Jesus Creed

Jesus Creed

A Brother’s Wisdom 42

posted by Scot McKnight | 1:22pm Tuesday April 28, 2009

Moses.jpgTo love your neighbor as yourself is the foundation of the Torah.
To show favortism toward the rich and against the poor, you are not acting in love.
Not to love is to break the law.
Therefore, those who break the law (of love) are classed as “transgressors.”

That’s the logic of James.
That’s the logic of love.

In fact, James is radical about this. Notice these words in James 2:10:

For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.

In James’ rhetoric, there are two options — and it is part of his rhetoric and one would have to have more from James than this letter to know his mind in more detail — one is either obedient (loving of others and of God) or one is a transgressor (not loving God or one’s neighbor). But here’s James’ point:


If you break the law in even in one point, you are guilty as a transgressor and therefore no different than the one who breaks it all. I don’t think there is evidence here to think of the “impossibility” of keeping the Torah; nor is there evidence that James is driving people to the Torah so they can seen their sinfulness and then cry out to God for mercy in the cross of Christ. James might believe that, but one could not prove it from this letter (James).

What James intends to do is to reveal to the messianists that their favortism of the rich and against the poor is downright sinful and they will stand before God as transgressors if they keep it up.

It’s simpler than that: James wants them to see that their conduct makes them transgressors. Notice how he finishes off in v. 11: “For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.”



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Doug Allen

posted April 28, 2009 at 4:57 pm


James (and Jesus sometimes, too) ask us to be more sinless than we are capable, so I think we must be very forgiving of each other and ourselves for never measuring up perfectly.
Certainly, many messianists throughout the centuries and today do not favor the rich, so I think part of what James teaches is culture bound. Both so much applies today, doesn’t it?
It’s no historical accident that the church has been shaped by the biases of the rich long past the early church. The customs of primogeniture restricted the middle age Catholic church mostly a clergy of landless gentry. When Luther and especially Calvin came along, they promolgated theological theory that made it easy for the successful (the rich) to equate their success with God’s favor or election. And that has been a favorite form of hubris to this day, evident in the crystal calthedral, grow rich with Christianity, holier than thou church in all its forms.
Although “Thy shall not kill” is subject to many loopholes and “Do not commit adultry” is used to condemn homosexuals whom the condemers refuse to allow marriage, I think the sin we are (all?) most guilty of in our polarized and politicized religious enthusiasm is, “Thy shall not bare false witness.” This blog with it’s spirit of civility and going where the truth leads, is a wonderful tonic for the religious maladies and distresses that affect us all. The Jesus Creed and helping the poor, disadvantaged, marginalized, it seems to me, goes a long way, perhaps all the way, to what Jesus asked of us.
Doug



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