Charles Ellicott Commentary James 2:8

"Howbeit if ye fulfil the royal law, according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well:" — James 2:8 (ASV)

If you fulfill the royal law.—Better paraphrased this way: If, however, you are fulfilling the Law, as you imagine and profess you are doing, the royal law, according to the Scripture, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,” you are doing well; but... Mark the touch of irony in the defense which St. James puts into the mouths of his hearers.

It would certainly be a sweet proof of neighborly affection, that exemplified in James 2:3. The “royal,” or “kingly law,” is, of course, God’s, in its highest utterance. It may be taken as an illustration of what a law really consists: namely, a command from a superior, a duty from an inferior, and a sanction or vindication of its authority.

There is much confusion of thought, both scientific and theological, with regard to this. If this were not so, we would hear less of the “laws of nature” and various other imaginary codes which the greatest jurist of modern times has called “fustian.”

The sovereign law of love, expressed in this way by the Apostle, is one so plain that the simplest mind may be made its interpreter, and its violation is at once clear to the offender.