James 1:21-22 Why lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word… As "filthiness" (which is the literal import of the original word — a word which occurs only here in the New Testament) of the outward person is offensive to the senses of one who is of cleanly and delicate taste and habits, so offensive is sin or moral evil to the spiritual sensibilities of the new man; of him who is "begotten of God," and whose "seed remaineth in him" — the seed of the pure "Word of God." The exhortation will thus correspond very closely with that of another apostle, which is also connected with the representation of believers as belonging to God's family (2 Corinthians 7:1). Then — retaining the same view of the connection — the word rendered "naughtiness" will naturally be taken in its largest and most general acceptation as meaning "evil" — evil, that is, in principle, affection, and conduct. I am inclined, however, without being positive, to understand the connection of the words as more immediate with the preceding two verses; and as referring especially to the outward expression or utterance of that "wrath of man which worketh not the righteousness of God." In this way, I would interpret "filthiness" of the vile abusive language in which that wrath is ever prone to indulge itself; of ribaldry — coarse and foul invective. And this corresponds well with the style of the writer, who dwells afterwards at such lengths on the evils of the tongue. The low abuse of a wrathful and misguided zeal was one description of the "filthy communication" which Paul, too, commands believers to "put off." On the same principle, I take the word rendered here "naughtiness," to have the sense of malice or maliciousness, rather than the more general sense of evil. These things they were to "lay apart" as hindrances to the reception and influence of God's Word, as at variance with the temper of mind necessary to its right reception and its right operation. "Meekness" has here the distinctive sense of an humble, calm, childlike docile disposition. It is a state of mind unreservedly open to the instructions and directions of Divine wisdom and Divine authority; conscious of ignorance and of proneness to err. The Word is denominated "the engrafted Word," or the implanted Word. The more usual figure is that of seed — seed sown in the heart. Hence it is a shoot — a shoot, as it were, from the tree of life — implanted in the same soil by the agency of God's Spirit. It becomes the plant of grace in the heart; and, in the life, "brings forth fruit unto God." And of that "implanted Word" it is here added, "which is able to save your souls." There are two parts of the soul's salvation, for both of which "the Word of the truth of the gospel" is alike adapted and sufficient. It reveals, in the first place, the ground of the pardon of sin, and of justification before God; and by faith in this ground we are pardoned and justified. That ground consists in the atonement and righteousness of the Divine Saviour — His mediatorial "obedience unto death." The Word of the truth of the gospel, when believed, thus" saves the soul" from guilt and condemnation, and brings it into a state of life and acceptance with God. Then, secondly, it becomes the instrument of renewal and progressive sanctification — an equally important element of the soul's salvation. It saves the soul by delivering it from the power and the love of sin. We are "saved by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost." And this is by means of the Word. It is then, when brought to the possession of the "inheritance among them that are sanctified," that the soul is fully and for ever "saved." This latter part of the gospel salvation James was anxious to impress, in its indispensable necessity, on the minds of those to whom he wrote — the practical influence of the truth which he here exhorts them to receive, and to receive, in all its lessons, with meekly submissive docility — the vanity of all professions of having so received the truth if its practical efficacy was not apparent. This is an invariable characteristic of God's Word. The doctrinal and the practical are inseparable. It follows here accordingly: "But be ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves." The great general principle, or truth, in this verse is, that all mere hearing of the Word, and all professed faith of it, are self-delusions, where there is not the experience of its inward holy influence manifested in its outward practical effects — that the hearing and the professing are worthless without the doing, as the required and necessary evidence of our being accepted of God in Christ. The "doing of the Word" is a proof of our being believers of the Word; of our having indeed "received it with meekness," and of its being divinely and savingly implanted in our hearts. (R. Wardlaw, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. |
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