How can we learn to express such love for those whom we deem undeserving or who don't love us back?

We tend to talk of sin as sins of commission but what about sins of omission -- not showing love? James is referring to these.

"2:15-16 If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be warmed and filled; but you do not give them those things which are needful to the body; what does it profit?

2:8-9 If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, you will love your neighbour as yourself, you do well:
But if you show favoritism to persons, you commit sin, and are accounted of the law as transgressors.


19:17-18 You are not to hate your brother in your heart: you are to reason with your neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him.
Do not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbour as yourself: I am the LORD.

5:44 Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;


What crucial message are we being given here?

WEDNESDAY
Read James 2:10-11. Then read the passages listed in the table below and classify them as either emphasizing the “whole law,” the “law of love,” or both.

2:10-11 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if you commit no adultery, yet if you kill, you have become a transgressor of the law.

Whole Law -- Law of Love
Matt. 5:18-19

Whole law -- for not one jot or tittle shall pass away till all be fulfilled

Matt. 22:36-40
Whole law - law of love-- Two great commandments -- love God with all your heart, soul and mind, --- and the second love your neighbor as yourself, is the bases of God's whole law!

Rom. 13:8-10
Whole law -- law of love --he that loves others has fulfilled the law -- he doesn't commit adultery, steal, kill, bear false witness or covet.

Gal. 3:10
Whole law -- law of Christ's love for us -- for cursed is he that does not do all the things in the law. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us:

Gal. 5:3
Whole law -- Whoever seeks to be justified by the law is fallen from grace.

Gal. 5:14
Whole law -- law of love -- For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.





"The law of love calls for the devotion of body, mind, and soul to the service of God and our fellow men.

Wednesday: The Whole Law

(from the Quarterly)

It is hard for us to grasp how radical Jesus’ teaching on the law was. For devout Jews then (and for many today) one cannot really claim to keep the law without a commitment to keeping all the laws found in the books of Moses. Eventually, 613 separate laws were identified (248 positive laws and 365 negative ones).

The question put to Jesus about which law was most important (Matt. 22:36) was probably meant to trap Him. But although Jesus seems to have affirmed every “jot” (the smallest Hebrew letter; Matt. 5:18) as important, He also taught that love to God and love to our neighbor were the most important commandments because they sum up all the others. (All the commandments are based on love)

Jesus’ teaching also shows that obedience cannot be done in a vacuum. It is always relational, or it is meaningless. In other words, if I tithe because I am afraid of being lost if I don’t, it is not relational. On the other hand, if I tithe out of gratitude for how much God has given me, then my actions are based on my relationship with God.

Jesus also spoke about the “weightier matters” of the law as being “judgment, mercy, and faith” (Matt. 23:23). All of these revolve around relationships too-with God and with other people. James is, therefore, not saying anything different than did Jesus or Paul: any transgression of God’s law damages to some extent our relationship to God and to others. So, it is not a question of having enough good deeds to outweigh our bad deeds. That is obedience in a vacuum, acting as if it all revolves around us. Instead, by knowing Jesus, we begin to direct our attention away from ourselves and toward devotion to God and service to others.

How much of your obedience comes from your love for God and others and how much from a sense of obligation? Is working from obligation always wrong, though? Perhaps you don’t feel love for a person but help him or her only because you know you are supposed to. What, if anything, is wrong with that?

What is the picture James is painting in this section?

How the rich are treating the poor? Are we to bring the Gospel to whom?

Are we so used to picking out short sentences from the Bible to support our views that we do not see what it speaks about?



So what is James really saying?

It seems like you are missing my point, namely, they are not guilty of sinning because they have defects and imperfections they refuse to cherish or act out in thought, word, or behavior. Having them is totally different than acting them out. You seem to think they are guilty of sinning even if they don't sin.

You've wandered away again. All I'm saying is that the SOP says their natures are seen to be different from Christ's, and I agree. You are trying very hard to disagree with it without saying it aloud.

That is very difficult indeed. We are often guilty of crossing the street to avoid a fellow sinner in need.

Since the law requires love, doing it merely out of a sense of obligation does not fulfill the law. But it still helps the person in need.

The big caveat is that the unloving helper might tend to believe that he has met God's requirements by so doing. That's the path to legalism.

Why is the point so strange to us? Nobody gets it?