Published: April 20, 2023 | Speaker: Chuck Hartman | Series: The Epistle of James - Part 12 | Scripture: James 1:22-25; 2:8-13; 5:19-20
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of anybody we know far more is written about James than Paul than Paul okay so he he was well known in Jerusalem Josephus writes about him okay
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apparently his murder upset so many people that it's considered to have started the first Jewish War Jewish War and yet he's a Christian
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so um yeah it's it's it's our relationship to the law is not cut and dried it's not easy to parse
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okay so I I think that's what your you're you're getting at is you know what what do we do with the law so what did James do with the law okay you really I couldn't have
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I couldn't have set you up with a better question to set up my lecture so thank you but was James a legalist
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was he a judaizer was he uh closet Pharisee we don't have any indication that he was in fact a member of the sect of Pharisees but was he a
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was he again was he a legalist was he somebody who who believed and taught that Christians must obey Moses now I've mentioned several times
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two things first of all ever since Martin Luther
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shift Luther called it a stroy or an Epistle of straw of straw he believed that it it contains some good things because it contains some some good ethical
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admonitions but he felt like James did not understand Grace understand Grace and taught a righteousness of works and so Luther put it in a separate list in
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his list of the New Testament books he put it in there but um James I think Hebrews Jude and Revelation you know four of the books
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that are in our new testament he's separated by a gap between them and the gospels and the Epistles of Paul okay and of John and then there are these
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four and James is down in that list so he wasn't really sure it belonged in our Bible our Bible ever since Luther and Luther
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you know Luther was was hot on the justification by faith topic and that was pretty much the string that that his instrument was strung with the one string and James doesn't seem to to pluck that
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string now we're going to look at that Lord willing next week when we talk about that Passage in Chapter 2 where James talks about faith and works and that's kind of the the heart of the
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whole epistle and also the heart of the whole controversy over James but Luther believed that um
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James didn't understand Paul and Paul's teaching on justification by faith or by grace through faith we saw early on in talking about the introduction to James that James has
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probably written probably written before any of Paul's letters were written maybe about the time Galatians was written James probably knew of Paul's teaching
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because Paul had been to Jerusalem you know and they talked about that not not acts 21 but acts earlier in Acts after he became a Believer and then in Acts 15 and they had that big thing about
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um whether or not the Gentiles needed to observe the Mosaic Commandments become Jews and remember that in that it was decided by James
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he was the president of the council he was the one who issued the final report which said no they don't the second thing that I've mentioned that it is in James's letter
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he doesn't mention even once circumcision dietary laws dietary laws the Sabbath
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the Sabbath the things that that the churches were struggling with the J that Paul was dealing with especially circumcision he doesn't even mention it so to call him a legalist is is not
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really fair to the data to say that he's a judaizer again there's no indication of that because again he doesn't he doesn't Advance any agenda in terms
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of adherence to the mosaic laws he talks about the law of Liberty and the Royal law and I think what he has to say
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if it's properly understood goes a long way to unlocking the controversy in terms of Christians and the law the law I think that it would be
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unjust to the writers of the New Testament to Simply say we're not under law but under grace we don't have to read the law we don't have to worry about the law all we have is Grace and love and that's all we need that's not the way they write
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okay they use the law too much they're constantly referring to it quoting it alluding to it for us to Simply get rid of it because we're not
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Jews we're Christians so that is not the right way to go but on the other hand to just say um we we now need to obey the law
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because in Christ we can this idea that because we have the Holy Spirit we can Now obey the law is also not biblical
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okay because Paul makes it clear I think in Romans 7 that there is still sin that dwells in us and in Galatians 5 he talks about how the spirit and the flesh are
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at war with one another that we're not we're not now fulfilling the law because Jesus died Jesus died to fulfill the law
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on our behalf so that therefore now there is no condemnation but there's still the law and even in that passage we loved verse
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1 and chapter 8 of Romans there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus right but then he goes on to say that because of the Holy Spirit we are now fulfilling
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the righteousness of the law which we could not do before because of the weakness of our flesh it's not very clear how that works out
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but there is um there is a spectrum in Christian teaching both ends of which need to be avoided on the one hand there is legalism
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where we Simply Now try harder because we have the Holy Spirit and we're essentially just um Sanctified Jews and there are there are there are and
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we've encountered them in our fellowship there are there are Gentile laws because they are the will of God of God okay so that's that's over here now
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they'll say communism bread teaching um and really in its most egregious form
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it's you've heard of the lordship debate and Obey but you know all you have to do is is walk the aisle or pray a prayer you you're saved how you live after that
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can't be a factor because that would be a Works salvation see that's way over there okay so you have these poles and people tend to put
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Paul on this side and James on this side but so far we haven't encountered a single instance where James and Paul were in disagreement
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and we won't this evening
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right it's not what he did because he actually prefaces that statement in The Sermon on the Mount that I have not come to abolish the law so fulfilling the law could not abolish the law
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the law because he said I did not come and in fact he says until all things pass away not one jot or tittle of the law shall pass away
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so um that I think there is sufficient scripture both Old and New Testament to tell us that we're not done with the
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law but we do not face the law anymore as our judge our judge because if we did as Paul makes it very clear we would be condemned James makes it
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also clear in passage we'll look at this evening where where he says that um if if you were to keep the law and stumble in one point you become guilty
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of all you are a law breaker so the law no longer stands against us in condemnation because of the cross
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the law now stands in a different aspect but how that works out has been debated for two thousand years
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and there hasn't been agreement as in fact from church to church denomination denomination you'll find different approaches to the law for example some churches will be very
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strict sabbatarian strict sabbatarian that you do not work on Sunday you do not play on Sunday you go to church on Sunday okay Sunday okay um that's that's one view there's
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another there's another view where it's what every day is is the same and we yeah we get together on Sunday that's our day of church but if you want to go play around the golf in the afternoon
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that's fine too so you got these you know different views on for example the and then there's the issue of whether Sunday is even the Sabbath okay so there are also those who say no
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the Sabbath is the Sabbath and that's Saturday and they take Saturday off so um it I don't think I'm going to clear all that up this evening I think
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that this article is is helpful but it it is actually dealing with a particular aspect of the lesson tonight and that is this um this Royal law that James
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mentions in chapter two but I want to point out that Luther's influence was based on some presuppositions
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that have since been fairly well refuted so for example
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it has been widely held especially since Luther that Judaism
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that the the different dispensation of the law was that that was how they earned their salvation that's what dispensationalism teaches and there is a a fairly
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impenetrable wall that is built between law and Grace and it's not that the New Testament doesn't know a distinction between the
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two for example in John in his prologue chapter one chapter one verse 17 for the law was given through Moses Grace and Truth were realized
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through Jesus Christ okay that sounds like you know a division between law and Grace then Paul says in Romans we are not under law but under grace
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however if you read the Old Testament and especially Deuteronomy but then also read how Paul uses the law you realize that the perspective is
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Israel received the law as Grace and understood it to be grace now does that mean that that every Jew understood it and that nobody made a law
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out of the Jewish religion no that doesn't mean that at all we can make a law at any religion we can make a law out of Christianity and people have done it so we're not making a broad or universal statement
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that all Jews understood the grace of Jehovah no they didn't but the psalmist did okay Moses did they knew they didn't deserve any of this
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they knew that God out of his love Deuteronomy 7 had chosen them for no other reason than his own will they knew and they taught and they taught the Gentiles that they had
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received not received not law but Grace and Deuteronomy 4 Moses says this is your wisdom in front of all the nations and he's
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talking about the law that all the nations will see what a wise people you are and how your God Is So near to you so if you read and it even again if you
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read the rabbis you find out they understood they understood that it was by God's grace that he gave them the law relative to the Cross however
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it is bondage so things are not just you know one unit perspective the law is bondage law is bondage no the
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law was freedom for the Jew compared to the Gentile but now that the law has been fulfilled in Christ
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it now becomes bondage in the light of the darkness of the rest of the world the law was Grace
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but in the light of the son of God the law is bondage
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doing the righteous right and also in Galatians he says that you know that in fact he says that if if there were a righteousness according to the law then Christ died in vain okay so
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yeah he in Romans 2 he talks about how even the the Pagan the Gentile is as circumcised compared to the Jew the circumcised Jew who disobeys the law he then becomes
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uncircumcised see it's relative and so when you when you put yourself into the situation of God's people Israel you realize it was all of Grace
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I chose you not because you were more numerous or anything but because of my love and love is at the root of it even in the Old Testament
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see there's this kind of nagging idea that God's love didn't show up until Christmas Day in Bethlehem in the manger
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that God's love waited for 4 000 years and all that happened during that time was God's Wrath no okay that that is that is that there
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would be no Psalms if the book of Psalms would even be written if that were the case Israel knew that the love of Yahweh to them was gracious
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okay so the idea that the law is bondage
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it would become bondage when in before Christ oh yes it was uh I mean the law didn't have any real relationship with the non-jew
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but the the teaching is is that it was bondage to the Jew Luther had in his mind he created an image of Paul that Paul was like Luther
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see Luther struggled with his own anxiety with his own emotions and his own knowledge of his sin and his religion wasn't giving him sucker and he just assumed Paul was the
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same way same way that Paul under the law was unhappy mad at God the problem is
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Paul almost brags about himself in Philippians 3. and the life he led before that experience on the road to Damascus gives
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no indication of a troubled soul he was sold out for the law and happy about it about it okay and he you know he he was according
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to the law blameless he said so he wasn't a struggling anxious man flagellating himself with the five books of Moses no
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he was a very self-satisfied Jew he did not I guess the way I want to put it is he did not consider himself to be under bondage I want to read a rabbinic
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um see if I can find it in the notes but it's um it's under the law we're talking about the law of Liberty
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206 yes okay so this is in the mishnah now mishna is after Christianity okay keep that in mind mishnah is later second century and beyond so I don't want you
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to think that this is the time but mishnah is also somewhat like historical theology so when you read the mishnah you read
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something like something like Rabbi Eleazar said that Rabbi Gamaliel said and so there's there's almost a three generations
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three generations point being is that what you read in the mishnah was written down but it had been oral tradition for quite some time okay so when you read the
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mishnah you're reading essentially a combination of second temple Judaism and then post ad70 when the temple had been destroyed Judaism all right so here are
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um a couple of quotes from the book of abot in the mishnah Rabbi nehunya Ben hakana said he that takes upon himself the Yoke
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of the law from him shall be taken away the Yoke of the kingdom and the Yoke of worldly care worldly care but he that throws off the Yoke of the law upon Him shall be laid the Yoke of
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the kingdom and the Yoke of worldly care now I don't think he's meaning the kingdom the way we think of the Kingdom he's basically he's talking about burdens if you if you take on the Yoke of the
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law he sounds almost like Jesus take them take your my yoke upon you for my burden is light well his personal burden wasn't light
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okay it was very heavy Rabbi Joshua Ben Levi said every day a Divine voice Goes Forth from Mount Horeb
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proclaiming and saying woe to mankind for their contempt of the law for he's for he that occupies himself not in the study of the law is called
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reprobate as it is written as a golden ring in the snout of a swine so is a fair woman without discretion and I swear I have no idea how that applies
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but okay Rabbi Joshua Ben Levi said so so who's to argue but it gets better and it is written and the tables were the work of God and the writing was the
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writing of God Graven that is the Hebrew word haruth word haruth upon the tables read not haruth but herath or I'm sorry head Ruth not
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h-a-r but h-e-r he says read not haruth but had Ruth which means freedom okay for thou findest no freedmen
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accepting him that occupies himself in the study of the law so the Jews at least did the the righteous Jews the Pharisee the
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Pharisees Paul they didn't view the law as bondage as bondage and in fact it has been fairly well shown in the past 50 years
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that the Jews were not earning their way to heaven to heaven by keeping the law keeping the law was evidence of their
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already being already being guaranteed a life in the age to come it was they were guaranteed a life in the age to come
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because they were the descendants of Abraham not because they did this or did that again yes there were those who made great bondage out of the law the
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Pharisees especially and Jesus condemns them for that but they weren't they weren't trying to earn their salvation the whole concept of going to heaven is completely
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different under the Jewish teaching that it is in modern teaching they they didn't they didn't go around asking Gentiles if you died tonight do you know where you'd go they didn't do that
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we have well well Peter of course he was Roman Catholic so why would you want to go there okay it's like uh yeah um I don't I I hope we don't do that you know Paul
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Paul was reformed that's so anachronistic um Paul was Paul okay and really he's he's by the grace of God and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit he is the
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reference point reference point he's not referenced to anything else right he is the reference point how does our theology line up with Paul's and
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Peters and John's um and so the idea that also and this is again stemming from Luther
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and and Luther really struggled with this but this but Luther was a brilliant man and very very
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he did not have this I'm I'm speaking in generalities as if I know him but I didn't know him of course um I do not think he had the systematic Mind of a John Calvin
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because of his circumstances and because he was really the front runner of this whole movement whole movement and because he laid his life on the line for it for it he tended to be fairly Limited in his
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writings in terms of justification by faith he he was again somewhat one-string instrument not that he didn't do anything or write anything about other things but if if
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someone didn't quite say it right he was suspect and James doesn't quite say it right and and everybody recognizes that what
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James says in chapter 2 seems to be problematic seems to Advocate a Salvation or justification by works
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by works or at least a synthesis of works and faith not the way J or Paul writes it but we've even seen in in our lesson so far
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that nothing that James says either disagrees with Paul or is anything different than Paul has said and we're going to see that again tonight comparing James chapter 2 to
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Romans 13. Romans 13. they're almost Echoes of each other so there's no you you look at their personal lives the times that that Paul was in Jerusalem
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there's no animosity there's no hostility there seems to be a a mutual respect at least if not friendship but at least a mutual respect between James and Paul
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and there's nothing from James's pen against Paul or vice versa so um I think that that this was convenient
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because justification by faith was a necessary Doctrine to be re-established in the 16th century 16th century and we can't really condemn Luther for the narrowness of his
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Focus because of his situation he he it would be like condemning well we've talked about the anabaptists and how they really never developed a
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systematic theology systematic theology well the average age of death of an anabaptist was I think 34 years old okay from the time they they were
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re-baptized to the time they were burned at the stake or drowned in the river was about six months to maybe 18 months until they got caught
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not a whole lot of time to sit down and write a Systematic Theology or or menos Simon's Chris you know Institutes of the Christian Church it doesn't doesn't work so Luther had a focus he had an issue
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that he was dealing with um Calvin um Calvin well he had a little bit better time of it he's second generation reformer keep that in mind he's not the same age he's
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about um what 15 15 16 years 12 25 years oh yeah 25 he was 1509 so he's 25 years younger than
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Luther so that's another generation plus Geneva had already had gone for the rest Reformation rest Reformation and so Geneva was a relatively calm Place relatively speaking compared to
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Germany where there were both Protestant and Catholic duties and princetoms and whatnot so whatnot so um you know Calvin Calvin also had a legal mind a much more systematic mind
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than Luther so what he wrote has had more lasting influence I think than um but these these ideas
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have really have really um been largely abandoned by modern scholarship Evangelical scholarship even those who are who question whether James the
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brother of Jesus is the author of this book will still go on to say that there's no essential disagreement between what James says and what Paul says so that we
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still have some residual impact of of Luther's opinion and Luther's influence
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um James's view of the law is not legalistic he does not refer to the law often in
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his book and I already mentioned he does not refer to any of the principles of the law that were specifically Jewish circumcision dietary laws and the
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Sabbath those were the marks of a Jew those were the things that set a Jew apart from a gentile they were circumcised they honored and obeyed this
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or observed the Sabbath and they obeyed the dietary laws and these were things that the pagans the Gentiles around them not necessarily their circumcision
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but they knew they were circumcised they also knew they did not do anything on the Sabbath in fact for a while they didn't fight on the Sabbath so that's when the Greeks would attack
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them was on the Sabbath the rabbis came up with a loophole allowing them to fight on the Sabbath um other than that they would they would have been annihilated
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and also their dietary laws right I mean everybody knew you didn't give them you didn't give him pork for dinner um in fact they weren't even allowed they did not even allow themselves to go into the house of a gentile
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because of the defilement that they would receive would receive um so these were the things that marked them off of as Jews and James doesn't mention a single one in his entire
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letter so he couldn't have been he could have been a judaizer he couldn't have been all that um Bound by the law
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he calls the law when he refers to it
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and in this pericope he calls it the Royal law
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out of the house of bondage you know and the reason I did that so as I could lead you into a different bondage to the law I freed you to bring you into bondage again no and and if you if you read it's not
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only at the beginning but all the way through I am the your God who brought you out of Egypt the whole context is
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freedom okay but again it is a relative freedom just as we have now we are not yet experiencing the consummation of what Christ has
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purchased for us nonetheless when Jesus says if the son has set you free you are free indeed so Paul says do not then become bondage
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again to Elementary principles or the law we are free but our freedom is provisional their freedom was provisional waiting on
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the Messiah the Messiah but it was still freedom okay and they knew it that way because they were the most stubborn people of any people in the ancient world
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that anybody else conquered there were no more difficult provincials than the Jews whether it be for the Persians the Babylonians the Greeks or the Romans
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they were free people and they even said to Jesus we're not in bondage we have Abraham as our father right they they knew that's the point they knew themselves to be free not
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bound so for us to come back and say oh no the law was bonded no it would be bondage to us because Christ has come but it was not bondage to them and it was not bondage to Paul
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okay and and so he could continue to talk about the law as holy and righteous and good and good he never found fault with the law the
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fault was in himself not God's law so we're left with a law that is in fact
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holy and it didn't cease to become holy when Jesus fulfilled it so if it is Holy and we are to be holy then it seems to
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stand to reason that our Holiness is going to be in some relationship with that law and that's what James writes and actually Paul does as well so we're
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going to talk about the Royal law in James 2 James 2 before we go there I'll read the the passage in James 1 that we've looked at before but he um
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he starts out in verse 22 but prove yourselves doers of the word and not merely hearers who delete delude themselves you look at chapter 2 verse
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James writes so speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of Liberty of Liberty well the so speak and the so act is a parallel to being hearers and doers
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so he's he's as we've seen before connection between this passage in Chapter 2 and this passage in chapter one so he goes on in chapter one
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I'm not going to talk about the the mirror okay well yeah let's let me do that for if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer he is like a man who looks at his natural face in the mirror for once he has looked at himself and
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gone away he has immediately forgotten what kind of person it's that when we look at the mirror we do then forget what we look like
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we go about our business we go about the day and we don't look at a mirror again until the next morning okay so we don't really retain that
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image that we're supposed to retain from God's word and so he's he's not really condemning the mirror so but when Once he's looked at himself I read that okay verse 25 but the one
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who looks intently at the perfect the law of Liberty and abides by it not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer this man shall be blessed in what he
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does the law of Liberty so he mentions that in verse 25 and then again over in verse 12. we are to look intently at the law of Liberty why
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well verse 12 of chapter 2 we're going to be judged by the law of Liberty so I guess the question then is what is the law of Liberty does he mean the whole law
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well in a sense yes but in an even greater sense no he means he means a part of that law that is the key to the rest
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party again he's talking about a particular part of the law that is the key that unlocks the rest of
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and and I think it goes a long way toward unlocking our relationship to the law because it's actually the same relationship that the Jew was supposed to have to have the Jew was never supposed to look to
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the law for righteousness okay Paul says that in Romans 10. that having failed to understand the righteousness of God they sought to
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establish a righteousness of their own according to the law that was never its Point never its purpose Okay so you remember when the Scribe asked Jesus
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what was the greatest commandment he said the greatest commandment the first and greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart your soul your mind and strength
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and the second is like unto it you shall love your neighbor as yourself for upon these hinge
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the law and the prophets that is one of the most profound statements in the Bible
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and it is the key that unlocks the purpose of the law and our relationship to it okay it hinges so that's what I meant by this is the
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key that unlocks the rest of it okay so listen to what James says in chapter 2 verse 8. so he's mentioned the law of Liberty but here in verse 8 he calls it the
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Royal law Royal law now I'm I'm saying it's the same law and I'll explain that in a minute if however you are fulfilling the Royal law according to the scripture
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you shall love your neighbor as yourself you are doing well
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law is because it is so close within the context for example verse 8 down to verse 13 is one what they call a pericope it's one section of James's
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thought and so in verse 8 he calls it the Royal law in verse 12 he calls it the law of Liberty which he has already called it back in chapter one
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if we were to surmise that it's a different law we would have nothing in the context to tell us which is which if we were to say the law of Liberty is different from the Royal law
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James gives us no material to figure out what's one and what's the other what do they mean they mean if we treat them as the same law then the rest of what James says and
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what Paul says makes a lot of sense because what he's doing now is he's he's focusing on the key we would call it the
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hermeneutical key hermeneutical key the key that unlocks the rest of the law now commentators have had a hard time with
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chapter verse eight because James says the Royal law namas he does not say the Royal commandment
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the law means the whole law but then he quotes Leviticus 19 verse 18. he quotes it it's actually one of the most quoted verses from the from the pentateuch in
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the New Testament is Leviticus 19 verse 18. you shall love your neighbor as yourself
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well it's the scripture he just he gives it right there that's what he's it's an introduction according to the scripture and then what comes next comes next Leviticus 19 18.
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according to the scripture and there he gives it that's it that's it that's the Royal law okay so
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he says um he says if you fulfilling the Royal law
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okay this is in in my opinion and I'm not alone but this is the same as saying
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Leviticus 19 18. Jesus seemed to think so because he used it several times in his Sermon on the Mount and then as I have already alluded to the interview with the Scribe asking the greatest
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commandment I don't think the fact that James uses namas is all that significant because he's been using it all the way through
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and I think that what those who object to this kind of an equation the problem they're having is that they they fail to see the significance of this particular
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commandment in Leviticus 19 18. to the rest of the law that would be like saying um according to the law you shall love
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the Lord your God with all your heart and your soul and your mind in the strength that is a commandment but it's a Commandment that lies at the heart of everything else
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see these two Commandments
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it has no context it has nothing but bondage it's it's called The Love commandment and we like to you know in our modern evangelicalism we like to emphasize the
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fact that God is love and that we have no law but love and that all we need to do is love one another and then the law we don't have to worry about the law and that is a perversion of the truth is
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what it is because the means by which the law is fulfilled is love
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it's not the other way around that as long as we love we're fulfilling the law no the law is how we fulfill for example Leviticus 19 Leviticus 19 by not plowing into the corners of your
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field you are showing love by not gleaning your orchard twice but leaving the residue for the poor you are showing love
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okay by treating the alien as a resident you are acting in love having the same law for the Jew as to the alien that is
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love so the the idea now when we understand that that love is in fact the key the question then becomes
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what then is love okay do does anybody doubt that love is the key the key Romans 13
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Romans 13 using almost the same language as James uses Paul says
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another for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law so how do I love my neighbor see that's again that's Leviticus 19 18. love your neighbor as yourself
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well remember the the question when Jesus said this is the law the question was well then who is my neighbor okay who is my neighbor so there's really two questions who is
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my neighbor and what is love well within the context of James 2 the neighbor is the poor man that came into your congregation
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that you disrespected he was your neighbor now the Jew the uh the the church might say well well the rich man is my
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neighbor too
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it's almost a situation I don't know how to say this we can define a neighbor objectively and we can define a neighbor
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subjectively oftentimes when we Define a neighbor subjectively we are defining those who we like we like who we like to be around or from whom we will benefit
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that is judging with evil motives that's what James condemns you know the the rich man he came into our congregation he was you know he was
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visiting and you know if we could just get him saved and get him to tithe we'll be able to build that building that's not neighborly that's not love that's self-serving
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that's self-serving loving one's neighbor is directed towards someone who cannot reciprocate because that's the love of God
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okay love to those who cannot reciprocate so it's not self-serving it's not calculated so the nature of neighbor the nature of
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love but Paul goes on in Romans 13. he says for this listen to what he says you shall not commit adultery you shall not murder you shall not steal you shall
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not covet and if there is any other commandment it is summed up in this saying you shall love your neighbor as yourself that's what I'm saying
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the entirety of the law is not only summed up it's interpreted by those two Commandments that Jesus called the greatest
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now the issue isn't so much love the Lord your God with all your heart your soul your mind and your strength Who as a professing
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Believer would argue with that but with the same tongue we bless God and curse our
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curse our fellow man right so yeah we don't really have to defend that greatest commandment and yet we do misuse it
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and we misuse it men we abuse the first table of the law by violating the second
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we say that we honor God we don't have images we keep the Sabbath we do the first table of the law but we dishonor our parents because whatever they might benefit from us is Corban you know it's
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dedicated to God so I don't have to give it to you we murder we murder Paul says that we we steal in Romans 2 we lie we cheat we covet
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not realizing that every time we do that we're dishonoring God because we're dishonoring man in whose image in whose image he's made okay so
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um so yeah so that's why they're saying they're focusing on and I think this is why Jesus added it because when he was answering the Scribe you shall love the Lord your God with all
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your heart the Scribe going yeah that's right that's it and then Jesus said the second is like unto it unto it and said You shall love your neighbor as
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almost almost passingly stated in its in its context yes in a way in a way but it's just like God to heart
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to hide treasure in a field um that we should go and and dig for it um here is the verse you shall not take Vengeance nor bear any grudge against
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the sons of your people but you shall love your neighbor as yourself I am the Lord okay later on in verse 34 because here he says now this is important
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the neighbor the neighbor was a Jew okay you shall not bear a grudge against the sons of your people so it's not like everybody in the world
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is my neighbor at least not in Leviticus 18. but move on to verse 34. The Stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you and
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you shall love him as yourself for you were aliens in the land of Egypt I am the Lord your God so it it becomes within the Covenant
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Community these are your neighbors now the New Testament is going to expand that Paul is going to expand it he's going to say um in as much as it is possible with you
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and as much as it depends upon you live at peace with all men he says in Galatians to do good to all men especially those of the household of faith so our first priority is within
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the community of believers but the issue here is that even within that community
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we fail we fail and the community to whom James is writing was failing there was partiality there were there
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were Rich there were poor they were dragging each other or one was dragging the other into court there were things that are going wrong because there was a lack of love
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of love there was no neighborly love but the issue then becomes what is the love of which Leviticus speaks of which Paul speaks
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Jesus James what what is this love and I think this is where the um this article was very uh helpful some of the things that it says but I want to I
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want to note a few of them in passing but one of them
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affection so there there are several negations that we start with okay so we're going to look here at
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so we look at some negations first of all what it is not
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what is the model of true biblical love I should say who is the model it's God it's God for God so loved the world okay first John 4 he says for we love because God
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first loved us so we accept that God's love is perfect and it is the model so where was the
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uh I should say where was the worth in the object of God's love
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what was in us that Drew God's love from nothing while we were yet sinners
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see God commends his love to us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us Romans 5. so there's there's no
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um there's nothing in the object of the love and also another negation
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God pours out his love on rebellious Sinners we're not just Wayward sheep we're rebellious sinners
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and so we are not capable of reciprocating and even what we give back to God is so far less than what he deserves is
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almost to be insulting when you think about our lives and our worship and our devotion and then you
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think about God does anybody think that you give back to God an infinitesimal fraction of what he's
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worth or what he has given you so it's not reciprocated God didn't love us so that he could have fans okay he didn't look forget for
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reciprocation his love the the word
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it is a love that is it's some people have said it's like the Agape Love in the New Testament in the Greek but that's not that's not deep enough agape love is it can be legitimate and
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illegitimate is a love that seeks completely the well-being of the one loved in spite of lack of any Merit worthiness
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or reciprocation or reciprocation was it was it covered ale or was it Tyndale that came up with the word loving-kindness was one of the one of the translators
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Tyndall okay he um couldn't find an English word available that would translate the Hebrew has said so that's where we get the word loving
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kindness that kindness part of it is what is so critical to what James is saying and that is love love does not look for any
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return love looks only to give and it does so according to the need so this this word here is the
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description of God's love to unworthy Sinners so affection is not um an essential part at all he says this particular author
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he says neither in Leviticus nor in the New Testament does the Commandment to love one's neighbor require affection for the neighbor
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we don't know how the Samaritan felt about the Jew who who had fallen among Thieves and was beaten I don't think that if we had the sequel to the story that they became great friends and had
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some manishevits over at the Samaritan's house one evening now I don't think so I don't think that's the point in fact I think the point of using those two people
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two people was because was because socially they were at loggerheads and yet there was a need and who proved to be the neighbor the Samaritan who took care
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and so Jesus not even answering the question who is my neighbor he says this is what happened go and do likewise not who is your neighbor but rather go
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and be a neighbor is more like it go and take care of your neighbor as the Samaritan did okay so affection wasn't a part of that at all nor is it a part in any of Paul
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or James's teaching in Leviticus love means not bearing grudges against others not exploiting them for private gain in the New Testament it means
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non-retaliation refusing to show partiality active Goodwill and service to those in need love is manifested
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when there is deed even Romans 5. God commended his love in this manner while we were yet sinners
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where can there be greater need than God gave his son Christ died for us so need
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not affection or worth need is what draws out biblical love so this is what I think
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begins to make sense of the next passage that controversial passage in James where he goes on in verse 15 if a brother or sister is
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without clothing and in need of daily food and one of you says to them go in peace be warmed and be filled and yet you do not give them what it is necessary for
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their body what use is that now we we read that out of context we read that as if as if James is giving his Treatise on justification no he's
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not if anything he's giving his Treatise on need and we assume because it sells elsewhere
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you have the wherewithal and you do nothing and then he goes on to say that faith is
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dead that faith is not going to justify and we're going to have to get into that because those are some pretty harsh words he uses but the point is the context is the law of Liberty the Royal
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law love your neighbor as yourself now this doesn't mean as it has been often taught that you you sell all your goods you
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give to the poor and you live as a