HEARING AND DOING THE WORD

19 My dear brothers and sisters, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger,r 20 for human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness. 21 Therefore, ridding yourselves of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent,E humbly receive the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.s

22 Butt be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like someone looking at his own faceF in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of person he was. 25 But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer who works—this person will be blessed in what he does.u

26 If anyoneG thinks he is religious without controlling his tongue,v his religion is useless and he deceives himself. 27 Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widowsw in their distress and to keep oneself unstained from the world.x