You're Just As Wicked As Anybody Else

James 2:8-12, “If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well: But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law. So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.”

There is a powerful truth to be learned from this passage of inspired Scripture. The Apostle James is admonishing believers not to become respecters of person, where we treat others unkindly whom we perceive to be worse sinners than we are.

The inspired Word of God in this commands that saints should 'LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR AS THYSELF' (“thy neighbour” includes all humanity). James 2:8, “If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well.”

But, the Bible says, if we have RESPECT OF PERSONS, we commit sin. James 2:9, “But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors.” Part of loving thy neighbour as thyself is treating everyone equally, the same way we would like to be treated, which is with respect, compassion, patience, empathy, understanding, fairness and love. Anything less is sinful.

The Apostle explains why it is a sin to be a respecter of persons in verse 10, because apart from the precious blood of Jesus that washed our sins away, we are no more righteous or less wicked than the vilest sinner on earth. James 2:10, “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” We are all horrible wicked sinners! We ought not ever condemn someone for their sins, just because they sin differently than we do. We all have our own Skeleton Closet. We all have a past—sins which we very much prefer to keep hidden away from people.

To clarify, I am not talking about proper punishment for wrongdoing. As the old judicial adage goes: If you don't want to do the time, don't commit the crime! I really like what Pastor Jack Hyles said in a sermon...

“If you want to never do anything that is terribly wicked, then you never do anything that is slightly wicked.” —Pastor Jack Hyles, "Unjust In The Least"

Anyone is capable of committing any sin under the right circumstances. I truly believe that there is no such thing as a “good Christian.” We are all struggling sinners. Of the Christian's three enemies (the Devil, the world and the flesh), I believe THE FLESH is the worst enemy of all, simply because it is with us all the time. Our flesh is tired, hungry and weak.

The Apostle James elaborates further in James 2:11-12, “For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law. So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.” Knowing that we are all woeful wicked sinners, this truth should cause us to treat others the same we we would like to be treated. Now let me delve deeper.

Why Repenting Of Your Sins Is A Counterfeit Gospel

The entire concept of turning from one's sins to get to Heaven is flawed, rooted in self-righteousness. NO ONE, and I repeat NO ONE, has ever turned from their sinning.

Making an effort to clean up one's life is the act of reformation, not repentance.

To feel sorry for your sins is penitence, not repentance.

To amend your wrongs is penance, not repentance.

Many people confuse and mistake these virtues with repentance, perverting God's simple plan of salvation. The truth is that to get to Heaven you DON'T have to feel sorry for your sins, amend your sinful ways nor change your behavior by turning from your sinful bad habits. You may do all these things and yet never have been born again. Christ died for your sins!

It is tragic that over 90% of Baptist churches today have succumbed to Satan's lie that you cannot go to Heaven unless you first “repent of your sins,” which is nowhere taught in the inspired King James Bible. It really upsets me that most incompetent pastors who require people to “repent of your sins” to be saved, intentionally won't explain what that phrase even means, so he can straddle the fence and go either way (Twitter video clip).

In some churches today they do explain what “repent of your sins” means, telling lost people they must turn away from their past sinful ways, or forsake sinful bad habits to get to Heaven. This is the dire error of Pensacola Christian College (PCC).

In toxic Chick Tracts (which I loath), on the back page of every tract it says you must “Be willing to turn from sin (repent),” if you want to be saved. This is in addition to step 1, which says to “Admit you are a sinner.” Step one is correct and necessary to be saved, but step two is damnable heresy which is not necessary to get to Heaven. Turning away from ones evil ways is “WORKS” according to Jonah 3:10.

Also, carefully notice in Jonah 3:10 that God Himself 'REPENTED.' So, if repentance means to “turn from your sins,” then it would imply that God is a sinner, and we know God is incapable of being tempted with sin (James 1:13-14). The simple truth is that God simply CHANGED HIS MIND in Jonah 3:10, which is the true meaning of repentance. When you change your mind in faith (trust) to acknowledge that you are a guilty sinner and Jesus as the only Savior, that is repentance unto salvation.

We repent TO believe; We don't repent AND believe. Neo-evangelical Evangelist Tom Farrell (1952-2021) got that very wrong in his misleading preaching before he died. Neo-evangelicals are WRONG on God's simple plan of salvation. In fact, biblically, you need only repent from your unbelief to trust Jesus to be saved. The only thing you and I contribute to our salvation were the sins that made it necessary.

We are commanded by God as His saints to love everybody, regardless of who they are. Our proper attitude as believers should always be “We have sinned,” but never “He has sinned” or “She has sinned.” James makes it clear that to commit one sin makes us guilty of breaking all of God's commandments. In other words, it only takes one sin to condemn a person to the Lake of Fire forever.

I once heard famous actor Jackie Gleason (1916-1987) foolishly say in a 60-Minutes interview that he didn't think God would send him to Hell for committing one sin. Oh, how wrong Mr. Gleason was, which he now realizes in eternity! We can only hope that he trusted Christ before he died, but I cannot find any evidence that he ever did. Gleason was dubbed “THE GREAT ONE,” by Hollywood, being one if its patriarchs; yet he didn't know THE GREATEST ONE, Jesus Christ. That is so sad. Do you know the dear Savior friend?