“For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.”
For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it — the assertion that transgression of a single law constitutes violation of the entire legal order appears stark until understood through the lens of Levitical holiness and covenantal unity. The one law is not merely one of many rules but a violation of the unified will of the lawgiver. The 'whole law' (pas nomos) expresses a unified character in God, so that fracture at any point represents betrayal of the whole.
Church Fathers on James 2:10
If these things be so, how shall a man who shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, be guilty of all? May it not be, that since the fulfilling of the law is that love wherewith we love God and our neighbour, on which commandments of love hang all the law and the prophets, Matthew 22:40 he is justly held to be guilty of all who violates that on which all hang? Now, no one sins without violating this love; for this, you shall not commit adultery; you shall do no…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS
Publish a reflection on this verse
No reflections on this verse yet. Be the first to write one!