You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. For the one who said, "You shall not commit adultery," also said, "You shall not "murder." Now if you do not commit adultery but if you 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 without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.
James continued his instruction about exercising partiality toward a certain group of people (specifically in his example, the rich). I see two possible reasons why he kept talking about it.
First, perhaps he anticipated someone's response as, "But, James, we are supposed to welcome people into our assemblies. After all, we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. Don't you remember what Jesus said - 'And the second [command] is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.?'" (Matthew 22:39)
I think James is countering that response. He seems to be saying that if you were really following Jesus' instructions about that, you would not be picking and choosing whom to 'welcome'. Their behavior was honoring the wealth, not the person - loving the money, not the individual. And that completely violates Christ's words to us.
Or, another possibility, perhaps James is striving to emphasize the critical importance of this whole issue. After all, our humanity has a tendency to shrug this off a bit. Is it really so bad? What's the big deal? You like some people better than others, right? Therefore, James slams home the point about being a "lawbreaker". He wants no one to miss his point: practicing preferential treatment within the family of God is sin, period.
William Barclay writes about the Jewish tendency to regard the law as a "series of detached commandments. To keep one was to gain credit; to break one was to incur debt. People could add up the ones they kept and subtract the ones they broke and so emerge with a credit or a debit balance." (The Daily Study Bible: James) Remember James is writing to Jewish believers. So he must confront that tendency. No! We are not keeping a balance sheet. If you break part of the law of God ... you sin. You ARE a sinner. And the only hope for you (and me) is MERCY! We need it - desperately - a matter of life and death.
When someone has hurt you or hurt someone you love, have you ever found yourself thinking, "I hope they get what they deserve one day." Or "Lord, repay them for this harm they have done with what they deserve." Do you really want to go into a "get what you deserve" world? If you do, YOU have to be in it as well. You have to be willing to 'get what you deserve'. I am perfectly clear about one thing - I don't want what I deserve! I want mercy. And God is clear:
Matthew 5:7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
Matthew 6: 14 - 15 For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
Matthew 7: 1 - 2 Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
Read again the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant in Matthew 18: 21 - 35 and let your eyes rest on the conclusion of Jesus' story: "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."
The conclusion of the matter:
Don't practice preferential treatment within your faith family.
If you do, it is sin.
You want mercy for yourself ?
Then give it to others!
Make no mistake ... Mercy will Triumph!
Lord, give us eyes to see where we are being preferential. Show us our blind spots in regard to prejudice. As You have forgiven me for so much more than I can even count, I desire to extend forgiveness and mercy to those around me. So today, I choose to extend mercy to ____________. Help me do it in practical ways.
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