But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. – James 2: 9-13

In recent weeks, social and moral topics of concern to most evangelical Christians have been front and center in the headlines of the day. But we don’t often think of the sin of partiality as in the same way as adultery or murder, do we? The truth is that some things offend us more than others, but in the passage above, James clearly states that the sins of partiality, adultery, and murder each have the power to cause us to fail in one point of the law. And if we fail in one area, we are “accountable for all of it.”

Thank God for His mercy. Instead, we are called to live under what James calls the law of liberty – the freedom we experience when we live within the boundaries established by God for our good.

Not only are we to live under the mercy of God, but we are also to live with what you might say is a tender heart toward others. If we want to experience mercy, we should extend it as well.