We continue tonight with our work in the book of James. I invite you to turn to the book of James, to chapter 2. We're going to consider tonight from verses 8 down to verse 13. But for context, I'm going to begin my reading up at verse 26 of chapter 1. So, once you find chapter 2, verse 8, keep your finger there, but turn back with me to James chapter 1, beginning at verse 26.
James chapter 1, beginning at verse 26: "If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world."
"My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, sit here in a good place while you say to the poor man, you stand over there or sit down at my feet have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
"Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you and the ones who drag you into court? Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you are called?
"If you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.
"Whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for 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've become a transgressor of the law.
"So speak and ask 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."
Here ends the reading of God's word. May he bless it to us.
Well, last time we were in this book, we dealt with section or chapter 2, verses 1 through 7, where James presents us with some questions. The questions are: we showing favoritism? Are we making distinctions among ourselves? Are we judging each other based on human distinctions? And with these questions, he explained that such practices of favoritism and partiality are absolutely out of line with the Christian faith. In fact, we covered last time the truth that among all the differences that exist between us as Christians, we are indeed united in Jesus Christ, and that unity that we have is the single greatest unifier known to mankind.
Well, James carries on his thought here in this next section, but he does so by presenting us with three new, related but different, questions to consider. We might say that James here presents us with the opposite side of the issue of favoritism. He presents us with the issue of love, law, and mercy. And as I said, he does so by asking or presenting us with three questions: Are we loving people? Are we law keeping people? And are we mercy practicing people? And those will serve as our three points this evening.
Are we loving people? Are we law-keeping people? And are we mercy. practicing people? Love, law, and mercy.
Let's turn to our first point tonight that James presents: love.
Again, last time we were in this book, the issue before us was the issue of favoritism, or as James puts it, partiality. See, the single reason favoritism is wrong is because it is unloving. It's unloving.
In the previous verses, which I read in order to give us some context here, verses 1 through 7, James really wasn't as direct as he is in these following sections. He's going to now be very pointed and direct with the issue of favoritism. He says in verse eight "If you really are fulfilling the royal law according to the scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself you're doing well. But if you show partiality, you are what? Committing sin." He says, "And are convicted by the law as transgressor."
James is being as clear as possible here: sin is favoritism. Favoritism is sin. Partiality is sin. It's a transgression of God's holy and perfect law.
Now, it's the political season that is upon us, right? And if you're paying attention to any of the candidates, then you've probably heard them say things like, "Let's be as clear as possible here." And then they go on to answer the question with, or in the most unclear way.
James is not being a politician here. He's being straight. He's being direct. He is telling us exactly what the issue is with favoritism, with partiality: it's sinful, it's wrong. If we are in any way, in any sense, as a church practicing, showing, expressing favoritism among us, we are openly sinning sinning
See, as I said last time in this book, favoritism and partiality can be at times thought as little sins, maybe, uh, respectable sins, as Jerry Bridges puts it in his book, *Respectable sins sins that we allow to be practiced kind of under the surface. We allow them to be practiced because we don't we don't want to rock the boat. But brothers and sisters, favoritism and partiality is wrong, and they ought not to be tolerated within and among the people of God. And as such, James is calling it out. And he does so by bringing out the law of God.
Now, it's always important for us to know the law of God. We never want to make the mistake of simply following the commands of men. And so we should naturally ask, well, what law does favoritism break? What law does it stand against or go beyond? Well, favoritism breaks the law of love, or as James puts it, the royal law.
The royal law james begins this section by referencing the royal law. What What is that what is the royal law? Why does he refer to the law here as the royal law?
Well, a couple of weeks ago we saw James refer to the law as the law of liberty back in chapter 1, verse 25. And he uses that language again here in verse 12. And when he uses the law of liberty, what he's saying is he's speaking of the law as it now applies to the Christian in Christ. It no longer stands over us condemning us. It no longer stands before us as something that needs to be fulfilled because Christ has fulfilled it. Christ has paid the penalty of the law. And so now the law kind of operates for Christians as this law of liberty. We have this new relationship with the law in the sense that it now provides us with freedom. We we see and think of the law as this standard by which we live within the will of God, in that area, that place within the law, is a place of freedom.
But here in verse 8, he speaks of the royal law. And why does he do that? Well, if you remember back in verse 5 of this same chapter, James spoke of the kingdom. He says there, "Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom?"
See, as Christians, we are part of a kingdom not a kingdom of this world, as Jesus says in John 18 36 his kingdom is not of this world, but a kingdom, nevertheless, the kingdom of God, the kingdom of Christ. And as citizens of that kingdom, we have a king jesus christ And the lord our king has given us laws to live by and particularly the law of love the law to love our neighbors as ourselves.
As we know, this commandment summarizes an aspect of the law of god the the horizontal aspect, as it is called the aspect which governs the relationship between men and women, or between people. And so we are called as Christians to love our neighbors as ourselves, to be a loving people, to love people.
See, the law of God still applies to Christians today, doesn't it? Yes. As I said, Christ has fulfilled the law, and that's why James calls the law the law of liberty. But Jesus did not abolish the law. The law still applies to Christians as a rule and as a guide. And it stands before us as a rule and guide as those who have been blessed with citizenship within his kingdom.
It's a great privilege to be in the kingdom of Christ. And being part of that kingdom means that we live according to the principles and the laws of Christ. It's one of the responsibilities of citizenship within the kingdom of Christ.
If you've ever traveled outside the U.S., you get this point kind of inherently. When you're welcomed into another country or kingdom, if you will, you have to live according to the laws and customs and practices of that kingdom, of that country.
Americans can sometimes struggle with this. Americans can be quite arrogant and proud as Americans, and so they can at times kind of forget that they're in another country and act and live as if they're in their own country.
Maybe you know the name Michael Peter Fay? Maybe that rings a bell for you, depending on how old you are. He he was an American teenager in the 90s who was living in Singapore, and as he was living in Singapore, he decided to vandalize some 18 cars. And so he was caught doing that, eventually confessed or pleaded guilty to it. And so he suffered the punishment of the justice system of Singapore, which meant he was to receive six lashes with a cane upon his backside. I remember that because I was a kid at the time, and I remember thinking, "Wow!" And the media made a big stink about it because, right, Americans don't take to corporal punishment like that lightly.
More recently, we there was a woman's basketball player who traveled to Russia to play basketball, and on her way traveling back, she had some marijuana on her. She was caught in possession of marijuana. Well, Russia doesn't look upon marijuana as kindly as maybe America does, and so she went to Russian prison. Again, the media made a big stink about that.
But nevertheless, you get the point, right? When you're in a different country, you live according to the laws of that country. Same is true when that applies to the kingdom of Christ. We are citizens in a wonderful kingdom, the kingdom of Christ, and part of that means that we live under a royal law to love to love our neighbors as ourselves.
And this royal law is so critical to us as Christians. Love plays a critical part in the ethics of Christianity. Remember, God is love. Remember the most famous passage of all Scripture, the most well-known passage, is John 3 16 For God so loved the world.
Jesus also said in John 13 that people will know us by our love. People will know that we are followers of Christ by our love for each other. Jesus even commands us to love our enemies. Get that: Jesus commands us to love our enemies.
Why such a focus on love in Christianity? Well, the answer is because of the love of the Savior. "This is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and gave his Son to be a propitiation for our sins."
As one commentator says, Jesus takes love to its apex. He says, "Love your neighbor," and then he shows us the extent of his own love for us by living, suffering, and dying for us in our sin.
Now, compare that picture of the love of Christ to his, or for his people, and compare the call to love our neighbors as ourselves to the practice of favoritism.
Remember, brothers and sisters, James is being very practical in this book. As you heard me read from chapter one, he says there, "You want to see real, true, genuine religion? It's religion of those who visit the poor and widows and orphans the very people who in the first century, would have garnished no kind of love or favoritism. It would have been the poor, the widow, the orphan who it was customary to say, "You sit out there," or "You sit here at my feet. But these seats here, these are reserved for the powerful, the rich, the influential."
This is what James is talking about. It's being practical.
So let me ask you a practical question, as James presents it. Are you a loving person? Are you a loving person? Are we a church that is known for our love?
Sure, we all love our family and our friends. Our friends and family, it can be easy to love at times, right? Maybe you're a young person, you say, "No, not too easy for me." At times, generally. But it's difficult to love people outside of our friendship circles and our family circles, isn't it?
How are we doing with loving the visitor to our church? How are we doing with loving those that regularly attend our church? What about the person who has attended the church for quite some time but we still don't know their name? Are we loving that person? Are we loving the stranger?
Now, I know we want to be a loving and welcoming church. I know that because a number of you have approached me about that very issue. You've come to me and you've said, "Pastor, how can we be more loving? How can we be more welcoming?" It's a great question to consider. It's a great question to meditate upon and to be concerned with.
And the way that we do that one way, generally speaking is to deny ourselves and love people. And we do that by going over and approaching people when we see them standing by themselves out in the foyer or in the courtyard, while we are surrounded with family and friends. We love those people by going out of our circles and pursuing them.
We love people by going over to them and saying, "You know, I know you've been here for quite some time, but I still struggle to remember your name. I'm sorry. What's your name again?" That shows that you care for the person, that we care enough to humble ourselves and go to them, even if it's a second or third time that we've had to do such a thing.
You see, love takes effort. Loving people isn't easy. It takes real effort. It takes practice.
Maybe I've told you this story before, but I remember the first time I mentioned to my wife, Trista, that I wanted to pursue pastoral ministry, she looked me in the eye and she told me, "Babe, you don't love people. You don't love people." So hard to hear her say that, right? Because it came from, like, a true genuine place. When she said that, you see, at the time, I thought being a minister meant I I got to study philosophy and theology and I had to have all the right answers. Being a minister means you sacrifice and love people. It's not easy. takes practice. takes effort.
And I think the single greatest way that we cultivate a love for people is to give our minds attention to the love of Christ towards us. That's how. That's how we cultivate love for others. We set our eyes upon the love of Christ, and we pray in our prayers, "Lord, make me a loving person. Help me to appreciate Christ's love for me, and in light of that, make me a person who loves others."
Think about the love of Christ to us. Love that we didn't deserve. Love that we could not earn. Love that was lavished upon us when we were sinners. Love that He graciously set upon us. That's why we love. Because we have been so wonderfully loved by Christ.
So now, strengthened and fortified with the love of God to us in Jesus Christ, we deny favoritism. We deny partiality. We deny ourselves, and we love people, even when it's difficult. And this means that through loving people, we're fulfilling the law of love, the law of God.
And that takes us to our second point this evening: Are we law-keeping people?
As I said a moment ago, James challenges us in our view of favoritism by bringing out the law of God. And he so compares favoritism to the royal law and the commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves.
Now, again, we may be tempted at times to think of favoritism as a little sin or a respectable sin, but not James. He's too practical to allow that kind of mentality and that kind of thinking about sin to just get a pass.
See, James realizes that no sin is a little sin. Favoritism is not a little sin because there is no such thing as little sins. Little sins do not actually exist. The category of little sins is our way of accepting sin in our lives. And we do that in a number of ways.
We do that with the sins of unforgiveness, the sin of pride, which is easily hidden, the sin of boasting, the sin of gossip, the sin of harsh speech, the sin of impatience, the sin of bitterness, the sins of jealousy and envy, the sin of self-righteousness. And for you young people here, the sin of disrespecting your parents. These are categories of sins. that we think of as little sins.
What James is doing here is challenging, really, our awareness of our personal sins. You see, we're all aware of the big sins that go on out in the world, aren't we? The sin of fornication, the sin of adultery, the sin of homosexuality, the sin of murder.
But when it comes to our own sins, it's easy to become unaware of those sins, especially in comparison to those blatant, obvious, hideous sins out in the world. And so in comparison, we tend to deem our sins as acceptable. Maybe acceptable is not the word. Tolerable. We tolerate those kinds of sins.
But James will have none of that. He wants to raise the awareness of our personal sins.
Today, people do all kinds of things to raise awareness, don't they? We have special months where we raise awareness of something. Even even good things. I think we're in a Hispanic awareness month, if I'm correct. That kind of gives me a giggle. We also have, like, cancer awareness, right? Or people run races. Maybe you're a Bitner and you're practicing to run in some marathon to raise awareness for mental health good things.
You'll never find people trying to raise awareness for sin. You'll never find someone celebrating a month or running a marathon to raise awareness of personal sin. But that's what James is doing here, really. He's trying to get us to become more aware of our sinfulness so that we would never be satisfied with tolerating any sin in our lives.
Notice what he says in verse 10: "For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it."
Again, for "whoever keeps the whole law think of the law as a as a big circle. a whole complete circle, maybe you're keeping the whole circle the whole law, and just failing in one point. I think if we were to stop there and hear James say that, we might think, "If that applied to us, we're doing a pretty good job. The whole circle, the whole thing. I'm keeping just one point that I'm failing in."
Children, if let's say you're take a test, say, uh it's a serious test, and you're you've been studying for quite some time for this test. You take the test. You get it back, and you get a 99% on that test. That's an A+. Are you excited about that? Absolutely, right?
But you see, James is telling us and teaching us here that the law of God is not like a test that we take. God doesn't grade by percentages. He doesn't grade on a curve. There's only one passing grade when it comes to the law of God: perfection. A hundred percent is his expectation.
And the reason that is the case is because the law of God is a reflection of his person and his character.
See, as I'm trying to describe to you, we tend to think of the law of God in terms of various individual laws and their respective penalties. We think of the Ten Commandments, right? And we go, "Okay, this one, I'm good. Check. This one, I'm good. Check. This one, okay. The next one, good. Check." And so forth and so on. And we might think we're doing pretty good.
But as Jerry Bridges says in his book, *Respectable Sins*, he says, "God's law is seamless. The Bible speaks not of God's laws, plural, as if many of them, but of God's law as a single whole."
"When a person commits murder, he breaks God's law. When a Christian lets corrupting speech speech that tears down another person come out of his mouth, he breaks God's law."
See, we can't separate God's law into laws and then rate them on a scale of significant to more significant or significant to less significant. It's a wrong way of thinking of God's law because all breaking, all transgression of God's law, is an offense against Him.
For the same God who said, as James says here, "Do not have any other gods before me," is the same God who says, "Do not lie." And each of those sins are an offense to Him and a deliberate rejection of His will for our lives.
And there's the problem, brothers and sisters. That really is the problem. When we break God's law in any way, in any area, it might even be eating a forbidden fruit. Where would we rate that on the scale of significant sins? All breaking of God's law is an offense to Him because, really, it's an assertion of our own wills, our own way, over and against God and His will and His way. And that's a serious offense to a holy, perfect God.
See, brothers and sisters, sin is a serious problem for all of us. All sin is an offense to God, even the quote-unquote little sins that we think of. There are really no little sins.
And by the way, this kind of thinking, justifying little sins, leads to all kinds of spiritual blind spots for us as Christians. It leads to us thinking that as long as we deal with the big sins in our lives, then we're going to be okay. As long as we deal with this sin, then, you know what? These here, they fail in comparison. And we go on living and thinking that we're doing a good job, all the while living with spiritual blind spots because we're tolerating all kinds of quote-unquote little sins in our lives.
Sadly, this is how a person in the church can become a leader in the church. a pastor, an elder, a deacon, a Sunday school teacher, a respected member and participant within the church, but all the while disrespecting, unloving of their spouse, impatient, disrespectful to their parents. All of those sins are offenses to God. There should be no toleration of any sin among God's people because God doesn't tolerate it, brothers and sisters.
All sin is an offense to Him because all is a breach of His good, perfect, holy will and character. The God who is holy and has supplied us with His Son, Jesus Christ, calls us as His people to be holy as He is holy.
Now, maybe about this time, maybe you feel a little sunken in your seat. Maybe the Spirit of God is doing a work in your heart, and maybe you feel convicted of your own sin. That's okay. That's a good thing. Hold on to that, brothers and sisters. Conviction is a good thing for us. We need to be convicted. It's the first step that the Lord uses to bring us to a place of repentance.
Because remember, the God who is holy says in Isaiah 57, "Thus says the one who is high and lifted up." God is the one who is holy, high and lifted up. But He's also the one who dwells with the one who has a contrite and lowly spirit.
Truth is, when we're broken over our sin, the Lord gives us mercy because He is not only holy but He is also merciful.
And that brings us to our third and final point this evening: Mercy. Are we a mercy practicing people?
James brings this section to a conclusion when he says in verse 12: "So speak and act, or 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."
What's james point here? Be merciful. Since those who have been shown mercy, they show mercy. The Lord has been so merciful to us. In light of our sin, be merciful. We would have a huge problem if, in light of God's mercy, we then, in turn, are unmerciful people towards other people.
Our catechism makes a similar point when asking about the fourth petition of the Lord's prayer. In question and answer 126, the catechism asks, "What does the fifth petition mean?" And the answer is, "The fifth petition is, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors means because of Christ's blood, do not impute to us, poor sinners, that we are, any of the transgressions we do or the evil that constantly clings to us. And then it goes on: but forgive us just as we are fully determined, as evidence of your grace in us, wholeheartedly to forgive our neighbors
What's the catechism saying here? "Forgiven sinners forgive." Forgiven sinners forgive sin, and in the same way, those who have received mercy are the kind of people who extend mercy to others.
It's just as Jesus describes in Luke 6 when he says, "But love your enemies and do good and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the most high, for he is kind and he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil."
And then Jesus says, "Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful." Jesus says a lot in that text, but he summarizes it all by saying, "Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful."
The implication here is: "Be merciful as your Father has been merciful to you." Those who receive mercy show mercy, display mercy, practice mercy.
See, a moment ago, we were talking about our sin, all of our sin big sin little sin and our propensity to compare our sins to others to minimize our sin, to be unaware of the sinfulness of our sin to not take sin as serious as God takes it.
Acknowledging all of that, really, should lead us to realize the depth of our sin but also the magnitude of God's mercy and grace to us in Jesus Christ. How merciful the Lord has been to sinners such as us! Our sins are much worse than we could ever imagine, and God's mercy has been far greater to us than we could ever imagine.
And you see, realizing the depth of our sins and the height of God's mercy and grace is possibly one of the most helpful realities when it comes to relating to other people.
You see, if in our eyes, our sins are simply just little sins, then we'll be inclined to look down our spiritual noses at other people. And in the context of what James is saying here, we'll tend to practice favoritism, partiality, mistreat those that we deem to be not so favorable to us. And in addition, with an inflated view of ourselves, when we're confronted with the with the sins of others, we'll again look down our spiritual noses at our fellow sinners and think, "How could you ever do such a thing?"
It's kind of what we get in the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. When you think about it, the Pharisee thought of his sins as little sins, if sin at all. And so when he sees his fellow sinner, the tax collector, in the temple with him, he thinks, "Lord, thank you that I'm not like this tax collector."
But what about the tax collector? I'm sorry, what about the, yeah, what about the tax collector? Couldn't he have thought, to "Lord, thank you I'm not like this self-righteous, self-centered, arrogant, spiritually inept Pharisee?" He doesn't do that, does he?
The tax collector is focused on his own sin before the Lord. He knows his own heart. He's contrite over his sin. He's broken. All he can do is say, "Lord, forgive me," as he beats his chest. And the Lord tells us he goes away forgiven because to those who are contrite, broken over the sin their sins the Lord is merciful and gracious.
That's why James will go on later in this book to say, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."
So, brothers and sisters, as James concludes in this section, he says, "Speak and act." Speak and act is supposed to be a kind of all-inclusive statement. Whatever you do, do it as those who have received the love of Christ and love. Whatever you do, do it as those who take sin serious, as the Lord takes sin serious, striving to live according to all the laws, or the law, of the Lord, and denying sin. And whatever you do, do it in a way that is practicing mercy towards your fellow brothers and sisters, to your neighbors.
With that, let's pray.
Lord, we thank you for the love of Christ. We thank you that you do not treat us as our sins deserve, but Lord, you still call us to holiness. And so we ask, Lord, by your Spirit and through your word through this very message that you would cultivate in our hearts a desire to live more faithfully with you, to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have laid upon our lives. And through that, may we too be known as a people who love, as a people who practice mercy, grace, forgiveness. We thank you for your mercy, your grace, the forgiveness that you have granted to us in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, Amen.