James 1:22

Amplified Bible

But prove yourselves doers of the word [actively and continually obeying God's precepts], and not merely listeners [who hear the word but fail to internalize its meaning], deluding yourselves [by unsound reasoning contrary to the truth].

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

King James Version (1611)
But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers onely, receiuing your owne selues.

King James Version
But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

English Standard Version
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

New American Standard Bible
But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not just hearers who deceive themselves.

New Century Version
Do what God's teaching says; when you only listen and do nothing, you are fooling yourselves.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.

Berean Standard Bible
Be doers of the word, and not hearers only. Otherwise, you are deceiving yourselves.

Contemporary English Version
Obey God's message! Don't fool yourselves by just listening to it.

Complete Jewish Bible
Don't deceive yourselves by only hearing what the Word says, but do it!

Darby Translation
But be ye doers of [the] word and not hearers only, beguiling yourselves.

Easy-to-Read Version
Do what God's teaching says; don't just listen and do nothing. When you only sit and listen, you are fooling yourselves.

Geneva Bible (1587)
And be ye doers of the word, and not hearers onely, deceiuing your owne selues.

George Lamsa Translation
But you be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

Good News Translation
Do not deceive yourselves by just listening to his word; instead, put it into practice.

Lexham English Bible
But be doers of the message and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves,

Literal Translation
But become doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

American Standard Version
But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deluding your own selves.

Bible in Basic English
But be doers of the word, and not only hearers of it, blinding yourselves with false ideas.

Hebrew Names Version
But be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deluding your own selves.

International Standard Version
Keep on being doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.Matthew 7:21; Luke 6:46; 11:28; Romans 2:13; 1 John 3:7;">[xr]

Etheridge Translation
BUT be doers of the word, and not hearers only, neither deceive yourselves.

Murdock Translation
But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only; and do not deceive yourselves.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And be ye doers of the worde, and not hearers only, deceauyng your owne selues.

English Revised Version
But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deluding your own selves.

World English Bible
But be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deluding your own selves.

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
But be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves:

Weymouth's New Testament
But prove yourselves obedient to the Message, and do not be mere hearers of it, imposing a delusion upon yourselves.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
But be ye doeris of the word, and not hereris oneli, disseiuynge you silf.

Update Bible Version
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deluding your own selves.

Webster's Bible Translation
But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

New English Translation
But be sure you live out the message and do not merely listen to it and so deceive yourselves.

New King James Version
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

New Living Translation
But don't just listen to God's word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.

New Life Bible
Obey the Word of God. If you hear only and do not act, you are only fooling yourself.

New Revised Standard
But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Become ye doers of the word, and not hearers only - reasoning yourselves astray;

Douay-Rheims Bible
But be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

Revised Standard Version
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
And se that ye be doars of the worde and not hearers only deceavinge youre awne selves with sophistrie

Young's Literal Translation
and become ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves,

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
And se that ye be doers of ye worde & not heares only, deceauinge youre awne selues.

Mace New Testament (1729)
Don't delusively content your selves with being of the audience, but put what you hear in practice:

THE MESSAGE
Don't fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don't act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like.

Simplified Cowboy Version
You best walk the walk and not just spin a good yarn. Doin' so is just lyin' to yourself.

Contextual Overview

¹⁹Understand this, my beloved brothers and sisters. Let everyone be quick to hear [be a careful, thoughtful listener], slow to speak [a speaker of carefully chosen words and], slow to anger [patient, reflective, forgiving]; ²⁰for the [resentful, deep-seated] anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God [that standard of behavior which He requires from us]. ²¹So get rid of all uncleanness and all that remains of wickedness, and with a humble spirit receive the word [of God] which is implanted [actually rooted in your heart], which is able to save your souls. ²²But prove yourselves doers of the word [actively and continually obeying God's precepts], and not merely listeners [who hear the word but fail to internalize its meaning], deluding yourselves [by unsound reasoning contrary to the truth].²³For if anyone only listens to the word without obeying it, he is like a man who looks very carefully at his natural face in a mirror; ²⁴for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he immediately forgets what he looked like. ²⁵But he who looks carefully into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and faithfully abides by it, not having become a [careless] listener who forgets but an active doer [who obeys], he will be blessed and favored by God in what he does [in his life of obedience]. ²⁶If anyone thinks himself to be religious [scrupulously observant of the rituals of his faith], and does not control his tongue but deludes his own heart, this person's religion is worthless (futile, barren). ²⁷Pure and unblemished religion [as it is expressed in outward acts] in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit and look after the fatherless and the widows in their distress, and to keep oneself uncontaminated by the [secular] world.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

be: James 4:17, Matthew 7:21-25, Matthew 12:50, Matthew 28:20, Luke 6:46-48, Luke 11:28, Luke 12:47, Luke 12:48, John 13:17, Romans 2:13, Philippians 4:8, Colossians 3:17, 1 John 2:3, 1 John 3:7, 3 John 1:11, Revelation 22:7

deceiving: James 1:26, Isaiah 44:20, Obadiah 1:3, 1 Corinthians 3:18, 1 Corinthians 6:9, 1 Corinthians 15:33, Galatians 6:3, Galatians 6:7, 2 Timothy 3:13, Titus 3:3, 2 Peter 2:13, 1 John 1:8, Revelation 12:9

Reciprocal: Exodus 35:1 - do them Leviticus 20:8 - And ye Joshua 1:8 - observe 2 Kings 22:13 - because our fathers Psalms 15:5 - He that doeth Psalms 119:48 - unto thy Proverbs 8:34 - watching Proverbs 14:12 - General Proverbs 15:32 - heareth Proverbs 21:2 - right Proverbs 27:19 - in Isaiah 58:2 - they ask Jeremiah 11:6 - Hear Jeremiah 37:9 - Deceive Jeremiah 38:20 - Obey Jeremiah 42:20 - dissembled in your hearts Ezekiel 18:5 - if Ezekiel 18:9 - walked Ezekiel 33:4 - whosoever heareth Ezekiel 33:31 - and they Zephaniah 2:3 - all Matthew 13:23 - good Luke 6:47 - doeth Luke 6:49 - that heareth Luke 8:15 - keep Luke 8:21 - which John 5:38 - ye have Romans 2:23 - that makest Romans 7:11 - deceived Romans 15:18 - by word Philippians 4:9 - do 2 Thessalonians 2:17 - in James 2:14 - though James 4:11 - a doer

Cross-References

Genesis 1:13
And there was evening and there was morning, a third day.

Genesis 1:14
Then God said, "Let there be light-bearers (sun, moon, stars) in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be useful for signs (tokens) [of God's provident care], and for marking seasons, days, and years;

Genesis 1:28
And God blessed them [granting them certain authority] and said to them, "Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth, and subjugate it [putting it under your power]; and rule over (dominate) the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and every living thing that moves upon the earth."

Genesis 8:17
"Bring out with you every living thing from all flesh—birds and animals and every crawling thing that crawls on the earth—that they may breed abundantly on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth."

Genesis 9:1
And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.

Genesis 30:27
But Laban said to him, "If I have found favor in your sight, stay with me; for I have learned [from the omens in divination and by experience] that the LORD has blessed me because of you."

Genesis 30:30
"For you had little before I came and it has increased and multiplied abundantly, and the LORD has favored you with blessings wherever I turned. But now, when shall I provide for my own household?"

Genesis 35:11
And God said to him, "I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply; A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, And kings shall be born of your loins.

Leviticus 26:9
'For I will turn toward you [with favor and regard] and make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will establish and confirm My covenant with you.

Job 40:15
"Behold now, Behemoth, which I created as well as you; He eats grass like an ox.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

But be ye doers of the word,.... And they are such, who spiritually understand it; gladly receive it; and from the heart obey it, and make a sincere and ingenuous profession of it; and who submit to the ordinances it directs to, and keep them as they have been delivered; and live, and walk, becoming their profession of it. The Arabic and Ethiopic versions read, "be ye doers of the law"; and so one of Stephens's copies, as in Romans 2:13

and not hearers only; though the word should be heard swiftly and readily, and received with meekness; yet it should not be barely heard, and assented to; but what is heard should be put in practice; and especially men should not depend upon their hearing, as if that would save them; this is deceiving your own selves; such as rest upon the outward hearing of the word will be sadly deceived, and will find themselves miserably mistaken, another day; see

Luke 13:25. Arguments taken from hence are like the sophisms, paralogisms, and false reasonings of sophisters, which carry a fair show, and ensnare and deceive.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only - Obey the gospel, and do not merely listen to it. Compare Matthew 7:21.

Deceiving your own selves - It is implied here, that by merely hearing the word but not doing it, they would deceive their own souls. The nature of this deception was this, that they would imagine that that was all which was required, whereas the main thing was that they should be obedient. If a man supposes that by a mere punctual attendance on preaching, or a respectful attention to it, he has done all that is required of him, he is laboring under a most gross self-deception. And yet there are multitudes who seem to imagine that they have done all that is demanded of them when they have heard attentively the word preached. Of its influence on their lives, and its claims to obedience, they are utterly regardless.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 22. But be ye doers of the word — They had heard this doctrine; they had believed it; but they had put it to no practical use. They were downright Antinomians, who put a sort of stupid, inactive faith in the place of all moral righteousness. This is sufficiently evident from the second chapter.

Deceiving your own selves. — παραλογιζομενοι εαυτους. Imposing on your own selves by sophistical arguments; this is the meaning of the words. They had reasoned themselves into a state of carnal security, and the object of St. James is, to awake them out of their sleep.