James 1:18 - Wesley's Explanatory Notes

Of his own will — Most loving, most free, most pure, just opposite to our evil desire, James 1:15. Begat he us — Who believe. By the word of truth — The true word, emphatically so termed; the gospel. That we might be a kind of first — fruits of his creatures — Christians are the chief and most excellent of his visible creatures; and sanctify the rest. Yet he says, A kind of — For Christ alone is absolutely the first — fruits.