James 2:12 - Printer Friendly

ESV: So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty.

NIV: Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom,

NASB: So speak, and so act, as those who are to be judged by the law of freedom.

CSB: Speak and act as those who are to be judged by the law of freedom.

NLT: So whatever you say or whatever you do, remember that you will be judged by the law that sets you free.

KJV: So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.

NKJV: So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty.

In the previous few verses, James made the point that anyone who stumbles in obeying any command in the law is, by definition, a lawbreaker. He is equally as guilty as if he had broken every command in the law. James's point wasn't that we're all doomed to experience God's eternal wrath in hell. James agrees with Paul (Romans 3:23–24) that, solely through faith in Christ, we find forgiveness from all of our sins. Nothing in his letter contradicts that truth.

Rather, James is urging us to carry with us an awareness that we are lawbreakers. We must acknowledge the fact that we are sinners. Perhaps some of his readers believed themselves to be superior to other Christians. Maybe that's why they tended to show favoritism to the wealthy. They may have believed themselves to be more spiritual, or closer to God, because of their relatively "better" obedience to the law.

James says that attitude is wrong. All Christians are equally guilty of sin: none are perfect. All of us are fully depending on God's mercy to save us. Our good works are not what make us righteous in the eyes of God. We should treat each other as if that is true. We should speak and act as those who will, in fact, experience God's judgment.

However, God will not judge those who trust in Christ under the absolute standards of the Old Testament Law. Instead, He will judge us under the standards of the law of liberty, or the law that gives freedom. In Christ, forgiven from our sin, we are free to obey the God who loves us and shows us mercy. We must speak and act toward each other as people also in need of great mercy from God, fellow sinners forgiven by the blood of Christ. In that humility, we are very unlikely to show favoritism based on the world's standards.

James 2:1–13 continues the prior passage's focus on Christians living out what the Word of God says. Those who hold the faith of Christ should obey the command to love our neighbors as ourselves. This includes not showing favoritism to the rich over the poor. Christians should trust God to provide for and protect them, instead of seeking the favor of the very group of people who were oppressing them in the first place. According to the gospel, all of us are lawbreakers. Christians, as people who believe they will be judged by the law that gives freedom, should treat all others as equals.

Genuine saving faith in God leads to good and loving actions: ''works.'' In chapter 1, James discussed the importance of acting on the words of God, not merely hearing them. Favoritism to the rich over the poor demonstrates a lack of faith. In fact, this is a sin. Following up on these ideas, James insists that ''faith'' which doesn't result in good works is dead. Such belief is merely intellectual agreement. It is not trust, or true, biblical saving faith. James doesn't deny that belief in God is essential to salvation, nor does he claim that works are necessary to obtain salvation. Rather, he makes the case that works are to faith what the breath is to the body: a sign of life. A ''faith'' without works is like a body without breath: dead.

In chapter 1, James taught that a saving belief in God changes how a Christian looks at trials in their lives. It affects where they turn for help, and who they credit for good. Believers hear the Word and do it. In this chapter, James insists that our faith in God should keep us from showing favoritism to the rich and powerful on earth and should provoke us to love our poor neighbors as ourselves. He also makes the case that so-called-''faith'' which does not result in works, is not saving faith, at all. Despite controversy, this does not clash with Paul's view of salvation by grace alone. James refers to good works as an expected outcome of salvation, not the source of it. In the following chapters, he will continue to show what a life of genuine faith looks like.

The book of James is about specifically understanding what saving faith looks like. How does faith in Christ reveal itself in a believer's life? What choices does real trust in God lead us to make? Those are the questions James answers. Most scholars believe the writer was Jesus' half-brother, a son born to Joseph and Mary after Jesus' birth. James may not have come to believe Jesus was the Messiah until after the resurrection. Eventually, though, he became one of the leaders of the Christian church in Jerusalem. This is possibly the earliest-written of all the New Testament books, around AD 40–50. James addresses his letter to Jewish Christians scattered around the known world.