Judgment and Mercy

"For 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 have become a transgressor of the law. 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." (James 2:10-13, ESV)

James presents us with a difficult passage here. In Jewish beliefs about the law, a person guilty of breaking one of the laws of Moses was guilty of breaking all of the law. Both murder and adultery were punishable by death. Even when punishments were less severe or when breaking the law could not be so well detected, as''"Thou shalt not covet"--to break a single point of the law was equivalent to breaking all of it. James came out of the background of Jewish reverence for and attention to the law. Jesus in his teachings justly criticized the strictures the Jews had attached to keeping the law. Details often prevented merciful treatment of others, like healing on the Sabbath. James urged Christians, "So speak and act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty." James no doubt was referring to the interpretation of the law which Jesus had summed up when a scribe asked Him which was the most important commandment: "The most important one, ' answered Jesus, 'is this: Hear, O Israel, the Loud our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord you God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.'" (Mark 12:29-31). To love the Lord with heart, soul, mind and strength is the aim toward which a Christian strives. If he is thus close to the Lord, keeping the commandments will not be knit-picking at details of the law, but will follow in morally clean living and acceptable deeds. The purpose of the law is to promote mercy and compassion, not to boggle the believer down in legalism. "The law of liberty" is one a person obeys freely, not because he must, but because it is a law of love which followers gladly obey.

Dr. William M. Pinson, Jr. in The Disciple's Study Bible (Nashville: Holman, 1988. p. 1592) says of this passage in James: "Life without mercy faces judgment. Life lived in love and mercy has no fear of God's judgment." The person who shows mercy will receive mercy. James sums us this belief with a memorable epigram: "Mercy triumphs over judgment" (v. 13). It is through God's mercy that we are saved and kept in His love. The reasonable and practical action of the Christian is to keep the "law of liberty" in Christ and to practice mercy in our daily walk. God grant that we keep this principle in mind and practice it.

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Sunday, October 17, 2010