James 2:10-11

New American Standard Version

10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all. 11 For He who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not commit murder." Now if you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.

Pastor’s Paraphrase

          It doesn’t matter how many things you may try to point out that you are doing right, if you willfully disobey God’s direction in this, it is just as if you were breaking every other law of His as well. For the same God who commanded us, “Do not commit adultery” is the same God who said, “Do not murder”. You may be innocent of adultery and yet guilty of murder but what difference does it make, you are guilty and convicted just the same!

 “How does this help me become more like Him?”

          An old joke in business is that an expert consultant is just somebody with a briefcase who is fifty miles from home.  It is a lot easier to point out someone else’s flaws, weaknesses, or shortcomings than our own.  The same thing is true about our sins – we have “20/20 vision” to see sin in other people’s lives but can be unbelievably blind to it in our own lives.

          This is nothing new – the Pharisees were masters of it in Jesus’ day.  They knew all the minutia of their laws and traditions but could not see those things in their own hearts that were repulsive to God.  Jesus described them in Matthew 23:24 as “Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!” (NKJV)

          There are parallel truths for us in this.  First, we are to be painfully aware and constantly humbled by the reality of our own sin.  When we become increasingly aware of the sin of others in our culture, while being blissfully oblivious to our own, pride grows like a fungus on our hearts.  The Pharisees had become engulfed by it.  They were enormously proud of the many things they did not do in order to obey the law and tradition but they arrogantly ignored the greater and more profound matters of the heart.  They placed themselves on an elevated perch of their own making from which they looked down on everyone else.  They did so because of their blindness and denial of their own sinfulness.

          We as followers of Christ today can climb up on that perch without even realizing it.  We look around us at the sinfulness of our culture and become repulsed by it.  While we must never compromise the truth about what Scripture says is sin – whether it is abortion, homosexuality, cohabitation outside of marriage, or whatever culturally common sin you might name – we also must never forget that the sins of our own hearts and lives carry the same degree of condemnation.  Though we might not be guilty of those “high profile” transgressions, apart from the grace of God on our lives the sins that we commit would condemn us just as certainly.

          The second truth for us is to remember the majesty and vastness of the grace of God through Christ Jesus that we have received.  To see our sin as it really is and then to know without any doubt that it has been erased, eradicated, and forgiven should leave any pride and self-righteousness in a heap of ashes at the Savior’s feet.  How could we even think of being prideful or arrogant when apart from Him, we would be worthless and condemned.  The great old hymn says it so well, “Jesus paid it all.  All to Him I owe.  Sin had left a crimson stain.  He washed it white as snow.”  Indeed, He did.  Thank you, Lord Jesus.

“How should I pray for Him to change my life?”

Ask the Lord to show you if there are any remnants of pride or self righteousness lurking in the hidden corners of your heart.  Pray that His Holy Spirit would flood you with an awareness of and humble gratitude for the presence of His amazing grace in your life.  Thank Him today that, because of Him, you are not the condemned sinner you used to be but the child of God you now are.

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