Learning to Love Our Neighbor [James Study Week 5, James 2:1-13]
Fulfilling the Law to Love Our Neighbor: James 2:1-11
“My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, ‘You sit here in a good place,’ while you say to the poor man, ‘You stand over there,’ or, ‘Sit down at my feet,’ have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?
If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. For he who said, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ also said, ‘Do not murder.’ If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.”
James 2:1-11
As he did in his letter’s opening, James again addresses his readers with the phrase, “my brothers.” He’s talking to those within the community of faith, and in chapter two, he continues to teach them what it looks like to function as members of that community. At the forefront of this section is the call to avoid “partiality,” and here he specifically addresses partiality when it comes to wealth or status. Instead of showing favoritism, we’re to love our neighbors as ourselves.
His argument goes like this: He exhorts his readers to change, then he offers a hypothetical situation (verses 2-4), asks rhetorical questions (verses 5-6a), appeals to experience (6b-7), shows how different actions could hypothetically pan out (verses 8-11), and concludes by calling them to therefore speak and act differently.[1]
So what’s the point? What is he actually calling his readers and listeners to do?
“God’s people are to live in a way that reflects his character and his kingdom.”
This exhortation from James goes way back to the Old Testament. James is not telling them anything new. He’s pointing them back to the Torah and bridging the gap between what it looks like to fulfill not just the Mosaic Law but the royal law (verse 8). In short, just like in James 1, God’s people are to live in a way that reflects his character and his kingdom. That requires that we love our neighbor.
Let’s take that journey with James and his readers. We’ll turn back to the book of Leviticus to see how God called Israel to live, then look at how James is therefore calling his readers (who were primarily Jewish believers familiar with the OT Law) to live, and then reflect on what that means for us.
From Mosaic Law to Royal Law
Leviticus 19:9-18 says this:
When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God. "You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; you shall not lie to one another. You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord. "You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired worker shall not remain with you all night until the morning. You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God: I am the Lord. "You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor. You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand up against the life of your neighbor: I am the Lord. "You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
Ultimately, God’s people were to love their neighbor. If it sounds like I’m getting repetitive as I say that, especially after last week’s post, the truth is that it is repetitive. That command runs all through Scripture. For the ancient Israelites, loving one’s neighbor looked like leaving crops for the poor or sojourner to take. It meant not taking from others or accusing each other falsely. It meant not oppressing others, practicing justice, and reasoning with each other instead of hating one another.
I need to stop for a second, because that last line is too relevant to gloss over. We’re in an election season at the end of an emotionally charged year. The command in Leviticus doesn’t mean be a doormat and let people walk over you. But it does tell the Israelites to not hate one another and instead be reasonable. Jesus dove into that command further when he talked about insulting and cursing one another (Matthew 5:21-26), and James gets at this idea again in chapter three when he talks about taming the tongue and what true wisdom looks like. It looks like being “peaceable, gentle, open to reason” (James 3:17).
Love your neighbor—in the way you act and speak. Even in an election season.
To get back to the point, the law in Leviticus shows that God’s people were to reflect who he is. He is generous, righteous, just, merciful, etc. His people were to show that in the way they lived. It’s also worth noting that “I am the LORD” was repeated a number of times in just those few verses. That’s a key phrase that appears all through Scripture, and it’s even uttered by Jesus, which made some people mad enough to try to kill him (see John 8:58). We don’t have time to get into that phrase, but the point is that Yahweh is the true God. He is the ruler over all, and he called his people, Israel, to live in a way that reflected his character.
This meant loving one’s neighbor—especially the poor and sojourner–in practical ways in everyday life. “In the OT the concept (of partiality/favoritism) often refers to unjust judgment against the vulnerable on the part of those in power...Such an attitude is contrary to God’s way of dealing with people when he judges them (Ro 2:11; Eph 6:9; Col 3:25) and, therefore, inappropriate for his people.”[2]
Show No Partiality
James, then, consistent with God’s call for Israel in the Old Testament, and consistent with Jesus’ own teaching and ministry, calls his readers to not show partiality. It goes against who God is. He rescued Israel while they were slaves in Egypt. Jesus died for us while we were still sinners. When we look at verse five, we can hear almost an exasperated plea from James. I can picture him looking down at his letter, shaking his head and letting out a sigh. He wants the Church to grasp this. “Listen, my beloved brothers,” he writes. Don’t you get this? God chose the poor. We’re all heirs in the kingdom. Why in the world are we showing favoritism that God himself doesn’t show? (That last part was my paraphrase, of course.)
“We must learn to see one another as humans created in the image of God—and for believers, we must treat each other as brothers and sisters in Christ—even in our differences and disagreements.”
We are all desperately in need of God, and when we favor some because of the way they look or how much they earn or whatever our worldly measuring stick says, two things happen. First, we rebel against the character and work of God. And second, we fail to love our neighbor. As one commentator states, “James implies that a public commitment to Christ, the Lord of glory, is incompatible with an attitude that degrades a fellow believers or puts the person at a disadvantage, for such an attitude runs contrary to God’s law.[3]
This “royal law,” is the foundational law for God’s kingdom. That kingdom has come through Jesus and will one day fully be established on earth as it is in heaven. As followers of Jesus, we are to live according to the royal law. Esau McCaulley puts it this way:
The wealthy, inasmuch as they participate in and adopt the values of a society that dehumanizes people, find themselves opposing the reign of God. This dehumanization can take two forms. First, it can treat the poor as more bodies that need food and not the transforming love of God. Second, it can view them as souls whose experience of the here and now should not trouble us. This is false religion that has little to do with Jesus.”[4]
So what does God require of us? What does it look like to function as the community of believers? It requires that we throw away our sinful measuring sticks and give up our habit of “sizing each other up.” It requires us to “do justice, and to love kindness, and walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). It requires that we learn to see one another as humans created in the image of God. And for believers, it requires that we must treat each other as brothers and sisters in Christ—even in our differences and disagreements.
“For God shows no partiality” (Romans 2:11). And if God doesn’t show partiality, we shouldn’t either.
Mercy Triumphs Over Judgment: James 2:12-13
“So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.”
James 2:12-13
These verses seem to form a transition, with James concluding this section and beginning a new one. Here he talks about judgment, which he’ll come back to in chapter four. We are all under God’s law—which is good and perfect and just and loving. It’s truly a law of liberty (which I talked about last week), and when we follow God’s law, we get to partake what he has and who he is. We have the freedom to live according to his design. Anything else is a twisted, corrupt version that we make up ourselves, and who are we to make judgments according to our own standards (James 4:11-12)?
Instead, we are to show mercy. Jesus himself said, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy,” (Matthew 5:7) and James just explained how favoritism is a twisted, sinful form of judgment. God, on the other hand, rules and reigns in a different, fully perfect system. Mercy doesn’t excuse sin. It doesn’t call right wrong and wrong right. But our merciful God in his perfectly just kingdom does not treat us as our sins deserve.
That is the gospel.
Psalm 103:8-10 says, “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.”
Our God has been abundantly merciful to us. Who are we to withhold mercy from someone else?
As James urges, let’s speak and act as those ruled by God himself. Let’s love our neighbor and serve the poor, avoid partiality and show mercy. Because that is who God is. That is the perfect example Jesus set. And that is the good, loving, beautiful way his kingdom people are meant to live.
Reflect
How do we show partiality in our own culture? How have you recently shown partiality in your own life?
James here (and elsewhere in his letter) talks about how we should treat the poor and vulnerable. What else does Scripture say about that? What other passages demonstrate God’s heart for those in need? How did Jesus treat the poor and vulnerable?
What does it look like in your life and community to show mercy instead of judgment? That doesn’t mean condoning sin. Rather, it involves displaying the mercy God has shown us in the way we treat others. How can you do that this week?
[1] The Expositor’s Bible Commentary guided me through the structure of James’ argument. As the commentator points out, James follows a A, B, C, C1, B1,A1 format: exhortation, hypothetical, “appeal to principle,” “appeal to personal experience,” hypothetical, then final exhortation. For more on the structure and background, check out the EBC: Longman, Tremper, David E. Garland, et al. Hebrews—Revelation. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2006, p 230-231.
[2] Longman, Tremper, David E. Garland, et al. Hebrews—Revelation. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2006, p 231.
[3] Ibid, 232.
[4] McCaulley, Esau. Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2020, p 94.
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