The Perfect Law of Liberty Has Been Engrafted Into Our Hearts; So Be Not Forgetful Hearers, But Doers

Today's Focus Scripture: James 1:17-25

James 1:17-25

(NKJV)

¹⁷ Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. 
¹⁸ Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.
¹⁹ So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; 
²⁰ for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
²¹ Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
²² But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 
²³ For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 
²⁴ for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 
²⁵ But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

James 1:17-25

J.B. Phillips New Testament (PHILLIPS)

^17-18 But every good endowment that we possess and every complete gift that we have received must come from above, from the Father of all lights, with whom there is never the slightest variation or shadow of inconsistency. By his own wish he made us his own sons through the Word of truth that we might be, so to speak, the first specimens of his new creation.

^19-20 In view of what he has made us then, dear brothers, let every man be quick to listen but slow to use his tongue, and slow to lose his temper. For man’s temper is never the means of achieving God’s true goodness.

^21-25 Have done, then, with impurity and every other evil which touches the lives of others, and humbly accept the message that God has sown in your hearts, and which can save your souls. Don’t I beg you, only hear the message, but put it into practice; otherwise you are merely deluding yourselves. The man who simply hears and does nothing about it is like a man catching the reflection of his own face in a mirror. He sees himself, it is true, but he goes on with whatever he was doing without the slightest recollection of what sort of person he saw in the mirror. But the man who looks into the perfect mirror of God’s law, the law of liberty (or freedom), and makes a habit of so doing, is not the man who sees and forgets. He puts that law into practice and he wins true happiness.

LAGNIAPPE:

Verse 21: Implanted – Engrafted – Sown

Strong's G1721 – emphytos (a derivative of Strong’s G5453)

1) inborn, implanted by nature, implanted by others instruction

Strong's G5453 - phyō

1) to beget, bring forth, produce

2) to be born, to spring up, to grow

3) to shoot forth, spring up

Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words

James 1:21 Implanted, Engrafted, Sown

(KJV) Engrafted:

Note: This is the AV rendering of emphutos, Jam 1:21, an adjective derived from emphuo, "to implant;" the RV has "implanted." The metaphor is that of a seed rooting itself in the heart; cp. Mat 13:21; 15:13; 1Cr 3:6, and the kindred word sumphutos, Rom 6:5, "planted together" (sun, "with"). The AV "engrafted" would translate the word emphuteuton (from emphuteuo, "to graft"), which is not found in the NT; it uses enkentrizo in Rom. 11. Cp. ekphuo, "to cause to grow out, put forth" (leaves), Mat 24:32; Mar 13:28.