The Perfect Law and its Doers.
I. The Perfect Law. Let me remind you how, in every revelation of Divine truth contained in the Gospel, there is a direct moral and practical bearing. No word of the New Testament is given us in order that we may know truth, but all in order that we may do it. Every part of it palpitates with life, and is meant to regulate conduct. There are plenty of truths of which it does not matter whether a man believes them or not in so far as his conduct is concerned. Mathematical truth or scientific truth leaves conduct unaffected. But no man can believe the principles that are laid down in the New Testament and the truths that are unveiled there without these laying a masterful grip upon his life and influencing all that he is. And let me remind you, too, how in the very central fact of the Gospel there lies the most stringent rule of life. Jesus Christ is the Pattern, and from those gentle lips which say, "If ye love Me, keep My commandments," law sounds more imperatively than from all the thunder and trumpets of Sinai. (1) This thought gives the necessary counterpoise to the tendency to substitute the mere intellectual grasp of Christian truth for the practical doing of it. There will be plenty of orthodox Christians and theological professors and students who will find themselves, to their very great surprise, among the goats at last. Not what we believe, but what we do, is our Christianity; only the doing must be. rooted in belief. (2) Take this vivid conception of the Gospel as a law, as a counterpoise to the tendency to place religion in mere emotion and feeling. Fire is very good, but its best purpose is to get up steam which will drive the wheels of the engine. Not what we feel, but what we do, is our Christianity. (3) Notice how this law is a perfect law. It is perfect because it is more than law, and transcends the simple function of command. It not only tells us what to do, but gives us the power to do it; and that is what men want.
II. Notice the doers of the perfect law. Several things are required as preliminary. (1) The first step is "looketh into the law." With fixed and steadfast gaze we must contemplate the perfect law of liberty, if we are ever to be doers of the same. (2) "And continueth." The gaze must be, not only concentrated, but constant, if anything is to come of it. Let me venture on three simple, practical exhortations: (a) Cultivate the habit of contemplating the central truths of the Gospel as the condition of receiving in vigour and fulness the life which obeys the commandment. (b) Cultivate the habit of reflective meditation upon the truths of the Gospel as giving you the pattern of duty in a concentrated and available form. (c) Cultivate the habit of meditating on the truths of the Gospel in order that the motives of conduct may be reinvigorated and strengthened.
III. Note the blessedness of the doers of the perfect law. There is no delight so deep and true as the delight of doing the will of Him whom we love. There is no blessedness like that of an increasing communion with God and of the clearer perception of His will and mind which follows obedience as surely as the shadow does the sunshine.
A. Maclaren, The God of the Amen, p. 237.
I. What is the Meaning of a Law of Liberty?
Men commonly look upon a law as something that restricts and confines their liberty. And they commonly think that to be at liberty signifies to be free from law and to do as they like. God trains us very much as we do our children. We begin by putting them under a rule; we send them to school; we require them to keep hours; we make them do exactly what we bid them; we do not allow them to loiter or be lazy over their work; we get them into the habit of work; we try, by putting them under a law of work, to get them to like work, to like to be busy, to feel idleness a burden, to wonder how people can like to be idle, to feel a real pleasure in having things to do and in doing them well and at proper times. See how we who are parents do naturally try to turn law into liberty, and, so far as we can, get our children to do freely and for choice what at first they do for duty and because they must.
II. Do we wish to find freedom, liberty, delight, in religion and the service of God? There is only one way to do so, and that way is by obeying the law of God, with our own hearty choice and firm and constant endeavour, until that which begins by being law ends in being perfect liberty. "Whose service is perfect freedom." Men are apt to think that these things are opposite to one another; that where there is service there cannot be freedom, and where there is freedom there is, of course, an end to service. But no; in the true service of God is the only real, perfect, happy freedom, just as in the obedience of the law of God is the only real and perfect liberty. The Prayer-book does but echo the words of St. James. It is all one whether the words be "God's service is perfect freedom," or "God's law is perfect liberty." Either way it is the same: no freedom without service; no liberty without law.
G. Moberly, Parochial Sermons,p. 111.
References: James 1:25. Homilist,vol. iv., p. 37. James 1:25-27 . Clergyman's Magazine,vol. vi., p. 275.