The Royal Law

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 22, 1902

THE apostle Peter, in an epistle that all Christians like to believe is addressed to them, and which we are sure does speak to us, because it contains living words, even the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever, says: “Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people.” 1 Peter 2:9. God’s people are a royal people, because they are children of the great King. God is the King of kings; and he reigns over kings, and has no subject of lower rank than king. All his subjects are members of his own family; they are his own children; hence they are a kingly race, a royal people.

Now it is fitting that a royal people should have a royal law, and this God’s people have. The apostle James, writing to those who have “the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory,” says, “If ye fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well.” James 2:8. This royal law, given by the King of kings, is what God’s loyal and royal people are to keep. They are to fulfill it from God even as Christ fulfilled it.

But this that is quoted by the apostle James is but a portion of the law. By the words of Christ we find that it is but one half of it; for we read the following question and answer:—

“Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” Matt. 22:36–40.

Since the words, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,” are a royal law, and are but the second portion of one great law, we know that the whole is the royal law of God for his royal people.

Although the law of God is summed up in two great commandments, there is no division in it. “The Lord our God is one Lord,” and his law is a unit. Just as there is one life, one purpose, controlling the two hands of the body, with their ten fingers, so the ten commandments into which the two great commandments of the law are divided all unite to form one word, namely, “love;” “for all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Gal. 5:14. “Love worketh no ill to his neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” Rom. 13:10. Jesus named supreme and undivided love to God as the first and great commandment, and “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,” as the second, like unto it. Matt. 22:37–39. The apostle James was not making any invidious distinction when he called this second commandment “the royal law.” James 2:8. On the contrary, it was to show that the second is equal to the first, being of the same nature. There is no ground in Scripture for the common supposition that “the second table,” so-called, pertains solely to our duty to man, while the first prescribes our duty to God. It is all the law of God, and the last six commandments show our duty to God as clearly as do the first four. Whatever we do, we are to do as unto the Lord. When Joseph was tempted to violate the seventh commandment, he said, “How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” Gen. 39:9. And when David had been guilty of both murder and adultery, he said to God, “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight.” Ps. 51:4. Nothing but a sense of responsibility to God, and love for him, can keep us in right relationship to our fellowmen.

The first and great commandment is, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind.” This includes the whole being, and all our powers and faculties. Therefore it evidently includes love to our neighbor. That is to say, after loving God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind, we can have no love aside from this, wherewith to love our neighbor. Therefore love to our neighbor is part of our love to God, and is proof of it; “for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” 1 John 4:20. — Present Truth.