Freedom to Love

“But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.” (James 1:25)

“If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ you do well.” (James 2:8)

The law “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” is called two things: the “perfect law of liberty” and the “royal law.” It is the perfect law in that it encompasses every other law. When you really love your neighbor, fervently and with a pure heart, you cannot but keep all the other commandments. By keeping that one law, you are obeying all the laws. It is also the royal, or kingly, law.

It is the perfect law of liberty, or freedom, because nobody can stop you from loving. Once you have made up your mind to love, people can say all sorts of mean things about you and treat you miserably, but they cannot stop you from loving. The only person who is totally free is the person who loves.

Jesus was the perfect example of freedom in love. The authorities did everything to Him: they beat Him, they pierced His hands and His feet, they put a crown of thorns on His head, they gave Him vinegar to drink, they abused Him, they reviled Him. But the one thing they could not do was to stop Him from loving. He loved them to the end (see Luke 23:34).

If you love with that kind of love, nobody can stop you from doing exactly what you want to do—love. That is why love is called the “perfect law of liberty.”