Matthew Poole and continuators on James 1:23

23 For if any man be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass :

The Greek word here used, properly signifies the Sex, not the Species, but is indifferently used by this Apostle with the other, as v. 12, and 20. so that by a Man looking his Face in a Glass, is meant any Man or Woman.

Or, the face of his Nativity by an Hebraism, for natural Face, as we translate it, i. e. his own Face, that which Nature gave him, or he was born with.

The Word is here compared to a Looking-Glass; as the Glass represents to us the Features and Complexions of our Faces, whether beautiful or deformed; so the Word shews us the true face of our Souls, the beauty of God's Image when restored to them, and the Spots of Sin which so greatly disfigure them.

Marginal references: Luke 6.47. &c. See chap. 2.14. &c.