James Chapter 2

vs 10

This is the necessity of justice in law - that anyone who transgresses must be treated as a transgressor, no matter what their transgression was. This doesn't mean that people aren't punished differently (the OT law punishes everyone differently depending on their crime) but it means treating everyone who is a transgressor the same - as a criminal. Which means in the end, everybody dies.

vs 11

An illustration of the above.

vs 12-13

Even though these verses are a long way from home, they are still relating to the idea of not showing favourtism. There is a judgement that is coming to Christians. They will be judged, not by the law on sin and death which reigned throughout the Mosaic covenant, but by the law of freedom, which is the fulfilment of the old law in Christ. But it is still a law! You will still be either a lawkeeper or a lawbreaker. The difference is that does not determine how you are treated. What determines how you are treated is how you treated people. So if you are a lawbreaker, but you are merciful, then mercy will be shown to you. But whether you are a lawkeeper or a lawbreaker, if you are not merciful, then when judgement comes, it will come without mercy.

Mercy comes out of love, and this is why James brings up the commandment to "love your neighbour".

vs 14

What controversy these verses caused to Martin Luther! He hated them! It is these verses that caused him to call James "an epistle of straw". But I fear he was being a touch eisegetical, as if James were a Pope of the Roman Catholic church or something. But he wasn't. He was Jesus' brother, and as such his book was included in the canon, and as such we've got to respect it like all the other books, even Luther's beloved book of Romans.

The fact is that we are saved by faith alone. There's no contradiction between James and Romans. James is calling into question, as does John in his epistles, the worthiness of the faith of someone who proclaims they have faith, but it is not evidenced in their life. James knows, as do we in our cosmopolitan society, that there are many kinds of faiths - in his time, people had faith in statues, they had faith in the emperor, they even had faith that God would send his Messiah (even though he'd already come). But a misplaced faith is just as useless as a misplaced power cord - without a socket, it doesn't do anything.

To drag that analogy out a bit more, if you say you have faith (that you're "plugged in") but your lights aren't on and you don't go vroom vroom, then there's a pretty good chance that you're not actually plugged into the right thing.

But it's not just that you might be drawing power and not using it. To use a better analogy, say you see two guys on fire. One is running around screaming "Oh my God help me! I'm on fire! I'M ON FIRE DAMN IT, PUT ME OUT!". The other one is doing his shopping, picking what canned vegetables he wants, smelling some mushrooms, chatting to the girl at the deli. Now, both of them might say "Yes, I am on fire" (one will say "PUT ME OUT! DAMN YOU!"). They might even both look to the untrained eye like they're on fire. But there are certain reactions that are expected of someone who is on fire. Screaming and running around are two of them. Arguing over the price of salt-cured sundried tomatoes isn't. So then you ask yourself, "Well, is that guy really on fire?" It could be an illusion or hologram or whatever. I'll leave you to use your imagination.

vs 15-16

James likes his illustrations. I think they are great, too, because they help us to understand what he's saying. In this example, you say what the person needs, and you hope they get them. Well done! You did bugger all! All you accomplished was to point out what was blindingly obvious to the person in need. There are a lot of people in this day and age who think, I think moreso because of post-modernism, that them giving you their opinion is like them giving you a bar of gold. Let me tell you all something - your opinion is worth nothing without something more than some sort of experiential backing. Yes, I had a pain in my side once, and it really hurt, and I thought it was appendicitis. That doesn't mean I know what appendicitis feels like, or what to do if you're suffering from it (get your ass to a hospital). But people today seem to think that their, often blindingly obvious, observations are of such great value that they have helped the world by sharing them.

Helping a telemarketer who wants to survey you and find out that you actually do like orange-flavoured cola but the price is too high is not the same as giving someone food. Guess what? the whole world can keep spinning, and people will get on with their lives, if they never ever ever ever ever know what your opinion of orange cola is. But when people don't eat, they starve and die.