Lesson 9: Faith’s law of love
James 2:8-13
8 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.
9 But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.
10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.
11 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.
12 So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty.
13 For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
One day Jesus was asked to set a standard for which law was the most important. We read the story in Matthew 22:34-40. This man, like many of us, believed the Law of God was multiple commands which could be ranked in importance. We believe the same thing about sin – some sins are worse than others in God’s eyes. We believe that if we do not do the worst sins, or if we keep the “highest” laws, this makes us better than someone else and we will not be punished as much as that other person.
Jesus summarized the whole law with just one word – love. But what is love? Is it the absence of the bad things like adultery or murder? No, we find the best definition of love in 1 John 4:7-8 – God is love. And verses 9-10 tell us what true love looks like – God sent Jesus to die for us so we could be with Him!
The fact of our sin nature is most easily seen in the selfishness of our lives. We do not naturally love anyone but ourselves, and often the “love” we have for others is little more than appreciating what they can do for us. Therefore, it is in loving others that we most easily see God at work in our lives. It is, however, not in loving those who love us that His love is seen in us, but rather in loving those who do wrong to us.
How then does this law of love become the law of liberty as we read in verses 12 and 13 above? To understand this we must first understand that love God’s way is not about feelings, it is about choices. God’s choice to send Jesus to earth to die for us was a choice of great pain for Him. It meant that for a short time God the Father and Jesus would be separated (see Matthew 27:46 and Psalm 22:1). Not only did God know ahead of time the pain they would bear, He told us He knew! He made the choice anyway! He also tells us now that perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18). It is this fearless love alone that helps us give mercy when mercy could not be given in our human strength.
Memorize: 1 John 4:18 - There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.