Keeping the Whole

On our return from Scotland, we were scheduled on three different flights to make it back home. We boarded our first flight for Amsterdam and left on time. Landing in Amsterdam, we easily found our next gate. We waited about an hour before boarding began. We were among some of the first to board. We began settling in, thinking it was odd more people weren’t boarding. Then a flight attendant told us we would need to disembark. On his inspection, the pilot had spotted a bird strike on the nose of the plane. We spent about seven hours more in the airport waiting to see if they would cancel our flight, and then waiting to be rebooked and receive our hotel and meal vouchers as our rebooked flight wasn’t until the following day.

Canceled or delayed flights are part of travel. What I want to consider is whether or not our partial travel was enough. Our goal was to be home that day. We did not make it home as scheduled. We made it to Amsterdam, which is actually in the wrong direction for getting home. Granted, we were one flight closer to our goal, but we were sleeping in a hotel not our own bed. One out of three flights was a start, but it was not enough.

As we’ve been working our way through James, we’ve learned how trials prove whether our faith is genuine, that our faith must be in God alone, that we are lured and enticed to sin by our own desires, that we must be hearers and doers of God’s Word, that pure and undefiled religion bridles the tongue, cares for orphans and widows and keeps oneself unstained from the world, and partiality contradicts God’s character and the Gospel. In today’s verses, James connects partiality to a bigger issue.

8 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. 9 But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. 11 For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. 12 So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. 13 For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.[1]

James 2:8-13

James tells his readers that if they really fulfill the royal law according to Scripture, loving their neighbor as themselves, they are doing well. There are a couple thoughts on what the “royal law” refers to. Some think it is the Gospel or the law contained in the Old Testament. It could be the Old Testament law that Jesus fulfilled perfectly (Matthew 5:17). It is perhaps best understood as the entirety of God’s will for those in Christ. Even if we aren’t positive what the royal law refers to, James spells out “you shall love your neighbor as yourself” quoting both the Old Testament and Jesus (Leviticus 19:18; Mark 12:28-31).

Not only did Jesus command us to love our neighbor, but He lived it. In His incarnation, He became our neighbor; He became one of us. In His death and resurrection, Jesus demonstrated the extent of His love (Ephesians 5:2). In addition, during His earthly life, He loved His neighbors, caring for people in all stations of life including those society considered outcasts.

In the parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), Jesus expanded the definition of a neighbor beyond traditional thinking. A neighbor is anyone we encounter. Jesus even went so far as to say we should love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us (Matthew 5:44), which He exemplified even as He hung dying on the cross.

The phrase “according to” is important. James is not describing the way in which we keep the law: by loving our neighbor. He is expressing the nature of the law. Loving our neighbor is at the heart of the law (after loving God). We shouldn’t steal from our neighbor because we love our neighbor. We shouldn’t lie to our neighbor because we love them.

One final note on verse 8. This is something you have probably heard, so I won’t go into detail. Loving our neighbor as ourselves is not a command to love ourselves. It is understood that we already love ourselves. Now we need to love and care for others the way we would care for ourselves.

Verse 9 stands in opposition to verse 8: Loving our neighbor versus showing partiality. Doing well versus sin and transgressing the law. We can’t truly love our neighbor if we are showing favoritism. “But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.” But is better translated as however, carrying the idea that partiality is already occurring. Show adds to this understanding. The Greek verb indicates an ongoing practice. James’ readers were showing partiality, and James states that it is sin.

Not only do those who show partiality commit a sin, but they are convicted by the law as transgressors. A transgressor is one who goes beyond God’s law. Partiality transgresses or goes beyond the boundaries of God’s law.

I hope after last week, you understand the seriousness of the sin of partiality, but some may still be thinking that James is using pretty harsh language for a relatively small sin. There is no such thing as a small sin. All sin violates God’s will and character (since God’s law reflects His character).

James does not want us to be deceived in how we think of sin and transgressing the law. “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. For he who said, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ also said, ‘Do not murder.’ If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law” (vs 10-11). James wants us to understand that the law is a whole unit. There are not many detached and separate laws, but they are unified as one. Different sins may result in different damage, but each one still transgresses the law as a whole. So, if we obey every law but one, we have still transgressed the whole law. We are guilty of all. Think back to my example of our travel home from Scotland. Even if we had made two of the three flights, we still would not have been home. Missing one flight nullifies the trip being completed.

Being “guilty of all” does not mean that we have broken each one of the individual laws within the whole law, but rather we have violated the laws unity. Even transgressing one law makes perfectly loving God and loving others impossible. We have already failed in the one. We are accountable for the whole law because God gave the whole law. The emphasis in these verses is on God who is holy, righteous, just. God gave every law. To disobey is to reject God as the Lawgiver.

In verse 11, James illustrates our sinful tendency to pick and choose. I won’t commit adultery. It’s a sin, but I will murder this person because they deserved it. This sounds extreme, but we do it all the time. We dismiss some sins as being less sinful or not sinful at all. When we pick and choose what we will obey, we make ourselves our own god. We are rejecting God and deciding for ourselves what is right and wrong. It reminds me of the book of Judges where everyone did what was right in their own eyes.

If James left off at verse 11, this would be devastating news. James talks about failing to keep the law in just one point, but the reality is that we fail to keep the law in many ways again and again. Thankfully, James does not leave us in this dark place. “So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment” (vs 12-13).

James’ use of the word so indicates a way of life. We should be characterized by speaking and acting as those who are judged under the law of liberty. Speaking and acting reflects back to being doers of the Word (1:22-25). Verse 12 teaches that we should speak and act with mercy.

By the standard of the law of liberty we will be judged. Douglas Moo writes: “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 that is discharged 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.” [2] This is the good news of the Gospel.

A lack of mercy shown demonstrates that one has not responded to God’s great mercy. They have not come to saving faith. Hence, they will not know God’s mercy at the judgment. In contrast, mercy triumphs over judgment. Showing mercy is evidence that one has responded to God’s great mercy (like caring for the poor, not showing partiality). Thus, this person has Jesus’ righteousness imputed to them. Because of God’s great mercy towards them in saving faith, they are judged by Jesus’ righteousness. They have nothing to fear at the judgment. For those in Christ, mercy is always God’s final word.

Reflection

1. What sins do you dismiss either as not sinful at all or as less sinful (i.e., a white lie isn’t really lying or being irritated isn’t the same as being angry)? How does today’s study change your understanding of these sins? What do you need to change?

2. What impact have you seen from picking and choosing which sins are ok in your own life? How does picking and choosing which sins are ok affect how you judge others?

3. To whom have you not shown mercy? Why? What was the result? How does Micah 6:8 challenge you? Who can you show mercy to this week? How?

[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Jas 2:8–13. [2] Douglas J. Moo, James: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 16, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985), 101.