James 1:23 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

He is like unto a man: the Greek word here used, properly signifies the sex, not the species, but is indifferently used by this apostle with the other, as James 1:12,20, so that by a man looking at his face in a glass, is meant any man or woman. Beholding his natural face; or, the face of his nativity, by a Hebraism, for natural face, as we translate it; i.e. his own face, that which nature gave him, or he was born with. In a glass; 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 shows 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.