The Perfect Law

If you were going to write a letter and leave final instructions for your family, what would you tell them? James is writing to members of his church who, because of local persecutions, had been scattered throughout cities in the region of the eastern Mediterranean Sea. He had seen them grow in the grace and love of God. He had seen them become witnesses for Jesus Christ.

But then one day something unexpected happened. One of the most promising young men from James’s church—a man named Stephen, full of passion and wisdom and truth—debated about Jesus with a group of Jewish men. His opponents started a riot, seized Stephen, brought him before the Jewish legal officials, and stoned him. A great persecution arose against these new Christians. Many of James’s congregation went north to other Roman cities, where the Jewish-Christian debate was a far less significant issue. And in these cities they could actively live as Christians and continue to tell others about Jesus.

James knew, though, that some of these new Christians had moved to places where Christians were few. James wrote to them, knowing that, because of the growing persecutions, this might be one of the last opportunities he would have to communicate with them. Essentially this epistle was his final word to a church facing threats of violence and death: As you ‘Love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing right” (v 8). But is this message a good summary of the Gospel? Is this encouragement to love one’s neighbor a watering-down of the doctrine of Christ, or is it wisdom from the God of heaven who holds all things in His hands?

Let’s reflect more on James’s words to better understand the church’s mission. James knows that for some Christians who have been overcome by God’s love, all that is needed to keep following Christ with joy is a little encouragement: “Keep loving!” But James also reminds them that GOD’S love has no boundaries. He warns, “But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers” (v 9). This reminds James’s readers of the essence of love, specifically God’s love. You see, God’s love isn’t limited to Christians or to the rich or to a certain race or ethnicity. God’s love is for all, and He calls Christians to be poised to love all people equally—challenging us to love others perfectly too.

What James believes that loving one’s neighbor as God loves us means is shown in James his illustration of two Christians who both claim to have faith. One person’s faith leads him to love a stranger actively as Christ’s witness, while the other person is unresponsive to the stranger’s needs. And James asks, “Which person is living as Christ’s witness? Which person’s faith is alive?”

Friends, what is “faith?” God has created faith in us by his Holy Spirit. As the waters of Baptism flowed over our head, faith filled our hearts and minds . . . faith in Jesus’ perfect life, His holy and innocent suffering and death, and His glorious resurrection. Faith trusts that when Jesus said the words “It is finished” and breathed His last, He won salvation and forgiveness for the entire world. Faith believes that those waters of Baptism deliver God’s promises personally to you and me. We know that Faith in and of itself is enough to guarantee our eternal relationship with God. We don’t need to do anything else to earn God’s favor. But we also accept that when we were baptized into Christ, God created something else in us as well: His own love that saves and His own will to act. Paul writes: Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. (Rom 6:3–4)

We have been baptized into the life of Jesus in order to live a new life, a life of faith-based, God-inspired love. In other words, the faith God put in our hearts yearns to act and to move and to respond to needs and speak about God’s abundant grace. James essentially asks, “How can anyone’s faith not act in love?” In fact, our faith should be ready to love at a moment’s notice. By contrast, an unresponsive faith is really no faith at all.

It turns out that James is correct in stating that loving one’s neighbor as God has loved us is indeed a complete summary of the church’s mission in these last days of persecution and of plenty as we await Jesus’ return on the Last Day. Christ has given us His own life—a life that will never be contained or defeated by physical death and a life that should never be hampered by fears. James knew that the church would continue to face crises as it grew and spread into a world that would always be hostile toward the name and love of Jesus. James also knew that, to those who have received and daily find their hope in the life of Jesus, the work of loving others in words and deeds would test, affirm, bless, and strengthen the faithful in ways that would not just keep things going, but would allow the church to grow in God’s grace and truth. As Lutherans, we may be tempted to balk at the suggestion that working to “love our neighbor” will keep us doctrinally-sound, but James and Jesus agree that as we serve the needs of others—especially the need to know one’s Savior in Jesus Christ—we are fulfilling the perfect Law of love in our lives AND proclaiming the Good News to our delight and to the glory of Christ’s kingdom. Let’s bow our heads in prayer that God may strengthen us to grow His love in us. Amen.