11/29

James 2:12

¹²So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty.

Our words and our actions are the sum of our expression to others. James tells us that we should both speak and act as those who will be judged by the law of liberty, which is the freedom we have in Christ. The laws of the Old Covenant that were given to Moses for the nation of Israel are no longer the standards by which behavior is judged. The law of liberty can also be called the law of love (Matthew 22:37-40). Our words and actions are judged by whether they show love for God and man.

If you were hiding a Jew in Nazi Germany, could you have lied in good conscience to the gestapo when they asked if there was anyone else in your home? Of course you could have! It would have been an act of love for God, for the Jew, and even for the gestapo in keeping them from a greater sin. You may have suffered for it, but you would have been judged by God as having done what was righteous (Romans 13:10).

Law and liberty together sounds like an oxymoron. However, this is actually the perfect way to describe life in Jesus. We are free from the enslaving power of sin so that we can act in love at the leading of the Holy Spirit. We are free to be who God created us to be. We are obedient servants and yet we find liberty, joy, and peace as we obey.

Consider: Have you been liberated by the law of love?