James 2,1-13. 18. Trinity

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever 

se cwide þæs béaggiefan ábireþ ferhþ

James 2,1-13    4818 

18. Trinitatis  063

Jerome, Pastor and Translator, ✠ 419 

30. September 2018 

1. О God, Thou rich in grace, may Your Holy Word that we hear today sustain our faith, encourage us to live piously and bring us the blessed assurance, so that we live in Your grace unto life everlasting in Your fellowship (Starck 13).  Amen.  

2. »My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing enters your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also enters, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say: „You sit here in a good place,“ while you say to the poor man: „You stand over there,“ or, „Sit down at my feet,“ have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the reign, which He has promised to those who love Him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called? If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture: You shall love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well. But if you show partiality, then you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. For He who said: Do not commit adultery, also said: Do not murder. If you do not commit adultery but do murder, then you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.«  

3. The Apostle James does not mince words in his epistle. He rebukes those showing partiality based on wealth; he exhorts us to love our neighbor; he reminds us that if we fail in one point in keeping the law, then we are guilty of violating the entire law.  

4. James’ exposition on the law of God is identical to Jesus’ exposition on the law. Jesus teaches in His Beatitudes: »Whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the reign of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the reign of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Scribes and Pharisees, then you will never enter the reign of heaven« (Matthew 5,19-20).  

5. The righteousness of the Pharisees is a righteousness merited upon obedience to the law. A rich young ruler once told Jesus that he had merited eternal life by keeping the 10 Commandments since he was a young boy (Luke 18,18-21). The Pharisees made this claim too; in fact, it was a foundational tenant in Pharisaism. The Pharisees worked very diligently to honor the law. They even did beyond what the law commanded to ensure they kept that very law and to cover others who might come up short in meeting the law’s exacting requirements. So the Pharisees fasted twice a week instead of one time a week, and they put in a double tithe to make sure the law was kept by those who failed to do so. The Pharisees meticulously kept the law and the traditions of the elders; they thus claimed to have merited righteousness under the law.  

6. We cannot exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees under the law, for they were experts at keeping that law. So to exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees is not an exhortation to keep the law but to something other than the law, that is, to have faith. Jesus revealed the sham of righteousness from keeping the law: »Woe to you Pharisees, you hypocrites, for you neither enter the reign of God nor allow those who would enter to go in« (Matthew 23,13). Paul also contrasts keeping the law with faith: »I do not have a righteousness of my own that is from the law, but I have a righteousness that is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith« (Philippians 3, 10).  

7. Our righteousness is from Christ who has merited it for us. The righteousness that exceeds that of the Pharisees is the righteousness of Christ exhibited by fulfilling the law in becoming the Passover and Yom Kippur Lamb who suffered, died and rose again from the dead. »This gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes for in this gospel the righteousness of God is revealed from faith, as it is written: The righteous will live by faith (Romans 1,16-17; Habakkuk 2,4). 

8. The gospel changes people. Those who have received the mercy and forgiveness of Christ reciprocate in kind with love. Jesus says that one who has been forgiven a great debt will have much love for Jesus as opposed to someone who has been forgiven a small debt will have less love. Jesus humbles those who exalt themselves and exalts those who humble themselves. Jesus has exalted us, has given us His very own righteousness and seals it with our Holy Baptism in the Triune Divine Name. His great mercy now bears much good fruit in our lives. As ones who have been forgiven a great debt by Jesus, we respond with great love to Him and our neighbors. In Jesus, our righteousness supersedes that of the Pharisees, and from that imputed righteousness a greater love flows from us that puts all Pharisees to shame. May we have the guidance of the Psalms of David for holiness of heart and the Proverbs of Solomon for a Godly life (Jerome Letter 107). „Perfect love, for this is the source of all good deeds“ (Andreas of Caesarea 25). Such is the reality of faith in Jesus and the love that springs forth from that faith.  Amen. 

9. Let us pray. O Lord, our Faithful Friend, teach us to fear, love and trust You; so that in all our doings and all our days we may remain focused on you with our faith and works for Your praise and our neighbor’s benefit.  Amen. 

To God alone be the Glory 

Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm

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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart. 

ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © 2013 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. 

VELKD. Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. www.velkd.de. Copyright © 2013 Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. 

Bray, Gerald L., ed. James, 1-2 Peter, 1-3 John, Jude. Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture and NT XI. Copyright © 2000 Institute of Classical Christian Studies.