Passage Read: James 2-3
Meditation Verses: 2:12-13
Thought
James is speaking here about the Law of Moses, and specifically those commands that relate to "loving your neighbor as yourself." While the Law no longer has authority over us, to judge us, it remains God's standard of righteous human behavior. It is a description of His own character and nature. While we will not be judged by the Law to determine our salvation, I can see how Jesus might use it to judge us to determine our reward. Not the ceremonial or sacrificial commands, but how we treat one another and how we treat outsiders. James didn't say that, but he does say to speak and act as one who will be judged by the Law, and he says it is a Law that brings freedom! He doesn't say we will be judged by this Law of human kindness, but to live as if we will. The Old Testament Law does teach how to show mercy and kindness to our neighbor, and if we learn from it and pattern our life after its purposes and goals, not just the letter but the spirit and heart it seeks to develop, we learn how to treat others with mercy and compassion, and even to concern ourselves with their eternal destination. In that way, we gain freedom from our own sinful, selfish nature and thinking, and freedom from worldly cares.
Application
The Law is not my enemy, unless I think I must obey its every command in order to gain salvation. But if I recognize the wisdom and mercy--the real point of the Law!--inherent in the Law and learn from it, I will be the person that God intended from the beginning. Jesus kept the whole Law and so never needed to offer sacrifice, and so He became the sacrifice that now counts me as having kept the whole Law. More than that: In His death, I was executed according to the just judgment of the Law, and in His resurrection, I was made alive, a new creature designed to walk in the righteousness that the whole Word of God, including the Law, describes. These things commanded by the Law, specifically regarding the treatment of my neighbor, should no longer be counted foreign to me, but counted as my true nature; the Law and the Prophets show me what I in my new nature should be like. I cannot be condemned again by the Law, but I can still learn from it who I am now supposed to be and how I am supposed to treat others as a child of God. It is, in fact, a dear friend and help in learning who God is and who He re-created me to be. Indeed, if I count myself secure in Christ and so think I no longer need to concern myself with any act of righteousness, but am free to live for whatever I want and wish, then I have missed the whole point of Christ's death and resurrection, the whole point of His life and example. In that case, I need to examine carefully to see whether I even am truly in Christ.