Passage: If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, "you shall love your neighbor as yourself," you do well; but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. For He who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not murder." Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
Journal: James recognizes the intense nature with which one cares for oneself, both physically and emotionally. He therefore advocates that we love others with the same zeal. He combines this zealous love for others with a strict adherence to the sovereign law of God and, as a result, the child of God should show love impartially and without selfish conditions. ("If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, "you shall love your neighbor as yourself," you do well; but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors.") The showing of love conditionally, based on social status, was obviously a continuing problem for the readers of the letter from James.
Are there degrees of sin, or are all sins the same? ("For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. For He who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not murder." Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. "). The answer depends upon the context of the question. Here, James is pointing out that any and all sin separates us from the presence and fellowship of our creator. On the other hand, a sin of carelessness or ignorance has less intentionality than a premeditated sin (think of the driver breaking the speed limit and killing a pedestrian verses a drive by shooting that kills a pedestrian -- in either case, a person died because a law was broken, but the extent to which the law will punish the wrongdoer is different).
That is, the sin of Adam became all of our sin and separates us from God. For instance, Cain was a woeful sinner because of both the attitude he had toward his brother and because of his eventual murder of his brother. Either act, taken alone, would separate him from God. However, it is a greater affront to the holiness of God to kill one's brother than to have an improper attitude towards one's brother. Jesus pronounced woes on the Pharisees for neglecting "the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith (Matthew 23:23). Similarly, James notes that "judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy . . . mercy triumphs over judgment." God, on that day, will show great mercy to the child of God. Yet, this mercy will correlate to the mercy shown by the child of God before that day.
