In James 2, the reader comes upon the business that has caused some to marginalize or even reject this letter as Scripture. It is the matter of the law and the believer. And it comes up as James writes of caring for those in need. How are we to treat people? James points to the law.
When it comes to the matter of the law, we need to ask and answer two questions: when was the law given and why was it given? The first twenty chapters of Exodus tell us the story. At the beginning of the story, the Israelites were slaves in Egypt; at the end of this part of the story, they were at the foot of Mount Sinai. The LORD has delivered them and directed them to Sinai, leading them by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.
That is, GOD redeemed His people from slavery and then He led them to place where He was to give them His law. In other words, grace comes first, and then law follows. In the story of the exodus, first came the blood of the Passover lamb and then the call to obey GOD’s law; redemption and then response. Some would appeal to Paul’s statement in Romans 6 (usually failing to quote the entire verse: you are not under law, but under grace.” Others would insist that one can accept Jesus as Savior and not as LORD. There are so many problems with such a view, but it is enough at this point to say that this is the Exodus without Sinai, redemption without response, grace without law. We obey because we have been redeemed, not in order to be redeemed. Our obedience is in following the example of Jesus, Who was the fulfillment of the law.
In the first half of chapter 2, James speaks of the law in three ways. First, he refers to it as the royal law. Specifically, in verse 8, the royal law is seen in the commandment, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” It is worth noting that this is taken from Leviticus 19:18, which might come as a surprise to many. When Jesus referred to this as the second great commandment which is like the first, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,” He was not creating a new commandment. He was quoting the law as found in the Old Testament. And James refers to this as the royal law, the law of the king, the law of the kingdom. (see verse 5)
The second way in which James speaks of the law is that of a whole entity. Specifically, if one breaks one commandment in the law, one has broken the whole law. Where one might be tempted to think in terms of individual laws- as in I’ll keep this law but not that one- James tells his readers that to break one law is to break them all. They are to be seen as a single entity.
The final way James speaks of the law was already mentioned in chapter 1: the law that gives freedom. At Mount Sinai, the law was given to a people who had recently been slaves and had been set free by the hand of GOD. They needed to be told how to live, how to be true to who they truly were. The law is not only a revelation of Who the Creator is, it also tells us who we should be and how we should live as those made in His image.
When one takes what James writes of the law in verses 1 through 13, one must conclude that it is kingdom law, we should wish to obey it; it is to be taken as a whole, we are to obey every part of it; it is the law that gives freedom, we can obey it. One might object, in light of our everyday failures. How wonderful that James ends this section with the words: Mercy triumphs over judgment!
I do live by the church;
for I do live at my house,
and my house doth stand by the church.
Feste the Clown
Twelfth Night
Act III Scene 1