What is the “royal law”?

Question:

I was doing a short study on James 2:1-13 in being brief, I said: "that the royal law is basically the law of Christ or the law of liberty which very much entails love." Do you think I have done justice to the passage by just stating that?

Answer:

"Law" most often refers to a set of rules, though it can at times refer to a single rule. For example, Hebrews 2:10 states that God will put His laws into people's minds. He is not talking about multiple sets of rules but about all the individual rules. Thus, you find the law of jealousy in Numbers 5:29 or the law of the husband in Romans 7:2.

James is talking about a law that is according to the Scripture. Since the Scripture contains the law of God, the law under consideration is one law found in the body of the law. The law James wishes us to consider is "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," which is from Leviticus 19:15. Jesus had quoted this law as the second greatest command (Matthew 22:39) because it is a foundation for many of the other commands in God's law (Romans 13:8-10).

James is in the midst of discussing the fair and equal treatment of brethren. He refers to "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" as "royal" to emphasize that this is a directive of our God and King. If you go back to Leviticus 19, notice in the context how often God says, "I am the Lord" (Leviticus 19:10,12,14,16,18,25,28,30,31,34,37). The law is not one to be ignored because it is a command of God. While we are not under the Old Law, this law is also a part of the Law of Christ (Galatians 5:14).

Perhaps you are congratulating yourself on keeping such an important law and it is important to keep this law. But James then ties it back to the idea of fair and equal treatment by pointing out that showing partiality breaks this law. Again, we can go back to the original discussion in Leviticus 19. "You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor nor defer to the great, but you are to judge your neighbor fairly" (Leviticus 19:15). Partiality breaks the law of loving your neighbor as yourself. It did so under the Law of Moses and it continues to be so under the Law of Christ.

James then expands his point that when you break one law, you become guilty of breaking the entire law. This is because all the laws hang on two points:

""Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" Jesus said to him," 'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets"" (Matthew 22:36-40).

To illustrate, James picks two of the Ten Commandments (laws that are also a part of the Law of Christ). If you commit murder, it doesn't matter that you managed to not commit adultery because both of these laws are based on "love your neighbor as yourself."

"For the commandments, "You shall not commit adultery," "You shall not murder," "You shall not steal," "You shall not bear false witness," "You shall not covet," and if there is  any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself"" (Romans 13:9).

Thus, breaking one command makes you guilty of breaking the Law as a whole. Therefore, the conclusion is that we must speak and act as though we will be judged by the whole Law of Christ and not just portions that we happen to like.

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