In this verse James is taking up the argument that some might raise against him. They might say, "We were only trying to show love to this rich man. Does not the law say we should love our neighbor as ourselves?" If that was truly their motive it would be all right, but then how about the poor man? They did not show any love to him. The way they treated the poor man proved that they were not motivated by love at all, but by selfishness. Otherwise they would have treated both exactly alike, or even treated the poor man better. The Lord always favored the poor, and should not His followers be like Him? So they really were not keeping the Royal law, but breaking it.

"If ye fulfill the royal law ..." This law, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," James calls "the royal law." This is literally "the law of the kingdom." "Love" should be the sovereign law of our conduct, and is sovereign above all laws. The Lord Jesus said, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and prophets" (Matt. 22:37-40). Surely this proves its sovereignty above all laws. "For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" (Gal. 5:14).

Royal law for the royal family: This is a royal law of love, because it originated in the royal courts of heaven. The King Himself lived according to this law. His whole life was a life of love to His Father, and to all of poor suffering humanity. We who are saved in this dispensation are in the royal family. We have been made "Kings and priests" (Rev. 1:6) and are of the "royal priesthood" (1 Pet. 2:9). So we too, should seek to live according to this royal law.

"... according to the scriptures ..." James, like all the New Testament writers, appeals constantly to the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). These writers all give evidence of believing that these Scriptures were of divine origin, and authoritative in matters of life and conduct. Obviously, the New Testament now has more force than the Old, but we should govern our whole life according to the Holy Scriptures. If we are teachers of the Word, we should be careful to be governed entirely by "the Holy Scriptures." Let not sinful men be our instructors or guides, but only the Word of God (Ps. 1:1-4).

"... thou shalt love ..." The command form as used here, "Thou shalt", is not often found in the New Testament. We find it often in the Hebrew Bible. Most commands in the New Testament are put in the form of a plea or exhortation. However, when it comes to love, the Lord commands this in the strongest language. The law of love is sometimes called the eleventh commandment. The Lord Jesus says, "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another" (John 13:34). "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" is a direct quotation from Leviticus 19:18. It is in command form there, as well as in our verse, but it never was taken too seriously as a law. The Jews were very careful to at least attempt to keep the Ten Commandments, but they made very little effort to observe the law of love. Perhaps the Lord called this a new commandment because it was so little heeded, and now He desired that the Christians should especially walk according to it.

"... thy neighbor ..." "And who is my neighbor?" A lawyer asked this question of the Lord Jesus (Luke 10:29) after the Lord had trapped him in his speech. In answer to this the Lord tells the wonderful story of the Good Samaritan. By it the Lord Jesus shows that everyone we contact is our neighbor. We are to love all whether rich or poor. The Jews were evading this law by deciding for themselves just who their neighbor really was, and some just said, "Who is my neighbor?"

Love the poor as well as the rich: In our study, James is condemning them for not showing love to the one who happened to be poor. This was the same as saying, "The rich man is my neighbor, but not the poor man." James says to act so is to be a breaker of the royal law. It is all right to treat the rich with love, but not at the expense of the poor. We should love all and have contempt for none. Some men, because of envy, hate the rich. This is also a breach of the royal law.

Love all: The sweep of this law is tremendous. It tells us that we should show love to everyone. In our great land, there is a great variety of people. We have all conceivable types, from good to bad, rich to poor, educated to illiterate. We have a great variety of nations and races, perhaps even a greater variety of beliefs. In so far as we are able we are to show them all good, and certainly show contempt for none. First of all, we should try to bring them the gospel. Paul says, "I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise" (Rom. 1:14). Then there are a score of ways in which we should show our love to all. We should be like our Lord Jesus, "who went about doing good" (Acts 10:38). He said, "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you" (Matt. 5:44).

"... as thyself ..." The expression "as thyself" tells us how great this love should be. Every man has by nature a great love for self. It is natural for each one of us to seek to make things work to the advantage of self. Most everyone is constantly seeking wealth, or honor, or pleasure for self. "As thyself" tells us that we are to seek the welfare of others equally with our own. We should love others even as Christ loved us (John 13:34). His love for us was self-sacrificing, and our love to others should be the same. In Galatians 6:2, we read: "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." He bore our burdens on the cross, and we should bear one another's burdens. 1 John 3:16 goes even further when it says, "We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren."

Self-sacrificing love: True love to others will be self-sacrificing. The Good Samaritan is a good example of this. He served the poor man lying by the road side at a cost to himself. Do you ever do things for others that really cost you something?

A practical love: Christian love is not a sentimental love that gushes all over its objects. It is a practical love that serves. It is like the love of an old mother who is wrinkled and worn by a life time of toil for her husband and children. It is a love that forgets self, and sacrifices, yea even suffers, for its objects. How wonderful it would be if this love for others was more manifest among God's people. Our worship services would all be like little miniature heavens on earth, and souls would be saved too.

Love the greatest thing of all: It would be natural for us to esteem faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (the kind of faith that causes us to obey the Lord's commands) as the greatest thing in the world. Without it we cannot be saved. When faith leads us to obey our Lord Jesus and we are born again, the Spirit puts new life into our souls. Yet, for all that, love is greater than faith. "Now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love (1 Cor. 13:13 R.V.). Salvation is so important, but back of it all is the love of God and Christ. We are saved so we can love; love the Lord, love Christians, love the poor lost sinner. If we fall short on love, we fall short on the main purpose of our salvation.

Law of love supersedes all other laws: The law of love if perfectly kept would make all other laws needless. If I truly love the Lord with my whole heart, I will do everything to please Him, and will need no other laws hanging over my head. If I truly love my neighbor as myself, I will do nothing to harm him (Rom. 13:8-10). "Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." If I had a housekeeper, it might be necessary to hang up a set of rules for her to follow. But I have a wife, who loves her family, and she is ever seeking my welfare and needs no set of rules.

Love a great power: Love is the strongest of all laws. It has great power and force. Like gravitation it has drawing power. Those who truly love each other will be drawn together, and be bound to each other. True love among Christians will cause any work for God, anywhere, to grow. It will not be easily broken up. "And above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfectness" (Col. 3:14 R.V.). Love is a perfect bond that will hold things together. You would have a hard time breaking up our home, because after all these years love is stronger than ever. It will not break up, if we can help it, until the Lord comes.

Love a law of liberty that serves: Love is a law of liberty (1:25 and 2:12). When one loves he serves, not because compelled, but willingly. It is liberty and great joy to make great sacrifices out of love to the Lord Jesus. It has caused men to leave home and loved ones and go to distant lands to win poor benighted souls to Christ. One young lady was a nurse in a leper colony. Some lepers are covered with loathsome sores and then the order is very bad. One said to this young nurse, "You must love your work very much to be able to dress those awful sores." She replied, "No, I do not love my work, but I do love the Lord Jesus Christ, and I do it for His sake, that some of these poor lepers may be won to Him."

To love is to be God-like: "God is love" (1 John 4:8). Therefore, to love is to be like God. Everything in nature shows His love. He sends the rain, the sunshine, the fruitful seasons. "Thou openest thine hand, and satisfieth the desire of every living thing" (Ps. 145:16). His greatest love is seen in the giving of His Son to die on the cross for us. And who can measure the love of Christ? Paul says of Him in Galatians 2:20, "Who loved me, and gave himself for me." Napoleon, the great conqueror, spoke of Christ as the mightiest conqueror, who won not with the sword, but with love. Beloved, if we practice more and more the law of love, we too shall conquer. The law of love is always the same.

Salvation produces love: Let none think that James is indicating that loving one's neighbor as oneself is an impossible thing to do. If it was, none of us would be saved. Perhaps all really love themselves better than anyone else. All fail at the bar of this law. We are saved and become a child of God when our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ causes us to obey His gospel and when we contact the precious blood of Christ and are raised to walk in newness of life, washed by the blood of the lamb. A natural fruit of salvation is love; love for Christ, love for our fellow Christian, and love for the poor lost sinner. When we manifest this love, we show forth the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22). Loving Christians is possible, and real faith does produce such love. It should produce it to the degree our verse indicates, but does not often do so. Let us not be content unless we abound in this grace (2 Thess. 1:3).

"... ye do well." If we let this royal law of love rule our actions, we certainly do well, yea extremely well. This is a day of good tidings, beloved, and if we hold our peace, we do not well (2 Kings 7:9). God asks Jonah, "Doest thou well to be angry?" (Jonah 4:4). He did not well, nor do we if we get angry, or do any other sinful thing. Paul says in Philippians 4:14, "Ye have well done, that ye did communicate with my affliction." It is always well when we serve the Lord's servants or any of the Lord's people. Above all, if we truly have loved our neighbors as ourselves, we have done well, very well, and the Lord will not forget (Heb. 6:10). Someday we will hear those wondrous words, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant ... enter thou into the joy of thy Lord" (Matt. 25:21).

Scripture Reading: James 2:9 (KJV)

James now again turns back to the subject of showing respect of persons. The excuse that they were trying to obey the royal law did not hold, because they had shown disrespect to the poor man. James says if you show respect of persons you are not keeping the law, but you are sinning, and the law itself convicts you of it. It is interesting to note that the very chapter in Leviticus that says, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" (19:18), also says, "Thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbor" (19:15). So while they were professing to obey one part of the law as found in Leviticus 19, they were very plainly transgressing another part.

Seek spiritual welfare of all: It is well to seek the spiritual interests of all whether rich or poor. James' readers surely had not sought the spiritual interests of the poor, and it is doubtful that they had rich man's interests in heart. It would seem they were only thinking of what advantage they might gain through treating this rich man with extra respect.

"... ye commit sin ..." James thoroughly condemns their actions. He says, "Ye commit sin." To disregard the poor and to honor the rich is not only bad, it is sinful. Respect of persons is the very opposite of loving one's neighbor as oneself. "... sin ..." Sin is a word that unbelievers hates. Carnal Christians do not like it much, either. The very word has the hiss of the serpent in it. The sinner loves his sin, even though it is a great curse to him.

What is sin?: What then is sin? Various definitions of it are given in the Word. The best known is 1 John 3:4, "Sin is the transgression of the law." The Revised Version has "Sin is lawlessness." Some seem to think that the only time you sin is when you break one of the Ten Commandments. However, every sin ever committed is lawlessness. We have this broader view in 1 John 5:17, "All unrighteousness is sin."

Sinful thoughts: Many are stunned when you quote Proverbs 24:9, "The thought of foolishness is sin." If even foolish thoughts are sin, how much more the unclean thoughts and the wicked thoughts that at times pass through our minds. Doubting thoughts are also sinful, and worry that sometimes grips us. We read in Romans 14:23, "For whatsoever is not of faith is sin."

More definitions of sin: Proverbs 21:4 gives another definition of sin, "An high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin." So pride is sin, but so is the plowing of the wicked. This would tell us that even when the wicked do needful things, they are sinful in the sight of the Lord. James 4:17 is a striking verse: "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin." Our verse (2:9) tells us further, "If ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin." Let no man therefore suppose that he can ever earn heaven by his own merits, but let him flee to Christ for forgiveness. Being forgiven, let us not then have light thoughts of sin. It does matter if we sin. The Lord will not save His unfaithful and He will punish those who sin.

"...convinced of the law ..." The Revised Version has "convicted" rather than "convinced" and is the better translation. It is like one tried in a court for a definite crime and found guilty. These had shown respect of persons, and were found guilty of transgressing the royal law. It is a serious thing to be a law breaker whether one is a Christian or not. Of course, the king will deal differently with His own than with the unsaved, but He will deal with them nevertheless. This is evident from verse 12.

Convicted: It is the Lord's desire that men be convicted of their evil ways. Only as man sees the guilt of his ways will he realize his need of a Savior. There can be no forgiveness until there is conviction and confession of sin. Paul says, "By the law is the knowledge of sin" (Rom. 3:20). When the law spoke to Paul, "Thou shalt not covet," he was convicted of the seriousness of his sin (Rom. 7:7-13). Christ's preaching brought conviction to many. We see this in connection with those who brought the adulterous woman to Him in John 8. We read, "And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one" (John 8:9). The work of the Spirit is also a convicting work. "And he, when he is come, will convict the world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment" (John 16:8 R.V.). The conviction of wrong is the beginning of righteousness in the sinner and also in the saint. James' readers needed to be convicted of their wrong before they would forsake this evil respect of persons.

---

    

Copyright © StudyJesus.com