Ministry of Grace Church

For He who said, "You shall not commit adultery," also said, "You shall not murder." Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.

Truth to Learn

In God’s courtroom no sin is greater than any other. Every sin carries the penalty of death, apart from God’s grace.

Behind the Words

The word translated “adultery” is the Greek word moicheuō, which refers to a husband or wife who has sexual relations with anyone other than their legally married spouse.

“Transgressor” is translated from parabatēs. This is a compound word made up of para, meaning “beyond” and a form of bainō, meaning “to go.” Hence, it means “to go beyond,” that is, to cross the line.

Meaning Explained

This verse can easily lose its real meaning when separated from the preceding verses. Remember that James is talking about showing favoritism to rich people and discriminating against poor people. He has also pointed out that the highest law says that we should love our neighbors as ourselves. In the previous verse we saw that if someone were to keep the entire law and yet stumble in but one point, he or she is guilty of every part of the law.

James is now using two of the worst types of offenses against other persons to drive home his point. Both adultery and murder violate the sanctity that God has placed on us; one on life itself, and the other on the marriage relationship (which is a symbol of our relationship with Christ). Keeping one while violating the other is just as bad as violating both of the injunctions.

Now, you may be asking yourself, “Why is James making such a big deal about the law? I thought that Christians weren’t under the law, but under grace.” That’s correct. We are not under the Law of Moses and we aren’t under the Ten Commandments, per se. The law was given to the Old Testament Jews as their pattern of righteousness. For Christians, Christ, not the law, is our pattern of righteousness. If you look carefully, you will see that nine of the Ten Commandments are repeated in the New Testament. The only one that isn’t repeated is the third one: Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy. We Christians are never told to keep the Sabbath Day (incidentally, the Sabbath is the seventh day, not the first day). And, even when the other nine commandments are given to us in the New Testament Epistles, they are not given as law but as instruction in righteousness.

That doesn’t mean that Christians are free to live any way we want, without repercussions. God does not say to Christians, “If you steal, you are condemned to death.” Or “If you commit adultery, you will lose your salvation.” Rather He says: “I have saved you by My grace. Now I want you to live a holy life out of love for Me.”

As James will show us in the next verse, we are actually under a higher law than the Ten Commandments, the law of liberty.

Application

If you are worried about losing your salvation or missing the rapture because you have committed an intentional act of sin, you can stop worrying. All of our sins, intentional or accidental (even those which we haven’t yet committed) are paid for by the blood of Christ!