Today’s passage: James 2:8-13
Helpful thoughts:
- Loving people (Your neighbor) regardless of their social and economic status is not a new thing. It was an Old Testament Law as well.
- Showing partiality is not a “character flaw”…it is a sin.
- The context of this passage it going to ask for evidence of the reader’s true conversion and faith.
- If I say I am a believer because I don’t commit adultery, but I do show partiality, I am being a hypocrite.
- However, the Law of Liberty reminds us that our freedom from guilt is not based on all the bad things we don’t do, but on the righteousness of Jesus Christ put to our account.
- If my motivation to not do bad stuff is to make myself better than others or to earn myself points with God, I have misunderstood the Gospel and my judgment will lack mercy.
- If my motivation is love and mercy because I have been shown love and mercy, I have understood the Gospel and I will progressively do the right things for the right reasons.
Questions to consider:
- How do we change our mind-set from “Bad things people shouldn’t do” to “Good things you can do”? How does this idea compare to “Putting off and putting on” from Ephesians 4 and Colossians 3?
- How is legalism a form of bondage? How does the Gospel give us freedom?
- How would you answer the accusation that this liberty found in the Gospel is an occasion to sin? Does leaving legalism behind result in recklessness? Why not? What is the growing Christian too busy doing?