Love your neighbor as yourself.
The command is simple enough to understand but, as is evidenced so often by our failure to do it, sometimes difficult to obey. There are several reasons why this could be the case. Perhaps the culprit is laziness. Love requires action and we are sometimes too lazy to put forth the effort. Sometimes it’s selfishness. Love requires sacrifice but occasionally we are too selfish to give anything. But sometimes it’s prejudice. We may look at a person and judge that they aren’t worthy of our love, or be afraid of what social stigma may come upon us for helping them, or even about what we may or may not get in return. This is the problem which James addresses in James 2:1-13.
Evidently some in the church had a habit of showing partiality toward wealthy and well-to-do individuals in the assembly. A poor man, whose soul was just as valuable, would be pushed to the back in shame and dishonor when the rich man walked through the door (Jas. 1:2-4). Such behavior was illogical (Jas. 2:5-8) and sinful (Jas. 2:9-13). The “royal law” – the King’s law which summarizes all of our responsibility toward our neighbor (cf. Rom. 13:8-10) – demands that we love our neighbor as ourselves. James 2:8-13 discusses why it is paramount for us to remember it, and obey it.
The section begins with a warning:
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 (Jas. 2:8-9).
The problem was not that they did not love their neighbor, but they did not love all of their neighbors. To “show partiality” is to show favoritism. It is the act of looking only at a persons outward appearance, to the exclusion of their inward. Like the Lawyer who sought to test Jesus on the definition of “neighbor” (Luke 10:25-37), some Christians were happy to extend their love toward some of their neighbors – the rich (Jas. 2:3) – but not all. Such an act is “sin” – it misses the mark and those who do so are “convicted by the law as transgressors.” Which is to say that they stand guilty of violating God’s law.
James follows the warning with an illustration:
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 (Jas. 2:10-11).
The Jewish religious leaders viewed the law as a series of minute, unrelated regulations. They created tradition as a kind of fence around it, and had a habit of choosing which laws to emphasize and obey, and which laws to push to the back of the line (cf. Matt. 15:1-9). Could it be that the same attitude had crept into the early church? Lusting and stealing are both violations of God’s law. If a person does not steal but he lusts in his heart, has he not sinned? Does his avoidance of theft cancel out his lust? Certainly not. So it is with favoritism. If a person serves the Lord but practices prejudice, does his service in other things cancel out his failure in showing love to his neighbor? By no means.
The section concludes with an exhortation:
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 (Jas. 2:12-13).
The verbs “speak” and “do” are both present imperatives. James is describing a general characterization, or, way of life. Christians must carry themselves as those who will be judged by the law of liberty – the gospel (John 12:48). This reminder stretches back to 1:21 and includes being doers of the word, controlling his tongue, practicing pure religion, and not showing favoritism. The one who withholds his brotherly love and mercy from someone based on a superficial judgment not only violates the standard by which he will be judged, but he also cannot hope to receive mercy himself in the judgment.
These passages ought to give us pause, even in the 21st century. A person may come into our assembly in raggedy clothes. Perhaps homeless, maybe they look odd. How easy is it for us to overlook them, for whatever reason? Perhaps we assume something about a person, like “he’ll never be interested in the gospel, so why bother?” Practicing the royal law demands that we display brotherly love to everyone, regardless of the situation or station in life.