But James is not a pharisaic legalist nor a Judaizer. He adds these
verses to make it plain that he does not have in mind the painful
observance of separate rules and details. The spirit is greater than the
letter. Our words and deeds are to be judged by “a law of liberty” (cf.
1:25), not of bondage. We are under grace, not the old law. We live in
an atmosphere of love and liberty, not of repression and slavery. God
watches the real motive in our conduct toward the rich and the poor as
in all things. “Mercy glorieth against judgment”; mercy triumphs over
judgment. God shows mercy to us in spite of our shortcomings, for Jesus
is the pledge of our fidelity and our hope.
We make so many mistakes that we should have no heart to go on if we had
to be held to strict account every time we stumbled in one point. Still,
we must not overlook the fact that we did stumble. It is our duty not to
stumble at that point again. So we go on our stumbling way toward that
goal of perfection which is ever before us. It was Jesus who said,
“Judge not, that ye be not judged” (Matt. 7:1). James seems to know this
saying, as he lays emphasis on the spirit and motive in holy living.
VII
The Appeal to Life
We now come to the famous passage that is supposed by some scholars to
be an attack on Paul’s doctrine of salvation by faith instead of works.
James is interpreted by many to be a champion of works as against Paul’s
theory of grace. It is an old controversy and is the occasion of Martin
Luther’s slighting allusion to the Epistle of James as “a veritable
epistle of straw.” He thought it contradicted the Epistle of Galatians,
which he loved dearly as his “wife.” It is necessary, therefore, to
clear the atmosphere a bit before proceeding to the exposition.