Verse 10 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, yet offend in one point.

To be an offender against the law, it is not necessary to violate every provision. If one precept or provision is set at naught, the violator can not escape punishment by entering the plea in defense that all the provisions of the law were not broken. This affords no exemption from the penalty. The punishment is just as certain as though the whole law had been violated. The law must be regarded as a whole. Hence keeping all of its provisions but one is no atonement for the wrong done. You have in effect violated the whole. About this matter the Jews entertained erroneous views, which James here corrects.

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Old Testament