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James 2:8 - The Royal Law of Love.

James 2:8 (NIV) If you really keep the royal 
law found in Scripture, "Love your neighbor as 
yourself," you are doing right.  

James 2:8 (NLT) Yes indeed, it is good when 
you obey the royal law as found in the 
Scriptures: Love your neighbor as yourself.  

INTRODUCTION

Royal Law. The law of love (see Lev 19:18 
and note) is called royal likely because 
it is the kingdom law drawn from Jesus 
teachings about the kingdom of God. The royal law is 
the summation of all other laws (see Mt 
22:36"40; Ro 13:8"10 and notes on 13:8"9). It is 
also the law of the kingdom, since royal 
could also be translated kingly. [NIV SB 
2020] 

COMMENTARY PEARL

Love Your Neighbor As Yourself
   Whenever someone at church prays a "big 
prayer" - for world peace, say, or an end to poverty 
or the victims of some faraway disaster - I 
feel rebuked. Here you are praying about your own 
petty problems, I mentally admonish myself, when 
people out there are facing real problems. War. 
Starvation. Tsunamis. 
   Then I remember a writing student I had 
once who'd grown up in Kenya and was always 
getting mad at our class for not knowing or caring 
about the problems there that animated her. "Y'all 
need to look past your own experience!" she 
raged. 
   She and I talked a lot that semester.
   "You're right," I said. "But you care 
about Kenyans because you lived there. It's hard 
to care about what's going on far away to 
people you've never met. People care about what's 
around them. That's just how it is." 
   That's how it is in Scripture, too, we 
discussed. Throughout the Bible, we're commanded to 
love our "neighbors." 
   We can, maybe should, expand "neighbor" 
to include everyone, and the story of the good 
Samaritan - Jesus's answer to a Scripture expert's 
sanctimonious question, "Who is my neighbor?" - is often 
read that way. 
   But the characters in Jesus's story - the 
beaten man, the priest and the Levite who walk 
around him, and the Samaritan who helps him - are 
all travelers far from home, among foreigners. 
They become neighbors in the moment of encounter, 
when they're close enough to see one another's 
needs. 
   For the rest of the semester, my student 
made it her cause to bring Kenya close to us 
through her wonderful writing, thereby enabling us, 
at least momentarily, to care past our own 
experience into hers. 
   Father, help us love those we encounter 
every day and not walk around them. Patty Kirk 
[Walking in Grace 2021 Devotional by Guideposts and 
Zondervan] 

LINK FOR FURTHER STUDY ON THIS TOPIC

Matthew 22:36-40 - The Greatest Commandment.

http://www.abible.com/devotions/2015/20150203-1138.html 

YOUR COMMENTS

If anyone has a paraphrase, commentary or 
testimony on this passage of Scripture, either 
personal or otherwise, I would be interested in 
hearing from you.  Thanks in advance and let's keep 
uplifting Jesus that all might be drawn to Him. Fred 
Gibbs  

LINKS WORTH CHECKING OUT

Most Important Decision in Life: 
http://www.youtube.com/embed/WGnEuGwvXqU?rel=0 

Steps to Peace by Billy Graham: 
https://stepstopeace.org/ 

A Man without Equal by Bill Bright: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiVa7UoruIo 

Seeking God Made Real: 
http://vimeo.com/31489782 

Prayer Made Real: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tc8VdMV26VE 

Importance of Choice: 
http://creationhealth.com/CREATION-Health/Choice [click on video]  

Medical Seminar on Healthful Living by David 
DeRose, MD, MPH: 
https://www.smartlifestyletv.com/lifestart 

LINKS FOR BIBLE STUDIES 

Lifting Up Jesus Bible Studies: 
http://www.liftingupjesus.net/ 

Amazing Facts Bible Studies: 
http://www.amazingfacts.org/bible-study/bible-study-guides.aspx  

Hope Awakens Bible Study Guides: 
https://www.hopeawakens.study/lesson-header;id=2 

Glow Tract Video Bible Studies: 
http://www.bibleresearch.info/ 

LINKS FOR BIBLE PROPHECY SEMINARS

Islam and Christianity in Prophecy, The 
Third and Final Conflict by Tim Roosenberg: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHSJB-fuHLU&list=PLWhQIHGTHlkaGg5Cwe3NDzWtFX8vNSpsE 

Unlocking Bible Prophecies by Cami Oetman of 
Adventist World Radio: https://www.awr.org/bible 

Revelation Now by Pastor Doug Batchelor: 
https://www.revelationnow.com/ 

Hope Awakens by John Bradshaw of IIW: 
https://itiswritten.tv/programs/hope-awakens 

Prophecies Decoded by Pastor Ron Clouzet: 
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1A435C5373550657