THE TWO GREAT COMMANDMENTS.
IN Matt. 22:35-40 we have the following: "Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." This scripture is often brought forward as a proof that the Sabbath, or the fourth commandment, is not now binding. It is often said that Christ gave a new law which superseded the decalogue, and this scripture is cited as proof. But this scripture says nothing of the kind. In fact, it emphasizes the law of God and shows the principle upon which it is based. 1. The lawyer did not ask Jesus, What law do you give? or anything of that kind. The questioner was well versed in the Old Testament Scriptures. He wished to confound Christ. Therefore he asked, "Which is the great commandment in the law?" He referred to that already given, to the writings of the Old Testament or the books of Moses. 2. How does Jesus reply? He does not give them a new law, for that would be an evasion of the question. He replies by quoting the fifth verse of the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy. No law or commandment could be more comprehensive than this. To love God with all the heart, and soul, and mind, with all the affections, and life, and intellect, includes all the powers of one’s being. 3. The second great commandment Jesus also quotes from "the law." Lev. 19:18. 4. On these two, he declares, hang all the law and the prophets. That is, all morality is summed up in them. To bring man to this condition, where he will love God supremely, and his neighbor as himself, Christ died, and the word of God has been given. 5. The decalogue is but an expression of these principles in another form. If man loves God supremely will he have other gods before the Lord? will he make graven images to worship? will he take God’s holy name in vain? will he not observe God’s holy Sabbath? "Love is the fulfilling of the law;" "this is the law of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous," is what is expressly declared by two apostles of Christ. Jesus says that all the law hangs on these two principles—the first four on the principle of love to God, the last six on the principle of love to man. For if we love our neighbor we honor those who are most closely related to us, father and mother, we will guard our neighbor’s life, chastity, property, and reputation, and we will not covet what is his. 6. These principles were given to the Jews fourteen hundred years before Christ, and they did not understand them as being out of harmony with the decalogue. Those who asked Christ the question, agreed with his answer. See Luke 10:25-28 and Mark 12:28-34. We must therefore conclude that if those principles existed during the entire Jewish dispensation in perfect harmony with every precept of the decalogue, they are in perfect harmony with the decalogue to-day. If all the law hung upon them, then we have no reason to suppose otherwise to-day. Those two principles are eternal in their nature, underlying every moral duty which man owes to God. And he who has these principles in his heart will not seek to evade duty by unreasonable excuses, but will find delight in doing all of God’s commandments. Says our Lord: "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you." John 15:14. "If ye love me, keep my commandments." John 14:15. "I and my Father are one." John 10:30.