"For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,’ but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, ‘You have faith, and I have works.’ Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works." (NKJV)
What are the works of faith?
It seems that every day another moral crisis hits a famous Christian. (Perhaps part of the problem is that very phrase: "famous Christian." Maybe we were never intended to be famous.) Satan and nonbelievers use every opportunity to point out how hypocritical Christians are. (Translation: How sinful we are when the world thinks we are to be sinless.) And it’s difficult to know which side of the argument to take. Should we expect other Christians to be overcomers, living lives without sinning? John Wesley believed that Christians can live without sinning. And Paul preaches over and over again that we are to step away from our sinful pasts and to embrace the holiness and righteousness that is, and always has been, God.
On the other hand, we are told to live lives that reach out in the love of Christ to those who are less than perfect. We are told to be Christ’s hands, His feet, His heart to a hurting world. (And that hurting doesn’t just extend to those outside of the Church). And so, what become the works of faith? Are we only faithful when we give physical comfort to the hungry, to the homeless, and to the sick? Or are we also faithful when we extend mercy to those who have made bad—even horrible—choices?
Are we to be merciful, even to each other? For, according to James, mercy triumphs over judgment. Every time and in every way.
I find it interesting that the Greek work used in James 2 for "judgment" is krisis (Strong’s G2920). According to Vine’s, krisis can mean both the investigative process and, sometimes, the condemnation that results from the investigation. In James 2, it appears to have that meaning of the justice that rightly brings condemnation as a result of an act which is wrong or sinful. The RSV translates this verse this way:
"For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy; yet mercy triumphs over judgment."
There are two great truths here. First, there is judgment and there is mercy and we can choose how we approach life. As Christians, we have the right to either (within the Church) and can approach other Christians as we deem appropriate. But knowing that, the higher road is mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment!
So when do we extend mercy and when do we judge?
"Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." (Galatians 6:1-2 NKJV).
Restore. In the Greek, katartizo. To mend what has been broken. There are those times when we are overtaken by sin. Vine’s defines it as this: "where the meaning is not that of detecting a person in the act, but of his being caught by the trespass, through his being off his guard." These are times when we are tired—physically or emotionally—when we have been stretched beyond our normal limits, when life comes crashing in with disaster or distress, and suddenly we find ourselves turning to sin, enmeshed in its grips because it was easy or available or offered. This isn’t the kind of sin where someone chooses again and again and again, but rather the single sin that presented itself and we fell into it because we failed to stop ourselves and ask if we should be involved.
In these cases, mercy triumphs over judgment. In these cases, we are immediately convicted of the sin and our sinfulness. Regardless of the intensity of the sin, we want to find a way out and the Church should gently restore us. We, who see others in similar situations, should also gently restore those, and heeding to the warnings of scripture, not fall ourselves into the same (or similar) sins.
These are not the same situations as Christians who have embraced the same sin time after time after time. These sins the apostle Paul addressed in 1 Corinthians 5:
"I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner— snot even to eat with such a person. For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges. Therefore put away from yourselves the evil person." (1 Corinthians 5:9-13 NKJV).
Notice that while Paul begins the paragraph describing sexual sins, he doesn’t stop there. This list isn’t intended to be inclusive, but rather exemplary in nature. In other words, Paul isn’t just saying don’t associate with these people, but the intent is that we not associate with any Christian who embraces evil as a matter of habit or daily practice.
"Put away from yourselves the evil person." Not the evil person (or people) who are outside of the Church, but the evil people who are inside the Church.
Wow! That is a harshness that we often don’t see. How do we balance that with mercy? I believe the balance comes from Galatians 6:1 in the restoration process. If the person wants to be restored and genuinely demonstrates that resolve, then we work with them to mend the brokenness and restore them in mercy. However, that being said, if the person continues to live in the sin, then we must—as Paul emphatically commands—separate ourselves completely from that person until they decide to stop sinning. That is when we must choose judgment over mercy.
"Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? . . . Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God." (1 Corinthians 6:2, 9-11 NKJV).
The apostles and leaders of the New Testament Church expected that believers would strive to live without sin (not embrace it). And if someone else who claims to be a believer is living this kind of lifestyle, it is our duty to "judge" them in the sense that Paul spoke of in Galatians 6. We are to go to them and, as gently as possible, lead them away from the sin. But if they resist, then we are to put ourselves away from them; they are an evil person.
That being said, there is no room for gossip or talking about that person with someone else. If they refuse to turn from the evil, our next and only recourse is to pray for them. That is so hard in a society where social networking (and gossip) is our daily communicative diet. You can’t even go onto the Internet or turn on the television without hearing gossip about someone or another. But we aren’t to gossip. Ever. Regardless of the reason. And even more so when we are talking about another Christian:
"Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another?" (James 4:11-12 NKJV).
We are, instead, to pray for each other.
"Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much." (James 5:16 NKJV).
Why pray? Because we may find ourselves in a similar situation and need all the help and prayer we can get from our brothers and sisters in Christ:
"For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Romans 3:22b-23 NKJV).
And in this way, mercy triumphs over judgment. Mercy from others brings prayer into our lives. Mercy from us compels us to pray for others. Mercy from the Lord grants forgiveness when we seek Him.
© 2015 Robin L. O’Hare. All rights reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.
