If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right. (James 2:8)
Expanded Passage: James 2:8-9
“You’re doing it all wrong,” screeched my third-grade teacher. Her words stung like a wasp and left an emotional welt that took years to heal. She grew increasingly impatient with my lack of artistic talent. She assigned my group with the task of making a house out of paper, complete with furniture. I learned from an early age that I am handy only because I have hands, not because I am skilled. My deficit in folding, cutting, and taping ability became painfully obvious to my grimacing classmates when I presented my distant resemblance of a makeshift, paper house.
When we read God’s law in the Bible, we are confronted with our own inadequacy. There are 613 laws in the Old Testament, and there has never been a person who kept them all, apart from Jesus himself. This realization can summon a fear that we will never measure up. This is where James imparted fabulous news. James relayed what Jesus had taught so poignantly—that we should love our neighbor as ourselves. This is the hinge on which all the other rules of Scripture hang. James called it the “royal” law, signaling the fact that it came from our King and is the supreme edict that sums up the entire Bible. If we do this one thing, we are doing it all right.
Know that when you love people you are keeping God’s law.
Jim Miller is a chaplain in the Army National Guard. He and his wife, Renee, live in Washington, DC, and enjoy spending time traveling with their two children.
© 2024 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission. Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.
