The Positive Side of God’s Law
There is a positive, as well as a negative, side to the law of God. Eight of the commandments begin with the negative form of command, "Thou shalt not," etc. Two, the fourth and fifth, enjoin positive action. Yet when Jesus epitomizes the principles of the whole law into two comprehensive commandments, He gives them in the positive form: "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." Unless one's effort to keep the commandments be actuated by faith in Christ, "made perfect" (James 2:22) by positive action, his effort to refrain from the things forbidden will surely prove futile. A faithful obedience of that which God has positively commanded us to do, is the only safe guaranty against doing that which He has forbidden.