James 2:8-11, Essay Example

The main point in James 2:8-11 is that the entire law must be kept.As states in James 2:10: “For whosoever kept the whole law, and yet sinned in one (commandment), he is guilty of all (commandments)”.Some interpret this to mean that every single aspect of the Law of God must be kept or else the person cannot be saved by Gods law, in other words you will stumble and fall away from God and he will be unable to save you. Others interpret this to refer to a more general idea, that being that if you break one aspect of Gods law you have broken Gods law.So it isn’t necessarily saying that breaking on law is the same as break every law in the literal sense, it focuses more on the idea that whenever you refuse to obey the sovereignty of God it is as if you have lost faith in Gods authority over you.This will lead to a slippery slope in that once you decide one of God’s laws is not that important to keep you will be more likely to find another of his laws is equally unimportant until you fail to keep any of his laws.

The three most important words of this passage are do not murder. This is because these words refer to the worst sin within the passage, and the prohibition against murder also encompasses the commandment thou shalt not commit adultery. Committing murder and adutlert both become impossible if you love your neighbor as yourself.However murder is considered to be extremely serious by God because everyone was created in his image so killing another says you do not like Gods design and don’t respect his creation.Elsewhere murder is associated with anger.When we become angry and hold a grudge without letting it go or trying to fix it, this leads to hatred.

Harboring hatred and anger in your heart without acting has been explained as the same as murder.Similarly, spreading gossip about a person is akin to murder since someone’s reputation means everything in life and when you take away a good reputation you have murdered them.Adultery leads to the humiliation of the husband or wife who is not committing the adultery and causes the remaining spouse and children to be left without the adulterer as the sinner is put to death.Therefore it is bad enough if you committee adultery as you are choosing death for yourself as well as the abandonment of your spouse and children.But you are also selfishly choosing the same for the person you are in the adulterous relationship with.This is a type of murder due to lack of concern for your fellow man.

When one loves one neighbor as oneself, one fulfills all the commandments including the ones mentioned in this passage.If you truly love your neighbor as yourself you will not want to cause the harm either by having a relationship with their husband or wife leading knowing the consequences nor will you let yourself develop baseless hatred which could lead to murder.So as long as Gods children love each other as themselves they will also find a way to keep the entire law as they respect Gods sovereignty, his design for creation and his creation itself.