Love and the Law - James 2:1-13

The Bible reveals two standards by which we will be evaluated on the Day of Judgment: 1) Law, and 2) our response to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ as our substitute.  And in the words of James, the determining factor in that judgment will be mercy, which "triumphs over judgment" (James 2:13).  However, mercy, as an argument for salvation, is only effective to the extent that we apply it to others.  James uses harsh words when he warns: "For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy" (James 2:13), the same idea widely used by Jesus in his teaching: "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy" (Matthew 5 : 7), "But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses" (Matthew 6:15), in the context of the Lord's Prayer, "So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses" (Matthew 18:35), "Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of these, ye did it not to me" (Matthew 24:45), to quote some references.

James puts a special emphasis to the second part of the law, the part that has to do with how we treat of our fellow man, the last six commandments, as determining the accuracy of our observance of the first four commandments, which deal with our love and devotion to God (James 2: 1-4), as John says, "If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must also love his brother "(1 John 4: 20-21).  So Jesus, who though his ministry represented the heavenly expectations regarding socioeconomic, cultural, political and religious interaction, consciously related to the "publicans and sinners" despite the constant criticism from the supposedly advocates of faith (Mark 2:16 ).

By presenting a case to which all could identify, James confronts his audience following up with the efforts of Jesus to reorder the dynamic of interrelation with in the government of God (James 2: 5-7) which requires not to be "with partiality" (James 2: 1).  By an apparent unquestioned accommodation to the social conventions of the time, James' audience has been giving undeserved attentions to the ones that subjugate and mistreat them while taunting the poor (James 2: 6).  Therefore he confronts them and exposes that what they have been doing is more than an oversight or a flaw.  James catalogs "partiality", nowadays bias and discrimination, as a sin (James 2: 9) and as serious as murder and adultery (James 2:11).  Thus, the law defies our nature for our loyalty to the Ten Commandments is revealed in the way that we actively treat others, loving our neighbor as ourselves (James 2: 8 and Leviticus 19:18).

The Bible is consistent in revealing the character, the essence of God when it says, "Whoever does not love does not know God; for God is love "(1 John 4: 8).  The reasons for the observance of the law must always stand in love, to God and neighbor.  The Scriptures indicate of a future judgment to which we will all have to face (Romans 14:10), to which James warns: "So speak and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty" (James 2 : 12), where our best defense is "mercy," as long as we have exerted it ourselves in our dealings with others, including those who, by the standards of today's society, do not deserve it.