James 2:10 KJV
[10] “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.”
D. L. Moody gave a great illustration of this verse when he compared God’s law to a chain with ten links suspending a man over a precipice. If all ten links were to break, then the man would fall to his death; if only five links broke, he would fall to his death; and if only one link broke, he would still fall to his doom. Regardless of the number of links broken, the unity of the chain is what kept the man from destruction.
James is not saying that if we break one commandment, we might as well break them all. He wants the saints to know that whether we break all, or just one, we are lawbreakers, and we are as guilty as everyone else. It puts us all on common ground and reminds us that we are all just sinners saved by grace. We should view ourselves and others this way. It helps us not to magnify our flesh, nor anyone else.
One reason we become disappointed in people is that we build them up in our minds. We think so highly of them and expect so much out of them. When they do not deliver the way we think they should, we feel that they have let us down. We forget that they are also a lawbreaker. Again, this is not a license to do as we please but a reminder that we all fall short of God’s standard and glory.
Let us not be so quick to judge, and let us not be so sure to defend. We can be wrong in both directions. Let us be merciful when we need to show mercy, and let us take a stand when we need to take a stand. May the Lord help us to consider ourselves when we hear of others who have broken His commands. May we also be reminded that our salvation did not come by keeping the law. Christ was the only man who ever fully kept the law.