Love II

 Anyone who believes grace is unnecessary or that they don’t personally need a double portion has not realized the high standard of the law. James is writing to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad or the Jews of his day, and he is attempting to stir within them the realization that they, too, need grace since even by showing partiality, one commits sin and, as such, is convicted by the law as a transgressor.

That’s a high bar because James does not specify whether the aforementioned partiality had to have been shown willingly or premeditatedly. Even if you caught yourself showing partiality while in the act of doing so, the law says you are guilty of it, therefore guilty of sin, and consequently convicted by the law as a transgressor. Are you still inclined to brush off or beg off grace? Do you still think you don’t need it?

That’s not to say that this present generation has not abused grace and transformed it into a license to sin, but the Bible is clear on that, and though men might deceive themselves in the moment, they will not deceive God. They loved their sin more than they loved God and did what they had to in order to create allowances for the thing they loved. People in sin know it's a sin. It’s not a mystery to them, but they love it too much to be rid of it even though it’s killing them.

James 2:10-13, “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. For He 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. So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.”

Just as love does not mean tolerance of sin, neither does mercy. James is not trying to be some libertine, flaunting his libertine ways. Once again, he highlights the need for grace, mercy, and the law of liberty by which we should prefer to be judged. If you desire to be judged by the law of liberty, so speak, and so do. You cannot be merciless yet expect mercy. You cannot be without grace, yet expect a double measure of it.

When we live our lives as unto the Lord, unconcerned with how the world might view us or judge us, our faith is healthy, and our focus is on Him and Him alone. By walking in His will, in obedience and faithfulness, we will know to judge a situation rightly, show grace where grace is warranted, and mercy where mercy is required.

We’re so quick to look for anything we can nitpick to death in our fellow brethren that some of us have taken to preaching with our hands in our pockets for fear of an errant finger twitch that will forever label us Illuminati or Masons. I have to excuse myself to go pick my nose because someone might deem my index up my nostril up to the first knuckle as being a message to the others, whoever those others happen to be.

If we don’t learn to differentiate between quirks, cadences, ticks, unintentional finger wags, and outright sin, we’re going to be churches of one, and even then, we won’t be able to stand ourselves half the time.

Only the good Lord knows how many people I’ve had to counsel and reassure because while they surrendered their lives to Jesus, repented, were baptized, and transformed, someone came along insisting that it was all for naught if they didn’t refer to Jesus by His Hebrew name. These individuals were so adamant that those professing Christ were not saved for no other reason than they referred to Him as Christ that it sowed seeds of doubt to the point that they had to reach out and ask if they were hopelessly lost and just didn’t know it.

Do what you will; it’s your life, after all, just as long as you understand that judgment will be without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. The sanctimonious self-righteousness with which some pass sentences in today’s church and declare Ichabod at the slightest disagreement will have consequences. It’s not because I want there to be consequences, but because the Bible says there will be.

If some people treated themselves as they treat their brothers in Christ, never mind their neighbors, they’d be a mass of welts and bruises atop healing scars.

When we hold to tenuous positions with stronger grips than we do to Christ, there’s a problem that needs to be addressed and remedied. When something as puerile as what language you use to address the God you cry out to with tears of repentance and brokenness is enough for lifelong disfellowship, your priorities are misaligned, and that’s putting it mildly.

Do you honestly think that the God who so loved the world that He sent His Son to die is sitting up in heaven listening to someone cry out, then shrug His shoulders in indifference because someone didn’t say Yeshua? Do you not think He knows the cry of someone’s heart, even if it’s just a groan or a cry of despair?

How have we come to this? Personally, I believe it has a lot to do with everyone trying to stand out, be different, be unique, and come up with something that will set them apart. Are you trying to point the way to Jesus or yourself? Are you trying to build up His kingdom or your own? Are you of Paul, are you of Apollos, or are you of Christ? It’s not about getting a slice of the pie; it’s about serving Jesus, and some have sadly forgotten that.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.