Guilty of All
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.
Listen to the "Verse by Verse" episode covering this scripture.
God’s law is not a buffet where we can pick and choose which commandments to obey and which to ignore. James explains that they are all part of a unified whole. Disobeying even one commandment makes us a sinner and law breaker. Breaking one law earns us the penalty of death.
The NKJV Study Bible notes, “Sin is a violation of the perfect righteousness of God, who is the Lawgiver. James is saying that the whole divine law has to be accepted as an expression of God’s will for His people. The violation of even one commandment separates an individual from God and His purposes.”
All of God’s laws work together. James warned of the danger of comparing sins, for we all find it easy to justify ourselves but to judge harshly those who sin in a way we have not been tempted to sin. We are to recognize that we also will be judged by the law, and to learn to show mercy to others (James 2:12-13).
For more about sin—the transgression of God’s law—see our article “What Is Sin?”
