The Devotional – Search the Scriptures – 272


The Devotional – Search the Scriptures – 272

Favoritism continued

James 2:8-13 – If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well; but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

Christ/Messiah is Our Only Hope

James, the pastor, and teacher of the church in Jerusalem is a powerful leader to Jews who have found righteousness in Jesus the Christ/Messiah. James like his congregation of believers is as the apostle Peter puts it, “Blessed be the God and Father of our LORD Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” 1 Peter 1:3. This congregation, and the dispersed Jews to the twelve tribes scattered abroad, hold the law in high esteem. James calls the law; according to the scripture, ROYAL (belonging to Sovereignty).

How about thinking on this for a moment or two—do you consider the LAW of God as sovereign? Do you see the Law as James and those he was speaking and writing to as royal law as an official order or proclamation issued by a person in authority, an edict? Most likely we do not see the Ten Commandments in this way. Christ came and fulfilled the Law, then He died for our deeds of sin of breaking the Law. When He rose again from that death, He fulfilled all of the Law. Luke 24:44 – Then He said to them, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.

James, who pastored the Church in Jerusalem spoke and wrote, via a scribe in his congregation, this epistle (circa AD 35). Not only is James the first epistle written in the New Testament, but it is also just two years from the death and resurrection of our Messiah. Jews knew little of the grace and mercy of God, but they did know the Law. Personal favoritism in the young church was a major concern for James since the Jewish Synagogues were full of this sin. Matthew 23:27 – “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.

And finally—do you know and understand that a person can, and often does, commit murder and adultery, with the mind and the mouth? You may say like those who were listening to James, “I love my neighbor as myself” but if you carry mental attitudes about destroying a brother or sister with gossip, have you not murdered their character. And what about the lustful desire of your flesh and eye; have you not committed adultery in your heart? These SINS are against the ROYAL Law of God, are they not!

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