Transgression by Respecting Persons James 2:9

James, the “servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ”, told the people who belonged to “the twelve tribes scattered abroad” not to have “respect of persons”. He shared how they did “well” if they “fulfill the royal law according to the scripture” which was to “love their neighbor as” themselves. In chapter two and verse nine of his letter, James declared how they “commit sin” if they had “respect to persons” where we read:

But if you have respect to persons, you commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors.

The verse begins, “But if you have respect to persons, you commit sin,...” James began with the word “But” which is a disassociation conjunction that means what is about to be written takes precedence over what was previously stated, “if you have respect to persons” which is all one Greek word “prosōpolēmpteō” and refers to “discriminating and showing partiality and favor toward people”, “you commit sin” which means “labor towards, trade, exercise and perform missing the mark, error, wrong, offense and violation of the divine law in thought and act”. James is forthright as he communicated how his readers were “committing sin” if they gave preferential treatment to one group of people over another.

The verse continues, “... and are convinced of the law as transgressors.” James added, “and are convinced” which means “convicted, refuted, confuted and exposed” “of the law” which refers to “by, under, with and toward the law of God which demands faith and moral instruction from Jesus Christ's precept concerning love and the Pentateuch which is the entire collection of the sacred books of the Old Testament” “as transgressors” or “violators and willful breakers of the laws of God”. James told them they were “convicted” by the “law” of God and were “violators” of it when they gave discriminatory attention to certain people.

When we meditate upon these words of James, we realize how important it is that we not have “respect of persons”. The very “law of God” exhorts us to “love others”, and if we do anything else, we have become “violators” of His law. Jesus Christ loves everyone, and when we do the same, we align ourselves with His purpose of salvation. If we have preference in our hearts, we sin and are in need of humility and repentance. May the Holy Spirit of God reveal any area of “respect of persons” we hold in our hearts.

Next time James shares about how offending “one point of the law” makes his readers “guilty of all”, so read ahead, and we shall join together then.

Until tomorrow…there is more…

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