The Letter of James - 2:8-13

Overview

Last week we covered and discovered this idea of Selective Obedience. How in today's society we're expected to pick and choose, to customize our order in almost every situation. And that attitude has wiggled its way into our churches. We are not to have anything to do with favoritism.

We also delve into the Royal Law, "Love your neighbor as yourself," and what that entirely means. For someone to be a Good Samaritan, they don't need to be from Samaria.

A Good Samaritan is someone who helps a person they don't know. Or better yet, someone who loves their neighbor.

Then, we looked at the word love. What does the "love" part of love your neighbor really means?

Love is the best word we have in the English language to translate this concept too, but it doesn't hold the complete meaning. We need a word that combines other meanings like charity, compassion, mercy, grace, kindness, etc.

Now on to .

Please follow along.

James 2:8–13 NLT

8 Yes indeed, it is good when you obey the royal law as found in the Scriptures: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 9 But if you favor some people over others, you are committing a sin. You are guilty of breaking the law. 10 For the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God’s laws. 11 For the same God who said, “You must not commit adultery,” also said, “You must not murder.” So if you murder someone but do not commit adultery, you have still broken the law. 12 So whatever you say or whatever you do, remember that you will be judged by the law that sets you free. 13 There will be no mercy for those who have not shown mercy to others. But if you have been merciful, God will be merciful when he judges you.

Verse 9 is connected to verse 8.

James 2:8–9 NLT

8 Yes indeed, it is good when you obey the royal law as found in the Scriptures: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 9 But if you favor some people over others, you are committing a sin. You are guilty of breaking the law.

You are guilty of breaking the royal law.

We are sinning when we show favor to some people over others because we do not love our neighbor.

Have you ever thought about that? Showing partiality to one of the other is a sin? That's scary because our culture sees that behavior as the norm; it's accepted.

We are to extend love to our neighbor, including those who are different from us. This means that we enthusiastically welcome outsiders into our church meetings, regardless of nationality, ethnic makeup, age, or income level. We should treat them with the same amount of excitement that we would if a famous politician, actor, or athlete walked through our doors.

Most would say that's absurd. It is. We are part of an upside-down kingdom. Here is a quote that I read and really liked.

"In obedience to their king, Jesus, Christians are to build among themselves a genuine counterculture, in which the values of the kingdom of God rather than the values of this world are lived out."

James 2:10 NLT

10 For the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God’s laws.

This reminds me of where Jesus is teaching about the law.

Matthew 5:19 NLT

19 So if you ignore the least commandment and teach others to do the same, you will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But anyone who obeys God’s laws and teaches them will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.

I once heard someone say, "If you break one link in the chain, you break the chain." James develops this idea a little more in verse 11.

James 1:11 NLT

11 The hot sun rises and the grass withers; the little flower droops and falls, and its beauty fades away. In the same way, the rich will fade away with all of their achievements.

If you break one commandment, you've broken the law. We don't get to pick and choose which ones we obey and which ones are okay to break. You break one; you break all.

But James is not referring to 613 commandments in the old testament. If that was the case, we're all in trouble. James is urging complete compliance with "the royal law," the kingdom law, the law of liberty. He is looking a the old testament law through the lens of Jesus' fulfillment of it.

James is claiming that Christians who show favoritism are transgressors fo the royal law! James jumps back to this thought in verse 12.

James 2:12–13 NLT

12 So whatever you say or whatever you do, remember that you will be judged by the law that sets you free. 13 There will be no mercy for those who have not shown mercy to others. But if you have been merciful, God will be merciful when he judges you.

Believers should regulate their actions in light of the judgment to come. We need to validate our faith by doing the word, not just hearing the word.

"God’s gracious acceptance of us does not end our obligation to obey him; it sets it on a new footing. No longer is God’s law a threatening, confining burden. For the will of God now confronts us as a law of liberty—an obligation we discharge in the joyful knowledge that God has both “liberated” us from the penalty of sin and given us, in his Spirit, the power to obey his will. To use James’s own description, this law is an “implanted word,” “written on the heart,” that has the power to save us ()."

Mercy gets mercy

James 2:13 NLT

13 There will be no mercy for those who have not shown mercy to others. But if you have been merciful, God will be merciful when he judges you.

This is related to the parable that Jesus tells about the unmerciful servant.

Matthew 18:21–35 NLT

21 Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?” 22 “No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven! 23 “Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him. 24 In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him millions of dollars. 25 He couldn’t pay, so his master ordered that he be sold—along with his wife, his children, and everything he owned—to pay the debt. 26 “But the man fell down before his master and begged him, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I will pay it all.’ 27 Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt. 28 “But when the man left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand dollars. He grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant payment. 29 “His fellow servant fell down before him and begged for a little more time. ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it,’ he pleaded. 30 But his creditor wouldn’t wait. He had the man arrested and put in prison until the debt could be paid in full. 31 “When some of the other servants saw this, they were very upset. They went to the king and told him everything that had happened. 32 Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. 33 Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ 34 Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt. 35 “That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart.”

But James ends this verse on a positive note, Mercy triumphs over judgment!