My God and My Country

Word of God

Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God

Matthew 4:4

The Epistle of James 1:25

(Study notes by Matthew Henry Edited by Doktor Riktor Von Zhadess)

25 But who so looketh in the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he not being a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, shall be blessed in his deed.

Brethren:

The gospel is a law of liberty, of liberation, giving us deliverance from the Jewish law, and from sin and guilt, and wrath and death. The ceremonial law was a yoke of bondage; the gospel of Christ is a law of liberty. It is a perfect law; nothing can be added to it. In hearing the word, we look into this perfect law; we consult it for counsel and direction; we look into it, that we may thence take our measures. Then only do we look into the law of liberty as we should when we continue therein; when we dwell in the study of it, till it turn to a spiritual life, engrafted and digested in us.

When we are not forgetful of it, but practice it as our work and business, set it always before our eyes, and make it the constant rule of our conversation and behaviour, and model the temper of our minds by it. Those who thus do, and continue in the law and word of God, are, and shall be, blessed in their deed; blessed in all their ways, according to the first psalm, to which, some think, James here alludes. He that meditates in the law of God, and walks according to it, the psalmist says, shall prosper in whatsoever he does. And he that is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work which God’s word sets him about, James says, shall be blessed.

Now some may say that this infers that here we have a clear text to prove we are blessed for our good deeds; but Dr. Manton, in answer to that pretense, puts the reader upon marking the distinctness of scripture-phrase. The apostle does not say, for his deeds, that any man is blessed, but in his deed. This is a way in which we shall certainly find blessedness, but not the cause of it. This blessedness does not lie in knowing, but in doing the will of God. (See John 13:17). If you know these things, happy are you if you do them. It is not talking, but walking, that will bring us to heaven.