The Law of Love

Let's open our Bibles. We're going to go to James 2. James 2. And the subject this morning is the law of love. The law of love. Alright. In James 2, we're going to begin reading in verse 8. And we're going to read down to 13.

James 2. 8 -13. 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.

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 commit murder. If you do not commit adultery but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.

So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For the judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. Let's pray. Father in heaven, I thank You for Your Word.

I thank You for these men. I look forward, Lord, every week to seeing them and the anxiousness that they have to hear the Word of God. Lord, I know that not everybody in this room knows the Lord. And so, Father, I pray that today as the Word of God is preached, that it will go out into the ears, but that it would not stop there, but that it would make itself through the mind and into the heart.

And that Your Holy Spirit would do the work of application because only He can do that. He applies the work to our hearts. He opens our hearts to understand them. I pray that the Word of God would be mixed with faith and that faith would produce good works.

Lord, not that works save us, but that works show the evidence of a changed life, a heart that has been changed by Christ. And Father, Your Word tells us that it is by grace we have been saved through faith and that not of ourselves.

It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. But it also says we are Christ's workmanship created in Him for good works. So Lord, let it be that this Word goes out into our hearts and stirs us up to good works.

And Father, again, I pray that You keep me from error. I pray especially, Lord, when it comes to a subject as weighty as the law and sin, that Lord, You would keep me from misrepresenting You, misrepresenting Your truth.

Lord, may it be in Jesus' name. Amen. So last week we talked about the subject of prejudice. Because in James 2, verses 1 -7, James talks about the reality that there were people coming into the church at that time some who were rich and they wore fancy clothes and they had nice looking outfits and jewelry and things and the church would say, hey, sit here, and they would provide them a nice place.

But someone would come in who looked poor and shabby and didn't have that same appearance and they would say, sit here at my feet or sit over there. So there was an obvious discrepancy. There was obvious prejudice.

And it wasn't a racial prejudice as we see today, which is often common. And it wasn't a sexual prejudice, which often happens today. But in this time, it was a socioeconomic prejudice. Had to do with money, had to do with status.

And that still exists today. Somebody comes in in a three-piece suit, nice suit, we have a tendency to treat them better than somebody who comes in who's unwashed, who's wearing clothes that look like they've been in them for a few days, they're dirty and holey and all those things.

People naturally tend to show deference to the person that they feel like is going to be the benefit and to show non-deference or to not appeal to the person who they think is going to be work. Remember what I said last week?

I said the problem with the woman with five kids who doesn't have anything when she comes into the church, the church sees her, well, she's needy. And we don't wanna have to deal with needy. I'm not saying it's right, I'm saying it is.

I'm saying that's the way people respond. It's not good. Because we should wanna help that woman. We should wanna help her with her need. That's what the church should do, should reach out and love and care.

But we often don't. We see the person who has and we want what they have. We see the person who has not and we don't wanna be the one who supports them. So we sort of push back on that and pull in on the other.

And it's wrong. Well, that's the context for verses eight through 13. Remember, as I always say, you can't interpret a text by itself independent of what's around it. And so we could go today and talk about eight through 13, but without looking at the context, I think we'd miss the greater point.

In fact, he mentions the context. If you look again, he says, if you really fulfill the royal law of love, according to Scripture, you shall love your neighbors yourself, you are doing well, but if you show partiality.

See, he's still on that subject. The word partiality, the prejudice, it's still the context. He hasn't left that idea. So he begins, and again, we'll go back to verse eight. He says, if you really fulfill the royal law, according to Scripture.

And it's interesting because this word really, and how is it translated in your Bibles? Does anybody have something different than really? That's the ESV. It says, if you really fulfill the royal law.

Anybody got anything different? What's the verse? Verse eight, James 2, eight.

He said, if you really keep the royal law, according to the Scripture, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, you do well. Can you give it to me again, brother? If ye fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, you do well.

Okay, so it doesn't put in the word for what mine would translate really. Yours says really? Whose says however? Yours says however? Yeah, okay, that's what I was looking for. You have King James, right, brother?

The one who's reading here? Yeah, okay, so the point I'm trying to make is the word really in the ESV and the word however in the NASB mean kind of different things, and I think they're dealing with this particular phrase, this particular word in two different ways.

I think in the ESV it's saying, well, if you're really doing it, if you're really fulfilling the law, this is what you would do. But when the NAS says if you however fulfill the law, it's looking at it in the adversative.

It's saying this is the opposite of what you're doing. Not that this is a huge deal. I'm just saying this is, when we read the Greek language, sometimes it can be in the affirmative or the adversative, and how do we understand it?

I think the NAS is better. I think the however, because that's the issue. This is what you are doing. However, this is what you should be doing. That's the point I'm trying to make. But go ahead, brother.

You have? Mine says are fulfilling. Okay, are fulfilling. Well, there is a word here in the Greek text. That word really is mentoi, is the word that's translated really however. And if it's not there, it's just simply assumed.

But the idea is that this is opposed to what was happening. You have what is happening. You're mistreating the poor. You're treating too well the rich. There's a discrepancy. However, if you fulfill the law, you'll love your neighbor as yourself.

That's why I think it's however. I think the NAS actually gets that a little bit better. Not that it's a huge deal, but I think looking at it, this is bringing us to the adversative. This is bringing us to what we should be doing versus what we are doing.

And he says, he calls it the royal law. Now let me ask you a question.

What is the royal law? The king's law. The law of the king. Absolute, the top, the most important. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And really, you're both saying something slightly different because you're saying the law of the king, which means the king's law. You're saying the law that is the king or the highest law. Both are true, but the point is, I think both are wrapped up in it because it is the law of the king.

It is also the highest law. That's my point is I think both are correct. It's the highest law because it's his law. It's the law of the king. Your brother, you had your hand up with the Marine Corps. Yeah, it's that law.

And here's the thing. We don't have to wonder what that law is. What is the law of the kingdom? And I'm asking, what is the law of the kingdom? Okay, hold on. Somebody said 10 commandments. Somebody else say something.

Is that what you were gonna say? 10 commandments, law of the kingdom? Okay. And this is where there is a little bit of a, we have to ask ourselves because when you said that, I would agree with you that the love your Lord, your God, with all your heart, soul, mind, strength, love your neighbor as yourself.

That is what when Jesus was asked, what is the greatest commandment? Love God with everything and then love your neighbor as you love yourself. Now, you said 10 commandments, right brother? The 10 commandments is I think an extension of that.

But the 10 commandments are the, when we read Exodus 34, the 10 commandments are actually the covenant document of Israel. That's what they were given to Israel as a covenant document. We don't see in the New Testament a call to keep the 10 commandments.

We see a call to keep the law of love. And you say, well, is that denying the 10 commandments? No, because within the 10 commandments, there is the royal law. But the point is that the 10 commandments themselves represent a document given to Israel as their constitution.

That's why I like to call the 10 commandments the constitution of Israel. Because God says in Exodus 34, I give this to you as my covenant. This 10 commandments is given to you as my covenant. That's why I think it involves the Sabbath because what's the Sabbath for Israel?

It is the sign of the covenant. Therefore, it's demanded to be kept by Israel because it's their sign. It's what separated them from the other nations. It was the sign of what they had. So does the 10 commandments represent the law of love?

Yes. But I think it's better expressed by Jesus who simply says that we love God and we love our neighbor. And that, He said, on that rests the whole law and the prophets. So everything written in Moses, everything written in Joshua to all the way out to Esther in the history, everything written in the poetic books, everything written in the prophecy books can be summed up, Jesus says.

Love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself. You say, well, okay, that's too easy.

But it really ain't. It's not. Well, I got something to say about this. Okay. When you're talking about the two greatest commandments Jesus commanded, it's kind of like a win-lose situation because when you're loving your neighbor, you're loving man as to when you're loving God, you're not loving man.

So it's not like you can pick one or the other, but you must do both. So say, for instance, you're loving God and if you're doing it the right way, you realize the sin of man, right? And if you're loving your neighbor as you would yourself, then you're basically feeding into your sin as to oppose what God would want you to do.

But what Jesus is saying is you must do both in harmony before you can do anything else. I think that's one of the most difficult things to understand is that as a man, Jesus is commanding us literally to love God above man, but to also love man as God is loving me.

Yes.

I like the way he said the end there because the first is to love God first. And, but like you said, love others as God loved me. Right.

That, and that You have to be careful. You don't say you love God, God loves you.

Well, yes, but we're called to love God. It's not, and certainly it's not perfect. And certainly no one, and I've said this before, no one has ever loved God with their mind, soul, strength and everything perfectly.

In fact, I would say none of us have loved God appropriately. Not even perfectly. We haven't loved him appropriately. Go ahead, brother. I'm sorry, you have your hand up back there. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

Not only can we not do it of ourselves, we wouldn't want to do it if God didn't change our heart. Because the Bible says, no man can come to me. Jesus said, no man can come to me unless the father grants it to him.

So we wouldn't even want to love God. In fact, what is the natural state of man? Enmity with God, the Bible says. Enmity with God. What's the word enmity mean? War. You are at enmity means you're at war with God.

And yeah, you say enemy is a derivative of that, but the enmity is actually to be at war with someone. This is why Romans 5 .1 is so precious. Because what does Romans 5 .1 say? Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace.

Because what did we have before? War. From the moment we come into this world, we are at war with God. You say, now wait a minute, little babies are innocent. Little babies are born with sin. And if you don't believe it, I got a three-year-old who I'd love to just let spend an hour with you.

If you don't believe, little children know how to sin. My little three-year-old knows how to lie. He knows how to manipulate. He is a viper in a diaper. Don't you tell me that he don't know how to sin.

That my little three-year-old knows how to sin. He knew how to sin from birth. He doesn't understand it, but he does it. Childlike heart. I can't hear you, brother. He's using the term childlike heart.

Childlike heart. Yeah, he doesn't understand it, but it's still there. The sin nature is bound up in that. You know what would happen if you took that three-year-old mind and put it in a 27-year-old body?

He'd be a murderer. He'd beat you and take whatever he wanted. That's right, because even now he's learning to kick his mama. And oh boy, you hear a player in belt loops real quick. Kick my wife. That's the truth.

You know, and he's learned, but I get too far off the track. The point is sinful nature doesn't want God. Doesn't want to obey God. Certainly does not want to love God. The only reason we would want to do that is because God changes our heart.

The Bible says your people will be made willing in the day of your power. Made willing in the day of your power. That's the work of God. Go ahead, brother.

Have I gone off the rails? No. My thing is there's no way I can love people until I love God, until I know God. Because there's no way. I'm a hatred, sinful man. And in people, I see all the wrong that comes out of them.

And that's inflicted on me. So there's no way until I know God, until I give a clear understanding of my God and my life, there's no way I can ever inflict any good on any others. Or even have any good, or see any good in any human nature.

Because it's just, and that's why we say love God first. Because that's the only way we can endure. That's the only way we can love anybody else. Yeah. Yes.

I agree. That's me. I think, I agree with you. That loving God first is what allows us to love others properly. I do think unbelievers, and I'm not disagreeing with you, I'm just throwing out a thought.

Because when you said it, it made me think of something. I think unbelievers can express a fleshly type of love. Like, I've seen unbelieving men who married 50 years, and I think they really loved their wives.

They were faithful, and those things. But that's, I think, part of what we would call common grace. God giving grace to all men in a common way. Because if God removed all of His grace from all men, we would be all evil, wicked, and vile.

You know, just worse than we are. I don't think, you know, people say, I can't imagine it being much worse than it is. If God removed His hand of grace, this world would explode tomorrow. So whatever love is shown by unbelievers, to unbelievers, among unbelievers, is an act of grace.

It's God being gracious. I don't think they can love properly. And going back to my brother's point here, and I think you're right, this is why I agree with you, that to love properly begins with loving God.

And so, in fact, for that, let's just very quickly. Brother, go ahead, I'm sorry.

Go ahead. I would know of anything except to love each other. For the one who loves another has fulfilled the law for the commandments. For the commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and any other commandment are summed up in this word.

You shall love your neighbors as yourself, love them in the wrong you have done, therefore love has fulfilled the law. Besides this, you know the time, the hour that has come to break up the streets, and salvation is near unto us.

Now, the morning we first believe, the night is far gone, the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the daytime, not in the words used in drunkenness, not in sexual iniquity, not in sexuality, not in quarreling and jealousy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make this provision for the flesh to gratify its desire.

You know, I love you. You hit right above, I mean, because that's where I was gonna go. So you read it for me, thank you. But that's the point, that's what he said. To fulfill the law is love, and he explains what that looks like.

He explained what that looked like. Brother, go ahead. Everybody turn to 1 Corinthians 13 while this brother's asking this question. You're stretching, okay, all right. Well then, most of you are familiar with 1 Corinthians 13, but just real quick, because when somebody says, well, we gotta fulfill the law of love.

And by the way, when I say we have to fulfill the law of love, I am not saying, listen to me, I am not saying that by fulfilling any law, we get saved. Salvation is not by keeping any law, even the law of love.

The law of love is what I believe governs the believer, because we are under the law of Christ. You say, we're not under the law, we're under grace. Yeah, but we have a king, and the king gives marching orders.

The king has the, this is what we call the lordship of Jesus Christ. Some people are what are called anti-lordship. You ever heard that phrase? Anti-lordship? What that means is, you can get saved, but you don't have to take Jesus as your Lord, you just take Him as your Savior.

That's a real thing. It's called anti-lordship. It means that I can get saved simply by believing, but I don't have to listen to Jesus, I just have to believe in Jesus. Jesus said, if you love me, you will keep my commandments, right?

What does it mean to believe in Jesus? It means to believe in what He said. It means to listen to what He said. It means we get our marching orders from the king. And what did the king say? They will know you are mine by how you love one another.

This is the new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you. That's the marching orders. That's the king's prerogative, to give marching orders, because he is the king. And he can tell you what to do, because he is your Creator, he is your Savior, he is your Master.

He don't have to ask your permission to give you a law. And he has given you a law. Love your neighbor as yourself. That's the royal law. We ask the question, what's the royal law? It's the law of the king, it's the highest law, it's the law of Jesus' cave, and that's it.

And so how do we do it? 1 Corinthians 13. Most of you are familiar with the passage, probably had to memorize it in this program at some point. But it says between verses 1 -3, it talks about the priority of love.

It says, if I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I'm a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. And he goes on to say other things. I could move mountains. I could give all my money.

I could give myself to be burned. But if I have not love, it's all worthless. It's like this. I give this illustration. If I write 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, and I put a 1 at the beginning, what is that? One million.

If I erase the 1, what's it worth? Zero. You understand that? That 1 was the love. And everything else gets value if you have love. If you don't have love, nothing else has value. So I think that's a good thought, because that's what he says.

He said you have everything else, but if you have not love, it's worthless. Now verse 4, 1 Corinthians 13, verse 4. He says, excuse me, love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude.

It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends or fails. There at the, and I'll stop there at verse 8, because it goes on to talk about things that do fail. Prophecies, tongues, all these things will fail. Love will not.

So, yes, sir. Oh yeah, I was gonna say verse 4 and verse 7. That's telling me, it's teaching me how to love God. I mean, because in here, my basic needs are met, so I can quickly say, oh, I love God. But when I go back out there and things go wrong, and I pray to God and he don't answer when I want him to, then, you know, oh, Lord, God, I thought I loved you.

But I can't bear through this suffering. I can't endure this, because my needs are not met. So, I see what you're saying.

So the patience that's talked about and the endures all things, believes all things, hopes all things, that is in your relationship with God. I think it's very true. So 1 Corinthians 13, 4 to 8, we have two positives.

Love is patient. Love is kind. That's the two positives, right? Then we have several negatives. Is not is the expression there. What's the first is not? Let's do the ESV just to make it easy. You'll keep with one translation.

Does not envy, right? Number two, doesn't boast. What's the next one? Arrogant. What's the next one? Yeah, rude. I just say rude, okay? Is not rude. What's the next one? Self, is it self? Seek its own.

Okay, we'll just say self-seeking, that's fine. Easily angered. How's it in the ESV, brother? The next one. Irritable. Yeah, irritable. Boy, howdy. And the last one on that list is? Rejoice in iniquity.

Rejoice in iniquity or resentful. That's the resentful. So isn't it interesting that when he describes love, remember what we're talking about now. Jesus said, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Love your neighbors as yourself. When James says, what is the royal law? He defines it in James chapter two. He says, love your neighbors as yourself. So there's a definition. We don't have to wonder what he's talking about.

We don't have to guess, right? The royal law is love. And when we go to Paul, Paul defines love. It's patient and kind. That's the two positives. But then you got all these negatives. Why? Because sometimes the best way to describe something is to describe what it ain't.

You know, if I was gonna describe eternity for you, what would I say? Never ends. Because that's describing what it's not. And we know what ending is. Eternity is never ending, right? And so when I describe love, I can say love is patient.

What is patience? Patience is the willingness to endure. It's actually, it's long-suffering is the King James. And I like the King James because that's, macrothymia is the Greek term there. Macro means large.

Thumos means anger. Doesn't mean largely angered. It means it takes you a long time to get angry. Now go back to James in your mind. What did he talk about? We need to be slow to speak, quick to listen, and slow to anger.

Same thing, slow to anger, right? So that's the idea. Patience is slow to anger. And kindness is the positive on that because the positive of not only am I slow to be angry with you, but I'm also quick to be constructive with you.

That's what kindness is. The word means to be constructive. It's based on the same root as construction. So I want to build you up. That's what kindness is. That doesn't always mean I tell you what you want to hear.

Some people say He wasn't kind to me. He called me out of my sin. That might be the kindness you've ever received. The greatest kindness because the Bible says that faithful are the wounds of a friend.

Faithful are the wounds of a friend because He's telling you what you might not want to hear, but what you need to hear at that moment. How many of you have ever had somebody in your life tell you what you needed to hear and you didn't want to hear it, but you knew it was the truth?

You knew it was the truth. That's kindness. That's the type of kindness that we don't get much. We get all kinds of worldly, fluffy kindness, but very little, precious few do we get the kindness that is willing to love us enough to tell us what we don't want to hear.

So that's patience, kindness. And then the not envying, boasting. Envy and boasting go together. What is envy? Wanting what you have. What is boasting? Bragging about what I have that you don't. It's the opposite.

If you have what I want, I envy you. And if I have what you don't, I tell you all about it so that you will envy me. So those two sort of go together. And what's the focus? Me, me, me, me, me. It's all about me.

That's what love is not. Love is not about me. Same with arrogance and rudeness. You ever met somebody who was arrogant? Oh, yeah. How many of you are talking about yourself? Okay. Have you ever, have you ever displayed arrogance here?

Yeah. And rudeness is the, it goes along with that. Because rudeness means you treat people, and actually the word means to act unseemingly is what the actual, the definition of that word in the Greek, to act unseemly.

You say, what does that mean? You know what it is when you see it. You go to a restaurant, and you're sitting with other people that you've never had dinner with, and the guy is rude to the waitress. You know what it looks like.

He's snapping his fingers, and he's being ugly to her. You know that's rude. It's hard to define, but you know it when you see it. But in the church, it's even worse. You know what, I'll give you an example from my own life.

My wife wears, she is not a gaudy woman at all. She doesn't wear fancy clothes, but she tries to dress nicely. One thing she doesn't do, she doesn't wear very much makeup. She will every once in a while put on a little something, but she's not a person who, she's certainly no TBN.

She certainly does not wear copious amounts of makeup. Very little makeup my wife would wear. And years ago, we had a lady in the church who was just known for being rude, and was very, very rude. She's not around anymore, so I don't mind telling this story.

And I'm not using any names or anything, but she's gone now. But she walked up to my wife, and she said, you know when you wear makeup, you look like a whore. No way, what? Yeah, like I said, rudeness is hard to define, but you know it when you see it.

That's it. And I remember my wife came home and just was stunned. She didn't even cry, right? Like there have been times people have made my wife cry. As a pastor and pastor's wife, there are times where people say things or do things that just hurt.

And I've wept for my people. I've wept for the church. I've wept for things. But she didn't even cry, she just stunned. How could he be so rude? It's called wingnut shock.

Yeah, yeah. It's like when a wingnut comes at you for the first time, and you don't realize they're crazy until like you're so shocked that you have to sit back and think about it. I think in those situations though, pastor, I think sometimes we see it and we allow it, and then it gets worse.

Oh, sure. Sometimes we need to nip it in the bud when we first see it instead of letting it get worse because then it goes into reaction because now you're reacting to it in a negative way. When if you would have nipped it in the bud when the first time you seen it, like, well, you shouldn't be as rude as you're being.

Some things you say, it kind of flips me the wrong way. So, but I mean, sometimes we just let it go on. And then now she felt like she can call her a whore and tell her, you know what I'm saying? So I made you feel comfortable with that by letting you say the first thing you said to me that was out of line.

And now I'm checking it. And then it's like, now I'm the wrong one. I'm the one that's building when I should have just nipped it in the bud from the get go. Yeah, and that goes back to what I talked about.

About rebuke, right? We shouldn't be afraid to stand up and rebuke someone if they're in sin or if they're sinning against us. And so that's a good point. And looking back on it, we were new in ministry, we were young, and we probably didn't handle it as well as we should have at the time.

But today, it probably would be different. It probably would be different. You know, I was 26 years old when I became the senior pastor of the church. 26 years old. I didn't know nothing from nothing.

I mean, I knew the Bible, but I didn't know a lot about how people acted. How old are you now? 38. My 39th birthday's coming up. I wear a 3X, if anybody's... No, no, no. No, no, no. You've got a problem.

No, I'm saying... No, I'm gonna be... This is my last year in my 30s. Last year in my 30s. And then I'll be 40 years old. So, but no, we've been in ministry at church for this is our 13th year. And at the same church.

So we're thankful for that. But anyhow, getting back to, again, we can go down this list. We can talk about what it means to be self-seeking. We can talk about what it means to be irritable. Resentful means keeping a record of wrongs or holding on to those things and holding resentment for it.

All of these things, you could sum them all up in that I'm putting myself before the other person. That's really how you sum all this up. Me first. Whether it's envy, boasting, arrogance, rude, self-seeking, irritable, resentful, I'm more important than them.

And that's what loving your neighbor is. It's putting them before yourself. So that's the law. That's the royal law. That's how you love. Is you put their needs, their wants, their happiness, all of these things become more important than your own because you love them.

And here's the thing, most of you, if you have children, I know some of you are young men, probably don't have children yet. But when you have children, I think from a worldly perspective, it's as close to feeling the type of love that I think this should be that we do.

And I think this is why God's love as a father is often expressed that way. Because God is the Father and it's self-sacrificing, right? And a good father who loves his children is a sacrificing father.

He does for his children. And he's patient with his children. And what do we say about a father who isn't patient with his children? He's not being a good dad, right? So even the world sees that. And he's kind to his children.

Now, I might not be kind to their friends. I might not be kind to little other kids. But my kids get my patience. My kids get my kindness. I don't envy my children. I rejoice when they do good. I don't boast to them.

I boast of them. And so there is a sense in which we understand this at least a little bit from a worldly perspective as how we should with our children and even with our wives. But this is the law in a sense because it's the law of love.

Now, let's go back quickly to James because I do want to get to verse 13 and I'm pretty much out of time. So I'm going to make a mad dash. Because next week we're going to start talking about justification.

And we're going to talk about works. And we're going to talk about faith and works and faith without works and what that means. And I'm really excited because this gets into the heart of the Reformation and the heart of Luther and the arguments that he had.