James 28:1 If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, "Love your neighbor as yourself," you are doing right...For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.

       The book of James is such an interesting book.  How interesting?  Well, perhaps it will pique your interest when I tell you that Luther, though he accepted James as a book of the Bible didn't think that James actually belonged.  He didn't think so because James seems to contradict what the other books of the New Testament say.  The other books say that we are saved by grace through faith.  James seems to be saying that salvation is by works.  For that reason then Luther wrestled with this book and what it said.
       And I will say that we today still wrestle with this book.  It is a book that does hammer with the law.  And while Jesus is referenced in this book nowhere is the passion, resurrection and victory of Jesus proclaimed in this book.  So, yes, it is a book that one has to work at to grasp and understand.
       But it is understandable!
       What the writer was doing was addressing a particular problem found among the early Christians, okay, what the Holy Spirit was doing was addressing a particular problem to be found among all the Christians that would be.  It was the problem of a shallow faith.  It was the problem of knowing that Jesus was the Savior and that the forgiveness of sins was given in and of Him.  But instead of being motivated to good by this marvel of Jesus many in the Church take salvation and Jesus totally for granted.  So while they listen to the word, they don't do what it says.  Instead of persevering in the faith and living for Christ, the sinful flesh causes us to live for ourselves and expects that Jesus should be "persevering" for the sake of our sin and dishonor to his name.  In other words it is the still the battle of the church today.  Christians who don't live their faith.  Christians who by their words and actions dishonor the Savior and bring shame to the church.  Christians who think they have a better plan than God and usually that plan tends to put God way, way on the back burner of life.
       It would be good for us then to hear what James has to say since we still wrestle with many of the same problems of sin.  Our theme will be: THE ROYAL LAW.  1st. Love your Neighbor.  2nd. Our royal blunders.  3rd. The Foundation of Love.
       If there is one thing that sticks out in this text it is what is said of the law.  Did you catch what God's law is called?  Verse 8 said, "If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture."  The royal law!  Not just a plain ordinary law.  Not just a set of suggestions and recommendments but rather "the law" specifically "the royal law."  I like that phrase.  It reminds us that the law is of and from God, the Almighty, the King of the Universe and all that is.  What is of God is royal.  It has a quality of importance and a status of extraordinary.  It is from God!  It is not to be taken lightly or tossed aside with scant notice.  It is the will and desire of God for all people of all time.
       Now what is it that is pointed to as the royal law?  Our text says, "love your neighbor as yourself."  That's not the only point of the royal law but we'll discuss the other part later.  Right now, the Holy Spirit wants us to think on the meaning of this command of God.  It is an awesome command.  It is the command found in God's Word that is a summary of the second table of the 10 Commandments of God.  The second table covers commandments 4 - 10.
       When you realize the summary status of this royal law it is then that you begin to understand all the more what the Epistle of James is all about.  He is encouraging our Christian living.  The best way to see or measure our Christian living is to consider how we deal with and how we react to our fellow man, especially how we deal with our fellow Christians.  In this light then, we begin to see the practical side of James.  His book is giving us examples, applications of the royal law for our lives.
       So he points out things that he sees around him, things that are contrary to the royal law.  He talks about pride, anger, gossiping, showing favoritism for the rich and such.  He speaks of pretend faith, you know, where we say "Be warm and well fed" but don't lift a hand to help those who truly need it.  He speaks of keeping our tongues in check and not being a friend with the world.  He speaks of humility in the Lord, not of boasting, not being oppressive in our pride but rather learning patience in suffering.  And finally, in what many consider the culmination of what is being taught here he says, "Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed."  And again, "Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins."
       It is clear to see that James has the concern of living our faith and showing that living faith to our fellow humans and especially to our fellow believers in Christ.  His concern is clear.  "Love your neighbor as yourself."
       Of course, I will tell you that today James might have written an entirely different set of applications for his concern.  Many of the ones he touched on are still with us. We still wrestle with them, fail and bring sin into our lives.  But over the centuries some different sins have arisen.  I wonder if today he had written he would say anything about our great penchant for passing the buck.  "That's not my fault.  If those other people wouldn't have tempted me, said this, done that..."  You get my thinking.  I don't know that we have time to really address all the ways that today we trash the royal law.  So I want you right now to just take a moment and think, really think of what it means to "love your neighbor as yourself."  What I can tell you is that loving our neighbor is not about ourselves.  It is not about what makes me comfortable and the like but rather about what helps our neighbor, builds our neighbor up, what conveys to our neighbor our love for God and his Son Jesus.
       Scary isn't it?  Because when we really contemplate what God has said that's when we grasp how we have royally blundered God's desire for our lives.  I think of the ways we have offended those around us.  I think of those times when instead of taking the words and actions of others in the kindest possible way we chose to take offense and get bent out of shape.  I think of how we have hurt our friends, our children, our loved ones, our neighbor if for no other reason than we didn't stop to think about what we were going to do and say.  There is no doubt that if we measure our lives by this royal law we would all have to admit that we have horribly and royally blundered in our duties to our God.  The problem is serious and so it is no wonder that James writes this epistle to try and correct the problems he saw in his Christian congregation.
       Of course, I want you to understand that right there is the key to understanding this epistle.  James is written to the Christian.  James does what I would be uncomfortable with, that is, James assumes the Gospel, assumes that the people he is writing to understand the message of Jesus.  I would be uncomfortable doing that as I hope most pastors would be.  Nor do I think that we can argue that if James did it then we can do it too.  Remember James is only one of 21 epistles found in the New Testament.  If only one of every 21 sermons assumed the gospel then I would say, "Go for it."  But if every sermon assumes the gospel then I think there is a problem.
       Well, let me tell you what James assumed.  He speaks to us of the royal law.  But please note that there are two parts to the royal law, the one being "love your neighbor as yourself" and the other being "love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind."  There is where we find what is necessary for us to know.
       Before you can love your neighbor you must first love the Lord your God.  And before you can love the Lord your God you need to understand that the Lord our God first loved us.  Loved us enough to promise a Savior.  Loved us enough to makes those promises so complete and sure that there would be no doubt as to who the Savior was.  Loved us enough so that when the time had fully come, he sent his Son to our world.
       If you want to understand God's love you must understand Jesus.  Jesus the perfect Son of God came to share our humanity with us.  Came not just to show us how to live perfect lives but came rather to be perfect on our behalf.  We blunder the royal law...Jesus keeps it royally.  We falter and stumble on the law...Jesus' walk is sure and certain.  We are condemned to hell for our sins...Jesus took those sins and went to hell for us.  The perfect Son of God came to bring us the forgiveness of sins.  He came to grant us the adoption of eternal life and in that changing of family status he strengthens and motivates us to live our lives to the glory of his name.
       By the way, formally this doctrine or teaching of living lives to God's glory is known as sanctification.  When we were called out of the unbelieving world to be the children of God we were changed, made anew, yes, given new hearts and minds in Christ.  And because of that calling by the Holy Spirit we are also given a new desire.  The desire to live a new and holy life.  As God's children, forgiven and granted eternal life, we are moved by Jesus to hate sin and to strive to do what is right and good.  It is this striving for what is right and good that the book of James wants us to see.  James is written to encourage what is to be a fact in the Christian's life.
       He just assumes that.  I do not.  I want you to realize what Jesus has done for you.  I want you to understand how heaven has been opened to you and how the promise of eternal life with God in heaven is yours...but this is because of Jesus.  That he has won our redemption.  That he has closed the chasm of sin with His forgiveness, his atoning death just for us.  And now, in Jesus, we "love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul and mind."   Now in Jesus we also, "love our neighbor as ourself."
       I am not saying that this loving is easy for us.  For that matter it is a battle that will be upon us all the days of our lives.  What makes this battle bearable and fightable is Jesus.  He forgives us.  He encourages us.  He showers his love upon us and thus strengthens us all the time for this battle.  He does that through his Word.  May we then hear this word, not merely listening, but doing this word!  Loving each other because we are loved by Jesus.  Amen.