James 2:8 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.
When Christians get to this chapter we often become wobbly-kneed. James almost seems to proclaim a "faith-plus-works" salvation, when in reality he does not. Faith must be demonstrated. He begins the chapter by talking about partiality: there is no room for it when Christ calls people of all sorts of socio-economic and cultural background. In the paragraph above, verse 12 is key: we now live under the "law of liberty", which means we can freely love and show the mercy God has shown to us. The remainder of the chapter goes on to show that is the changed heart, moved by the heart of God, that reaches out to the needed. James then concludes with the illustration of Abraham, the "father of faith," who showed that faith through love and obedience.
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