James 1:18-27
18Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
19Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:
20For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
21Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
22But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
23For 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:
24For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
25But 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.
26If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. 27Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
James tells us that the wrath of man does not work the righteousness of God and we are to be doers of the word, not hearers only. We only deceive ourselves in this regard. This type of man thinks naturally, who might BY THE LAW, uphold as much of it as he can. Paul describes a similar situation where he states that BY THE LAW, he persecuted the church of God. He was rich in compliance to the law. But when seperated to the work of God, ALL that he had gained by the law, he counted it for a LOSS.
The natural man however, tries to hold on to his riches as being compared to looking in a glass at himself. When he walks away though, he has forgotten what type of man he was meaning that to understand the law is to realize that for all the things gained by it, he is no better than any other sinner as we all have sinned. He has forgotten this.
We are to look upon perfect law of LIBERTY. We must understand this law. It is the righteousness of God. For me, to understand this, we must understand what unrighteousness is. 1 Corinthians 6:5-20 describes this exact same situation as talked about in James.
A quick example of this is the issue of homosexuality. We point out verses that state that these will have no part in heaven. But the truth is that this is the wrath of man to pass unrighteous judgement. This person has indeed forgotten what manner of man he was. I'm not gay, but if I say that all gays are going to the lake, did I forget that I was a thief? Did I forget that I was an idolator? The truth is that no flesh is justified, so why judge off of it's appearance?
So my basic understanding of it's meaning is this. If I desire mercy, I extend it to EVERYONE. Not only to those who think as I do. By the law, not being gay, I have gained a little in that. But I sell it that I may save one who is gay by the righteousness that comes not by the law sin, but the one of liberty. We all get mercy, or none of us gets it.
