James 1:23 Explained in Context

Verse 19. ¹⁹ Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:

Verse 20. ²⁰ For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

Verse 21. ²¹ Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.

Verse 22. ²² But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

Verse 23. ²³ For 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:

Verse 24. ²⁴ For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.

Verse 25. ²⁵ But 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.

Verse 26. ²⁶ If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.

Verse 27. ²⁷ Pure 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.