March 27

Pass Judgement

Isn’t there just one rule you wish did not exisit?

for those who have ever reccevied a speeding ticket its the speed laws.

for the teens in the room it is probably some rule that your parents gave you but your friends don’t have

for me its the book of James,

man the book of James is so excellently crafted that I dislike reading it becuase I know it’s going to convict me each and everytime.

James 2:8–10 NIV

If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right. But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.

like know you know what I mean, James does not just state that you should be impartial towards everyone, but goes on to say that if you are not impartial that you are breaking a Law.

So if you take the movement that if you are showing favouritism to your neighbor then you are breaking a law, which is bad and it which theres punishment, but then James brings us the sermon on the mount the double down on the the importance of his advice.

If you show favouritism then you break a Law, if you break a Law then you break all the laws.

If you break the Law what point is there in having Laws at all? So, fall all the commandments and all the Laws.

James takes the idea that we need to show love to all people around us, not just those who we choose to be worthy of that love, or those who we decide need that love. We break the law we we choose to show love to someone who we respect over someone who we don’t know.

Even though this sounds bad, James goes on to add even more heat to it.

James 2:11 NIV

For he who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.

if you break one Law you are a lawbreaker and it does not matter what law you break, you are thrown in the same basket as the rest of the law breakers

So, if you wish to not be thrown in with the rest of the law breakers follow James in his final words before he changes topics.

James 2:12 NIV

Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom,

Live and acted as those who will be judged. Which I think his is final thing that can really scare us straight, but lets read it with a better perspective. One that has truth And grace.

See we know that the judgement at the end when we reach the great white throne found in revelation 20, we will know that Christ is our advocate, that altough man will have judgement, that our judgement with be sought with truth, yes but also that we will have Christ who is for us in the mist of our judgement.

So we are going to be judged by the same Law that gives us freedom.

In this final nail in the coffin James says something that is not supposed to scare us but rather to liberate us. That we are going to be judged by the Law that gives us freedom. Reading it backwards is that the freedom reccevies comes with laws to act on that freedom.

Christs freedom guides our actions.

so if we choose to act outside of the laws of freedom then we are choosing to live outside of freedom.

see we cannot have faith without actions, if you think we can I encourage you to read the rest of James and he will tell you, there cannot be faith without actions.

If you follow Freedom, then you must follow the Laws of Freedom as apart of your faith., Becuase the Laws of Freedom are how you express your faith.

So, if you choose to show someone favouritism then you are showing that freedom is not really freedom, but rather its selective. The issues with that is clear, Christ did not come for the select, our friend Paul says that over and over again, its not for the Jews but also for the Gentiles.

There is not selection of favourtism,