Jam 2:13 | KingComments | STEP | . The difference between the poor and the rich in the meeting is reprehensible. It is strongly condemned by James. He speaks out his condemnation in such a powerful language, that it cannot be misunderstood. When they despise the poor, they violate the “royal law”. In that law all Israelites are considered as objects of God’s favor. There the people are addressed as a whole. James brings his admonition in a positive way. He tells them that they do right if they fulfill the royal law “according to the Scripture”, which means when they carry that out in the way it has been written in God’s Word and according to its purpose. The royal law is the law of the ten commandments. James calls it ‘the royal law’ to emphasize its high value, which will serve as another exhortation to obey it. This law will be effective in its fullness and excellence in the kingdom to come, that will be reigned by the Lord Jesus as King. That law will then be written in the hearts of the members of God’s people ( ). Because that law is written in their hearts they will also be able to live accordingly. Fulfilling the royal law happens if we love our neighbor like ourselves. Then we do right, then we live right, then we live just as God wants it. This commandment makes clear that in the Old Testament each member of God’s people had his own place before God and that they were all equal in the sight of God. Each member of the people was the neighbor of the other and the other had to be treated with the same love with which a person treated himself. By dealing in that way with one another there would be no room for a preferential treatment of the one person or the neglect of another. In loving your neighbor the whole law is fulfilled ( ; ). You may now ask yourself: ‘But we do not live under the law anymore, do we?’ Indeed, we do not live under the law anymore. Therefore James’ purpose is not to bring us back under the law. He shows us that if you love the other you do what the law demands. Do you remember that James writes his letter in a period that God still tolerates His scattered people keeping the law? That’s why James refers to that. He appeals to them in their confession of faith. This word must also appeal to you. Not in the way James addresses his readers, for you, most likely, do not belong to Israel. The application to you is, that if you love the other you will never do something that damages or hurts the other. Loving is not a performance you perform because the law requires it of you. Loving is the expression of your new life that seeks the good for the other. If you seek the good and not the evil for the other, then it is clear that you, so to speak, automatically fulfill the law. . The law puts everyone on an equal level of responsibility toward God. That law says: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. If we then still make distinctions, then we do not act according to the royal commandment. The neighbor is my brother or sister in faith, the member of God’s church, of which also I am a member by grace. All Israelites belonged to the one people and each Israelite was a neighbor of each other compatriot. That is how we also are connected to one another. If you pray for your brother that he may be well, you pray that also for yourself at the same time, for if your brother is well, you also will be well. If love is true your preference will disappear. God has not dealt with you according to preference either. If you still act with partiality then you sin evidently. Is it not clearly in contrast with the law that says that each member of His people is equal to the other and that you are to treat each member of God’s people with the same love? It is undoubtedly a violation in case you still make a difference in your approach to the members. . By violating this one commandment you are guilty of violating the whole law, although you have not violated each of the commandments. That is because in the law the will of God comes to you. The authority of the Giver of the law supports the law. When Moses comes back from the mountain, he does not just erase one single commandment, but he throws both tablets from his hands and shatters them ( ). The violation of that one commandment caused the people to be guilty of all the commandments. If you violate a commandment you are dealing with God Who gave both the commandment you violated and all other commandments. . James uses an example. You can keep one commandment, but violate another commandment. Then you are by definition guilty of violating that commandment and in that way you stand guilty before the law wherein the other commandments are also established. The law forms a whole because God is the Giver of the law. If you violate one commandment, it means that you have given in to your own will and that you have despised the will of God, which He has revealed in the total of the law. . As it is said, it is not the purpose of James to put us under the law of the ten commandments. His argument is meant to clarify on the basis of the law how the interactions in the church are to be. The law contains the words of God and contains also useful education for them. James is giving the education with the view to the Jewish-Christian church, but we can also learn a lot from it. The true meaning the law has acquired for him, now that he believes in the Lord of glory, is that of freedom. He has spoken it earlier ( ) and here he returns to it. Freedom is not being unfettered. Freedom has limits. Those limits are not to limit our freedom, but to prevent that we will use freedom in a wrong way. True freedom is doing the will of God and showing Who He is. That was done perfectly by the Lord Jesus. We see that the law of freedom perfectly comes to expression in His life. He was perfectly free because there was nothing of His own will or sin in Him. This allowed Him to be completely bound to the will of God. There was nothing that separated Him from that, nothing that could come between Him and His God and Father. . That law of freedom is the measure of judgment that we ought to make use of in our contact with others. If we live just like the Lord, in undisturbed fellowship with the Father, then that will be heard and seen in our speech and actions. We will especially show our awareness of being judged by the law of freedom by showing mercy. In that way God’s love also came to us. God came with His mercy in our miserable circumstances. If we do not express in our speech and actions to others the mercy that we have received, we prove that we have not received new life and cannot act according to the law of freedom. God will judge that and that judgment will be just as merciless as the mercilessness with which we have treated others. If we show mercy, we act in the same God also acted when He dealt with us. Then we do not judge the other, but we show him God’s mercy. In that way mercy triumphs over judgment. Mercy conquers judgment. . If you are merciful you show that you yourself are the object of God’s mercy. You may claim that you have faith, but if you do not show that from your works, by showing mercy for example, then it is no more than sweet talk. It is cheap talk and it doesn’t prove anything of the inward life. To claim that you have faith is hollow and empty if there are no works. You cannot see faith, but it becomes visible from works. Therefore faith and works are inextricably linked. The faith that a person claims to have, cannot save him. You do not see the roots of a plant, but when it grows and flourishes it is proof that the plant has roots. You do not see electricity, but when a lamp goes on it is proof that there is electricity. The Lord Jesus also speaks about the new birth of which you do not know how that happens, but you certainly hear its sound ( ). Works prove that there is faith indeed. James gives an example in the following verses. Because Luther the reformer had had much difficulty to understand this statement of James, he called this letter ‘a straw letter’, in other words a letter without any nutritional value. He said that, since he had discovered the forgery of the doctrine of the roman-catholic church that says that works are necessary to be saved. But in that way Luther threw the baby out with the bathwater. James definitely does not teach that a person is being saved by works. On the contrary he urges to prove faith by works that come out from that faith, works that prove that there is faith. Otherwise there is no faith and therefore no salvation. A ‘lip faith’ doesn’t give salvation. Now read James 2:8-14 again. Reflection: How do you bring the royal law into practice?

‏ James 2:13

The Royal Law

Jam 2:8. The difference between the poor and the rich in the meeting is reprehensible. It is strongly condemned by James. He speaks out his condemnation in such a powerful language, that it cannot be misunderstood. When they despise the poor, they violate the “royal law”. In that law all Israelites are considered as objects of God’s favor. There the people are addressed as a whole. James brings his admonition in a positive way. He tells them that they do right if they fulfill the royal law “according to the Scripture”, which means when they carry that out in the way it has been written in God’s Word and according to its purpose.

The royal law is the law of the ten commandments. James calls it ‘the royal law’ to emphasize its high value, which will serve as another exhortation to obey it. This law will be effective in its fullness and excellence in the kingdom to come, that will be reigned by the Lord Jesus as King. That law will then be written in the hearts of the members of God’s people (Heb 8:10). Because that law is written in their hearts they will also be able to live accordingly.

Fulfilling the royal law happens if we love our neighbor like ourselves. Then we do right, then we live right, then we live just as God wants it. This commandment makes clear that in the Old Testament each member of God’s people had his own place before God and that they were all equal in the sight of God. Each member of the people was the neighbor of the other and the other had to be treated with the same love with which a person treated himself. By dealing in that way with one another there would be no room for a preferential treatment of the one person or the neglect of another. In loving your neighbor the whole law is fulfilled (Gal 5:14; Rom 13:8-10).

You may now ask yourself: ‘But we do not live under the law anymore, do we?’ Indeed, we do not live under the law anymore. Therefore James’ purpose is not to bring us back under the law. He shows us that if you love the other you do what the law demands. Do you remember that James writes his letter in a period that God still tolerates His scattered people keeping the law? That’s why James refers to that. He appeals to them in their confession of faith.

This word must also appeal to you. Not in the way James addresses his readers, for you, most likely, do not belong to Israel. The application to you is, that if you love the other you will never do something that damages or hurts the other. Loving is not a performance you perform because the law requires it of you. Loving is the expression of your new life that seeks the good for the other. If you seek the good and not the evil for the other, then it is clear that you, so to speak, automatically fulfill the law.

Jam 2:9. The law puts everyone on an equal level of responsibility toward God. That law says: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. If we then still make distinctions, then we do not act according to the royal commandment. The neighbor is my brother or sister in faith, the member of God’s church, of which also I am a member by grace.

All Israelites belonged to the one people and each Israelite was a neighbor of each other compatriot. That is how we also are connected to one another. If you pray for your brother that he may be well, you pray that also for yourself at the same time, for if your brother is well, you also will be well. If love is true your preference will disappear. God has not dealt with you according to preference either.

If you still act with partiality then you sin evidently. Is it not clearly in contrast with the law that says that each member of His people is equal to the other and that you are to treat each member of God’s people with the same love? It is undoubtedly a violation in case you still make a difference in your approach to the members.

Jam 2:10. By violating this one commandment you are guilty of violating the whole law, although you have not violated each of the commandments. That is because in the law the will of God comes to you. The authority of the Giver of the law supports the law. When Moses comes back from the mountain, he does not just erase one single commandment, but he throws both tablets from his hands and shatters them (Exo 32:19). The violation of that one commandment caused the people to be guilty of all the commandments. If you violate a commandment you are dealing with God Who gave both the commandment you violated and all other commandments.

Jam 2:11. James uses an example. You can keep one commandment, but violate another commandment. Then you are by definition guilty of violating that commandment and in that way you stand guilty before the law wherein the other commandments are also established. The law forms a whole because God is the Giver of the law. If you violate one commandment, it means that you have given in to your own will and that you have despised the will of God, which He has revealed in the total of the law.

Jam 2:12. As it is said, it is not the purpose of James to put us under the law of the ten commandments. His argument is meant to clarify on the basis of the law how the interactions in the church are to be. The law contains the words of God and contains also useful education for them. James is giving the education with the view to the Jewish-Christian church, but we can also learn a lot from it. The true meaning the law has acquired for him, now that he believes in the Lord of glory, is that of freedom. He has spoken it earlier (Jam 1:25) and here he returns to it.

Freedom is not being unfettered. Freedom has limits. Those limits are not to limit our freedom, but to prevent that we will use freedom in a wrong way. True freedom is doing the will of God and showing Who He is. That was done perfectly by the Lord Jesus. We see that the law of freedom perfectly comes to expression in His life. He was perfectly free because there was nothing of His own will or sin in Him. This allowed Him to be completely bound to the will of God. There was nothing that separated Him from that, nothing that could come between Him and His God and Father.

Jam 2:13. That law of freedom is the measure of judgment that we ought to make use of in our contact with others. If we live just like the Lord, in undisturbed fellowship with the Father, then that will be heard and seen in our speech and actions. We will especially show our awareness of being judged by the law of freedom by showing mercy. In that way God’s love also came to us. God came with His mercy in our miserable circumstances.

If we do not express in our speech and actions to others the mercy that we have received, we prove that we have not received new life and cannot act according to the law of freedom. God will judge that and that judgment will be just as merciless as the mercilessness with which we have treated others. If we show mercy, we act in the same God also acted when He dealt with us. Then we do not judge the other, but we show him God’s mercy. In that way mercy triumphs over judgment. Mercy conquers judgment.

Jam 2:14. If you are merciful you show that you yourself are the object of God’s mercy. You may claim that you have faith, but if you do not show that from your works, by showing mercy for example, then it is no more than sweet talk. It is cheap talk and it doesn’t prove anything of the inward life. To claim that you have faith is hollow and empty if there are no works.

You cannot see faith, but it becomes visible from works. Therefore faith and works are inextricably linked. The faith that a person claims to have, cannot save him. You do not see the roots of a plant, but when it grows and flourishes it is proof that the plant has roots. You do not see electricity, but when a lamp goes on it is proof that there is electricity. The Lord Jesus also speaks about the new birth of which you do not know how that happens, but you certainly hear its sound (Jn 3:8). Works prove that there is faith indeed. James gives an example in the following verses.

Because Luther the reformer had had much difficulty to understand this statement of James, he called this letter ‘a straw letter’, in other words a letter without any nutritional value. He said that, since he had discovered the forgery of the doctrine of the roman-catholic church that says that works are necessary to be saved. But in that way Luther threw the baby out with the bathwater. James definitely does not teach that a person is being saved by works. On the contrary he urges to prove faith by works that come out from that faith, works that prove that there is faith. Otherwise there is no faith and therefore no salvation. A ‘lip faith’ doesn’t give salvation.

Now read James 2:8-14 again.

Reflection: How do you bring the royal law into practice?