OBEYING THE ROYAL LAW: JAMES 2:6-8

 Verses 6-8: But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court? Do they not blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called? If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.

   The display of partiality towards the poor man is considered dishonoring. The Apostle Peter commands that we are to “honor all people” (1 Peter 2:17; cf. Romans 12:10; 13:7). Why should we honor all people? Because all men bear the image of the Creator, and since all men need salvation, the nature of our witness should imitate Christ, so that the reality of the gospel will not be tainted by any personal imperfections.

Here and in the next verse, James poses two questions concerning the duplicity of how they have shown favoritism to the rich man. First, to paraphrase his question: “Aren’t these rich people the ones who oppress you and drag you into court?” These actions, oppressing and dragging, should not to be minimized. For their oppression is an arbitrary exertion of power over you in a tyrannical manner.  They don’t merely send a subpoena to your home, they have you forcefully dragged into court.

The answer to this first question is undeniably "yes."

The second question James asks, again paraphrasing: “Aren’t these rich people the ones who speak slanderously about your Savior, Jesus Christ?” James maintains that the name of Jesus Christ is a ‘fair name.’ The Greek word for fair has a deeper meaning of “morally good, noble, praiseworthy.”1 Luke writing around the time of this epistle mentions the name they have been called:

And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. (Acts 11:26)

So, what does it mean to blaspheme? The dictionary definition states that it is “the act of cursing, slandering, reviling or showing contempt or lack of reverence for God.”2 This was forbidden of God’s people as stated in the Third Commandment of the Decalogue:

“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.” (Exodus 20:7)

Let’s look at a few illustrations from Scripture to demonstrate the seriousness of this sin: because Jesus claimed to be the Son of God, the scribes believed that He was a blasphemer (Matthew 9:3); those who ascribed that the miraculous works of Christ were empowered by Satan, instead of the Holy Spirit, Jesus stated that they had blasphemed the Holy Spirit and that they would not be forgiven (Matthew 12:31-32).

However, is blasphemy only a verbal activity? It also demonstrated by any form of contempt for the God of the Bible, including physical violence. The beating and murder of God’s people, with the intent to rid the world of Christians and Christianity, is a clear example of blasphemy. This began in the first century with Stephen (Acts 7) and has continued even to this day with the Islamic Jihad being acted out in many countries. This blasphemy continues with governments which denigrates Christianity because of Biblical tenets don’t agree with their secular humanist ideology.

Do you ever feel uncomfortable when someone in your presence or on the television uses the name of God flippantly? Are you repulsed when they say “Jesus” or “Christ!” instead of “Oh, my!” as an exclamation? Or needlessly say, “Oh My God!” We should be disgusted. It is blasphemy. Sure, the unbeliever gives no thought to the right or wrong of their verbiage—their ignorance does not give us a reason to excuse them. Instead we should pity them in their unwitting practices.

The answer to this second question is also "yes."

The Royal Law

The word ‘however’ is incorrectly translated from the Greek and therefore fails to provide the reader the accurate emphasis in this verse. It would be better translated by: indeed, really, truly, or actually. So what James is saying is that if indeed you are fulfilling the royal law, you are doing well. You are being obedient to the Lord.

But what does he mean by a ‘royal law’? The Greek word for royal actually means ‘kingly.’ The idea is that this law ranks supreme over all other decreed laws of God. This particular edict, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself", was first proclaimed to the Jews in Leviticus 19:18. It is the supreme royal law that believers of all ages are to obey. The Lord Jesus further expressed its supremacy including it with the great and foremost commandment "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind" (Matthew 22:37).3 And then He declared:

“On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:40)

One might ask, as the lawyer in Luke chapter 10 asked Jesus: “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus answers the question with His narration of the familiar parable of the Good Samaritan. At the end, Jesus asks the lawyer:

“Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?” And he said, “The one who showed mercy toward him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do the same.” (Luke 10:36-37)

We see here that the neighbor could be a friend, an unknown person, an enemy, or anyone in our periphery. And the love we should demonstrate towards the neighbor is to be characterized by mercy, which involves being compassionate. Notice that this exhibition of love is lacking bitterness, resentment, unhelpfulness, rudeness—everything short of compassion, empathy, kindness, consideration or benevolence.

In this day of polarization (politically and theologically) this is a major challenge for believers. But the bottom line is this: being obedient to this law means that you are doing the right thing in the sight of God and man—you are doing well. James employs a play on words here. The Greek for well has its root in the word fair of verse 7. Therefore, by 'doing well' means that we live up to that 'fair name' by which we are called: Christian—one who identifies as a believer in and follower of Christ.4

 

---

[1] Arndt, W., Gingrich, F. W., & Bauer, W. (1957). A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, p. 401. [καλός/kalós].

[2] "Blaspheme" (1995) In Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Dictionary (R. F. Youngblood, F. F. Bruce, R. K. Harrison, Ed.). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, Inc.

[3] James does not cite the first commandment.

[4] Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (electronic ed. of the 2nd edition). New York: United Bible Societies, 1.126.

© 2023 David M. Rossi