Introductory Comments
1. Llast week we discussed how we are not to show favouritism. We saw how favouritism goes against the very basis of our faith. For we are to trust in God rather than wealth or earthly position. We saw some reasons why we should not show favouritism.
2. In passage today, James gives us two more reasons why we should not show favouritism. Because it breaks the royal law of God and because it will lead to our judgement. But as I look at our passage I believe that James is talking about more than favouritism. He uses the example of this sin to teach us something that is hard for us to understand and yet is something we must understand if our faith is genuine.
3. If our faith is to be true, we need to understand God’s mercy and how that mercy applies in our lives.
4. My experience is that both outside and within the church many of us simply don’t get it. We don’t realize the depth and significance of mercy and what it means for us. We fail to appreciate the depths of God’s mercy and we fail to be merciful to one another.
Teaching
1. There are three important things we need to understand that James teaches us. We need to understand God’s law. We need to understand our sin. We need to understand God’s mercy and judgement. last one can only come when we understand first two.
2. We may think we understand these basics, but do we really?
3. In verse 8, James talks about the royal law that comes from Scripture. What is this law?
a. James could be quoting directly from Lev 19:18
"’Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbour as yourself. I am the LORD.
But James is not refering to a single commandment but rather the law in a more general term. And so while James makes a primary reference to this law, he is thinking of a broader body of the law.
b. Some may say he is referring to all of the Old Testament law. And we must be careful since James is concerned with moral law, not ceremonial law.
c. There are two descriptions of this law that help us. In verse 12 he describes this law as a law "that gives freedom". To just think of OT law would mislead the readers to think of the law as a set of rules that we cannot follow and that leads to captivity rather than freedom. It includes the moral teachings, the commandments of the OT, but it must include more, a law that goes beyond the doing the right things. And also he describes the law as the royal law. James probably is referring to Christ our King.
d. And so the law that James refers to here is the law of Christ which does not do away with the OT but expands upon it. In Mark 12:31 Jesus also quotes Lev. 19:18
The second is this: ’Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these."
4. This royal law is what we must do to do what is right. We are to keep this law. We are to fulfil it, bring it to completion, to carry it out completely. Not to show love to a neighbour in one act of kindness and then feel we have done our deed for the day.
5. Remember our neighbour, according to the sermon on the mount ends up being the person in need that god sends our way, that he places in our lives or across our paths. That includes the poor and rich, the believer and the non-believer.
6. Friends, I fail at this. I fail to love my neighbour as myself. I sometimes see him as a bother, an infringement upon my time and resources. I don’t treat his concerns as important as my own. The other day, I was driving somewhere, wanting to get there as I always do. Older lady in front of me was going 30 kmh. I started getting upset with her. Then I thought, as she turned off to go to hospital, who was she visisting, "Was her dying husband perhaps? How much longer would she have to drive?" I started realizing that her drive might be hard for her and was probably of more importance than mine. But usually I only think of my convenience and where I want to get to.
7. If you think you always keep this law, if you always love your neighbour as yourself, please ask me to visit you this week and I will allow you to convince me, if you are able.
8. To fulfil this law is impossible for anyone. For to do so is to show mercy, and we will talk about that in a few minutes.
9. A right understanding of the law makes me realize how much I need God’s mercy. I cannot fulfil it. And when I realize that, then it becomes a law that gives life. For I know that only God’s mercy can save me. Law is not primarily about what I do, but what I am inside, my attitudes, my thoughts that affect what I do. This correct understanding is needed.
10. But we also need to understand what sin really is. In vs. 9 James tells us that if we show favouritism, we sin and are law breakers. Come on James, that man who killed someone, that woman who committed adultery, that teenager who stole my car - these are law breakers. Don’t compare me to them because I show favouritism once in a while. They are the law breakers, not me."
11. Well, James and God says that you are. For whoever keeps the whole law and stumbles at just one point of it is guilty of breaking all of it.
12. Some time ago I asked someone if they realized God’s mercy and grace in forgiving his sins. Reply was that "I’m not too bad. I have not sinned like some people have." I wonder if tha is an answer God will accept as true repentance.
13. Ilustration from Pastor Evan D. Baltz:
a. A few years ago, I was watched a 4x100 track and field event. The U.S. team was by far the fastest of the bunch. Each individual runner had world class speed. After about two thirds through the race, the U.S. was way out and front and coasted to what seemed like a gigantic victory. Or was it? The judges noticed that one of the runners had stepped out of his lane on one of his strides. The whole team was disqualified, and the team that thought they had won, did not even officially finish. They ran a near perfect race. They made all the right passes. They ran smoothly and quickly. They did everything perfect except one stride. But that one stride is all that it took. With that step out of the lane, the team broke the rule, and was disqualified. It didn’t seem fair. They were faster than everyone else. They were the best out there. Come on judges, give them a break. They deserve to win, but they don’t, because to break just one rule means disqualification.
14. To break just one of God’s laws, means you are a lawbreaker and guilty of sin. While some sins are greater than others - the affect and the consequences of them are all the same. You are disqualified. To finish or fulfill the law, you must obey them all. The athletes on that U.S. team might have said, "yeah but we don’t take steroids or didn’t gain any other unfair advantage. "We didn’t get an early start." But that doesn’t matter you see. A rule is a rule.
15. When we think of our sin we must not compare our sins with those of others. We may compare themselves to other people and find that we really don’t appear so bad. Compared to druggies and drug dealers, alcoholics, members of the Mafia, murderers, child molesters, spouse abusers, thieves, pornographers, prostitutes, practising gays and lesbians, we think we do not appear so bad after all. If we were to put our deeds on a balance scale, with good deeds on the one side and bad deeds on the other, the good would certainly outweigh the bad. Sure, we might commit a little sin once in a while: we might do something mean and nasty, or we might have evil thoughts about other people. "But what’s so bad about a little sin when there is so much more that is good in our lives."
16. Do you know what we who play the comparison game are doing? We are underestimating our sin and overestimating our good. And so we must not look at the sins others commit and we don’t. That’s what James is saying in verses 11 and 12.
17. If we really understand the law and our sin, we will understand mercy. We will understand the judgement that we should face. That God has every right to say to us that we deserve death for our sins.
18. But He is merciful to us. Because of His character - His compassion and great forebearance or longsuffering, He pardons us and forgives us our sins. We cannot claim His kindness - He does not owe it to us. He has the power and the right to judge us and condemn us. But He does not. Because of who He is.
19. Someone said that mercy is not getting what we deserve and grace is getting what we do not deserve.
20. Read Psalm 103:10-13.
21. God’s mercy triumphs over judgement. If you are a believer? If He has chosen you? That’s completely up to God. Exo 33:19 "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion."
22. But this means that we must still (vs. 12) live as those who are going to be judged by the law. I believe this means two things:
a. First if I live realizing that based on what I do, I will be judged by the law, I will understand God’s mercy more.
b. And it means that even as believers we will be judged and rewarded based on the mercy we have received.
23. The result of this is that we will show mercy to others. We know parable of servant who had sins forgiven. He owed a great debt. Yet he would not forgive fellow servant for small debt. Result - thrown into prison. If we are to receive mercy from God we must be merciful. Mat 5:7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
24. Not as precondition but as natural response. As we experience His mercy we are changed and become merciful.
25. Mercy triumphs over God’s judgement of us. And it should triumph over our judgement of others. If not, we again are faced with question - is our fath genuine?
26. Friends - know how great His mercy is and be merciful.
