Today’s Scripture
Reading (December 18, 2017): James 2
Tamora Pierce in “Melting
Stones” remarks that “Every now and then I like to do as I'm told,
just to confuse people.” I get that. As a people,
we have a checkered relationship with obedience. I know that I don’t like
rules, often because I can’t figure out what the rules are supposed to
accomplish, or because I don’t trust the ones who created the rules in the
first place. So I break them. As a result, I get the reputation of being a
rebel, or a purveyor of unconventional ministry, which is essentially the same thing. I have often argued
that I have nothing against tradition, I just don’t like tradition that doesn’t make any sense.
But, as a Christian, there comes the point when I recognize that what God
has decreed must have a purpose. That doesn’t mean that I don’t push at the
edges. I want to obey because I trust God. But I also want it to make sense, to
understand the why behind the command. Sometimes the why is obvious, and at
other times I need to wrestle with the Scripture so that I come to a place of understanding,
and therefore, real obedience.
And then we come crashing into
James’s letter. The intent behind this verse is one that I continually hear in
the words of the people with whom I am in contact. Is it not true that to break
one law is to break them all? And the
qualified answer is yes. But then comes the other shoe. The quotation of James
2:10, intended or unintentional, always seems to come with someone’s agenda sticking out of it. Recently, it was
Sunday worship that was the agenda behind the quote. Isn’t the Sabbath
Saturday? Of course. Then why do we worship on Sunday? And here we have the struggle toward understanding. The command
to keep the Sabbath Day holy was the only one that Jesus did not quote during
his ministry because it was a commandment that we twisted and misused. As a
Christian Church, we have struggled to honor “The Lord’s Day,” or the Day that
Jesus rose from the dead as our day of worship; which is Sunday. In this, we
are following what we believe is the intent of the law and what became the
practice of the early church, especially the Gentile church. So does that mean
that because we are disobeying the Sabbath commandment and, according to James,
therefore the whole law? I don’t think so. We are obeying it as we understand
it to be.
James command is important because he is arguing that, when it
comes to God, we cannot selectively obey the commands
of God. But that does not mean that we obey
without understanding. Obeying without
understanding is legalism. So we obey as
we understand, knowing that if we stumble, we are
covered by the incredible grace of God.
I am sure that we are getting it
wrong somewhere, but as long as we are struggling to understand and not listening
selectively, I believe that his grace covers us.
That does not mean that we no longer fight
and strive to obey. Obedience is part of our Christianity. But we obey as we gain understanding as to why this is
important, knowing that if we stumble and violate all of the law, that the
grace of Jesus covers us – and that he still loves
us. What more could we want?
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: James 3
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