The Royal Law - James 2:8-9 Series

James 2:8 If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right. 9 But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers.

The Importance of the Command

Is anybody here interested in seeing the most important thing God ever said? We have been studying verse by verse through the book of James, and we left off in chapter 2 where James has been confronting the sin of favoritism. An attractive, wealthy visitor comes into the church, and they give him special treatment. That is sin, but it is one of those sins that does not feel very sinful. It is the kind of sin you can easily rationalize. A visitor comes to the church and you give him a nice welcome, show kindness, invite him over for dinner – that doesn’t really feel like sin. You are being nice to the person. You are being loving – what’s so bad about showing love? And James’ answer to that is, “If that’s what you’re doing, great!”

James 2:8 If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right.

If that is really what you are doing - fantastic. That’s fabulous. Great job! Keep up the good work, because loving people – that is the fulfillment of the royal law found in Scripture.

Royal Law

Found where in Scripture? Leviticus 19, just a few verses after the command about favoritism.

Leviticus 19:15 … do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great

And then three verses later…

Leviticus 19:18 …love your neighbor as yourself.

James calls that the royal law. The word royal means belonging to a king. The only other place in the book of James where the idea of royalty or anything king-related is mentioned is back a few verses in verse 5. Those who love God are set to inherit a kingdom, and that kingdom runs on one basic rule. Picture a realm, ruled by a particular king, and that king has issued a decree that governs all the operations of the whole realm. And the decree is this: Love. The United State’s law code is thousands and thousands of volumes. Over 30 million words just in the tax code alone. This King’s kingdom is much larger and more complex than the United States. But He did not need hundreds of millions of words to define the legal code for that kingdom. He got it down to one word: love.

Now, if you want to expand that out a bit, there are two parts: loving God and loving people.

Matthew 22:35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested [Jesus] with this question 36 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"

He asks the greatest man who ever lived the greatest question ever asked, “What is the greatest thing God ever said?”, and Jesus gives him the greatest answer ever given.

Jesus knows the answer right off the top of His head. He does not have to think about it. He does not say, “Well, it depends on what kind of a context you’re thinking about or the cultural situation.” He does not say, “It depends on what century you are dealing with.” He does not say, “It depends on if you are a child or an adult, man or woman, rich or poor.” Jesus just gives this man an absolute, definitive answer that is always true in every context.

In fact, Jesus gave him even more than what he asked for. He asked for the greatest, and Jesus gave him the answer and then said,

Matthew 22:38 “This is the first and greatest commandment.”

Greatest means of highest weight and importance, and first means highest in rank, influence, honor, or priority. He asked for the greatest command, and Jesus gave him a command that is not only greatest but also first, and not just greatest and first, but it is also a command that summarizes all the commands, so if you obey this one commandment you are obeying the entire Bible.

Have you ever noticed that the first half of the 10 Commandments focuses on God and the second half is about people? Love God and love people. If you love God you will keep the first four, and if you love people you will keep the other six. So this one, dual-sided command sums up the whole law of God.

Galatians 5:14 The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Romans 13:8 …he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not covet,” and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.