For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:
23 He is like to a man. Heavenly doctrine is indeed a mirror in which God presents himself to our view; but so that we may be transformed unto his image, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:18. But here he speaks of the external glance of the eye, not of the vivid and efficacious meditation which penetrates into the heart.
Learn to master passion under affliction: listen more than you speak, and do not rage against God's providence as David and Jonah did. Hear what He explains through your trials instead of hasty judgment.
AI summary
Commenting on James 1:19-27
But if any man be a hearer of the word, and not a doer,.... The Arabic version here again reads, "a hearer of the law", and so some copies; not hearing, but practice, is the main thing; not theory, but action: hence, says R.