Notes From My Notes – James 2:8-13
Rev. Dr. Earl B. Mason, Sr., Senior Pastor

Love is the key to Christian lifestyle. In fact, love is the very essence of God. The most profound definition of love found in all of human literature is that revealed by John, the beloved apostle, “For God is love” (1 John 4:8). God’s love (agápe) is unconditional love. There are no strings attached.

God has loved us from the beginning; even while we were yet sinners (Rom. 5:8). In fact, nothing can separate us from God’s love (Rom. 8:35–39). It was this great quality of love that brought Jesus into the world to rescue us from our sins (1 John 3:16).

Jesus came teaching the importance of the life of love. He said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34, 35).

James refers to this commandment of Jesus as “the royal law of love.” As the reader might suspect, he not only relates to this law of love as essential; he teaches us how to fulfill this royal law.

1. All of us have broken God’s law (v. 10).

James begins by reminding us that all of us have broken God’s moral law. He agrees with the apostle Paul, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).

His argument is penetrating. He states simply that if we should keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, we are guilty of all (v. 10). Then he shares a vivid example of just what he means. If we should not commit adultery, but if we should murder someone, then we are guilty of breaking God’s moral law. In other words, if you could live your whole life and just break God’s moral law once, you would be guilty of breaking all.

I am reminded of a man with whom I counseled a number of years ago who had worked out of his own moral law. He envisioned God sitting at a great scale somewhere in the heavens. According to his theory, God placed every one of his actions on the scale.

All the good acts were placed on one side while the sinful acts were placed on the other. The man’s goal was to keep the scale slightly balanced to the “good” side of his scale. And, if when he died the scale was tipped in the right direction, he would go to heaven.

Most of us have either consciously or unconsciously attempted to please God in that way. We have tried to live good lives. We have tried to “tip the scales” in the right direction! James refutes that argument as ridiculous. Only one sin in an entire lifetime would tip the scale the wrong way. We have all broken God’s law. We have all sinned. We have all missed the mark.

2. Only love can fulfill the law (v. 8).

In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus stated, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled” (Matt. 5:17–18).

The apostle Paul continues that teaching when he writes, “Owe no one anything but to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law” (Rom. 13:8). Then he continues by saying that the commandments of God’s moral law such as “you shall not murder” and “you shall not steal” and any other commandment is “summed up in this saying, namely, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law” (Rom. 13:9–10).

This is what James calls the “royal law.” Paul summarizes it well in Galatians 5:14, “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”

Of course, this “royal law” was first revealed by God to His covenant people as part of the Levitical law. (see Lev. 19:18). Jesus came to not only teach this law but to live it. Indeed, He is the personification of the royal law of love.

And so it is fitting that James should use “kingdom vocabulary” as he teaches about the life of love. Love is expected in the lives of those who follow Jesus Christ as Lord. In the fifth verse of chapter 2, James refers to Christ’s kingdom. In the seventh verse of the same chapter, he refers to “that noble name by which you are called.” Of course, he is referring to the name of Jesus.

Then he refers to Christ’s new commandment as the “royal law.” He recognizes that this teaching was shared not merely by a great religious teacher, but by the King of kings! Indeed, Jesus Christ is the King of the kingdom of God.

Jesus understands that we cannot keep God’s moral law. However, the problem was not with His law. In fact, His law is good. The problem is with us because we are too sinful to obey it (Rom. 8:1–4).

And so God has sent to us a Savior to rescue us from our sins. Jesus Christ has come to not only save us from our sins, but to live in us and through us in the person of the Holy Spirit, to heal our rebellion and free us to obey. As Paul wrote, “The law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith” (Gal. 3:24).

3. Only Christ can supply that love (v. 12, 13).

Jesus Christ is the source of agápe love. It can come only from Him. We cannot fabricate this quality of love. We cannot “fake it” or pretend that we have it. Only when we are in Christ and He is in us can we enjoy that love and express it to others.

John writes, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (1 John 4:7–8). Indeed, this love flows from God Himself. “If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit” (1 John 4:12–13).

This dwelling in Christ and allowing Him to dwell in us in the person of the Holy Spirit is the key to the life of love and the fulfillment of the “royal law.” As Paul declares, “I say then: Walk in the Spirit… if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law” (Gal. 5:16–18). Paul then goes on to compare the works of the flesh to the fruit of the Spirit.

Love is the first of the fruit of the Spirit. Where there is the Spirit of God, there is love! If we are to fulfill the “royal law” of love, then we must allow God to be in us and to live through us. Only then can love pour from our lives. Only then will we be recognized by our love. Indeed, “They will know that we are Christians by our love.”

In this passage, James also refers to the law of love as the law of liberty. That, too, is the vocabulary of God’s kingdom. He has come to set us free from the yoke of bondage (Gal. 5:1). Jesus said, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32).

The life of walking with Jesus Christ in the Spirit will provide the fruit of love and the joy of liberty. Only in Christ can we be authentically free!

This liberty comes not from the law, but by Christ’s mercy. And His mercy triumphs over judgment (v. 13). Therefore, writes James, because Christ has set us free to live and to love, we should “speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty” (v. 12). John teaches the same basic truth when he says, “Let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18).

We can fulfill the law of love only when we (1) acknowledge that we have broken God’s law; (2) discover that only the life of love can fulfill that law; and (3) believe that only Christ can supply that love! Then we must receive the gift of the Holy Spirit day by day so that God’s love can dwell within us and flow from us to touch the lives of others.

This lifestyle of living under the lordship of Jesus Christ sets us free to enjoy the life of mercy, the life of liberty, and the life of love. “If you really fulfill the royal law … ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ you do well” (v. 8).