“If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well…So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty” (James 2:8, 12).
“For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Galatians 5:13-14)
James does not define the “law of liberty” in chapter 1, verse 12. But in verse 8 he does. And James sounds a lot like Paul in Galatians 5.
“For both of them, love is the natural fruit and the necessary evidence of being justified by faith (Galatians 5:6, James 2:17). Love is the kind of law that governs us when we are freed from condemnation by the blood and righteousness of Christ. And we will be judged under this law of liberty. If we have not loved, we will perish, because there will be no evidence that we are born again and justified by faith.”
“So you can see that James and Paul put partiality…in the context of your eternal judgment. This is not a light thing. How we treat others is the evidence of our relation with Christ. If we have been set free from sin’s condemnation and dominion by Christ, then we live in liberty. And in this liberty there is a law—the law of liberty, that is, the law of love. We will judged under this law. And this law says, “Do not show partiality (favoritism; don’t play favorites!) on the basis of race or riches (or any other thing.)”
(quotes from John Piper’s sermon on James 2, January 18, 2004)
