Aineo
James is addressing good works not works of the Law.
Quote:
James 2:14-18
What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, "Depart in peace, be warmed and filled," but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? 17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
18 But someone will say, "You have faith, and I have works." Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
NKJV
Does the Law not state to love thy brother as thyself and to be mindful of the poor and needy
Lev 19:10 And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger: I am the LORD your God.
Pro 14:21 He that despiseth his neighbour sinneth: but he that hath mercy on the poor, happy is he.
James is speaking, according to the Law in your quotes. Or where are you saying he received the idea to look out for the poor and to love thy neighbor? For giving is an action of love. James is speaking about what is taught in the Law.
Jam 2:10 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.
Jam 2:11 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.
Jam 2:12 So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.
Ask yourselves, why would he list commandments spoken by the Most High and then say, do as those who shall be judged by the law of liberty? Any sincere reader can easily see that James is speaking of the law. The whole point is to submit to Yah in
ALL of your ways.
Act 14:16 Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways
In the past, nations were allowed to walk in their own ways, but Yah is calling all men to repentance.
Repentance from what? Sin.
What is sin? Disobeying (transgression from) the Law.
1Jo 3:4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
Definitions for lawless
1. contrary to or without regard for the law: lawless violence.
2. being without law; uncontrolled by a law; unbridled; unruly; unrestrained: lawless passion.
3. illegal: bootleggers' lawless activity.
Ask yourselves these questions:
Do I live contrary to the Law?
Am I living without the Law?
Do I obey the Law or acknowledge it's authority over my life?
If you live contrary to the Law, you are lawless. If you are living without the Law, you are lawless. If you don't obey the Law and don't acknowledge it as Yah's authority, then you are lawless. What does scripture say of the lawless?
1Ti 1:9 Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers
Are you a sinner? If so, the scripture says the Law is for you.
Rom 2:12 For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law;
Those who sin without law, shall PERISH without law.
1Co 9:21 To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law.
Paul, even as being without law, he was not without law to Yah and was UNDER THE LAW to Christ.
Definitions for inquity
1. gross injustice or wickedness.
2. a violation of right or duty; wicked act; sin.
What is the standard for what is just and right?
Rom 7:12 Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.
The Law is what is just and good. Do you do justly and right, according to the standard, which is the Law? Is a person who does the opposite of what's holy unholy? Certainly.
Rom 7:7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.
The Law is the standard. As Paul said, we would not know what sin is if not for the Law. So how do you repent from sin, if you don't acknowledge sin as sin?
One cannot truthfully repent from sin, until he acknowledges what sin is. Sin is determined by the Law and as James and the others determined at the gathering in Acts, they have Moses being preached in every city (Acts 15:21). Therefore there was no need to burden them with a laundry list of commandments, being as though the gentiles were new to the ways of Yahuwah.
So will you keep walking your own way (whatever is right in your own eyes), or submit to His ways? The road is straight and narrow (constricted).
Pro 8:32 Now therefore hearken unto me, O ye children: for blessed are they that keep my ways.
Pro 8:33 Hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not.
Pro 8:34 Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors.
Pro 8:35 For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the LORD.
Pro 8:36 But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death.
Love Always,