Questions about James 2
Question:
Alright, I read the two links you had for me, and they cleared a lot up. I read the second chapter and by what I can understand, the first part talks about following the law completely, and not just following one and leaving the other, because even if you follow all but one, you are still going be held responsible for that one. I wasn't sure if it was saying that it negates following the other laws or not though. The second part talked about practicing your faith, not just having it. I assume something like by what you do your faith is shown? Saying you are faithful but not doing anything to show it is the same as not having faith at all?
Answer:
Good work. Let's first review what you read. Chapter two can be summarized as a discussion on equality.
Verses 1-7: The emphasis is on the fact that all Christians are equal before God. Wealth, position, or authority does not make one Christian better than another. Too often we judge a person's character by their place in this world than by how they live before God. See Galatians 3:26-29 for another similar statement.
Verses 8-9: The reason behind this equal treatment of brethren is the command to love your neighbor as yourself. The command implies equal treatment of other people. You cannot pick and choose which laws you would like to keep and which you would like to ignore.
Verses 10-13: All of God's law is equally important. Some are weightier, as Jesus said in Matthew 23:23, in that some have broader applications than others, but no law is so unimportant that we can ignore it. After all, law comes from God, not man. We are not in the position to decide what laws are important and which are not (Jeremiah 10:23). No law can be negated by the whim of man.
Verses 14-26: God wants both our faith and our obedience. The two concepts are tightly coupled. Faith doesn't truly exist without obedience. Thus the idea often promoted that "all you have to do is believe" is false. That is placing one command, belief, above another command, obey. "If you love Me, keep My commandments" (John 14:15). Faith is shown by the willing obedience of the faithful.
I would like you to read the article "The Nature of Law" and "The Reason for Regulations" to give you a better foundation. Then go through James 3 as you have before.
