James 2:8 If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right. 9 But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. 10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. 11 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.
James 2:12 Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, 13 because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
James was speaking to some who had fallen into the snare of looking to those more prominent and rich and showing favoritism. (
James 2:1-9) They failed to discern what they really were in God’s eyes and were hearers of the word but not doers. (James
1:22-27) They had begun to use their tongues wrongly, and their cravings for sensual pleasure were causing fights among them. (James
3:2-12; 4:1-3) Their desire for material things had brought some into the position of being friends of the world and therefore, not chaste virgins, but spiritual “adulteresses,” at enmity with God. (James
4:4-6)
James corrected them on the matter of being doers as well as hearers by showing from Scriptural examples that a man having real faith would manifest it by works in harmony with his faith. For example, one having true faith would not say to a brother naked and lacking food, “Go in peace, keep warm and well fed,” and not give him the necessities. (
James 2:14-26) Here James was not contradicting Paul by saying that one could earn salvation by works. Rather, he accepts faith as the basis for salvation but points out that there cannot be genuine faith that does not produce good works. This is in harmony with Paul’s description of the fruitage of the spirit, at
Galatians 5:22-24, and his counsel to put on the new personality, at
Ephesians 4:22-24 and
Colossians 3:5-10, as well as his admonition to do good and share with others, at
Hebrews 13:16.
If we unmercifully show favoritism, we are lawbreakers. (
James 2:10-13) By taking a false step in this regard, we become offenders against all of God’s laws. Israelites who did not commit adultery but who were thieves became transgressors of the Mosaic Law. As Christians, we are judged by “the law of a free people”, spiritual Israel in the new covenant, having its law in their hearts.(
Jeremiah 31:31-33)
If we claim to have faith but persist in showing favoritism, we are in danger. Those who are unloving and merciless will have their judgment without mercy. (
Matthew 7:1, 2) James says: “Mercy exults triumphantly over judgment.” If we accept the guidance of YHWH God holy spirit by showing mercy in all our dealings, we will not be condemned when we are judged. Rather, we will experience mercy and will thus triumph over strict justice or adverse judgment.
