[ealgeone]

"If you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all. For He who said, 'Do not commit adultery,' also said, 'Do not commit murder.' Now if you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the law" (James 2:9-11).

It's also very important to remember that our Lord made it clear the mere thought of adultery or murder was just as much a breaking of the Law as was the actual act.

It seems that many people haven't grasped that teaching while preferring to dwell on the act itself as the only violation of the Law.

If one is honest about this it shows the impossibility of being able to keep the Law. And by Law this would mean the 614 Laws as recorded in the OT. Some just prefer to think they only have to worry about the Ten Commandments.

No, James is referring to the entire Law.

[metmom]

And Jesus addresses that in the Beatitudes where He touches on matters of the heart.

The best insight I had about why sin is the heart is equivalent to sin in actions, came from an unbelievers I worked with.

He said because it was just a matter of self-control. Some people are better able to control their actions than others.