For judgment will be merciless to the one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment. (James 2:13)
Recently at church a question was posed about sharing the gospel and if, in light of this verse, one can judge another person's actions as sin (in terms of calling out certain activity as sin to the other person). I've thought some about this question and wanted to articulate a response, because I think there is some confusion over this verse and the idea of judgment in general. I will use the context of the passage in James 2:1-13 to highlight what James is referring to, and thus, what he is not.
For James, judgment, in this passage, is showing favoritism to certain people on the basis of certain characteristics. He opens the passage with an example contrasting showing favoritism to a rich man over a poor man, and how doing so makes one become a "judge with evil motives." (2:4) The initial point here is that showing favoritism towards people on the basis of wealth is wrong. He follows this example with a few of the ten commandments and demonstrates that showing favoritism makes one guilty of breaking all of the law (2:8-10). This is difficult to follow on the heels of his rich/poor man example. What is the connection? Why does James, who is speaking of not showing favoritism, then immediately follow it with commandments and the breaking of that law?
I think the argument that James is making is the following: just as we are not to show favoritism to people on the basis of wealth, so too we are not to show favoritism to people on the basis of sin, because our own sin condemns us -- the very act of showing favoritism is sin! One is not more valuable than another based on the sins in one's life, just like one is not more valuable than another on the basis of one's wealth. The Christian faith is one in which we are walk without playing the personal favoritism game (2:1).
Now we can see James' use of judgment differs with the idea of judging sin as sin. One who is a Christian is one who has surrendered to and agrees with God's judgments. When God states that a sin is a sin, that is His judgment. To observe that, in my life, or in the life of another, is not taking the place of God or going beyond what is appropriate. It is to call 'good' what God calls good and evil what God calls evil. We get into trouble when we start making value statements on other people based on sin (or any other thing, such as wealth). And that is what James is addressing here. There may be times where sin is to be labeled as such, in the hopes of repentance and/or restoration (recall that in James 5:15-16 we are told to confess our sins to one another to be healed). But, I go too far when I use sin, or anything else, to show favoritism to one over another.
