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In chapter 5: 4-6 James gives an example of the kind of oppression he has in mind,
but the greatest offence of these well-to-do tyrants was that they blasphemed the sacred
name of Christ and for any Hebrew believer to show partiality to such people meant that
they themselves were committing sin, and so the Apostle continues:
"If you really fulfil the royal law, according to the Scriptures, `you shall love your
neighbour as yourself', you do well. But if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are
convicted by the law as transgressors. For whosoever keeps the whole law but fails in
one point has become guilty of all of it" (2: 8-10, R.S.V.).
It is important to realize that the moral law is a unity, an expression of the undivided
will of God the law-giver. It is one law expressed in ten different ways, each one being
summed up in the word `love'.
Paul expressed it thus:
". . . . . he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law . . . . . love is the fulfilling of the law"
(Rom. 13: 8-10).
This is expanded in various ways, touching adultery, killing, stealing, false witness,
but it is all briefly comprehended in this saying, namely "thou shall love thy neighbour as
thyself" (2: 9). So that the sinner, no matter what his sin is, has touched the very heart of
the law that unifies it and has broken the commandment `to love'. This is what James
means when he says that the wrong-doer if he only fails in one point, is guilty of all.
Respect of persons disobeys `the royal law', for in one of the subsidiary laws derived
from this royal law it is stated:
"Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the
poor, nor honour the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy
neighbour" (Lev. 19: 15).
Moreover, the law clearly brands those who break it as transgressors. The words in
the A.V. are now archaic ". . . . . and are convinced of the law" (James 2: 9). They
should read ". . . . . being convicted by the law". What men have to learn is that they
cannot pick and choose in God's sight. It is useless to excuse their failure to observe one
part of the law, by pointing to their observance of other parts. God is not honoured in this
way, nor will He allow exceptions. We cannot subtract and omit the laws we do not like.
It is all or nothing, and it is man's absolute failure to obey God's law in its entirety that
makes it necessary for his salvation to depend, not on his own righteousness or
attainments, but upon the all-satisfying righteousness of Another, namely the Lord Jesus
Christ (Phil. 3: 8, 9).
Christian love must be shown both in speech and action "so speak ye, and so do, as
men that are to be judged by a law of liberty" (2: 12) and this is expressed by mercy,
remembering all the while that it was a God of infinite mercy Who save sinners and
therefore He expects those whom He has saved to be merciful constantly to others. "For
judgment is without mercy to him that hath showed no mercy: mercy glorieth against
judgment" (2: 13 R.V.). Mercy is therefore a product of practical love and where this is
absent, the love that Scripture stresses is absent too.