James’ emphasis on practical faith could be mistaken for legalism. How does this fit with the Gospel? Well James now helps us to think about what it means to obey the Law of God, specifically as it relates to favouritism.
A look at the text (Read James 2:8-13)
The Law is “the royal law” of “The King’s Law”, a reference perhaps both to the fact that even the kings of Israel were subject to the Law but more importantly that it is the law from our King, Jesus.[1] This means that “this command is no whim” it is “carrying the king’s authority.”[2]James identifies this Law as summed up by the commandment to love your neighbour. Those who love their neighbours are living well, they are living righteously (2:8).
However, showing favouritism is to sin and become a law breaker. In other words, partiality is the opposite of loving your neighbour as yourself (2:9). This is because we need to think of the Law as not being a series of instructions which we can achieve 60, 70 or 80% of and meet the pass mark. Rather, the Law is to be understood as a whole. If you fail to keep part of it then you break all of it. The different commands are aspects of how we love and come from the same king. James uses the examples of murder and adultery to show that you cannot pick and choose between commands because they come from the same king to show that you cannot choose to recognise some of Jesu’s teachings such as the offer of forgiveness to you whilst discarding others such as the warnings not judge and to show the same mercy you have receivd(2:10-11).
Christians are to live as those who are going to be judged by the law of freedom (2:12).[3] This is because if you lack mercy yourself, then you won’t be shown mercy either. In other words, if you are not living in and by love, then love will be absent in your own judgement (2:13). However, God’s mercy always triumphs in the end, either in that we receive mercy or our lack of mercy is condemned (2:14).
Digging Deeper
James’ teaching here aligns with Jesus’ teaching. When questioned he insisted that the Law was about loving God with your whole heart and your neighbour as yourself. Jesus too would tell a parable about an unforgiving servant who had been offered mercy but failed to show mercy to his debtor. The result was that the offer of mercy was removed from him. Like Paul, James insists that you cannot divide up and pick and choose when it comes to the Law.
Blomberg and Kammel note that this also raises questions as to whether or not the focus is on a worship service or a law-court type setting, with the church making rulings between brothers as Paul advises in 1 Corinthians 6. They favour the latter option in which case, the sense here is that you will be judged as you judge. [4] I don’t think we need to over divide, the point is that in the life of the Christian community that we are making judgements and discernments, of course the worship service should not have the feel of a harsh law court and that is perhaps part of the point, we should not bring the ways of the world in but there will be judgements made about who we have fellowship with, share the Lord’s Supper with and pay attention to when it comes to gifts of the Spirit being exercised.
Partiality and favouritism is a both a failure to love others and it is way of judging without mercy and compassion. I assess some people as beneath my love and care. James would insist that if I treat others like this then I have broken God’s Law and shown that I am lacking in compassion and mercy, therefore I am subject to the full standards of the Law.
A look at ourselves
Are my dealings with others and our dealings with them as churches characterised by mercy and compassion or judgementalism and favouritism? If the latter then that leaves open the question about whether I have truly understood and responded to God’s grace and compassion to me.
[1] So, Blomberg and Kammel emphasise that this is the law as fulfilled by Christ. The same would apply to James’ later description of the law of freedom. Blomberg & Kammel, James, 116. See also on verse 13, David, The Epistle of James, 118.
[2] David, The Epistle of James, 115.
[3] We might refer to this as the free law, the law which brings freedom or the law that arises out of a context of freedom in Christ.
[4] Blomberg & Kammel, James, 110-111.
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