“12 Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, 13 because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment!”
People rarely confide anything of importance in individuals they consider unsafe. If you find that very few people confide anything of importance in you, it might be that—for any number of reasons—that you are perceived as unsafe or actually might be unsafe with confidential information. You will find that people avoid answering your questions with much transparency because they fear that they can’t trust you with the truth. They would rather avoid the results of confiding in you than enjoy the intimacy gained by confiding in you.
People tend to have short conversations with individuals whom they consider rude. If I find that very few people seem eager talk with me, it might be that—for any number of reasons—that I am perceived as rude or perhaps actually act rudely. People will treat me in a respectful fashion, but only for as long as it takes to end the conversation.
Now if you are considered rude, it is rather unlikely that anyone will tell you, ‘I am keeping this conversation short and to the point because I consider you rude. I would enjoy a closer relationship, but I fear that your bluntness will hurt my feelings.’ If you are considered unsafe with confidential information, it is rather unlikely that anyone will say, ‘I would enjoy a closer relationship, but to have that I need to be able to trust you and I fear that I cannot.’
God will tell you what is standing in the way of your relationship with Him. Throughout His word, He tells you how He approaches different types of people so that each of us can inspect ourselves to see how He will approach us. He tells you that He will humble the proud so that you will inspect yourself to see if you are proud. He tells you that He exalts the humble so that you can expect exaltation. God is transparent about how He will deal with you.
Very few people will tell you that they consider you unsafe or rude in hopes that you will make changes. God repeatedly lays you bear so that you can see yourself as He sees you and make appropriate changes.
If God’s word to you tonight calls for change, consider that these words come from a God who calls for this change for the sake of relationship.
God tells you that failing to show charity to others will stand in the way of your relationship with Him. If you are unwilling to show charity to others, God tells you to expect no charity from Him. If you do show the charity you’ve been shown by God, God tells you to expect charity from Him. He tells you this for the sake of your relationship. Listen to Him.
If you have no charity, God will show you no charity and if you have charity then you can expect more charity from God. That is the claim of this sermon: if you have no charity, God will show you no charity and if you have charity then you can expect more charity from God.
I’ve changed the word “mercy” to “charity” because James’ used the word “mercy” here the way that we use it when we talk about mercy ministries. James is talking about being charitable. He is talking about loving your neighbor as yourself and recognizing that everyone is your neighbor. You must be charitable to all because you are an object of Jesus’ charity, and so we have replaced ‘mercy’ with ‘charity’ in the outline because that was James’ focus.
We will study this in three points. First: speaking and acting under charity. Second: do unto others as you would have God do unto you. Third: the triumph of charity.
From verse 12, we will see what it means to speak and act under charity. From the first sentence of verse 13 we will see that you must do unto others as you would have God do unto you. From the second sentence of verse 13 we will see how charity triumphs over judgment.
First: speaking and acting under charity. James has been talking about the need to love everyone. The first century church to whom he wrote had fallen into favoritism. They honored the rich and disparaged the poor. They showed them no charity. They discriminated against them. They were not showing love to their neighbor and your neighbor is everyone whom you come across.
This love is the appropriate response of anyone who is under charity. You see this in verse 12, “Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom.”
What James calls, “law that gives freedom,” is the law of God kept out of gratitude rather than fear. The law that gives freedom is never kept to earn salvation. The law that gives freedom is kept because you’ve been saved. Men who are legalists obey commands to earn God’s love. Men who are free obey commands because they have God’s love. Men who are legalists try to obey the law that condemns. Men who are free from condemnation obey the law that gives freedom. It is the same law, but it is kept differently.
A Christian who lives like he is free does what he wants and what he wants to do is please God. Peter put it this way, “Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.”
Imagine a young man who lands a date with his dream girl. If he does whatever he thinks will make her like him on that date, he is not free. He won’t enjoy that date. He won’t be himself or enjoy himself. He is too busy trying to earn her love. Now if he lands that date with his dream girl and feels free not to impress her but to get to know her, he will enjoy that date and he will enjoy himself and he will be himself. He will be free. That is the freedom that James is talking about.
With that in mind, take another look at verse 12, “Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom.” Don’t put the weight on the word ‘judgment.’ We are all very afraid of being judged and so we immediately put the weight on that word. We so easily act like legalists who obey out of fear of judgment. The key to that verse is not the word ‘judgment’; it is the idea of keeping the law out of freedom.
If you have been saved, you will want to keep the law. If you cherish the cross that saved you, you won’t want to indulge the sin put Jesus on that cross. If you appreciate the fact that you are free from condemnation, you will find yourself free to live the life you were created to live, which is a life of love, which is the fulfillment of all the commandments. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind and love your neighbor as yourself.”
There is a particular free way of speaking and a particular free way of acting. “Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom.” That way of speaking and acting looks like love. You speak and act for the sake of others. Luther put it this way, “God does not need your good works, but your neighbor does.” That is the obedience of freedom. I hope that none of our youth went on their mission trip in hopes that God would love them more if they went; I hope they went because they know God’s love and their neighbors needed their good works. I hope they went in freedom to speak and act in love.
This speaking and acting in love is an ongoing affair; the original Greek makes clear that this is to be a habitual, ongoing activity. If you have received God’s love expressed in actions in history on your behalf, namely the cross of Christ, then you are to say words and do deeds in history on behalf of others. You are to do them on behalf anyone. You are not to show favoritism.
James has an active, creative view of love in mind here. That is a refreshing alternative to the Christian life viewed only in terms of avoidance. Eric Metaxas, in his study of the life and thought of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, put it this way, “Being a Christian is less about cautiously avoiding sin than about courageously and actively doing God’s will.”
If your faith is largely a matter of, “thou shall nots,” you will certainly, and properly, take holiness seriously, but you will be tempted to only show love to those who agree with you on the “thou shall nots.” Jesus rebuked the Pharisees not for their personal holiness but for, neglecting the rest of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness.” He said, “You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.”
Some of us, and I can include myself in this group, are often so concerned about avoiding what is wrong that we sometimes can’t see opportunities to do what is right.
Look at Jesus. He cared deeply about holiness; he cared about it more than any of us; he also, “courageously and actively doing God’s will.” He also spoke and acted by the law that gives freedom. He loved his neighbor.
The gospels would be very short if they didn’t include the words of deeds of Jesus that demonstrated love for his neighbor. Would your life story be very short if all it included were your words and deeds that demonstrated your love for your neighbor?
If so, take God’s word as a warning. We see that in our second point: do unto others as you would have God do unto you. This, of course, is a variation on the golden rule. We are familiar with what we call Jesus’ golden rule, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” You can call this James’ golden rule, “do unto others as you would have God do unto you.”
If you want God to be kindly disposed to you, be kindly disposed to others. Look at verse 13, “judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful.”
If you discriminate those to whom you are willing to show neighbor love from those whom you consider undeserving of your acts of neighbor love, be warned because you will experience discrimination from God’s hand at the final judgment. If you will show no charity to a type of person or a race of persons, then you have no reason to expect God to show charity to the type of person that you have become.
You can be charitable to a homosexual man without affirming homosexuality. In fact, you are commanded to be charitable to a homosexual man without affirming homosexuality. You are commanded to treat everyone charitably. You are commanded to be charitable to your neighbor, who is everyone.
Since you are an object of divine charity, be charitable to everyone. If you are merciless, if you are without charity, God won’t be charitable to you.
Since you are an object of divine charity, be patient. Be kind. Love always protects. It always holds out hope for everyone.
You are to be charitable to everyone because you are to be like God. God doesn’t want anyone to perish. As God put it in Ezekiel, “I take no pleasure in the death of anyone… Repent and live!” Jesus, of course, agrees, “What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.”
Now if you take great pleasure in the condemnation of people, take that as a sign that you don’t have a heart which has been born of God. If you feel no obligation to be charitable, then you haven’t received His charity. If you consider an individual, or a race, or people in a particular lifestyle undeserving of your charitableness, you must know that such a position gives you no reason to expect charity at the final judgment. If you consider people beyond hope than you are refusing to love them because love always hopes. If you find great delight in believing the worst in everyone, then you are refusing to love people and you can expect that God will highlight the worst in you at the final judgment.
You are called to love your neighbor and there is no one whom you can put outside the realm of your neighbor. There is no one about whom you can say, ‘God would never be charitable to them and so neither will I.’
Jesus’ neighbor love didn’t discriminate. If it did, do you expect that you would be on its receiving end? You are to freely give what you’ve freely received.
Jesus gives you another way to think about it in Matthew 25. He tells you that whatever kindness you have shown to anyone in need has been shown to him. Could you imagine yourself being stingy to Jesus in his difficulties? Could you imagine yourself proud of the fact that you were not willing to pray for him when he asked you to pray for him in Gethsemane? There is a proper way of saying that you should treat others the way that you would treat Jesus. You should speak and act charitably towards everyone as if everyone you encountered were Jesus. That, of course, only goes so far, but it probably goes further than we think.
Your charity is a sign that you are enjoying Jesus’ charity. Your neighbor love is a sign that you are experiencing Jesus’ neighbor love. We see that in our final point: charity triumphs over judgment.
James says that showing charity is a sign that you have received charity. That is the end of verse 13, “Mercy triumphs over judgment!” James isn’t saying that if there is a choice between judging a sin in your life as sin or excusing that sin because of mercy, then excuse the sin. You can’t read this letter or the Bible for more than a few minutes and walk away with that idea.
James is talking about how your charity will play into the final judgment. If you feel obliged to treat others as Jesus has treated you, take that sense of obligation as a sign that you will hear, “well done, good and faithful servant,” at the final judgment. Your charity today demonstrates your vindication at the final judgment. “Mercy triumphs over judgment!”
Some of you might need to recognize that demonstration. You might be worried about what will happen when you stand before the judgment seat of God.
In any church, there are too many born again believes who will see the kingdom of God who worry that they won’t. James didn’t want any born again believers in that church to have those worries and I don’t want any born again believers in this church to have those worries. That’s why James told them that their neighbor love, their charitableness, their mercy demonstrated that they need not fear the final judgment.
Now you aren’t saved by being charitable; rather your charitableness is a demonstration that you are saved. Your desire to treat others as Jesus has treated you demonstrates that Jesus has in fact treated you a specific way. Your words and deeds of neighbor love display that you have been saved by Jesus’ death on the cross in the past, are being saved by the work of the Holy Spirit in the present, and will be saved on the final day in the future.
Your charitableness is an expression that you are object of divine charity. You won’t always express that charity perfectly. You won’t always love your neighbor as yourself perfectly. You won’t always be as patient with everyone as Jesus has been with you. You won’t always be as kind to everyone as Jesus has been with you. You won’t always hope for the best with everyone as Jesus has with you.
What is great is that you are free to love imperfectly. Remember, you are under the law that gives freedom. You aren’t free from condemnation because you love perfectly. You are free from condemnation because Jesus has loved you perfectly. That sets you free to love imperfectly. Chesterton is right, “if something is worth doing; it is worth doing poorly.” That is good because compared with Jesus the only way that you and I are going to love is poorly.
Remember what Metaxas said, “Being a Christian is less about cautiously avoiding sin than about courageously and actively doing God’s will.” You are free to love imperfectly, which is the only way you will love. You are free to love because you’ve been loved by Christ. Amen.