John Calvin Commentary James 1:21

"Wherefore putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls." — James 1:21 (ASV)

Wherefore lay apart. He concludes by saying how the word of life is to be received. First, indeed, he suggests that it cannot be rightly received unless it is implanted, or strikes root in us. For the expression, to receive the implanted word, should be explained this way: “to receive it, so that it may be truly implanted.” For he alludes to seed often sown on the ground and not received into the moist bosom of the earth, or to plants which, being cast on the ground or laid on dead wood, soon wither. He then requires that it be a living implanting, by which the word becomes, so to speak, united with our heart.

He at the same time shows the way and manner of this reception: with meekness. By this word, he means humility and the readiness of a mind disposed to learn, such as Isaiah describes when he says, “On whom does my Spirit rest, except on the humble and meek?” (Isaiah 57:15).

This is why so few profit in the school of God: because hardly one in a hundred renounces the stubbornness of their own spirit and gently submits to God; instead, almost all are conceited and rebellious. But if we desire to be the living plantation of God, we must subdue our proud hearts, be humble, and strive to become like lambs, allowing ourselves to be ruled and guided by our Shepherd.

But as people are never tamed in this way, so as to have a calm and meek heart, unless they are purged from corrupt desires, so he instructs us to lay aside uncleanness and redundancy of wickedness. And as James borrowed a comparison from agriculture, it was necessary for him to observe this order: to begin by rooting up noxious weeds. Since he addressed all, we may therefore conclude that these are the innate evils of our nature and that they cling to us all. Indeed, since he addresses the faithful, he shows that we are never wholly cleansed from them in this life, but that they are continually sprouting up, and therefore he requires that constant care be taken to eradicate them. Since the word of God is an especially holy thing, to be fitted to receive it, we must put off the filthy things by which we have been polluted.

Under the word κακία, he includes hypocrisy and obstinacy as well as unlawful desires or lusts. Not satisfied with specifying the seat of wickedness as being in the human soul, he teaches us that the wickedness dwelling there is so abounding that it overflows, or that it rises up, so to speak, into a heap. Doubtless, whoever examines themselves thoroughly will find that there is an immense chaos of evils within them.

Which is able to save. This is high praise for heavenly truth, that we obtain through it a sure salvation. This is added so that we may learn to seek, love, and magnify the word as an incomparable treasure. It is, then, a sharp goad to chastise our idleness when he says that the word, which we are accustomed to hearing so negligently, is the means of our salvation.

However, the power of saving is not, for this purpose, ascribed to the word as if salvation is conveyed by its external sound, or as if the role of saving is taken from God and transferred elsewhere. For James speaks of the word which by faith penetrates into human hearts, and only suggests that God, the author of salvation, conveys it through His Gospel.