Fathers

James 1

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James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are in the Dispersion: Greetings. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. Let endurance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, without any doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed. For that man shouldn’t think that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. But let the brother in humble circumstances glory in his high position; and the rich, in that he is made humble, because like the flower in the grass, he will pass away. For the sun arises with the scorching wind and withers the grass, and the flower in it falls, and the beauty of its appearance perishes. So the rich man will also fade away in his pursuits. Blessed is a person who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord promised to those who love him. Let no man say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God,” for God can’t be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed. Then the lust, when it has conceived, bears sin. The sin, when it is full grown, produces death. Don’t be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, nor turning shadow. Of his own will he gave birth to us by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. So, then, my beloved brothers, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger; for the anger of man doesn’t produce the righteousness of God. Therefore, putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with humility the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deluding your own selves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his natural face in a mirror; for he sees himself, and goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of freedom and continues, not being a hearer who forgets, but a doer of the work, this man will be blessed in what he does. If anyone among you thinks himself to be religious while he doesn’t bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this man’s religion is worthless. Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

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What the Fathers say

James 1:22

Eastern Fathers

Theophylact of Ohrid

"Deceiving yourselves" means deluding yourselves, counting your own salvation as nothing.

Commentary on James ↗

Oecumenius

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. Since James knows that some who listen to the word with diligence often extinguish their fervor even at the very time they are listening, therefore, he now adds this, commanding it in effect: Do not show diligence only in hearing, but much more in doing.

Commentary on James ↗

Desert Fathers

Three brothers once came to a hermit in Scetis. One of them said to him, 'Abba, I have memorized the Old and New Testaments.' But the hermit answered, 'And you have filled the air with words.' The second said to him, 'I have written out the Old and New Testaments with my own hand.' But the hermit said, 'And you have filled the window-ledge with manuscripts.' The third said, 'The grass is growing up my chimney.' But the hermit answered, 'And you have driven away hospitality.'

The Desert Fathers, Sayings of the Early Christian Monks ↗

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

Neither I nor any other preacher can see into your hearts … but God is looking, for nothing can be hidden from him.… Do not deceive yourselves by coming eagerly to hear the Word and then failing to do it. If it is a good thing to hear, it is a much better thing to do. If you do not hear, you cannot do, and therefore you will build nothing. But if you hear and do not do, then what you are building will be a ruin.

Sermons 179.7-8 ↗

Bede

Be however doers of the word, and not hearers only, etc. Thus also Paul about the observers of the law. "Not the hearers," he says, "of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified" (Rom. II). And in the Apocalypse John, having said: "Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy of this book," immediately added: "And keep those things which are written therein" (Apoc. I).

Commentary on the Catholic Epistles ↗

Bonaventure

The second benefit of keeping the commandments of God is the understanding of the sacred Scriptures. Gregory says that "by hearing God's precepts the disciples were not illuminated, but by doing them they were illuminated"; because not the hearers of the law only, but the doers shall be justified. …

Collationes de Decem Praeceptis, Collation 1 ↗