Pastor Chris’ Corona Quarantine Epistles to the Flock of AIC Ngong Road, in Dispersion and Isolation. 50th. Edition.
Dear Bondservants of God,
The second part of James’ teaching on partiality (2:8-13) is our focus today. The Unchanging Law (vv. 8-9). James brings in the “royal law” in His argument. Royal could mean noble in nature, or more likely because of the context here, coming from the king. If we flashback to the gospels, Jesus’ response to the lawyer’s question about the greatest commandment (Matthew 22:37-40) could be summed up as “total love for God and equal love for the neighbor.” This is likely what James is referring to. Partiality violates this command because it shows love to some and not others. All forms of discrimination and prejudice stand condemned here – racism, tribalism, nepotism, provincialism, and any other – not just discrimination against the poor.
The Unity of the Law (vv. 10-11). You may have heard the joke told about Moses and the Ten Commandments. God went to the Indians and offered the commandments to them. After perusal, they agreed to take the commandments, if he would remove the first because they wanted to keep their gods. God refused and asked the French, who agreed to take the set, as long as he would delete the commandment forbidding adultery. God kept going from nation to nation until he came to Moses and the Israelites. Moses asked God, “How much will they cost?” God replied, “Nothing.” So Moses asked, “Could we have two tablets?” No slur is intended on my Jewish friends. God’s commandments are a unified set. We cannot pick and choose, nor can we justify ourselves on the grounds that we are not as “bad as some others.” Sin is a violation of trust because the key to love is explicit trust. Once that trust is broken, guilt is earned and we stand condemned.
The Unfettered Law (vv. 12-13). James now talks about a different law – the law of liberty. We earn judgment without mercy if we fail to show mercy. But we ought to live on a different plane. God has shown us mercy in Christ and we should strive to live in the new state, not governed by a set of dos and don’ts, but by freedom in the Spirit. In that freedom, the Spirit generates in us the fruit of the Spirit, “against which there is no law,” (Galatians 5:22-23).
So live under the law of liberty.
Your loving Pastor Chris