you're not the boss of me!

James 2:8-10

8 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you are doing well. 

9 But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 

10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. 

We’ve been all taught at a young age the golden rule: do to others, as you would have them treat you. This rule goes along with the royal law of “Love your neighbor as yourself” which we all know we should be doing.
But, living in a broken world it is hard to not show favor to some people over others. When I was younger I
became friends with two girls who had already known each other for many years. One summer, we would hang out virtually every day. I don’t know about your success in a friendship with three people, but it is hard not to exclude someone. One day I would be excluded, the next day I would be best friends with one of the girls. Of course I loved the days where I was best friends, but I also loathed the days where I was excluded. None of us are friends today and it might have had something to do with that, rocky summer we had.
No one likes being left out. God knows how He created us. He knew this about us.
The second part of the verse talks about how if a person keeps all the laws except for one, they are as guilty
as the person who has committed all of the laws. I love how simple God is with sin... no sin is greater than
another.
Teaching third grade I sometimes have to make judgment calls on who should get in trouble, etc. One day
recently one of my students came to me saying another boy pulled his hood and made it loose. When I asked
the boy if this was true he said, “Yeah, but when I said sorry the other boy said ‘Sorry doesn’t help!’”
In my classroom we have a rule to keep our hands to ourselves. So this boy thought that even though he broke
that rule, he thought he would be ‘free’ from punishment because the other boy was rude in the apology
response. He didn’t recognize that both of them were wrong in their actions.
Sometimes we can look at the way other people live their lives and compare it to how we live ours... Well, at
least I don’t smoke... or, at least I don’t curse... etc. All sins are sins. If you break one, it is the same as if you break all of them. It's so simple!


Answer this:
1. What is a rule that you recently broke? What are the consequences of
breaking that rule?
2. What does it mean that if you are to break one rule then you are as guilty
as the guy that breaks all the rules ?
3. “For whoever keeps the whole law but ______________ in one point has
become ___________ for all of it.”
Take a moment and journal about this.

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Written by Melissa McKechnie