- The King’s Decree
If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing well. – James 2:8
In his book Twelve Unlikely Heroes, theologian John MacArthur includes James, the half-brother of Jesus, as one of the unlikeliest. He asks, “What would it have been like to live in the same house and grow up in the same family as the Lord Jesus? What was it like for His brothers and sisters?”He asks you to imagine the daily reality of living with the incarnate God. Mary and Joseph certainly knew all of Who Jesus was, but his siblings did not. Even his neighbors had no realization of Who was among them (Matthew 13:55-56). No mention is made in the Gospels of when Jesus’ family members came to recognize Him for all He is. But, by Acts 1:4, you see that James was counted among the apostles who were gathered together after Jesus ascended into Heaven.
James would become a pillar of the early church, the leader of the congregation in Jerusalem. At the end of his life, refusing to bow to the authority of the Sanhedrin, historians say James was accused of breaking the Mosaic law. Accordingly, he was sentenced to death, thrown off the edge of the temple, and then stoned to death by an angry mob. This is the same James who wrote in today’s verse that the “royal law” is “to love your neighbor as yourself.” Many have questioned what James meant by the “royal law,” but the consensus acknowledges that for something to be royal, it has to have come from a king. In calling the law of God and of Christ royal, James is saying that Christ indeed is King, and His command to love your neighbor is a royal decree.
If you keep the law of Christ by loving your neighbor, you are doing well, James says. Just a few verses later, he reminds you, “Whoever keeps the whole law but falls in one point has become guilty of all of it.” Check your obedience quotient today. Repent for those areas where you may have fallen short. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you live according to the royal decree of King Jesus. Pray for the many in America who deny the authority of the Lord, beginning with those in the highest positions of government.
Today’s Verse: James 2:8
If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.
All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Recommended for further reading: 1 Corinthians 15:1-11
15 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. 11 Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.
All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
