We can be quite generous in dealing with our shortcomings. We can feel that we are loving and kind, if we MOSTLY show loving concern for others. Of course there is that one person at work, that one friend, that one family member, that one church member, that one…well you get the idea, who rubs us the wrong way and we end up getting bent out of shape, losing our cool, and blowing up. Then there are those days when we aren’t feeling well or we are depressed or we can’t get over something. We take it out on those close to us and lash out at them. In other words, although we subscribe to the “golden rule” and affirm the “royal law,” we end up acting in unloving ways and break the very law we intend to obey. But, we think, if we can just manage to act with love and kindness a little more often than we don’t, we will still be able to make the claim that we are kind and loving.

Fortunately, I don’t have to be the one to burst your bubble. James slams the door on such thinking. “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it” (James 2:10, NIV). So how many laws must we break before being labeled a “lawbreaker”? Just one! How many times can I act in unloving and unkind ways before being branded unloving and unkind? Wait! I shouldn’t be judged so harshly. Doesn’t my kindness and loving deeds count for something? Why should I be condemned for what I have done wrong and not have my goodness taken into account? We know that God is a fair, impartial and just God. The problem is one of standards. Just as His thoughts and His ways are higher than ours, so are His standards. We lower the bar to the place where we can step over; He demands that we accept His placement of it. When we find that we cannot measure up to His standard, we must then cast ourselves upon His mercy and grace instead of complaining that the bar is too high.

We tend to grade and categorize sin. This one is horrible, that one inexcusable, this other unforgivable, mine: tolerable, understandable, excusable, maybe even justified. God calls ALL transgressions of the law SIN. God holds ALL lawbreakers ACCOUNTABLE. God excuses NO ONE. Until we get this, until we accept our true nature as lawbreakers, until we truly understand the magnitude of our failure before God, we will never truly appreciate the mercy and grace extended to us by God through Jesus Christ. Paul could claim that he was “the chief sinner” (1 Timothy 1:15), because he accepted the magnitude of his sin.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they will obtain mercy.” Those who have accepted the magnitude of their sin, experienced the liberating power of the gospel, embraced the forgiveness of sin, and now walk in newness of life will find extending mercy and forgiveness to others an easy exercise. If God has been so generous with us, how can we be stingy with others. To say that we can’t forgive is to admit that we have no real understanding of our sinfulness before God, the depth of our depravity and guilt, and no real experience of the great forgiveness and mercy that God has extended to us. We will only face judgment, if we refuse the mercy of God. If we embrace His mercy, we will offer it to others as well.

James 2:8-13 LEB However, if you carry out the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you commit sin, and thus are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but stumbles in one point only has become guilty of all of it. For the one 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. Thus speak and thus act as those who are going to be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment is merciless to the one who has not practiced mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.