9 The Evil of Favoritism in the Church—Part 2

(James 2:5–13)

Listen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court? Do they not blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called? If, however, you are fulfilling 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. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all. For He who said,” Do not commit adultery,” also said,” Do not commit murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment. (2:5–13)

God is impartial and so must His people be. To help believers develop impartiality, James presents five features of Godlike impartiality. The last chapter presented the principle and the example. This chapter presents the inconsistency, the violation, and the appeal.

THE INCONSISTENCY

In this passage James is pointing out the inconsistency between God’s character and the attitude of a believer who is disrespectful of poor people.

His first admonition is for his readers, his beloved brethren, simply to listen. It is a warm admonition, aimed at the heart as well as the mind, given not only from the standpoint of truth but also from the standpoint of affection. As direct, practical, and incisive as this letter is, James is not a hard-hearted or disinterested purveyor of God’s truth. He clearly has a pastor’s heart, a passion not only for correcting but also for building up his fellow believers.

Here James is saying, in effect,” Think about it for a moment. To be partial to the rich and turn your backs on the poor cannot possibly correspond to God’s character or to His Word and will” First, partiality is inconsistent with God’s divinely choosing the poor; and second, the rich, whom you tend to favor, not only do not usually respect you but are inclined to blaspheme your faith. When you go against the poor and outcasts, you go against those whom the Lord has specially chosen; and when you favor the rich, you often are siding with blasphemers.

THE DIVINE CHOICE OF THE POOR

Listen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? But you have dishonored the poor man. (2:5–6a)

James is not talking about those who are humble, the “poor in spirit” (Matt. 5:3), but the economically poor, those who are in financial poverty and therefore considered by the world to be inferior. Throughout redemptive history, God has shown special concern for calling the economically deprived and downtrodden to Himself. Through Moses, He told ancient Israel:

The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. (Deut. 7:7–8)

As mentioned in the previous chapter, there are a number of notable exceptions, but God’s elect are typically dominated by the poor of this world. David declares,” How blessed is he who considers the helpless; the Lord will deliver him in a day of trouble” (Ps. 41:1), and,” You provided in Your goodness for the poor, O God” (Ps. 68:10; cf. 113:7). In other words, if you take care of the poor, God will take care of you, because you reflect His heart. Solomon admonished kings to emulate the Lord’s concern to “vindicate the afflicted of the people, save the children of the needy and crush the oppressor… [and] deliver the needy when he cries for help, the afflicted also, and him who has no helper” (Ps. 72:4, 12). He also warns that “he who mocks the poor reproaches his Maker” (Prov. 17:5) and “he who shuts his ear to the cry of the poor will also cry himself and not be answered” (21:13; cf. 28:27; 31:9). If we disdain the poor and fail to help meet their needs, we disdain God Himself. If our prayers are not being answered, we do well to take inventory of how we have treated those around us who are in financial straits.

Isaiah warned rulers: “The Lord enters into judgment with the elders and princes of His people, ‘It is you who have devoured the vineyard; the plunder of the poor is in your houses. What do you mean by crushing My people and grinding the face of the poor?’ declares the Lord God of hosts” (Isa. 3:14–15; cf. 10:1–3). The prophet Amos echoed that warning: “Thus says the Lord, ‘For three transgressions of Israel and for four I will not revoke its punishment, because they sell the righteous for money and the needy for a pair of sandals. These who pant after the very dust of the earth on the head of the helpless also turn aside the way of the humble’” (Amos 2:6–7; cf. 4:1; 5:11–12).

In the Old Testament sacrificial system, God made special provision for those who were too poor to bring the prescribed offering. If they could not afford a bull, goat, or sheep, they could offer a dove or pigeon (Lev. 1:5, 10, 14). In addition to that, every seventh year all debts would be canceled, in order that a person would not go permanently into debt that could never be repaid (Deut. 15:1–2). Every fifty years, a jubilee was celebrated, in which slaves could choose to be set free from their masters (Lev. 25:8–13). Crops in the field were not to be completely harvested and vineyards were not to be completely picked, in order that the poor could glean food for themselves (19:9–10). The poor were never to be charged interest on a loan (25:35–37); if they had to sell all of their property, a kinsman was to redeem it for them (25:25); and if they had to sell themselves to a fellow countryman, they were not to be treated as slaves (25:39). God established His people Israel in ways that carefully protected and helped the poor.

Because, as believers, we have been reborn with God’s own nature, we are to reflect His great love and care for those in need. That is the essence of who we are. To be otherwise is contrary not only to our own new nature but to the nature of God and therefore incurs His judgment. Jesus told the rich young man,” If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me” (Matt. 19:21). The main purpose of that encounter was to test the man’s willingness to follow Jesus at any cost. But the requirement Jesus made of him also reflects the Lord’s continual concern for the welfare of the poor. As soon as Zaccheus was converted, the Holy Spirit convicted him of his need to repay those he had defrauded, many of whom may have been impoverished by his power and greed (Luke 19:8). Jesus then said to him,” Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham” (v. 9). Zaccheus’s new, redeemed heart was evidenced by his Godlike concern for those in need. The very opposite spirit characterized Judas. His unsaved heart was evidenced by his objecting to Mary’s anointing Jesus’ feet with expensive perfume, suggesting it be sold and the money given to the poor,” not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box, he used to pilfer what was put into it” (John 12:6).

Paul reported that, when he and Barnabas were in Antioch, the church leaders James, Peter, and John “asked us to remember the poor—the very thing I also was eager to do” (Gal. 2:10). Some years later, he commended the churches in Macedonia and Achaia for their generosity in making “a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem” (Rom. 15:26).

In His gracious love, James tells us, God choose [s] the poor to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom. Paul said:

For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He might nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God. (1 Cor. 1:26–29)

Although most of His people will never be wealthy in material possessions, God assures them that they will be rich in faith; that is, they would have the necessary abundance of faith to believe the gospel and be saved, as well as to persevere to eternal life. Everyone who belongs to Christ has been blessed “with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (Eph. 1:3),” for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him” (Rom. 10:12).

The Lord’s spiritual riches superabound to us. Later in Romans, Paul exults,” Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!” (11:33). He told the believers in Corinth that, as an apostle, he was poor in material things but had been privileged to make “many rich” in spiritual things, and that,” having nothing,” he himself possessed all things (2 Cor. 6:10).

Second, God choose [s] the poor of this world to be … heirs of the kingdom which He promised. Kingdom represents the entire sphere of salvation, all that it includes and implies. Here James describes the kingdom in its present sense of the sphere of salvation, those over whom Christ rules, as well as its future millennial and eternal glory. It is a basic biblical truth that calling someone into the kingdom is calling them to salvation, and vice versa. When the rich young man asked Jesus,” Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?” He answered,” Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One who is good; but if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments” (Matt. 19:16–17). Jesus then explained to His disciples:

Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God…. Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for My name’s sake, will receive many times as much, and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last; and the last, first. (Matt. 19:23–24, 28–30, emphasis added)

As indicated by the italicized words, Jesus shows the unity of the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God, and eternal life. Reflecting the same basic reality, they each pertain to those who love Him, to those who have placed their faith in Him, who are thereby saved and who will inherit the fullness of God’s eternal heaven.

There will be no poor in heaven in any sense, no second-class citizens. Everyone will be rich in the things that matter eternally. Every believer will receive the same eternal life, the same heavenly citizenship in the kingdom of God, and the same perfect righteousness of Christ imputed to them by the Father. Every one of His children will live in His house and bask alike in His presence and love (John 14:1–3).

But, James goes on to say, some of you, totally unlike God, have dishonored the poor man, despising and rejecting those whom the Lord has specially chosen. “How,” he asks in effect,” can you claim to be God’s child and yet think and act so differently from Him?”

THE BLASPHEMY OF THE RICH

Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court? Do they not blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called? (2:66–7)

“Don’t you realize,” he continues to ask,” that it is the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court?” Oppress is from the Greek term katadunasteuō, which means to tyrannize, to exercise inordinate power over others. Aren’t the rich the ones who take advantage of you financially and drag you into civil court to sue you and take all you have? Aren’t they the ones who belittle you and depreciate your human value?

Even worse, aren’t they the ones who blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called, depreciating your religious faith? The fair name, of course, refers to the name of Jesus, which was slandered and blasphemed by enemies of the church. “Don’t you realize that the rich profane the name of your Lord, promote civil and religious hostility, and cause you unbelievable hardship and misery?”

Because the Sadducees were wealthy, aristocratic, and very much secularized, and because they actively persecuted the early church, James may have been making specific reference to them. Although they claimed to adhere strictly to the Mosaic Law, they did not believe in angels or other spirit beings, or in resurrection, the immortality of the soul, or therefore in heaven, hell, or future judgment. And, like the Pharisees, the Sadducees fiercely opposed Jesus when He was alive, slandered His name (see Matt. 16:1–12; 22:23–32), and strongly slandered and persecuted the early church (see Acts 4:1–3; 5:17–18).

By which you have been called emphasizes the believer’s personal relationship to and identity with Jesus Christ. Every reference to being “called” in the New Testament epistles refers to God’s effectual, saving call, by which He saves sinners (cf. Rom. 8:28–30). The very name Christian means “Christ’s ones,” those who belong to and identify themselves with Christ and have the great privilege of expressing His love and impartiality.

THE VIOLATION

If, however, you are fulfilling 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. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all. For He who said,” Do not commit adultery,” also said,” Do not commit murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. (2:8–11)

Not only is partiality, or favoritism, contrary to God’s character, inconsistent with the Christian faith and with God’s choosing the poor (and, conversely, consistent with the rich persecuting the poor and the righteous), it also is contrary to God’s royal law. In and of itself, it is sin, a transgression of the divine law.

Verse 8 is far-reaching and goes well beyond the issue of favoritism. In the Greek, the clause introduced by If is first-class conditional, meaning that If could be translated “Since” or “Because.” Such a clause represents a reality that is assumed and self-evident. The meaning therefore is: If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture—and you are—then, as the law requires,” You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Royal carries the ideas of supreme and sovereign, indicating the absolute and binding authority of the law. When a sovereign king gives an edict, it is incontestably binding on all his subjects. There is no court of appeal or arbitration. According to the Scripture indicates that God’s sovereign, royal law and His biblical commands are synonymous. What James calls the royal law is, in essence, the sum and substance of the complete Word of God, summarized in Matthew 22:37–40 as perfectly loving God and loving one’s neighbor. Paul says,” Love is the fulfillment of the law” (Rom. 13:10; cf. vv. 8–9). When one loves God with perfect devotion, he does not break any of His commands. When one loves his neighbor perfectly, he never violates another person. Thus perfect love keeps all the commands, thereby fulfilling the whole law.

“A new commandment I give to you,” Jesus said,” that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (John 13:34). In the same vein, Paul explains that “he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For this, ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet,’ and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law” (Rom. 13:8–10). John admonishes: “Beloved, let us love one another,” reminding us that “love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God” (1 John 4:7).

The particular royal law James focuses on is “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” which is found in Leviticus 19:18 and is what Jesus Himself declared to be the second greatest commandment, next to “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matt. 22:37–39; Deut. 6:5; Lev. 19:18). Jesus also makes clear who our neighbor is. He is anyone whose need we can meet, just as the Good Samaritan selflessly and generously met the need of the man he unexpectedly came upon on the road to Jericho, who had been robbed and beaten (Luke 10:30–37). The Samaritan ministered to him personally and even provided for his further care by others until he was fully well.

The purpose behind that law is obvious. Because we love ourselves, we do not want to be killed, lied to, stolen from, or abused. And if we love others with that same degree of love and concern, we will never do those things to them, thereby fulfilling God’s royal law. Most important, to love others in that way reflects our heavenly Father’s own nature and character. “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God” John says; “and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (1 John 4:7–8; cf. v. 11).

Contrary to what many teachers claim today, Scripture does not teach that we must learn to love ourselves before we can properly love others. Quite to the contrary, it simply acknowledges that it is basic human nature to love ourselves, for “no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it” (Eph. 5:29). Because we naturally love ourselves so much—whose mouth we are careful to feed, whose body we take care to dress, whose looks we are concerned about, whose job and career occupy our minds, whose life we are determined to make comfortable and happy—that is the same concern we should have for others. And when we determine to occupy ourselves with such love for others, thus fulfilling God’s sovereign law, we will have no problem with partiality (cf. Phil. 2:3–4).

Loving, godly impartiality does not relate to the highly popularized self-esteem and narcissistic self-admiration that are so much promoted today, allegedly in the name of biblical Christianity. The Christian who knows, understands, and fully accepts Scripture realizes that, in himself, he is a vile and wretched sinner who deserves only condemnation and hell, and that it is only by God’s immeasurable grace that he is saved, secured, blessed, and destined for an eternity in heaven with the Lord. The love that Moses, Jesus, and James talk about pertains to the God-given and God-blessed love that is concerned about meeting the genuine human needs of others—their physical needs; their protection; their growth in grace, holiness, and Christlikeness—in the same practical and beneficial ways in which we naturally and legitimately seek to meet our own needs.

You are doing well could perhaps better be translated,” You are doing excellently.” To love others as we love ourselves is to do more than just love satisfactorily. It is to love as our heavenly Father loves and as He wants His children to love. The writer of Hebrews tells us that, by showing “hospitality to strangers, … some have entertained angels without knowing it” (Heb. 13:2). But whether they are angels or not, when we impartially help other believers, the Lord will say to us,” to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me” (Matt. 25:40). And if one day the Lord says to us,” Well done” (Matt. 25:21, 23), it will not be for our talents, our generous giving, our leadership ability, or any other such thing, but for our love of Him and of others, especially other believers, demonstrating our faithfulness and obedience to His Word.

Like the preceding one, verse 9 of James 2 begins with a Greek first-class conditional clause, But if you show partiality, which has the meaning: “If you show partiality, and you do, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.” As mentioned before, some believers in the churches to which James wrote obviously were guilty of such partiality. But as will be shown below, the main thrust here is against unbelievers in the church, pseudo-Christians who were masquerading as believers.

Show partiality is a verb form (used only here in the New Testament) of the noun rendered “personal favoritism” in verse 1. The form indicates that James is not speaking of occasional favoritism but of habitual, blatant partiality. Those engaging in it were committing serious sin and were thereby convicted by the law as transgressors (cf. Deut. 1:17; 16:19). Their lives were characterized by breaking God’s law, testifying to their unbelief. And just as loving one’s neighbor as one’s self fulfills God’s “royal law according to Scripture” and gives sure evidence of being God’s child, so does habitual partiality transgress that divinely revealed law and give sure evidence to the contrary.

Partiality is not merely a matter of inconsiderateness or discourtesy but is a serious sin. In this verse James speaks of it in two forms, or aspects. Hamartia, translated simply sin, pertains to missing the mark of God’s standard of righteousness, whereas parabatēs (transgressors) refers to someone who willfully goes beyond God’s prescribed limits. In the one case, a person comes short; in the other, he goes too far. Both are sinful, just as adding to or subtracting from God’s revealed Word are both sinful (Rev. 22:19).

More than that, whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all. In order to become a lawbreaker and a sinner, it is only necessary to disobey a single commandment, for we are obligated to keep God’s whole law, not merely part of it. If we fail—as we all do—we are therefore guilty of breaking all of it. To break any of His commands is to defy His will and His authority, which is the basis of all sin. God’s law is unified; it all hangs together and is inseparable. It is like hitting a window with a hammer. You may hit it only once, and that rather lightly, but the whole window is shattered. In the same way, some sins are relatively light and some are extremely vile. But breaking even “one of the least of these commandments” (Matt. 5:19) shatters the unity of God’s holy law and turns the guilty person into a transgressor.

Paul wrote of this same truth in Galatians 3:10–13:

For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written,” Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, to perform them.” Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for,” The righteous man shall live by faith.” However, the Law is not of faith; on the contrary,” He who practices them shall live by them. “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written,” Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”

As an illustration, James quotes from Exodus 20:13–14 and Deuteronomy 5:17–18: For He who said,” Do not commit adultery,” also said,” Do not commit murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. James chose two of the most serious social sins, in both cases the breaking of which demanded the penalty of death. Perhaps he chose those in order to illustrate the extreme sinfulness of partiality. But he could have used any of God’s laws to make the same point. It only takes the breaking of one commandment, any commandment, to become a transgressor of the law. “For truly I say to you,” Jesus said,

until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. (Matt. 5:18–19; cf. 23:23; Gal. 5:3)

The Jews tended to regard the law as a series of detached commands. To keep one of those commands was to gain credit. To break one was to incur debt. Therefore, a man could add up the ones he kept and subtract the ones he broke and, as it were, emerge with a moral credit or debit balance.

That philosophy, of course, is common to every works-righteousness system of religion. The idea is that acceptance or rejection by God depends essentially on the moral standing of the person himself. If he does more good than bad, he is accepted by God. If the scale tilts the other way, he is rejected.

That totally unbiblical notion is firmly believed by many, many people, including many who name the name of Christ. God’s standard, however, is perfection. Jesus declared,” Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48). God will accept nothing less. But because no sinful human being can possibly attain to that perfection, God has graciously provided for it to be imputed through the vicarious atonement of His sinless Son.

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ…. For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. … But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. … For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. (Rom. 5:1, 6, 8, 10–11)

Many Jewish leaders in New Testament times had tried to use the truth of God’s grace to vitiate His law. Recognizing that no person could possibly keep every commandment for an entire lifetime, they rationalized that God’s grace therefore led Him to overlook most disobedience. Some rabbis even taught that obedience to just one essential commandment was sufficient to satisfy God. Such warped, ungodly reasoning removes the sinfulness of sin and corrupts not only God’s law but also His grace. It was their self-righteousness that prevented them from seeing their need for a Savior, which is why those Jewish leaders so vehemently opposed Jesus Christ and the gospel of substitutionary atonement that He both proclaimed and fulfilled.

Both testaments, however, clearly affirm that there is no grace in God’s law. Without exception, breaking of His law requires judgment and appropriate punishment. There is no such thing as a small, inconsequential, or unpunishable sin.

THE APPEAL

So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment. (2:12–13)

Because partiality is such a serious sin, James closes this section with an appeal for believers to fully consider the danger of divine judgment. And the obvious implication is for them to then forsake the sin of partiality, asking the Lord’s forgiveness and cleansing.

The admonition to speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty is tantamount to saying,” Live and act as a true believer who has been saved by God’s grace and who will be judged on the basis of Christ’s imputed righteousness. That righteousness frees the believer from the law of bondage and judges him under the redeeming law of liberty, God’s Word of the gospel, the New Testament in Jesus Christ, which frees the repentant sinner from the bondage of sin (cf. John 8:31–32).

God “will render to each person according to his deeds,” Paul declares,

to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life; but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation. There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek, but glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God. (Rom. 2:6–11)

One of James’s major themes is that a person’s real faith will be manifest in and through his works,” for just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead” (2:26). If God looks at our life and sees that we have handled trials and temptations in a godly way, that we received and obeyed His Word, and that we have not lived a life of favoritism, that will be evidence of our salvation. Paul states unequivocally that “we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Eph. 2:10). Good works cannot produce redemption; but genuine redemption produces obedient and holy living that will be characterized by good works. Living faith will be demonstrated by a holy life.

The gospel is the law of liberty because it frees those who place their faith in Jesus Christ from the bondage, judgment, and punishment of sin and brings them ultimately to eternal freedom and glory. It liberates us sinners from falsehood and deception and from the curses of death and hell. Even more marvelously, it frees us to obey and serve God, to live faithfully and righteously according to His Word and by the power of His indwelling Spirit. And it frees us to follow our Lord willingly out of love rather than reluctantly out of fear. In every sense, it is the “royal law” of God (v.8), the divine and wondrous law of liberty.

As a further word of warning, James says that judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy. In this context, the one who has shown no mercy obviously refers to unbelievers. Their lives are characterized by partiality, hardness, selfishness, and lack of concern for others—in short, lovelessness. They are far from loving others as they love themselves, reflecting nothing of God’s love and care for those in need. They will not be blessed or receive mercy, for they have not been merciful (Matt. 5:7).

When a man lives without mercy to others in God’s world, he simply shows off the fact that he himself has never responded aright to the immeasurable mercy of God. The mercy a man has shown others as fruit of a life touched by God’s saving mercy will triumph over judgment. His own sins, worthy of judgment, are removed by God’s working in his life, dissolving all the charges strict justice might bring against him. Thus his showing of mercy is not a matter of heaping up personal merit to deserve salvation by his own good works. The mercy he shows is itself a work of God for which he can take no credit.

James brings us to the climax of his great argument. Partiality is inconsistent with the Christian faith because the Christian faith is consistent with the nature of God—and God is wholly impartial. Partiality is inconsistent with the purpose and the plan of God in choosing the poor of this world to be spiritually rich. Partiality is inconsistent with loving your neighbor as yourself. Even if it were the only sin a person ever committed, partiality, like all other sins, shatters the entire law of God and makes a person a transgressor, condemned to hell forever. If you come before the judgment seat of God and He sees that you have lived a life that is merciful to others, He will show mercy to you, because your mercy will testify to your saving faith. It will be true in your case that mercy triumphs over judgment. Contrarily, a person who has lived a life devoid of mercy to others will show himself to be without saving faith.