Henry Krabbendam - James - World Evangelical Alliance

At the same time it is equally regrettable that others have love swallowed
up by and vanish into obedience. After all, it is routinely claimed in the
Church that love is (identical to) obedience with a reference to both 1 John
5:2 and 2 John 6. In short, to love is supposed to be the same as to obey!
Every distinction between the two disappears. However, this is an equally serious
error. Indeed, when properly understood to love is by implication (!) to
obey (John 14:15). But to obey is not necessarily by implication to love.
Clearly, the two, although they cannot be separated, must be distinguished.
There is a depth perspective here that too frequently has been opposed, overlooked
or ignored, as I argue more extensively below. One commentator put
it well, the “love command” is a law in its own right. But while it differs from
all the other commandments, it simultaneously functions as the guiding principle
of, and the dynamics behind, the obedience to the law as a whole (Laws,
108). Similarly, the Decalogue contains commandments that stand on their
own two feet. But while they differ from the love command, they function as
the tracks for genuine biblical love, to bring it to its full expression. With this
the biblical complementarity of love and law, so carefully laid out in James,
is fully honored. They are both inseparable from and irreducible to each
other.
At any rate, James refers to the “royal” law. This is, first of all, to be
taken literally. Its royalty is emphasized because it belongs to the King, is derived
from the King (See Cranfield, 192, with reference to Mt. 5:35), receives
the imprimatur of the King (Motyer, 97), is promulgated by the King and enjoys
the sovereign authority of the King. The dignity of the King is by definition
conferred upon his Law-word. It is further emphasized because it governs
the realm of the King. The Kingdom of heaven becomes a reality (only)
when the commandments are embraced (Cheung, 97). There is no kingship
without Law (See Deut. 33:4-5). To disregard the latter, through letting law
vanish into love or otherwise, is a matter of rebellion and high treason (Manton,
205-206). According to the message of the Old Covenant Scripture, the
exodus from Egypt indicates that “redemption by the blood of the lamb leads
to responsive obedience – the life-style of the redeemed framed according to
rated ... , recovered the original intention ... , and transcended ... the Jewish interpretations and
applications” of the Mosaic Law that were prevalent in his day. The last antithesis, which focuses
upon the true meaning of the love command of Leviticus 19:18 and culminates in the
staggering demand of love for one’s enemies, provides the interpretive key for the very Kingdom
righteousness that dwarfs the righteousness of the Pharisees. It is the righteousness that
reflects the irreproachable holiness (Lev. 19:2), the flawless perfection (Mt. 5:48) of God, and
springs forth from an undivided and uncompromising heart that loves God and the neighbor
without holding anything back. In short, it is “obedience to the Torah” as “the imitation of
God,” that is “centered in the love command, and brought to full expression by Jesus in word
and deed. This annihilates the anti-nomian as well as non-nomian error without falling victim
to the hyper-nomian slip-up.
492