James 2: 8 – 13
You do well if you really fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. For the one who said, ‘You shall not commit adultery’, also said, ‘You shall not murder.’ Now if you do not commit adultery but if you murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. For judgement will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgement.
Reflection
The writer has been challenging readers about showing favouritism, about our preference for those nicely turned out rather than the scruffy and dirty, for making distinctions between people. Now we are challenged about the distinctions we make between parts of our moral code. For the writer of this letter, the ‘royal law’ the law by which all others should be judged is ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself’, and that’s every neighbour, every one and in all ways.
We shouldn’t think that we can get away with breaking some commandments more than others. This might seem counter-intuitive since we all accept that some crimes are worse and deserve a stiffer sentence. But perhaps we need to consider how we sometimes allow ourselves latitude in our lives by saying ‘Well, at least I don’t..’ or “at least I haven’t…’… as though somehow that makes us better than other people. Among some prisoners, for example, some crimes have honour and even glamour, whereas others attract the most vicious and violent retribution, meaning that certain prisoners need to be kept separate from others.
Like it or not, there is a hierarchy of transgression that we can easily take comfort in. I may drink a little too much sometimes, but I never drink and drive. I may buy cheap clothes, but I don’t have investments in multi-national companies that make them. I may have committed adultery, but I haven’t murdered anyone. These verses challenge us to recognise that we are all, all, part of a world that is not as it should be, that we all participate in a fallen world. We all deserve judgement. We can’t take pride in the commandments we keep, without recognising that there are also some we don’t. And the one law by which all are judged is the law of love. At least, I suppose, that makes it easy to remember. Love your neighbour – every one, in every way. And remember too that, thankfully, mercy triumphs over judgement.
Prayer
God of all mercy,
teach me how to love,
in every situation I face,
and every person I meet,
in appropriate and helpful ways.
And when I fail in love,
slightly or deeply,
show me your judgement,
and your mercy,
that I may be shaped by love
always. Amen.