A Transgressor of the Law James 2:11

As James continued to share why it was important for the people within the “twelve tribes scattered abroad” to not have “respect of persons”, he told them having “respect of persons” was sin and referred to the breaking of God's “whole law” by violating in “one point”. In chapter two and verse eleven of his letter, James used the example of a person who “commits adultery” and “kills” to share how either one makes a person “a transgressor of the law” where we read:

For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill.

Now if you commit no adultery, yet if you kill, you are become a transgressor of the law.

The verse begins, “For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill.” James began with the word, “For” which means “as, because, even, indeed, no doubt, seeing then, therefore and verily” “he that said” or “brought forth, called, commanded, spoke, answered and told”, “Do not commit adultery” or “don't have intercourse with another person's spouse”, “said also” which means “uttered, commanded, brought word to, answered and told”, “Do not kill” or “don't slay or commit murder”. The laws “do not commit adultery” and “do not kill” were from the same source - the Lord God.

The verse goes on to say, “Now if you commit no adultery, yet if you kill, you are become a transgressor of the law.” James continued, “Now” or “nevertheless, then, yet, moreover and even” “if you commit no adultery” or “if you have intercourse with another person's spouse”, “yet if you kill” which means “if you slay a person or commit murder”, “you are become” or “come to pass as, are made as, have fulfilled and have arisen to” “a transgressor” which refers to “violator and breaker” “of the law” or “the law demanding faith, the moral instruction given by Christ, especially the precept concerning love and the Pentateuch and the entire collection of the sacred books of the Old Testament”. Either violation, whether committing adultery or killing a person, breaks the entire “law of God”.

When we consider these words of James, we see how he uses two sins to identify how a person breaks the “entire law of God” when he or she breaks it in any point. The “whole law” is broken no matter at what “point” it is violated. Jesus Christ is the only person who kept the “whole law of God”, and as Paul the apostle wrote in the second letter to the Corinthians in chapter five and verse twenty-one:

“he has made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin;

that we might be made the righteousness of God in him”.

We “break” the “law of God” and sin no matter where we violate it, and in doing so, we become “transgressors of the law”. Only Jesus can save us from our sin and make us as “the righteousness of God in him”. May we understand our offense against God and His law, and rely upon, trust in and cling to Jesus Christ as the only source for our salvation unto righteousness.

Next time James shares about those who “shall be judged by the law of liberty”, so read ahead, and we shall join together then.

Until tomorrow…there is more…

Look for the daily devotional book “Equipped for Battle – From Generation to Generation”, the marriage book “So, You Want to Be Married”, and the new devotional “One Year in the Sermon on the Mount” in all major bookstore sites, http://www.amazon.com ; http://www.barnesandnobles.com ; download to e-books, and find it locally at www.mrzlc.com/bookstore.