In James 2:8-13 we discover how we as believers can fulfill the law of love or what James calls the royal law. Love is to be core to the lives of believers. Jesus proclaimed, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35). Those who have received Christ as Savior and Lord desire to respond by giving their whole lives to God through godly living. Since God is love, believers are to love Him and others.
Before telling us how to fulfill the royal law, James reveals something we all need to know. We read, “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. For he who said, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ also said, ‘Do not murder.’ If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law” (James 2:10-11). In other words, we have all broken God’s law.
To say that one of the commands does not apply to you or me is to say that there is some aspect of God’s nature that does not matter to you or me. If you could live your whole life and only break one of God’s moral laws, you would be guilty of breaking all of them. The simple truth is that we have all sinned by breaking God’s law.
James then tells us what fulfills the royal law. He writes, “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors” (James 2:8-9). Therefore, only love can fulfill the law.
Paul summarizes the royal law well, “For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Galatians 5:14). This was accomplished perfectly through Jesus, who did not only teach the royal law but lived it. Therefore, since a disciple is a person who is following Jesus, being changed by Jesus, and committed to the mission of Jesus, it ought not to surprise us love is expected in the lives of those who have received Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
After sharing that we have all broken the law and that only love can fulfill the law, James writes how we who can only offer imperfect love can fulfill the law. Our passage concludes, “So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment” (James 2:12-13). We discover that only Christ can supply the love that fulfills the law.
We can’t fake it or make it; only when we have received Christ and we surrender to the Spirit’s working in us can we enjoy the unconditional love of the Lord and share it with others. Therefore, to fulfill the royal law of love, we must come to Christ for salvation and allow His Spirit to love through us. This is the good news of the gospel. Through Christ, the believer satisfies the royal law of love.
We can only fulfill the royal law of love when we acknowledge that we have broken God’s law. Discover that only love can fulfill the law. Believe that Christ can only supply the love to fulfill the law. Then as believers, we must walk, directed by the Spirit, enabling the love of God to fill us and flow through us to others. Soli Deo Gloria (Glory to God Alone)!