Prisoners of War Living Out the Royal Law
In the Word of God we read in James 2:
If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well (James 2:8)
Are you doing well and faithfully honoring God by living in obedience to His royal law? Perhaps you wonder if these verses have truly impacted others throughout history and can really make a difference.
You are asking: “Okay sounds good and I agree this should be done, but how has the written Word of the living God (aka Holy Scripture) actually impacted real people in history?”
In his commentary on James, retired pastor R Kent Hughes highlights an wonderfully God-glorifying and very fitting example of the royal law lived out during World War 2 among prisoners of war:
“When the royal law is lived, marvelous things happen horizontally and vertically. Ernest Gordon, in his book Through the Valley of the Kwai, tells of the miraculous transformation that took place among the allied prisoners in a Japanese concentration camp in 1943. In 1942 the camp was a sea of mud and filth, the scene of grueling labor and brutal treatment by Japanese guards. There was hardly any food, and the law that pervaded the whole camp was the law of the jungle: every man for himself. Twelve months later the ground of the camp was cleared and clean. The bamboo bed slats had been debugged. Green boughs had been used to rebuild the huts, and on Christmas morning two thousand men were at worship. What had happened? During the year a prisoner had shared his last crumb of food with another man who was also in desperate need. Then he died. Among his belongings they found a Bible. Some who witnessed his ultimate act of love wondered, could that Bible be the secret of willingness to give sacrificially to others? One by one the prisoners began to read it. Soon the Spirit of God began to grip their hearts and change their lives, and in a period of less than twelve months there was a spiritual and moral revolution within that camp. The royal law lived out had done its work.”
(Story directly taken from R. Kent Hughes James Commentary published by Crossway)
Praise God! The obedience of one Christian man—in his last act before death—was honoring the royal law of our King! And this act made a massive impact with ripple effects far beyond what he ever knew or saw or could probably even imagine in the prisoner of war camp (Eph. 3:20-21). May each brother and sister of our church family at Christ The King Reformed Baptist Church walk with such obedience to the royal law loving our neighbor as ourselves. And with the help of the Holy Spirit may we faithfully reject sinful partiality and choose to walk in this love constantly knowing that our God and King is honored no matter what we see with a sacrificial truly biblical love.
Soli Deo Gloria.