Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
God—The oldest authorities read, "Lord." "Him who is Lord and Father." The uncommonness of the application of "Lord" to the Father, doubtless caused the change in modern texts to "God" (James 1:27). But as Messiah is called "Father," Isaiah 9:6, so God the Father is called by the Son's title, "Lord": showing the unity of the Godhead. "Father" implies His paternal love; "Lord," His dominion.
men, which—not "men who"; for what is meant is not particular men, but men genetically [ALFORD].
are made after . . . similitude of God—Though in a great measure man has lost the likeness of God in which he was originally made, yet enough of it still remains to show what once it was, and what in regenerated and restored man it shall be. We ought to reverence this remnant and earnest of what man shall be in ourselves and in others. "Absalom has fallen from his father's favor, but the people still recognize him to be the king's son" [BENGEL]. Man resembles in humanity the Son of man, "the express image of His person" (Hebrews 1:3), compare Genesis 1:26; I John 4:20. In the passage, Genesis 1:26, "image" and "likeness" are distinct: "image," according to the Alexandrians, was something in which men were created, being common to all, and continuing to man after the fall, while the "likeness" was something toward which man was created, to strive after and attain it: the former marks man's physical and intellectual, the latter his moral pre-eminence.
Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing James 3:9:
Proverbs 21:23
1 Corinthians 11:7-9
Colossians 3:10
James 2:12
James 4:11
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