There is a well-known saying that states that those who do not remember their history are doomed to repeat it. Truer words could not be spoken. When people forget the lessons of their own past they tend to make those same mistakes over and over. Failed pursuits, failed forms of government, failed relationships, and crumbling empires have plagued our world for thousands of years, when all along, leaders could have easily learned from the generations who went before them and avoided similar mistakes and consequences. The key to this principle is to remember, not only the things we want to remember, but also that which is painful. Pain can be a useful tutor. It can lead us to a place of proactiveness in which we avoid many regrets others will endure. Pain keeps us from making the same mistakes twice, or at least it should. The child who touches a hot stove should remember that pain and not make the same mistake twice. But as history has shown us, generations have a way of erasing the lessons of those who went before us.

James warns us to not just listen but to make sure that what is going into our mind is also acted upon. It is not enough simply to listen or to learn. To listen or learn without acting upon what you heard is deceiving yourself. It is useless and foolish. It was common in the ancient world for a student to hear and even take notes of the lessons of their teacher. However, If you followed that teacher and actually tried to live what he said, you were called a disciple of that teacher. We may say that Jesus was and still is looking for disciples: doers, not mere hearers or note-takers. James likens hearing but not doing to studying your face in the mirror, but then walking away and immediately forgetting what you look like. Whatever you learned was just as quickly forgotten. So what was the point? While forgetting what you look like is not dangerous or foolish, many people forget the lessons of their past and forget what God's word says. This apathy or ignorance becomes foolish and even dangerous, not only to you, but to the generations which go after you. We are told to look intently into the perfect law that gives freedom. That law is described as a mirror in that the Law reveals to us where we fall short of Gods perfect standard. We cannot hope to be perfect and keep the whole law in our own strength and power. The law shows us how we cannot save ourselves. It is the perfect law that points us to Jesus and points us to the action of pursuing him. This is how the perfect law leads us to freedom. And also how rejecting that perfect law brings enslavement. Most would think the opposite, that the law doesn't give freedom; It is a constraint, like a fence or a seatbelt. But this is not true, it is God's boundaries, his perfect law, that lead us to a life of true freedom, protection, and provision.

James' point in this passage was not his own and did not originate with him. Jesus used this same point to conclude His great Sermon on the Mount. He said that the one who heard the word without doing it was like a man who built his house on the sand, but the one who heard God’s word and did it was like a man whose house was built on a rock. The one who both heard and did God’s word could withstand the inevitable storms of life and the judgment of eternity, but the one who did not would suffer a great fall.