James 1:18 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Of his own will; out of his mere good pleasure, as the original cause, and not moved to it by any dignity or merit in us, Ephesians 1:9 2 Timothy 1:9. Begat he us; by a spiritual generation, whereby we are new born, and are made partakers of a Divine nature, 1 Thessalonians 1:13 1 Peter 1:3,23. With the word of truth; i.e. the word of the gospel, as the instrument or means whereby we are regenerated: why it is called the word of truth, see Ephesians 1:13. That we should be a kind of first-fruits; i.e. most excellent creatures, being singled out and separated from the rest, and consecrated to God, as under the law the first-fruits were, Revelation 14:4. Of his creatures; viz. reasonable creatures; the word creature being elsewhere restrained to men: see Mark 16:15 Colossians 1:15.