James (13)

Chapter 2 Part 3

James 2:10–13 NKJV

10 For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. 11 For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. 12 So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. 13 For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

So what’s the moral of the story for James? That mercy triumphs over judgment. Everyone falls short of fulfilling all aspects of God’s law; this is a given. But James reminds us that we can expect to face judgment as transgressors if we judge others by the same laws we have broken. James challenges us to let the coming judgment influence how we treat others now. His closing thought in verse 13 offers us hope: “Mercy triumphs over judgment.” And based on the magnitude of mercy that God has displayed to us through new life in Christ Jesus, the least we can do is extend this same mercy to others. What we do today, James reminds us, will influence our treatment tomorrow. We should live in such a way that this is not a scary thought.

Steven E. Runge, High Definition Commentary: James, High Definition Commentary Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2015), 49.

James 2:14–17 NKJV

14 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? 17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

James 2:18–21 NKJV

18 But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 19 You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! 20 But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar?

James 1:22–25 NKJV

22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

Romans 2:13 NKJV

13 (for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified;

Romans 3:28 NKJV

28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.

How do we reconcile these?

1 John 3:16–18 NKJV

16 By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 17 But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? 18 My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.

John 15:9–15 NKJV

9 “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. 10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. 11 “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. 12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. 14 You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.