed. ποίησις in N. T. ἍΠ. ΛΕΓ., in Sir_19:20 : ΠΟΊΗΣΙς ΝΌΜΟΥ. The preposition ἘΝ is not to be exchanged with ΔΙΆ, for by ἘΝ the internal connection of doing and blessedness is marked; Brückner: the blessing innate in such doing is meant. ἜΣΤΑΙ is therefore not to be referred to tire future life; but it is by it announced what is even here directly connected with the ΠΟΊΗΣΙς; James, however, certainly considered this ΜΑΚΑΡΙΌΤΗς as permanent. The thought here expressed refers to the last words of Jam_1:21, completing them, showing that the ΛΌΓΟς has the effect there stated (ΣῶΣΑΙ ΤᾺς ΨΥΧΆς) in him who so embraces it that it leads him to ΠΟΊΣΙς.[105]

[102] Lange agrees in essentials with this explanation, but he thinks that by it the full energy of the idea is not preserved; it should rather have been said that the παρακύψας and παραμείνας, as such, ποιητὴς ἔργου γειόμενος; but the looking in and continuing is evidently in themselves not identical with the doing of which James speaks, however necessarily the latter results from the former.

[103] Kern incorrectly maintains that this expression is formed according to the Pauline phraseology: νόμος τοῦ πνεύματος τῆς ζωῆς ἐν Χρ. Ἰησοῦ, Rom_8:2; νόμος τῆς πίστεως, Rom_3:27; νόμος Χριστοῦ, Gal_6:2; as if James must have borrowed the designation of what was to him the cardinal point of Christian life from another, and could not himself originate it.

[104] It is to be observed that even in the so-called apostolic council at Jerusalem James did not, as Peter, call the law a ζυγός.

[105] Laurentius adds to the last words of the verse: sc. non ex merito ipsius operis, sed ex promissione gratuita; but this is a caution foreign to the context. Lange inappropriately intermingles ideas, when he reckons to this ποίησις particularly confession, and thinks that James above all things indicated that the Jews should confess Christ, and that the Jewish Christians should fully confess their Christian brethren from the Gentiles.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jas 1:25 . παρακύψας : in Sir 14:20 ff. we read, Μακάριος ἀνὴρ ὂς ἐν σοφίᾳ τελευτήσει … ὁ παρακύπτων διὰ τῶν θυρίδων αὐτῆς . The word means literally to “peep into” with the idea of eagerness and concentration, see Gen 26:8 ; Mayor says that the παρὰ “seems to imply the bending of the upper part of the body horizontally”; if this is so the word would be used very appropriately of a man poring over a roll of the Torah . εἰς νόμον τέλειον …: see above Jas 1:22 . οὐκ ἀκροατὴς ἐπιλησμονῆς , etc.: Cf. with this what is quoted as a saying of our Lord in the Doctrina Addaei : “Thus did the Lord command us, that that which we preach before the people by word we should practise in deed in the sight of all” (Resch., op. cit. , p. 285). ἐπιλησμονῆς : does not occur elsewhere in the N.T., and only very rarely in the Septuagint; see Sir 11:27 , κάκωσις ὥρας ἐπιλησμονὴν ποιεῖ τρυφῆς . ἐν τῇ ποιήσει αὐτοῦ : only here in the N.T., cf. Sir 19:18 ( Sir 19:20 in Greek), πᾶσα σοφία φόβος Κυρίου , καὶ ἐν πάσῃ σοφίᾳ ποίησις νόμου ; and Sir 51:19 , καὶ ἐν ποιήσει μου ( [53]

[54] read λιμοῦ ) διηκριβασάμην (this clause does not exist in the Hebrew, and is probably a doublet); cf. Sir 16:26 .

[53] Codex Vaticanus (sæc. iv.), published in photographic facsimile in 1889 under the care of the Abbate Cozza-Luzi.

[54] Codex Sinaiticus (sæc. iv.), now at St. Petersburg, published in facsimile type by its discoverer, Tischendorf, in 1862.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

25. παρακύψας, “look in.” This compound has lost all trace of any sense of “sideways” (παρα-), or of stooping (κύπτω) to look, cf. Joh 20:5, Joh 20:11, 1Pe 1:12, Ecclus. 14:23, 21:23. The figure is of looking (“peeping,” “glancing”) into a mirror, and is here brought over in a metaphor from the simile of v. 24. See F. Field, Otium norvicense, iii2, p. 80 (on Luk 24:12), pp. 235 f. (on Jas 1:25); cf. ἐγκύπτω, Clem. Rom. 40:1, with Lightfoot’s note.

The word often implies “a rapid, hasty, and cursory glance,” see the good examples quoted by Hort; but that shade of meaning seems here excluded by the latter half of the verse.

νόμον τέλειον τὸν τῆς ἐλευθερίας, shown by the context to be the same as τὸν ἔμφυτον λόγον of v. 21; cf. 2:12 νόμου ἐλευθερίας.

The omission of the article is frequent with νόμος (cf. 2:8, 12, and see Sanday’s note on Rom 2:12); but this explanation is here unnecessary, since the term is further defined by an attributive expression with the article, cf. Gal 3:21; see Blass-Debrunner, § 270; Winer, § 20. 4; J. H. Moulton, Prolegomena, p. 74; L. Radermacher, Neutestamentliche Grammatik, 1911, pp. 19, 89.

τέλειον, cf. 1:17, Rom 12:2 τὸ θέλημα τοῦ θεοῦ, τὸ ἀγαθὸν καὶ εὐάρεστον καὶ τέλειον. The epithet is not in distinction from some other, imperfect, law, but means simply (Spitta) such a law that a better one is inconceivable (cf. Psa_19 and 119), “the ideal perfection which is the goal of life” (Sanday). Philo, De vita Mos. ii, 3, M. p. 136 οἱ νόμοι κάλλιστοι καὶ ὡς ἀληθῶς θεῖοι μηδὲν ὦν χρὴ παραλιπόντες. The perfection of the law in question is made plain by the further description of it as “the law of freedom.”

τὸν τῆς ἐλευθερίας, “the law characterised by freedom.”

This expression means “the law in the observance of which a man feels himself free.” It could have been used of the Mosaic law by a devout and enthusiastic Jew; cf. Deu 28:47, Psa 1:2, 19:7-11, 40:8, 54:6, 119:32, 45, 97.

Cf. Pirke Aboth, iii, 8, R. Nechonyiah b. ha-Kanah (c. 80 a.d.): “Whoso receives upon him the yoke of Torah, they remove from him the yoke of royalty and the yoke of worldly care”; vi, 2, R. Jehoshua b. Levi (c. 240 a.d.): “Thou wilt find no freeman but him who is occupied in learning of Torah,” with Taylor’s notes on both passages; see the glorification of the law of Moses in contrast to other laws which were imposed, ὡς οὐκ ἐλευθέροις ἀλλὰ δούλοις, in Philo, De vita Mos. ii, 9. These references show that there is no ground for the common affirmation that this phrase implies a sublimated, spiritualised view of the Jewish law, which, it is said, would have been impossible for a faithful Jew, cf. Jülicher, Einleitung5, 6, p. 190. It is also evident that the words τέλειον and τῆς ἐλευθερίας are not introduced in order thereby to mark the law which James has in mind as distinguished from, and superior to, the Jewish law.

In the passages of Irenæus where lex libertatis and similar phrases occur (cf. Iren. iv, 13:2 34:3, 4 37:1 39:3) there is emphasis on the original divine gift of human freedom, with which the law stands in no conflict, but which it rather confirms. It is not possible to apply these passages directly to the interpretation of James.

To a Christian “the perfect law of liberty” would include both the O. T. (parts of it perhaps being spiritually interpreted, cf. Mat 5:17-48, 1Co 9:21, Rom 3:27, Rom 8:2, Ep. Barnab. 10) and the precepts and truths of the Gospel; cf. 2:8-12, where the ten commandments and the commandment of love are all explicitly said to be a part of the law. The use of the phrase by a Christian implies that he conceived Christianity as a law, including and fulfilling (Mat 5:17) the old one. This is not inconsistent with an early date, for even Paul cannot avoid sometimes (1Co 9:21, Rom 3:27, Gal 6:2) referring to the new system as a law. Cf. Joh 13:34, 1Jn 2:7 f., 1Ti 1:7 θέλοντες εῖναι νομοδιδάσκαλοι (used of persons who present themselves as Christian teachers). See Introduction, supra, pp. 37 f.

The use of the term “law” in this inclusive sense is plainly of Jewish origin and illustrates the direct Jewish lineage of Christianity. But the tendency to conceive Christianity as essentially a system of morals (a “new law”) was not specifically Jewish. It seems to have been present from primitive times in the common Gentile Christianity. “The Pauline conception of the Law never came to prevail, and Christendom at large did not know how, nor dare, to apply criticism to the O. T. religion, which is Law. (Without criticising the form they spiritualized the contents.) Consequently the formula that Christianity consists of Promise plus Spiritual Law is to be regarded as of extreme antiquity (uralt)” (Harnack, Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte, i2, p. 250; i4, p. 317).

Being the product of a permanent trait of human nature, to be seen in all ages, this moralism was not confined to any limited locality or single line of tradition in early Christianity. The doctrine of Christianity as law is emphasised in the Shepherd of Hermas, cf. Vis. i, 3:4, Sim. v, 5:3, 6:3, viii, 3:2 with Harnack’s note. See also Barn. 2:6 (ὁ καινὸς νόμος τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, ἄνευ ζυγοῦ ἀνάγκης ὤν), with Harnack’s note and the references contained in it. In Justin Martyr (e. g. Apol. 43) and the other apologists the idea is of frequent occurrence, and it was probably a part of the primitive theology of Asia Minor in which the more developed system of Irenæus had its roots. With Irenæus and his contemporaries the “new law” took an important place. See Ritschl, Die Entstehung der altkatholischen Kirche2, 1850, pp. 312-335 (with abundant citations), Harnack, Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte4, i, pp. 316 f. note 1, pp. 548 f. § 3; Loofs, Leitfaden zum Studium der Dogmengeschichte4, § 21. 4.

The familiar Stoic idea expressed in the maxims ὅτι μόνος ὁ σοφὸς ἐλεύθερος καὶ πᾶς ἄφρων δοῦλος, deo parere libertas est (Seneca, De vit. beat. 15) is expanded in Philo’s tract about slavery and freedom, Quod omnis probus liber, for instance, 7 παρʼ οἷς μὲν ἄν ὀργὴ ἤ ἐπιθυμία ἤ τι ἄλλο πάθος ἢ καὶ ἐπίβουλος κακία δυναστεύει, πάντως εἰσὶ δοῦλοι, ὅσοι δὲ μετὰ νόμου ζῶσιν, ἐλεύθεροι. The combination of these ideas with the Jewish enthusiasm for the law is to be seen in 4 Macc., e. g. 5:22-26, 14:2 ὦ βασιλέως λογισμοὶ βασιλικώτεροι καὶ ἐλευθέρων ἐλευθερώτεροι. A tacit claim that the Greek philosopher’s ideal of freedom characterises the Jewish and Christian law may possibly underlie the language of James, whether or not such is to be traced in the rabbinical sayings quoted above.

Other interpretations given for the phrase are:

(1) “Natural law in the soul,” “the light of nature.” But nothing suggests this.

(2) That law which by the new covenant has become implanted in the souls of men, written in their hearts (Jer 31:31-34), so that the fulfilment of it springs from inner spontaneous impulse, not from enforced conformity to externally imposed precepts; in a word, the gospel on that side on which it is a rule of conduct (so Beyschlag).

The chief difference of this view from the one adopted above is that the latter takes the “law of liberty” in the sense of Christianity conceived as law, while Beyschlag takes it of that element in Christianity which is law. The real difference is not great. Beyschlag’s main interest here is to show that the phrase does not imply the legalistic conception of Christianity of the Old Catholic period, and in this he is probably right.

(3) The Christian law in distinction from the Jewish, because it consists of positive and not of negative precepts. On this, see supra.

Philo enforces the same thought with a different figure. De sacr. Abel. et Cain. 25, “After having touched knowledge, not to abide in it (μὴ ἐπιμεῖναι) is like tasting meat and drink and then being prevented from satisfying one’s hunger.”

ἔργου, the addition of ἔργου to ποιητής gives a certain emphasis, “a doer who does.”

μακάριος, cf. v. 12. See Joh 13:17, Luk 12:43, Seneca, Ep. 75, 7 non est beatus qui scit illa sed qui facit.

τῇ ποιήσει αὐτοῦ probably means collectively the man’s whole conduct (Hebrew מַעֲשֶׁה), cf. Dan 9:14 (Th.), but not without allusion to the preceding ποιητής; “he will be worthy of congratulation in these deeds of his.”

μακάριος does not mean “prosperous” (Huther, Beyschlag, and others), but is the opposite of “blameworthy.”

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Behaving himself so: for works do show faith.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

looketh into--literally, "stoopeth down to take a close look into." Peers into: stronger than "beholdeth," or "contemplated," Jam 1:24. A blessed curiosity if it be efficacious in bearing fruit [BENGEL].

perfect law of liberty--the Gospel rule of life, perfect and perfecting (as shown in the Sermon on the Mount, Mat 5:48), and making us truly walk at liberty (Psa 119:32, Church of England Prayer Book Version). Christians are to aim at a higher standard of holiness than was generally understood under the law. The principle of love takes the place of the letter of the law, so that by the Spirit they are free from the yoke of sin, and free to obey by spontaneous instinct (Jam 2:8, Jam 2:10, Jam 2:12; Joh 8:31-36; Joh 15:14-15; compare Co1 7:22; Gal 5:1, Gal 5:13; Pe1 2:16). The law is thus not made void, but fulfilled.

continueth therein--contrasted with "goeth his way," Jam 1:24, continues both looking into the mirror of God's word, and doing its precepts.

doer of the work--rather, "a doer of work" [ALFORD], an actual worker.

blessed in his deed--rather, "in his doing"; in the very doing there is blessedness (Psa 19:11).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 25. But whoso looketh into the perfect law] The word παρακυψας, which we translate looketh into, is very emphatic, and signifies that deep and attentive consideration given to a thing or subject which a man cannot bring up to his eyes, and therefore must bend his back and neck, stooping down, that he may see it to the greater advantage. The law of liberty must mean the Gospel; it is a law, for it imposes obligations from God, and prescribes a rule of life; and it punishes transgressors, and rewards the obedient. It is, nevertheless, a law that gives liberty from the guilt, power, dominion, and influence of sin; and it is perfect, providing a fulness of salvation for the soul: and it may be called perfect here, in opposition to the law, which was a system of types and representations of which the Gospel is the sum and substance. Some think that the word τελειον, perfect, is added here to signify that the whole of the Gospel must be considered and received, not a part; all its threatenings with its promises, all its precepts with its privileges.

And continueth] παραμεινας Takes time to see and examine the state of his soul, the grace of his God, the extent of his duty, and the height of the promised glory. The metaphor here is taken from those females who spend much time at their glass, in order that they may decorate themselves to the greatest advantage, and not leave one hair, or the smallest ornament, out of its place.

He being not a forgetful hearer] This seems to be a reference to De 4:9: "Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life." He who studies and forgets is like to a woman who brings forth children, and immediately buries them. Aboth R. Nathan, cap. 23.

Shall be blessed in his deed.] In Pirkey Aboth, cap. v. 14, it is said: "There are four kinds of men who visit the synagogues,

1. He who enters but does not work;

2. He who works but does not enter.

3. He who enters and works.

4. He who neither enters nor works.

The first two are indifferent characters; the third is the righteous man; the fourth is wholly evil."

As the path of duty is the way of safety, so it is the way of happiness; he who obeys God from a loving heart and pure conscience, will infallibly find continual blessedness.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

25 The perfect law of liberty. After having spoken of empty speculation, he comes now to that penetrating intuition which transforms us to the image of God. And as he had to do with the Jews, he takes the word law, familiarly known to them, as including the whole truth of God.

But why he calls it a perfect law, and a law of liberty, interpreters have not been able to understand; for they have not perceived that there is here a contrast, which may be gathered from other passages of Scripture. As long as the law is preached by the external voice of man, and not inscribed by the finger and Spirit of God on the heart, it is but a dead letter, and as it were a lifeless thing. It is, then, no wonder that the law is deemed imperfect, and that it is the law of bondage; for as Paul teaches in Galatians 4:24, separated from Christ, it generates to condemn and as the same shews to us in Romans 8:13, it can do nothing but fill us with diffidence and fear. But the Spirit of regeneration, who inscribes it on our inward parts, brings also the grace of adoption. It is, then, the same as though James had said, “The teaching of the law, let it no longer lead you to bondage, but, on the contrary, bring you to liberty; let it no longer be only a schoolmaster, but bring you to perfection: it ought to be received by you with sincere affection, so that you may lead a godly and a holy life.”

Moreover, since it is a blessing of the Old Testament that the law of God should reform us, as it appears from Jeremiah 31:33, and other passages, it follows that it cannot be obtained until we come to Christ. And, doubtless, he alone is the end and perfection of the law; and James adds liberty, as an inseparable associate, because the Spirit of Christ never regenerates but that he becomes also a witness and an earnest of our divine adoption, so as to free our hearts from fear and trembling.

And continueth. This is firmly to persevere in the knowledge of God; and when he adds, this man shall be blessed in his deed, or work, he means that blessedness is to be found in doing, not in cold hearing.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(25) But whoso looketh . . .—Translate, But he who looked into the perfect law of liberty and continued therein. The past tense is still kept to enforce the figure of the preceding verse. The earnest student of the Scriptures stoops down in humility of body and mind to learn what the will of their Author may be. He reads, as it were, upon his knees; and if he finds therein a law, it is one of liberty and not slavery, life and not death—although, as Dean Alford observes here, “not in contrast with a former law of bondage, but as viewed on the side of its being the law of the new life and birth, with all its spontaneous and free development of obedience.”

Not a forgetful hearer . . .—Literally, not a hearer of forgetfulness, but a doer of work. Thus rendered, the words of the sentence balance each other, and comment is needless.

This man shall be blessed in his deed.—Or, as in the margin, doing. A return perhaps in thought to the Beatitudes, and the close of that Sermon on the Mount, of which they were the opening words. The blessedness of this humbly active Christian is like that of the wise man there spoken of “which built his house upon a rock” (Mat_7:24-25).

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

25. But whoso looketh …] The word involves primarily the idea of stooping down and bending over that on which we look, as with a fixed gaze. See for its literal use Mar_16:5; Luk_24:12, and for its spiritual application, “which things the angels desire to look into,” in 1Pe_1:12. In Sir_14:23, it is used of the “prying in,” the eager gaze of the seeker after wisdom; in Sir_21:23 of the intrusive gaze of the fool. Here it implies, like our word “attend,” the fixing the whole mind on that which the mirror of the Divine Word discloses to us, but as the act itself might, like the “beholding” of the previous verse, be but transient, St James adds the further condition, “and continueth therein.”

the perfect law of liberty] The words appear at first to be wide and general, and to echo the language in which Psalmists and others had spoken of “the law of the Eternal” (Psa_19:7; Psa_111:7; Psa_119:1). On the other hand, we have to remember that at the Council at which St James presided, the law of Moses, as such, was described as “a yoke” of bondage (Act_15:10), even as St Paul spoke of it (Gal_5:1), and that our Lord had spoken of the Truth as that by which alone men could be made “free indeed” (Joh_8:32). It follows from this, almost necessarily, that St James speaks of the new Law, the spiritual code of ethics, which had been proclaimed by Christ, and of which the Sermon on the Mount remains as the great pattern and example. That Law was characterised as giving to the soul freedom from the vices that enslave it. To look into that Law and to continue in it was to share the beatitudes with which it opened. That the writer was familiar with that Sermon we shall see at well nigh every turn of the Epistle.

being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work] Literally, becoming not a hearer of forgetfulness. The construction is the same as in the “steward of injustice” for the “unjust steward” (Luk_16:8; Luk_18:6), the genitive of the characteristic attribute being used instead of the adjective. As the one clause balances the other the words that follow probably meant an active worker or “doer.” In any case the article, as in the Greek, should be omitted, “a doer of work.”

this man shall be blessed in his deed] Once again, as if shewing on what his thoughts had been dwelling, as the law of liberty, St James returns to the formula of a beatitude, and brings together, in so doing, the beginning and the end of the Sermon on the Mount.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty,.... By which is meant, not the moral law, but the Gospel; for only of that is the apostle speaking in the context: this is no other than the word of truth, with which God begets men of his own will; and is the ingrafted word which is able to save, and of which men should be doers, as well as hearers, Jam 1:18, and this is compared to a glass by the Apostle Paul, Co2 3:18, and the word here used for looking into it is the same word the Apostle Peter uses of the angels, who desired to look into the mysteries of the Gospel, Pe1 1:12 all which serve to strengthen this sense; now the Gospel is called a law; not that it is a law, strictly speaking, consisting precepts, and established and enforced by sanctions penalties; for it is a declaration of righteousness and salvation by Christ; a publication of peace and pardon by him; and a free promise of eternal life, through him; but as it is an instruction, or doctrine: the law with the Jews is called because it is teaching and instructive; and everything that is so is by them called by this name: hence we find the doctrine of the Messiah, which is no other than the Gospel, is in the Old Testament called the law of the Lord, and his law, Isa 2:2 and in the New Testament it is called the law, or doctrine of faith, Rom 3:27 and this doctrine is perfect, as in Psa 19:7, it being a perfect plan of truths, containing in it all truth, as it is in Jesus, even all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge; and because it is a revelation of things perfect; of the perfect righteousness of Christ, and of perfect justification by it, and of free and full pardon of sins through him, and of complete salvation by him; and because it directs to Christ, in whom perfection is: and it is a law or doctrine of liberty; , "that which is if liberty"; which has liberty for its subject, which treats of it, even of the liberty wherewith Christ makes his people free: the Gospel proclaims this liberty to captive souls; and is the word of truth, which makes them free, or is the means of freeing them from the slavery of sin, from the captivity of Satan, and from the bondage of the law; and is what gives souls freedom and boldness at the throne of grace; and is that which leads them into the liberty of grace here, and gives them a view and hope of the glorious liberty of the children of God hereafter. This doctrine is as a glass to look into; in which is beheld the glory of Christ's person and office, and grace; and though by the law is the knowledge of sin, yet a man never so fully and clearly discovers the sin that dwells in him, and the swarms of corruption which are in his heart, as when the light of the glorious Gospel shines into him, and when in it he beholds the beauty and glory of Jesus Christ; see Isa 6:5 and looking into this glass, or into this doctrine, is by faith, and with the eyes of the understanding, opened and enlightened by the Spirit of God; and the word here used signifies a looking wistly and intently, with great care and thought, and not in a slight and superficial manner; and such a looking is designed, as is attended with effect; such an one as transforms into the same image that is beheld, from glory to glory; and happy is the man that so looks into it.

And continueth therein; is not moved away from the hope of the Gospel, nor carried about with divers and strange doctrines; but is established in the faith, stands fast in it, and abides by it; or continues looking into this glass, and to Christ, the author and finisher of faith, who is beheld in it; and keeps his eye upon it, and the object held forth in it; and constantly attends the ministration of it:

he being not a forgetful hearer; but takes heed to the things he hears and sees, lest he should let them slip; and being conscious of the weakness of his memory, implores the divine Spirit to be his remembrancer, and bring to his mind, with fresh power and light, what he has heard:

but a doer of the work; of the work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope, and of every work and ordinance the Gospel ministry points unto; doing and being subject to all in faith, from a principle of love, and with a view to the glory of God and Christ.

This man shall be blessed in his deed; or "doing", and while he is doing; not that he is blessed for what he does, but "in" what he does; see Psa 19:11 he having, in hearing the word, and looking into it, and in submitting to every ordinance of the Gospel, the presence of God, the discoveries of his love, communion with Christ, and communication of grace from him by the Spirit; so that Wisdom's ways become ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace; see Psa 65:4, moreover, in all such a man does, he is prosperous and successful; in all he does he prospers: and so he is blessed in his deed, by God, whose blessing makes rich, both in spirituals and temporals: there seems to be an allusion to the blessed man in Psa 1:1.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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.

Ver. 25. Whoso looketh into, &c.] παρακυψας, as into a glass, wishly and intently with the body bowed down. Get thee God’s law as a glass to toot in, saith Mr Bradford (Ser. of Repent.); so shalt thou see thy face foul arrayed, and so shamefully saucy, mangy, pocky, and scabbed, that thou canst not but be sorry at the contemplation thereof. It is said of the basilisk, that if he look into a glass, he presently dieth: sin doth. Physicians in some kind of unseemly convulsions wish the patient to view himself in a glass, which will help him to strive the more when he shall see his own deformity; so reflect, &c.

The perfect law of liberty] The moral law, in opposition to the ceremonial, or so called because never is a man free indeed till out of a principle of love he keep God’s law.

Not a forgetful hearer] Some are as hourglasses, no sooner turned up but running out immediately. Their souls are like filthy ponds, wherein fish die soon and frogs live long; profane jests are remembered, pious passages forgotten.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But whoso looketh - (παρακύψας parakupsas). This word means, to stoop down near by anything; to bend forward near, so as to look at anything more closely. See the word explained in the notes at 1Pe 1:12. The idea here is that of a close and attentive observation. The object is not to contrast the manner of looking in the glass, and in the law of liberty, implying that the former was a “careless beholding,” and the latter an attentive and careful looking, as Doddridge, Rosenmuller, Bloomfield, and others suppose; for the word used in the former case (κατενόησε katanoēse) implies intense or accurate observation, as really as the word used here; but the object is to show that if a man would attentively look into, and continue in the law of liberty, and not do as one who went away and forgot how he looked, he would be blessed. The emphasis is not in the manner of looking, it is on the duty of continuing or persevering in the observance of the law.

The perfect law of liberty - Referring to the law of God or his will, however made known, as the correct standard of conduct. It is called the perfect law, as being wholly free from all defects; being just such as a law ought to be. Compare Psa 19:7. It is called the law of liberty, or freedom because it is a law producing freedom from the servitude of sinful passions and lusts. Compare Psa 119:45; Notes, Rom 6:16-18.

And continueth therein - He must not merely look at the law, or see what he is by comparing himself with its requirements, but he must yield steady obedience to it. See the notes at Joh 14:21.

This man shall be blessed in his deed - Margin, doing. The meaning is, that he shall be blessed in the very act of keeping the law. It will produce peace of conscience; it will impart happiness of a high order to his mind; it will exert a good influence over his whole soul. Psa 19:11. “In keeping of them there is great reward.”

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The law of Christ, called here the perfect law of liberty, as it is distinguished from the Jewish law of fear and slavery, is as it were a looking-glass, which may make us know ourselves, and discover and correct our failings. (Witham)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

But whose looketh into; viz. intently and earnestly, searching diligently into the mind of God. The word signifies a bowing down of the head to look into a thing; and is used of the disciples’ looking into Christ’s sepulchre, Luk 24:12; Joh 20:5; see 1Pe 1:12; and seems to be opposed to looking into a glass, which is more slight, and without such prying and inquisitiveness.

The perfect law of liberty; the whole doctrine of the Scripture, or especially the gospel, called law, Rom 3:27, both as it is a rule, and by reason of the power it hath over the heart; and a law of liberty, because it shows the way to the best liberty, freedom from sin, the bondage of the ceremonial law, the rigour of the moral, and from the wrath of God; and likewise the way of serving God freely and ingenuously as children; and because, being received into the heart, it is accompanied with the Spirit of adoption who works this liberty, 2Co 3:17. It is called a perfect law, not only as being entire and without any defect, but as directing us to the greatest perfection, full conformity to God, and enjoyment of him, 2Ti 3:16,17.

And continueth therein; perseveres in the study, belief, and obedience of this doctrine, {Psa 1:2} in all conditions, and under all temptations and afflictions. This seems to be opposed to him, who, when he hath looked in a glass, goes away, Jam 1:24. By which are set forth slight, superficial hearers, who do not continue in Christ’s word, Joh 8:31.

He being not a forgetful hearer; Greek, hearer of forgetfulness, by a Hebraism, for a forgetful hearer; it answers to him in the former verse, that forgetteth what manner of man he was; and implies, not only not remembering the truths we have heard, but a not practising them, as appears by the next clause.

But a doer of the work; viz. which the word directs him to do: the singular number is put for the plural; he means, he that reduceth what he hears into practice, Psa 103:18.

This man shall be blessed in his deed; this is opposed to bare hearing, and the doer of the work is said to be blessed in or by his deed, as the evidence of his present begun blessedness, and the way to his future perfect happiness.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

25. Looketh into—The expressive Greek is, stoops down to the law. The man is not now standing and transiently looking into a mirror; he is bending down and poring steadily, as it were, into a book, just as the cherubim stooped down on the ark to look at the decalogue.

Law of liberty—That law which, when studied in its own spirit and with gracious aids, is obeyed with such glad spontaneity that the most perfect obedience is the most perfect liberty. Note on Mat_11:30. This is a perfect law; absolutely perfect in itself, having God for its author and perfect right for its essence and nature, with perfect obligation on us to obey it. And perfect is he who perfectly obeys it.

Continueth—To look and meditate therein, instead of straightway going his way. The holy volume stirs his heart and attracts his intense study.

Not a forgetful hearer—For what so stirs, fascinates, and fixes him, writes itself indelibly on his memory. Nor is it in him a mere passive process. He determines to be not forgetful; for what stirs his heart is determined by his will, so that he becomes a doer of the word.

Deed—Rather, his continuous doing.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Application of the illustration in the form of a contrast.

Looketh into (parakuyav). For the literal sense of the word, see Joh_20:5, Joh_20:11; Luk_24:12. The figurative meaning occurs only here and in 1Pe_1:12. Properly it signifies to "peep into." See its use in the LXX, Gen_26:8; Pro_7:6; Ecc 21:23. When used figuratively, it conveys the idea of looking into, but scarcely with that intensive force which is often given to it and for which ejgkuptein would be required (see Dr. Field"s "Otium Norvicense," p. 147). Its use in St. Peter, loc. cit. , is easy enough to explain. Angels desire even a glimpse of the mysteries. But what are we to say of its use hero? Is it that, though the man took a good look at himself in the glass (katanoein, consider, is a very strong word; cf., (Rom_4:19) yet he forgot what he was like, while the man who only peeps into the law of liberty is led on to abide (parameinav) and so to act? The perfect law of liberty; rather, the perfect law, even the law of liberty; nomon teleion toav. The substantive is anarthrous, yet the attributive has the article. This construction serves to give greater prominence to the attributive, and requires the rendering given above (see Winer, 20:4). The conception of the gospel as a "law" is characteristic of St. James. (cf. Jam_2:8, "the royal law," and Jam_4:11) A forgetful hearer (ajkroathv); i.e. a hearer characterized by forgetfulness, contrasted with poihthv ejrgou, a doer characterized by work.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But he that looketh diligently - Not with a transient glance, but bending down, fixing his eyes, and searching all to the bottom. Into the perfect law - Of love as established by faith. St. James here guards us against misunderstanding what St. Paul says concerning the "yoke and bondage of the law." He who keeps the law of love is free, John viii, 31, &c. He that does not, is not free, but a slave to sin, and a criminal before God, ver. 10. And continueth therein - Not like him who forgot it, and went away. This man - There is a peculiar force in the repetition of the word. Shall be happy - Not barely in hearing, but doing the will of God.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Observe here, 1. The title given to the word of God, particularly the gospel, it is called liberty, a law of liberty, and a perfect law of liberty: partly because it calleth us to a state of liberty and freedom, and teacheth us the way to true liberty, and offers us the assistance of a spirit of liberty; partly because it spareth none, but dealeth with all persons freely, without respect of persons; the gospel, or word of God, then is a law of liberty.

Observe, 2. The duty here required, with reverence to this law of liberty, namely, to look into it, and continue therein, to look into it with an accurate and narrow inspection, as the disciples did into Christ’s sepulchre, and as the angels look into the mysteries of salvation, 1Pe 1:12. To look into the law of liberty, implies deepness of mediation, and liveliness of impression; and continuing therein, imports perseverance in the knowlege, faith and obedience of the gospel, in order to our fruitfulness in good works: If ye abide in me, and my word abide in you, says Christ, ye shall bring forth much fruit, Joh 15:5; Joh 15:7.

Observe, 3. The reward promised and insured to such as look into the gospel, that law of liberty, that continue in it, and are doers of the work required by it, they are blessed in their deed; there is a blessedness annexed to the doing of that work which the word of God requires; yet mark the distinctness of Scripture phrase; the apostle doth not say, that the doers of the word shall be blessed for their deed; but in the deed it is an evidence of our blessedness, not the ground of it, the way, though not the cause of blessedness.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

ARGUMENT 5

PERFECT LAW OF LIBERTY

25. Egypt is sin land; the wilderness, law land; Canaan, grace land; and heaven, glory land. Pharaoh emblematizes the devil, who rules the sinner with a rod of iron, so long as he remains in the brick kilns and mortar yards of his galling slavery. The law was given from Mt. Sinai in the wilderness because all the people who live in that country have depravity, i.e., the man of sin, in their hearts, who must be held in subjugation by the law, otherwise he will break out and commit actual sin. The law not only holds him in subjection, but condemns him to die — “The soul that sinneth it shall die” — thus providing for the utter extermination of the sin principle out of the heart and the complete sanctification of our spiritual being. Into Canaan, i.e., grace land, Adam the first never can come. Hence the inhabitants of that land are as free as if there was no law, from the simple fact that there is nothing in their hearts antagonistic to the law of God; neither is there anything which needs the law to hold it in subjugation. Hence all the inhabitants of grace land enjoy this perfect law of spiritual liberty. While grace land is free from sin and unutterably delectable because of perfect spiritual liberty, yet it is everywhere encumbered with infirmities, i.e., sins of ignorance, which, though perfectly compatible with Christian perfection, must all be eliminated by the subsequent action of the Holy Ghost in glorification, when this mortal puts on immortality, thus wafting us out into glory land, disencumbered of every infirmity, similitudinous to the angels.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

25. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty. The gospel, which sets men free. He who looks into it, is impressed by it, and obeys it shall be blessed in the doing.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

25. παρακύψας. First of stooping or inclining to one side (not stooping down), either with a verb of looking, or absolutely as here: παρακύψας βλέπει τὰ ὀθόνια, Luk 24:12; παρακύψας βλέπει κείμενα τὰ ὀθόνια, Joh 20:5; ὡς οὖν ἔκλαιεν παρέκυψεν εἰς τὸ μνημεῖον, ib. 11; εἰς ἃ ἐπιθυμοῦσιν οἱ ἄγγελοι παρακύψαι, 1Pe 1:12; see also Gen 26:8; Pro 7:6. Though the strict meaning of παρακύπτειν is to glance sideways or ‘to peep,’ as ἄφρων ἀπὸ θύρας παρακύπτει εἰς οἰκίαν, Sir 21:23, the context sometimes, as here, carries with it the sense of intently gazing. See Dr Field, Otium Norvicense, on Luk 24:12 and on this passage.

εἰς νόμον τέλειον τὸν τῆς ἐλευθερίας, into a perfect law, namely the law of liberty. The absence of the article before νόμον is noticeable. The conception is first stated generally, a perfect law; the article introduces a limitation defining that perfect law to be the law of liberty. It is an idiom which secures attention to the anarthrous noun. See Winer III. § xx. 4 and Green p. 34, and note the following examples: εἰρήνην ἀφίημι ὑμῖν, εἰρήνην τὴν ἐμὴν δίδωμι ὑμῖν, Joh 14:27; εἰ γὰπ ἐδόθη νόμος ὁ δονάμενος ζωοποιῆσαι, Gal 3:21, where see Ellicott; ἐν πίστει ζῶ τῇ τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ, Gal 2:20.

τὸν τῆς ἐλευθερίας. The freedom of the law of Christ is contrasted with the bondage to minute precepts which characterized the developed Mosaic system: τῇ ἐλευθερίᾳ ἡμᾶς Χριστὸς ἠλευθέρωσεν· στήκετε οὖν καὶ μὴ πάλιν ζυγῷ δουλείας ἐνέχεσθε, Gal 5:1; γνώσεσθε τὴν ἀλήθειαν καὶ ἡ ἀλήθεια ἐλευθερώσει ὑμᾶς, Joh 8:32; comp. with this λόγῳ ἀληθείας supra Jas 1:18; ἐὰν οὖν ὁ υἱὸς ὑμᾶς ἐλευθερώσῃ ὄντως ἐλεύθεροι ἔσεσθε, Joh 8:36. See also Rom 8:15. Christians are children of God, liberi not servi. Comp. cui servire regnare est, ‘whose service is perfect freedom.’ Collect for Peace, from Sacramentary of Gelasius.

The law of Christ then is called a perfect law because it is final and complete, as distinct from the Mosaic law which was transitory and imperfect; it is called a law of liberty because it is the expression of a Father’s love for his children, not of a Master’s law for slaves.

καὶ παραμείνας. The secret of Christian service is constancy, fixedness on the ideal self discovered in the perfect law: ὡς ἠγάπησα τὸν νόμον σου, κύριε, ὅλην τὴν ἡμέραν μελέτη μού ἐστιν, Psa 119:97.

ἀκροατὴς ἐπιλησμονῆς, a forgetful hearer. A Hebrew construction frequent in N.T., as πάθη ἀτιμίας, Rom 1:26; κριτὴς τῆς ἀδικίας, Luk 18:6; ὁ οἰκονόμος τῆς ἀδικίας, Luk 16:8. The idiom is partly due to the vividness of Oriental speech, partly to the comparative paucity of adjectives in Hebrew. There are however parallels in the classics: μέλαινα δʼ ἄστρων … εὐφρόνη, ‘starry night,’ Soph. El. 19; λευκῆς χιόνος πτέρυγι, Ant. 114, ‘a snowy wing’; Winer, P. III. § 34 b; Green, p. 90; Donaldson, Greek Gram. 454.

ἐπιλησμονή not classical, and here only in N.T.

ποιητὴς ἔργου. The condition of abiding in the law of liberty is activity in the exercise of it. Hence the transition to true worship or service.

μακάριος ἐν τῇ ποιήσει αὐτοῦ. See Joh 8:31-34, the thought of which passage underlies this, ἐὰν ὑμεῖς μείνητε ἐν τῷ λόγῳ τῷ ἐμῷ ἀληθῶς μαθηταί μού ἐστε, καὶ γνώσεσθε τὴν ἀλήθειαν, καὶ ἡ ἀλήθεια ἐλευθερώσει ὑμᾶς … ὁ ποιῶν τὴν ἁμαρτίαν (comp. with ἐν τῇ ποιήσει αὐτοῦ) δοῦλός ἐστιν. Sin and righteousness are regarded as creations. If the ‘maker’ keeps his eye fixed on the model—abiding in that steadfast gaze—he will be happy in his making, as every artist or maker of things true and beautiful knows. His making will be true to his γένεσις.

ποίησις. Here only in N.T. Comp. καὶ ἐν πάσῃ σοφίᾳ ποίησις νόμου, Sir 19:20.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

25.] But he who looked into (here we have the figure mingled with the reality, the comparison being dropped. The aor. participles are continued on from the former construction in ver. 24. Probably the verb παρακύψαι here, to stoop and look in, has reference to a mirror being placed on a table or on the ground, to contemplate which steadily, a man must put his face near to it. But we must not perhaps urge this too strictly: see ref. 1 Pet.: where it is used of looking closely into any thing. It is here the opposite of κατενόησεν, attention bestowed for a time only and then withdrawn. And this opposition is strengthened by καὶ παραμείνας) the perfect law which is (the law) of our (Christian) liberty (τὸν νόμον τέλειον, not, the gospel as contrasted with the law, nor the covenant of faith as more perfect than that of legal obedience: but, the rule of life as revealed in the gospel, which is perfect and perfecting, but not in contrast with the former law as being not perfect, and not able to make perfect: that distinction is not in view here: see below. The whole Epistle is founded on this perfect law of Christ, more especially on that declaration of it contained in the sermon on the mount: see Prolegg. And that this law here is meant, the λόγος ἔμφυτος, λόγος ἀληθείας, as it is a rule of conduct, is evident from what follows, where deeds, and they only, are spoken of. It is the law of our liberty, not as in contrast with a former law of bondage, but as viewed on the side of its being the law of the new life and birth, with all its spontaneous and free development of obedience. Huther remarks, “Ever in the O. T. the sweetness of the law was subject of praise (Psa 19:8-11), but the life-giving power belonged to the law only in an imperfect manner, because the covenant on which it rested, was as yet only one of promise, and not of fulfilment”) and remains there (remains looking in, does not depart as the other. There is a paronomasia in the παρα- repeated. Schneckenburger tries to give it the sense of ἐμμένειν in Act 14:22: but as Wiesinger remarks, the matter spoken of here is not so much observing the law in act, as observing it in attention—not letting it pass out of the thoughts. That leads to action, as below), being (not, having become: see above on γίνεσθε, ver. 22: the former οὗτος being omitted, this part. carries with it a slightly inferential force: ‘cum sit’) not a forgetful hearer (the expression ἀκροατὴς ἐπιλησμονῆς is a Hebraism, the genitive indicating the quality: see below on ch. 2:4, κριταὶ διαλογισμῶν πονηρῶν) but a doer of work (ἔργον, not sing. for plur. as Grot., “effector eorum operum quæ evangelica lex exigit:” but abstract, of work, something which brings a result with it), this man (see on οὗτος above, ver. 23) shall be blessed in his doing (cf. Sir. 19:20, ἐν πάσῃ σοφίᾳ ποίησις νόμου. The words imply that even in the act there is blessing: ἐν not being instrumental, but taken in its proper meaning: the life of obedience is the element wherein the blessedness is found and consists).

26,

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Whoso looketh [ο παρακυψας] . Rev., more strictly, he that looketh. See on 1Pe 1:12. The verb is used of one who stoops sideways [παρα] to look attentively. The mirror is conceived as placed on a table or on the ground. Bengel quotes Wisdom of Sirach 14 23 : "He that prieth in at her (Wisdom 's) windows shall also hearken at her doors." Coleridge remarks : "A more happy or forcible word could not have been chosen to express the nature and ultimate object of reflection, and to enforce the necessity of it, in order to discover the living fountain and spring - head of the evidence of the Christian faith in the believer himself, and at the same time to point out the seat and region where alone it is to be found" (" Aphorisms "). Into [εις] . Denoting the penetration of the look into the very essence of the law.

The perfect law of liberty [νομον τελειον τον της ελευθεριας] . Lit., the perfect law, the law of liberty. So Rev. The law of liberty is added as defining the perfect law.

Continueth therein. Better, Rev., so continueth; i e. continues looking. Forgetful hearer [ακροατης επιλησμονης] . The latter word only here in New Testament. Lit., a hearer of forgetfulness; whom forgetfulness characterizes. Rev., very happily, a hearer that forgetteth; a rendering which gives the proper sense of forgetfulness as a characteristic better than A. V., a forgetful hearer.

Doer of the work. Lit., of work, as the noun has no article. Rev., a doer that worketh.

In his deed [εν τη ποιησει αυτου] . More correctly, as Rev., in his doing. Only here in New Testament. The preposition ejn (in) marks the inner connection between doing and blessedness. "The life of obedience is the element wherein the blessedness is found and consists" (Alford).

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.