James' primary understanding of the use and function of the law in the life of a believer is that the law is a guide for the believer in how to live their life in a way that pleases God and in a way that serves their neighbor and their fellow believers. I, as a Lutheran we Lutherans like to distinguish three uses or functions of the law in the lives of believers. One function is that the law functions as a curb to keep sin in check. That would be sort of like your red light use of the law, your stop sign. If you didn't have red lights, people would be bashing into each other in the intersection. You need sort of a stop sign to keep people in check. The second use is the law as a mirror shows us our sins. And the third use is the law as a rule and guide to the believer on how to lead a God-pleasing life. And this seems to be James' primary use his primary understanding of the role that the law plays, what I would call the third use, but basically the law tells believers how it is that they would lead a God-pleasing, faithful life in this time and place. And with this, it's kind of under it's important to see what James actually understands the law to be. He refers sev he refers once in chapter 2 to the royal law. And the royal law is the command to love your neighbor as yourself. And so, it seems that for James, the law, in a sense, boils down to what Jesus calls the second greatest commandment in the Gospels: "Love your neighbor as yourself." You know, James seems to be reflecting his brother's teaching here, that if you want to understand what God really wants from you, his people, he wants you to love him with your whole heart, and he wants you to love your neighbor as yourself. And this, especially, becomes the rule and guide for the Christian in how they're supposed to treat their fellow believers and their neighbors, and then this would come out in very practical ways. For instance, don't show favoritism to the rich over the poor. In fact, show concern for the poor. Help the widows and the orphans in their affliction. It would come out in very practical ways. Don't say things that are going to be destructive. Don't use your tongue to speak evil of your brothers or to curse people. And notice that all of this is sort of guided by what James calls the royal law, "Love your neighbor as yourself." And so, I think, for James to say "law," I think James is taking the entire Torah of Moses, and he's doing what our Lord did, what his brother did. What are the most important commands in this whole edifice of laws and commands? It's no longer something like circumcision or eating kosher or observing purity, it becomes love your neighbor as yourself. And James would argue this is a rule and guide for how Christians are to live out their faith, to conduct their lives in this time and place. And so, just to give James a bit of a break, he doesn't harp on the entire Torah of Moses, he basically focuses upon that one command that is one of the commands our Lord focuses upon and says, "If you want to live as God's people, this is what you take to heart."