Judgment Please, Hold The Mercy - James 2:8-13 Series

James 2:8 If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right. 9 But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. 10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. 11 For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker. 12 Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, 13 because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment!

Introduction

Think back – when was the last time you showed someone mercy? Mercy is when love and compassion in your heart drive you to take action and help a person in trouble… and the way you help them is by giving them what they need rather than what they deserve. So think – When was the last time you did that with someone? How about this – When was the last time someone did that with you – they showed you mercy? Now another question – Can you remember the last time someone failed to show you mercy? Now one more: When was the last time you failed to show mercy to someone?

Mercy is a beautiful thing. It is an attribute of God. In fact, it is one of the most emphasized attributes of God in Scripture. And it is very important to God that we mimic His mercy. And so James gives us three really good reasons to motivate us to show mercy to people. The first one is negative, and the other two are positive. The negative one is the most negative motivation imaginable.

James 2:13 judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful.

1) Be Merciful to Avoid God’s Merciless Judgment

2)

We should show mercy, because if we don’t, we will be judged without mercy. Those have to be the most terrifying words in the whole Bible. Let that sink in for a second - merciless judgment from God. You are standing there before the throne facing God’s wrath, and you say, “Have mercy on me!” And God says, “No!” That is going to happen to some people. Who? Who is going to face judgment without mercy on Judgment Day? Answer: anyone who has not been merciful. Who are they?

Favoritism Violates Mercy

In the context, they are the people who show favoritism. If you read from verse 1 through this whole section that becomes clear. It is the people who show favoritism, and who therefore break the royal law of Scripture: love your neighbor as yourself. When we do that, that is a failure of mercy. Mercy is love directed to those who really need it. When you show favoritism, it seems like you are showing love to the people you favor, but you can tell it is not true, biblical love because there is no mercy.

A guy is sitting there in youth group, a visitor shows up, and it happens to be a really good looking girl. Suddenly he is Mr. Welcome Wagon.

“I’m showing the love of Christ by making her feel welcome. The fact that she’s smokin’ hot, (or, if you’re a girl – the fact that he’s really cute) that’s just a coincidence.”

James would say, “Ok - if it really is love, great. But one way you’ll know if it’s real love is if you are just as welcoming when some kid who needs mercy walks in. The kid who’s kind of weird looking, and who acts really strange. But if you give more attention to the attractive ones, that’s not love – it’s favoritism because it doesn’t show mercy to the people who need mercy.”

Favoritism = Judging

“But what harm have I done to the lowly people? I haven’t done anything to hurt them, just because I favor the attractive people or the wealthy people.”

Actually you have. When you show favoritism you hurt the lowly people by wrongly judging them. That is why back in verse four, when he was rebuking the people for favoritism, he said, have you not become judges with evil thoughts? Favoritism is all about judging people.

Good and Bad Judgment

Now - not all judging is wrong. It is good when you look at a guy like Hitler and say, “Evil!” It is good to make proper distinctions between right and wrong, and between good and evil. You have to judge people in order to show love, because love covers over a multitude of sins. You can’t cover over sins until you figure out that they are sins, which is a judgment. So there is a good kind of judging. But there is also an evil kind of judging. It is the kind Jesus was referring to in Matthew 7:1 when He said do not judge. Or Paul in 1 Corinthians 4:5 when he said judge nothing before the appointed time. Or James back in verse 4 when he said, have you not become judges with evil thoughts? There are several kinds of judging that Scripture forbids. For example – looking down on someone because they don’t make the same judgment calls you make in gray areas. That is forbidden in Romans 14. Another example – assuming you know someone’s motives. That is forbidden in 1 Corinthians 4:5. No matter how good you think you are at reading people - that kind of judging is never permissible. It is not discernment – it is playing God, and it is forbidden in Scripture. Those are a couple examples of sinful judging, but here James warns us about another kind: favoritism. Favoritism is judging based on the wrong criteria – like money or clothes or skin color or accent, etc. That is evil because it is a violation of the principle of mercy. Mercy helps the people who especially need it. Favoritism neglects those people.