And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
It stands as the second great commandment, like the command to love God with all heart, soul, mind and strength, and together with it all the law and the prophets hang and the whole duty of humanity is summed. It gathers up the last six of the Ten Commandments that define duty to fellow people, while love to God gathers the first four, forming one unchanging whole. It measures love for others by the care one has for self, requiring the same considerateness, justice and respect one wants for self, which is doing to others as one would have them do. Neighbor means anyone in need of mercy regardless of belief, country, creed or race, as shown when the Samaritan cared for the wounded traveler whom priest and Levite passed by. This love cannot be separated from supreme love for God, for neither can be kept while the other is broken, and in Christ's self-sacrificing death it is lifted still higher to loving as He loved.
Place Within God's Law
Love for neighbor with the same care as for self is the second great commandment, like unto the command to love God with all heart and soul and mind and strength, and on these two hang all the law and the prophets. Together they gather up the law and the prophets, sum the whole duty of humanity and the entire Bible, and fulfill the law. It states a positive duty and not an optional act to be done only when convenient, requiring doing and not believing only. This love is shown in practical mercy and care for others, in sympathy and fair impartial treatment especially toward those in need, and in sacrificing ease, pleasure and convenience for their good, opposing formal religion that forgets mercy. It requires rejecting selfishness and evil thoughts and words, treating others with kindness, gentleness and forbearance while carefully protecting their interests, with the Golden Rule of doing to others what one would want them to do expressing it, and Christ's unselfish life is the pattern for obedience which selfishness prevents. It belongs to the message to be borne to perishing souls in their sins, shown in God giving His Son to bear the sword of justice so guilty sinners may go free and live, that if they come to Christ in repentance He will receive them and recreate them in His image as partakers of the divine nature.
It sums the last six of the ten holy precepts defining duty to fellow people, while love to God sums the first four defining duty to God, together revealing the whole duty of the human family. Those last six were proclaimed by God in awful majesty amid thundering and lightning from Mount Sinai, given in love to elevate and ennoble humanity and requiring perfection of character and unswerving obedience. Together the two form one unchanging sacred whole engraved on stone, joined by one root so neither can be separated from the other and keeping one while breaking the other is impossible. Every other scriptural command is amplification of them, and no commandment can be broken without violating their principle. Loving others as self follows from giving God the heart's supreme love, for love for God includes love for people made in His image and leads to loving the neighbor impartially. In the light of Christ's self-sacrificing life and death this command gains fuller meaning, calling His followers to love one another as He loved them, which degraded man weakened by sin cannot render of himself, so God gave His only-begotten Son to live the law in humanity and bring power to overcome sin so that by partaking of His divine nature men may live it.
It carries in itself the binding force of the whole law and of all the moral precepts found in the prophets, and with love to God belongs in full force in the New Testament and in the gospel, so that when these two are brought into the gospel all that hangs upon them is also brought in. God thereby gave mankind a clear definite standard by which to form character, distinctly stating what must be done to render acceptable obedience and what must not be done to remain loyal, spoken with audible voice in awful grandeur from Sinai so nothing about salvation is left obscure, and provided with a living exemplification as determined in the councils of heaven. This requirement is part of the law's broad standard of righteousness which binds all people and prohibits every evil thing, holding the commandments together as a sacred whole that is unchanging and eternal and tests whether a person is obedient. The same principle runs through every commandment, so keeping one precept while breaking another is not obedience to the whole law, and human destiny is determined by obedience to it for rich and poor alike. Loving others as self means showing true benevolence in daily life and not merely professing it, for neglecting this duty misrepresents the principles of the Ten Commandments and breaking the last six through unkind words or actions means one cannot truthfully claim to serve God acceptably.
It was required of Israel centuries before through Moses and through the prophets to do justly and love mercy and walk humbly with God, to fear God and walk in His ways and love and serve Him with all heart and soul and keep His commandments for good, to be kept in the heart and passed from parents to children. It was repeated from age to age to those in danger of falling into formalism and forgetting mercy in order to urge practical godliness. Christ gave this same divine instruction on earth, affirming the right answer that doing it leads to life. His answer about loving neighbor as self was among plain intelligent answers to questions meant to entangle Him, bringing precious light to the people and sowing seeds of truth the Jewish people had received but failed to put into practice.
It is the spirit and life of the commandments, their spiritual substance and not a substitute or outward ceremony, expressing God's character which the law reflects and remains binding. The law is founded on love with universal claim which human enactments must not replace, reaching inward to thoughts, purposes and motives so outward obedience without love is not accepted. Keeping the law outwardly while ignoring love for others leaves its principles unheeded, and loving self while lacking true love for others is transgression leaving a person out of harmony with heaven and unfit for its kingdom. Christ's teaching therefore exposes religious formalism and human traditions that neglect spiritual worship, while its principles when followed guide Christian character and bring happiness. Keeping its commandments including the neighbor-loving duties expressed in the last six is the whole duty of humanity.
It belongs to a test of loyalty or transgression, obedience or disobedience, where harvest corresponds to seed sown and probation is given to test, for God will not compel obedience. Love for God is impossible while breaking the fourth commandment which stands in the center of the decalogue, and refusing to keep the Sabbath when duty is pointed out shows lack of true love; those entrusted with sacred things who claim love without obedience do not have the love of God perfected in them and by decreeing His law unworthy to be kept make enemies of Him. God's people are to be as a family of obedient children with filial not slavish fear before Him, walking in the light in harmony with His requirements when duty is pointed out, with reward promised to the obedient and punishment to the disobedient, defining duty and the path to eternal life by keeping the commandments and fitting for eternal life. Keeping His commandments with love to God gives right to the tree of life and entry through the gates into the city, meaning self-denial and self-sacrifice for the salvation of others in warning those perishing in sin and showing them the way of salvation in Christ. The annoyances of living in a fallen world do not cancel that duty or need to discourage the one who loves God and neighbor.
By the law is the knowledge of sin and sin is transgression of the law, and it is for present and eternal interest to have proper understanding of its far-reaching principles contained in these two commands. As intelligent creatures people may know and do this will of God or refuse to submit their finite will to the Infinite, a responsibility that should fill them with awe. It belongs to the law of love where fidelity to God includes fidelity to neighbor, protecting each person's rights and individuality, restraining oppression and disobedience, and promoting human well-being and the stability of society.
Joined to Love for God
Love for neighbor cannot be separated from supreme love for God, for the two great principles share one root and form one joined duty on which the law and the prophets rest. Giving God the heart's supreme love leads to loving those made in His image rightly and impartially, expressing the last six commandments as the first expresses the first four. Neither command can be kept while the other is broken, and no commandment can be broken without violating this principle, for breaking one violates the whole divine whole. When supreme love for God is neglected, obedience to love for neighbor becomes impossible, and breaking the last six through unkind, selfish words and actions, evil thoughts, failure to protect others' interests and to do as one would be done by, means no truthful claim to serve God acceptably can stand. This loyalty is tested by obedience or transgression, and the harvest corresponds to the seed sown.
Together with wholehearted love for God, love for neighbor as self sums what is required of all those created and redeemed, demanding the whole person with no divided heart and no mixed and uncertain motive. The claim rests on creation and redemption, because God made all there is of man and offered a complete sacrifice to redeem body and soul, and He will accept nothing less than this full love. The two together reveal the whole duty of the human family, with all the law and the prophets hanging on them, given in love to elevate and ennoble humanity and summing the last six and first four of the ten holy precepts proclaimed amid thundering and lightning from Sinai. They require perfection of character and unswerving obedience which man degraded and weakened by sin cannot render of himself, so God gave His only-begotten Son to live the law in humanity and bring power to overcome sin, that by partaking of His divine nature men may live it and through faith its righteousness be fulfilled in believers.
Loving God supremely naturally results in loving neighbor as self and treating fellows as they should be treated, for as godliness develops brotherly-kindness follows. Charity, or perfect love of God, is the crowning Christian grace and highest step in Bible sanctification, expressed in obedience to love one another as a step heavenward, in deep sincere interest in life's duties, and in using God-given abilities to bless others and draw them to Jesus. Such love depends on a heart filled with the love of Christ, without which true love for others is impossible, and faithfulness to God and obedience are bound up with it. The gospel sanctifies the soul by driving out self-love and self-sufficiency, changing even the rich to prefer Christ and love fellows.
With supreme love for God, love for neighbor is the only secure foundation and sure guide for building character, shown in Christ's life as safeguard for personal integrity, purity of the home, society's well-being and the nation's stability. It is the real essence of education, called Higher Education, learned by studying the Bible intelligently and gaining knowledge from the Word of the living God, and it stands as one of the two principles on which hang all the law and the prophets. It marks a life shaped by truth, a balanced complete character expressing the whole duty of the fallen race with perfect character shown in supreme love to God and unselfish love to others, and a converted person living it does the grandest missionary work as a mark of pure undefiled religion. Those striving for the overcomer's reward put these principles into practice, the Holy Spirit removing selfishness, self-sufficiency and self-esteem to create a precious bond of unity, and those made alive by the Spirit communicate that spiritual and heavenly affection to others.
This united love proves correct relation to God and must abide in the heart as a principle of truth, righteousness and mercy received through hourly contact and earnest communion with God and drinking deeper from the Fountainhead. It must be learned as the first principle of truth before teaching others, and must become an inward, deep, vital transforming principle, not empty acknowledgment, with new holy affection expelling the old from the soul temple and the grace of Christ welcomed as constraining power bringing every faculty of mind and body into subjection to Christ's service. When perfected in the human soul it sanctifies soul, body and spirit and fulfills the love of God, which is the whole duty of man and the gospel's victory, with the Word working age to age to make it practical through growth in every good work from small beginnings. So kept, it brings tastes, appetites, habits and passions under the Spirit's control, gives depth of piety, discernment and enlightenment to decide righteously in humanity, morals and religion rather than judging by habits, opinions, authority, prejudice, feeling or self-sufficiency, produces faith, meekness, temperance, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, love, joy and peace, pledges honor to God by upholding His law, and gives light and heavenly knowledge to share with faith working by love to purify the soul and lead others to obey.
Failure to love neighbor as self with supreme love for God leaves the heart unchanged and corrupted and brings judgment, to be weighed in the balances of the sanctuary and pronounced wanting at the grand review, which is to be wanting forever. Such failure condemns prejudice of physicians against fellow physicians who practice differently, the persecuting spirit toward dissenters, bitterness of one denomination against another claiming no other can be right, striving to be first, dissecting character, dwelling on faults, picking at trivial things, destroying the good impression of the word, laying snares by word, act or deportment, and turning warfare against fellow believers, which is feeding on detested character from which angels turn. It shows supreme love has not yet been learned, seen in putting wonderful confidence in finite erring man, depending on mortal wisdom, looking to one man to think and be conscience, and letting human words make God's messages of none effect. The remedy is thorough conversion to the meek and lowly spirit instead of Phariseeism and self-exaltation, turning over a new leaf, uniting the heart with Christ, recognizing every believer as precious with harm to suffering humanity charged as done to Christ, ceasing from man, putting whole trust in the living God, seeking wisdom from Him, standing as faithful sentinel allowing no interference in relation to God, and turning warfare against spiritual wickedness instead of flesh and blood to strengthen one another, receive power and grace, draw sap as branches of one vine, reveal Christ's life and bear much fruit.
Joined with love for Jesus with heart and mind and soul, love for neighbor as self gives a wide field in which to use ability and influence, so no one needs to live a narrow life but can make life broad and influential. It belongs to the great commandment of love that is the light by which the gospel is understood, requiring pure, unselfish, sanctified love like Christ's. True disciples reflect it by refusing deceptive acts or self-serving choices that bring others into distress.
Neighbor Measure and Scope
Love for neighbor is measured by the care a person has for self, requiring the same considerateness, justice and respect one wants for self in words, decisions and actions. Doing to others as one would have them do to oneself expresses this love, and it is the same principle as the Golden Rule shown in everyday conduct through kind words, thoughtful acts, politeness and hospitality. Together with supreme love for God it belongs to the whole duty of humanity, the second great commandment inseparable from the first, reaching all people and forming complete Christian character. It requires rejecting selfishness and evil thoughts and words, treating others with kindness, gentleness and forbearance while carefully protecting their interests, refusing to benefit self at another's disadvantage, refusing to exalt self as privileged and look down on others as of no value, esteeming others better than self, and refusing to join any ring or party that connives at evil however trivial it seems. It belongs to the last six precepts of the law kept as a living rule in the sanctuary of the soul rather than a dead letter, so that breaking them by unkind words or actions means one cannot truthfully claim to serve God acceptably and misrepresents, betrays and shames Christ's character. Those who so treat others as they wish to be treated come where God can reveal Himself, are approved by Him and made perfect in love, receive grace and truth and pass on divine light and salvation, with fruitful work and prayers bearing holiness unto everlasting life, shown in actively helping people in need by compassionate action not mere talk or profession, which is true missionary work and living the gospel.
Neighbor is anyone needing mercy regardless of religious belief, country, creed, race or social standing, including friends, neighbors, strangers, fellow workers, mission fields at home and abroad, relatives, fallen brethren, and the unconverted from whom Christians are not to withdraw but whom they are to win by consistent example and teaching. Christ explained this to the lawyer by the traveler from Jerusalem to Jericho who fell among thieves and was robbed, beaten and left half dead, where the priest and Levite saw suffering, felt no response to its wants and passed by on the other side, breaking the commandment and representing a class in the church indifferent to those needing sympathy and help. The Samaritan did not question relationship, country or creed but went to work, relieved him, bound wounds, put him on his own beast, carried him to an inn and provided for his wants at his own expense even when uninviting, inconvenient, costly and anxious, and is neighbor to him representing true helpers with Christ imitating His example in doing good. Every person who needs help one can bestow is neighbor, especially widows and orphans, the blind, deaf, lame and afflicted in various ways placed in close Christian relationship to the church to prove His people and develop true character while angels watch how they are treated, and a debt of love, kindness, interest, sympathy and disinterested benevolence is due to Christ in their behalf. Such practical mercy without passing a needy brother by to favor others is keeping God's commandments and expressing love for God as well as for people, which pleases God when good is done to one another, and hatred or narrow views violate it.
The command states a positive duty not an optional act for convenience, calling for thoughtful care, practical help in need, relief for the oppressed and encouragement, and when one has means to help action is to be without hesitation. Love is shown through sympathy and fair impartial treatment especially toward the needy, by sacrificing ease, pleasure and convenience, bearing burdens and accepting inconvenience to do good rather than self-caring or avoiding unpleasant duties, with Christ's unselfish life as the pattern which selfishness prevents fulfilling. Each person must work to lessen others' troubles and increase their blessings, with greater duty on those able to resist temptation to help the weak, those with knowledge to teach the ignorant, and those with worldly goods to aid the poor, sharing whatever good one has including the bread of life with all within influence. Watchfulness for opportunities brings deeds of mercy, tender forethought and Christian courtesy for the burdened and oppressed, bringing joy and blessing, and where nothing more can be done speaking words of courage and hope to those unacquainted with God who are reached most easily by sympathy and love, with promises of light in obscurity, continual guidance and spiritual refreshing. Such compassionate action not mere talk is keeping the law and true missionary work, evidencing wholehearted love for God by caring for souls not in Christ and using influence to bring them to decision for truth, to stand on the platform of eternal truth, and to heaven.
Loving neighbor means more than merely tolerating, more than a general kindly feeling or occasional money to the poor and contributions to public funds while self remains supreme, which does only part of duty. It requires dethroning self and putting self second instead of first, renouncing selfishness and recognizing others as members of one human family and as brothers and sisters together in God's family as Christ intends His children to regard each other. It means considering others just as good and deserving of conveniences, comforts and happiness as self, esteeming and treating them with the love, kindness, humility, tenderness, patience, pity and sympathy one would want, even when fellow believers fail expectations, being a comfort and blessing rather than only expecting it, taking the mind off self to become one with Christ. This shapes even prayer to include neighbors and not seek blessings for self alone, guides practical plans and use of entrusted resources to share fairly so fellow workers have a fair chance, refusing selfishness, covetousness and keeping everything under one's own control, and requires steady earnest self-discipline to become self-reliant, less self-caring, uncomplaining, cheerful and grateful in wholeness of character and true sanctification exemplifying Jesus.
The command is a plain duty and obligation in the clearly set out plan of salvation, one of the two great principles on which the law and the prophets depend, like the first, and those who hear and do find the way of salvation. Christ affirmed it as the right answer to what the law requires and what to do to inherit eternal life, saying do this and live, so doing it gives life, eternal life and inheritance of eternal life. Obeyed and practiced it overcomes temptations of satanic agencies and contains the wisdom and power of God, with power given through believing and receiving Christ to live it as sons of God. It is good fruit showing love for Christ and among the clearest evidences and daily witnesses of true religion to the world, forming character in this world acceptable in heaven and sanctifying through truth into fitness above, while failure in managers of God's institutions, whose connection with His work must increase practical piety, mercy, long-suffering, goodness, tender-heartedness, pity, courtesy and Christlikeness, brings condemnation proportioned to responsibility and harmful example misrepresenting the Father, which God will vindicate with judgment clear as light and righteousness as noonday.
This love is to be practiced through forgiveness, tender sympathy and the love Christ has shown, owed to everyone encountered whether friend or foe, acquaintance or stranger. Christ's union with humanity makes it possible to unite with divine power and love one another with His love.
Christ Pattern Higher Love
The second great commandment stands like the first command to love God with all heart and soul and mind, and together love for God and love for neighbor with the same care as for self uphold all the law and the prophets. This love is shown in God giving His Son to bear the sword of justice so guilty sinners may go free and live, and it belongs to the message to be borne to perishing souls in their sins that if they come to Christ in repentance He will receive them and recreate them in His image as partakers of the divine nature. In the light of Christ's self-sacrificing life and death the summing of the last six commandments in this love gains a fuller meaning, calling His followers to love one another as He loved them, and His life and work provide the light by which people can see how far they fall short. Keeping it means unselfish love made visible in character, words and actions, even at the cost of sacrifice to help people leave sin and accept truth, so that a life shaped by it commends the faith to others. It means being merciful and compassionate as the Father and Christ are merciful, with kindly interest that binds up the wounds of those pursued and left half dead by the destroyer and heals the bruises sin has made, with forgiving mercy, truth and sympathy in affliction. Those who do this are Christ's ministers in partnership with Him, God is revealed through them as merciful, good and forgiving, God in Christ gives inexhaustible bounties of love and mercy and invites all to share His glory, and the bliss of heaven is provided for every soul who loves God supremely and fellow men as self, in cheerful performance of daily duties and cooperation with Christ in redemption as His friends who receive from His treasurehouse and share joy made full.
The call to love one's neighbor as self is not the full standard, for Christ's command to love one another as He loved His disciples calls for a still higher, unselfish love. Christ's death revealed the depth of that love, which does not depend on praise, affection or appreciation, but is given because people belong to Christ who purchased them. Reflecting Christ means advancing beyond loving as self to loving as Christ loved, which is the perfection of Christian character to be obtained by every child of God, for without it none can be perfect before God and without it the candlestick will be removed no matter how active or hardworking one is. This genuine religion brings sanctifying influence into all thought, word and deed, discharging the duties God lays on a person, keeping the heart free from every scheme of selfishness and purging all that savors of selfishness, striving lawfully in right work and allowing not one thread of selfishness to be drawn into any business transaction or line of service, and it prepares for heaven where there is no striving for first place or supremacy and envy and jealousy have no place in a heart where Christ is present.
Loving others as self means not living to please and gratify self but doing others good as Christ did when He lived not to please Himself. It is the work of real missionaries working the works of Christ while serving God with undivided affection, yet few do this and few serve with undivided affection. Following Christ in this love is done now in obedience as part of fighting the good fight of faith, where Satan's power is great but angels assist those who walk in obedience in their work, with the best intellect, confessing Christ to the world. This love shapes the daily record going up to heaven and determines whether a person wins the eternal weight of glory, condemnation is measured according to light received, and faithfulness to trust receives eternal life with joy when Christ comes from heaven in the clouds.
This love comes from beholding the cross of Calvary as the pledge of boundless love and measureless mercy, and from repenting and doing the first works of loving God supremely and neighbor as self to restore first love. When it is kept harsh strife ends, divisions are healed, strife ceases, and believers become one even as Christ and the Father are one, with peace, love, mercy and benevolence as abiding principles and the love of Christ revealed in oneness. Keeping it answers the prayer of Christ that His disciples be one as He and the Father are one, expels Pharisaism and self-righteousness, and proves to the world that God sent His Son through the oneness and unity of the Spirit in the remnant church. Waning love for God causes loss of love for brethren and the springing up of love of self in its place, and restoration comes only through grace freely given and the Holy Spirit shedding the love of God abroad in the heart, regenerating all in the image of Christ and uniting them to Him as living branches to the living Head.
Transformed Character Holiness
The command requires devotion of body, mind and soul to unselfish service, for the whole person belongs to God as Creator and redeemed by complete sacrifice, and He accepts no divided heart and nothing less than this full love. Loving in this way makes a blessing of the one who serves while blessing others, bringing the highest development and culture of every faculty, fitting for heaven as heaven takes root in the heart and making partakers of the divine nature. Gatherings for amusement that confuse faith and make the motive mixed and uncertain, and entangling engagements that cripple usefulness, stand against this undivided love. Even lawful and honest business becomes sinful when excessive labor and care wear down mind and body until this love is disregarded, absorbing the devotion, time and thought that belong to God and others.
The love commanded is a precious gift received from Jesus and taught by the Holy Spirit, pure and holy affection that is principle and not feeling, neither unreasonable nor blind nor sickly sentimental and impure. It flows from loving God supremely and from coming to Christ and yielding to His control, creating unity of heart and purpose that answers His prayer for oneness and gives a pure atmosphere in which the Spirit works with greater power for saving, restoring influence. Coming from the Spirit it is not limited to those who favor us or to our own household but reaches the whole world, shaping character, governing impulses, subduing enmity, ennobling affection, and making life a blessing after Christ's example of living and suffering for others' good, deepening without limit without harming body or mind.
Keeping the command means bringing truth into the sanctuary of the soul and keeping the law as a living rule rather than a dead letter, with entire conformity to the will of God, diligence in making calling and election sure, ceasing to watch others to keep jealous watch over self, and blessing others by godly example, cheerfulness, fortitude, courage, faith, hopefulness, joy and perfect trust in God through sanctification by the truth. The law can be obeyed only when written on the heart, and truth as it is in Jesus enables doing good to those around, while genuine faith works through love and purifies the soul with self crucified, for without love for God and neighbor there is no favor or salvation and the divine image is not restored while self is fostered. Sanctification through the truth by the Spirit gives a sensitive conscience that strips away ambition contending for supremacy and selfish covetousness, condemning grasping all that can be obtained from the treasury in large wages while brethren laboring just as hard under wear and pressure receive little more than half, thereby depriving others of due wages and showing blindness and detrimental influence.
It is shown in self-denial: ruling the spirit when passion strives for mastery, resisting temptation to censure and fault-finding, patiently bearing with a dull and trying child and difficult people, standing at the post of duty even when others fail, and lifting responsibilities wherever duty requires not for applause or policy but for the Master with unwavering fidelity. It means doing good when inclination leads to serve and please self, serving without seeking praise or advantage, and working patiently and cheerfully even when efforts seem unappreciated, with no limit to influence in continuous persevering work like Christ who did not weary in saving the fallen, working and waiting submissive to God's will and ready to spring to duty until bidden to lay armor down. This love as principle of action restrains enmity and selfish pride and produces patience, mercy, forgiveness and self-sacrifice, extending broadly so others' interests matter, and leads to self-sacrificing work guided by Christ's example and God's will as evidence of love for God.
Together with supreme love for God it shapes a Christlike character and gives influence to do good, as beholding Christ transforms life and character to live purely for His sake by faith. When the indwelling Saviour supplies a pure current of love in place of self and the holy principles of the Word rule the life, moral taste is refined and elevated, passions are brought under control through wearing Christ's righteousness, and the gospel is lived in love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, with flesh and its affections and lusts crucified. Selfishness and disobedience fail this requirement, and the Spirit's renewing work delivers from bondage to self and changes character.
The converted love the neighbor as self with abiding principle from God flowing from supreme love and gratitude and shaped by the cross, the grandest missionary work and mark of pure undefiled religion by which the Spirit makes alive and communicates love to others. It replaces selfishness, pride, harshness, insistence on opinion, jealousy, hatred and rivalry with Christlike tenderness, patience, goodness, meekness and unselfish care, putting aside selfish pleasure, convenience and advantage as evidence of love for God and life in the light. Such a one is kind, humble and thoughtful of others' happiness rather than harsh or dictatorial and rather than denying responsibility like Cain, and this changed life places Christians on vantage ground.
Without this love profession, prayer and touches of religious duty are only leaves and thinking oneself religiously right is Phariseeism, while with deep abiding love for God within, unselfish daily deeds without pay are the fruit showing true Christianity and the correct standard. It is the test distinguishing true religion from counterfeit, known by fruits and daily applied by asking whether love for God and truth and for neighbor is revealed, shining amid life's activities and everyday contact in deeds running like a thread of gold through experience and not closed away from disagreeable duties, in place of supreme self-love seeking its own enjoyment, disregarding others' good and hating opposers. Keeping it with love to God as a law of love restores the divine image through constant beneficence and self-denial for truth, and lives of such obedience give worldlings convincing evidence that faith works by love and frees from selfishness, making a contagious impression. It comes from responding to great love and infinite sacrifice with conviction of weakness and sinfulness, forming Christlikeness by godliness, wearing His yoke and carrying His burden in willing service, while serving and glorifying self through self-indulgence and self-sufficiency, even with theory of truth, misrepresents Christ, misuses talents, refuses sacrifice, leaves the soul destitute of grace and decides destiny to depart.
Speech Unity Fellowship
Loving a neighbor as oneself forbids criticizing, finding fault, condemning and disparaging another, and stands as the standard by which such conduct is judged. It is broken nearly every day when little love is shown through suspicion and distrust, thinking the worst of believing brethren, watching for evil in order to criticize, and chronic objection and fault-finding that destroys mutual confidence, a failure found in all but about one in a thousand. Dissecting character, dwelling on faults and mistakes, picking at trivial things, destroying the good impression of God's word, and laying snares by words, actions or deportment turns the weapons of warfare against fellow believers who bear God's truth. Such faultfinding feeds on detested character from which angels turn away, and dwelling on differences of opinion with disregard and contempt for the ideas of others in order to appear wise, or giving way to envy, jealousy, suspicion and complaint, breaks the commandments and shows failure to love both God and fellow people. Obedience requires turning over a new leaf, plucking up roots of bitterness, cultivating love like a tender plant until it governs mind and heart, uniting and knitting the heart with Christ, recognizing every believer as precious to Him so that harm to suffering humanity counts as done to Christ, showing mutual honor, respect, tenderness, confidence, pity and courtesy, guarding one another's interests, speaking and acting to heal rather than create strife, directing sensitivity to keeping the law rather than taking offense, and turning warfare against principalities and spiritual wickedness instead of flesh and blood.
Idle harmful whispering, spreading evil reports and bringing reproach on another are ruled out, for speech is a precious gift to bless others and glorify God, not to injure souls. Those who so love close their ears to reports that injure a neighbor and stop taking up a reproach against a neighbor. They guard speech, refuse to injure a fellow believer's reputation, and refuse suspicion and complaint.
Joined with supreme love for God, this love covers the whole ground of God's requirements and, if obeyed, would remove discord in church and family. It naturally produces oneness in Christ with no need of labored efforts to be in unity, binding people in union with one another and the whole in oneness with Christ in God. Church members cherish love and unity as one great family, guard one another's interests instead of contending and tearing one another, and thereby bear the divine credentials before the world that God sent His Son to die to restore His moral image in man. Discarding these two great principles for the sophistries of the deceiver brings discouragement, spiritual ill-health, and, when selfishness enters, makes centers of self from egotism and uncontrolled wills and violent passions, causing distrust, crime, divided kingdoms, broken brotherhood, confusion, betrayal, secret plotting, destruction and misery, with hand against fellow, brother against brother, sister against sister, and parents and children against each other, which Christians must take as object lessons to avoid the first step toward selfish principles entering the church.
Cold, distant, unsocial manner is incompatible with the command and withholds from neighbors the love owed them, while affectionate hearts and truthful loving words foster happiness and uplift others. Together with supreme love for God it fulfills the law, honors God, and brings peace on earth and goodwill toward people, and loving one another with Christ's love marks purity and charity. This love is shown in conduct through kind words, thoughtful acts, politeness, hospitality and courteous acts, the same principle as the golden rule, so that everyday behavior gives clear evidence of obedience and Christians dishonor Christ when conduct fails to match profession.
Respect for other people's opinions, rights and valued independence is required, rather than forcing them to conform, and this calls for substantial work. Fairness must guide treatment even of those whose views differ, forbidding misrepresentation of another's words and requiring the spirit of Christ alongside supreme love and obedience. Dwelling on differences with disregard and contempt to appear wise breaches the law, while refusing a self-centered course means considering how a movement affects brethren, the church and God's appointed instrumentalities and weighing its consequences on self, character and others. Pursuing private interests, gaining sympathy to set up a rival work, securing advantages to the disadvantage of God's institution, dishonoring God, hindering His work, and sowing dissension that brings the church into temptation, suspicion and distrust violates this love, for love is heavenly in origin, must be nurtured, cannot coexist with coldness, and its affectionate hearts and truthful words bring happiness to families and influence others for good.
The claims of humanity rest on every person together with the claims of God, forbidding shutting self up to self and subordinating spiritual and eternal interests to selfish worldly interests. The command requires cultivating the social elements of human nature, associating to strengthen and encourage one another in God's service, living in sympathy as children of one Father mutually dependent for happiness, and finding happiness in efforts to bless others. Neglecting this fellowship is loss: truths of God's word lose vividness and importance, the heart ceases to be enlightened and aroused by sanctifying influence, and spirituality declines. In social associations Jesus must be taken along, making the saving of companions the object of fellowship and speaking to hearts and consciences of those ready to perish and in danger, which is beyond the power of one who does not surrender all for Christ, while gatherings given to wit, merriment, feasting and gratification of the senses with no reference to Christ and no benefit to soul do not obey the divine precept that must govern life with witness for Christ as a peculiar people zealous of good works.
Love for neighbor as self must be as genuine and complete as love for self, and is essential to Christian character and church unity. When members fail in it they become vulnerable to Satan's influence, instruments of Satan obstructing God's purposes, opposing His purposes and placing stumbling blocks before others.
Honesty in Business Dealings
Loving one's neighbor as oneself tests Christian character in business and the pursuit of wealth, requiring honesty and fairness in small and great matters as part of the last six commandments and among the weightier requirements of the law that must not be neglected for outward religious duties. It rules out avarice, overreaching, dishonesty, unjust weights and measures, and spending the Lord's money for self-indulgence or extravagance where economy is needed to advance His work. It is shown positively in upright dealings and moral integrity, in industry, frugality and economy joined with kindness, humility, forbearance and generosity, which reveal Christlike character, serve God, and bless self and society, though resisting temptation to dishonesty requires divine aid. In all business transactions every sharp transaction and bargain made to advantage self to another's disadvantage violates the command and God's law, and those who do it are registered as transgressors even if they handle sacred things. Such keen dealings are dishonest in God's sight even when men do not call them dishonest, and workers in God's work cannot dishonor His name more decidedly.
Keeping the command requires daily walking with God, representing Christ in spirit, temper, deportment and business, practicing noble integrity, and inspiring sound confidence in piety and purity of principles instead of showing a stern, iron-hearted, unfeeling, cold, unloving spirit that proves lack of Christianity and endangers souls. Joined with loving God, it sums the law and the prophets and condemns selfish gain that knowingly advantages self while harming a neighbor. Seeking personal gain by disadvantaging others violates it whether the neighbor is believer or unbeliever, requiring strict integrity and fair treatment without partiality or favoring one at another's expense. It requires fair, generous treatment including willingness to favor a poor brother rather than deal with him no better than with a wealthy man of the world, for selfishness contradicts this love while disinterested benevolence pleases God.
Transformed persons treat others in business as they would wish to be treated rather than taking advantage for personal gain. The command is broken when gospel workers mingle scheming, buying and selling with their work, labor to obtain advantage for themselves, are allured by buying for less and selling for more than value, and become regarded as sharpers who gain for themselves without considering others' cases. Instead it requires considering the case of others rather than seeking advantage for self, which is keeping God's commandments. Love must shape business and every line of work so financial interests do not crowd it out, and God's cause must never be used as excuse for oppression or suffering, but those handling sacred work must act with the tenderness, compassion, purity and fairness shown by Christ.
It forbids diverting mission funds to ambitious designs, mingling human wisdom with the divine, confusing minds about right and holy methods, unjustly acquiring means at another's expense, oppressing brother or neighbor, and practicing any method to please lust for gain and power on the principle that gain is godliness. Failure there proves failure to meet the holy standard of character and proves the holy law and its explanation in the pure gospel given upon the Mount have not been learned. Keeping it demands repentance and conversion, works worthy of the Christian name, and cleansing and purging of the soul temple. In every transaction it requires equity in judgment with no injustice, oppression, deception, double-dealing or selfish advantage, forbids threads of selfishness such as receiving large wages and seeking to be keen and sharp for financial interest, and forbids letting business crowd out love.
It requires tender, pure, true, compassionate hearts like Christ, showing courtesy, regard, sympathy, kind words and tangible help to those needing help, to the erring and to the needy who do not seem deserving, not only to a few thought deserving. In daily work it is shown by willingly doing small humble services that must be done, improving little opportunities, refusing waste and idleness, not stopping to ask whether work brings much or little, but doing the work and accepting wages offered instead of refusing for want of higher wages. The Lord judges character by principles followed in dealing with fellow men, so defective principles in common business are woven into the whole religious life and carried into spiritual service. If a man feels it beneath dignity to work for small wages for self, neighbor love will lead him to work for the Master and give earnings into the Lord's treasury as gratitude offering for life spared.
It must shape every action and transaction including urgent efforts to raise funds and readiness to help in emergencies without oppression, so God's law and character are honored. True sanctification gives a sensitive conscience that strips away ambition contending for supremacy and selfish covetousness, ruling out selfishly taking excessive wages from the Lord's treasury when other workers labor just as hard but receive less, since this deprives them of what they should receive. For workers it requires the principle of equality: emptying the heart of selfishness, humbling self before God, not grasping every obtainable dollar or taking the highest wages position seems to entitle. It forbids taking large unrighteous wages while fellow laborers doing just as much and as faithful work in much harder fields with far fewer advantages receive only half, depriving them of means they should have.
Those who place high estimate on own merits and take large salaries break it and will be regarded as least in final rewards, while those working earnestly, faithfully and unselfishly for small wages keep it and will receive highest reward from Him who makes no false estimate. Love applied to wages prevents those receiving high salaries from taking money needed by equally faithful coworkers and destitute fields, calls for fairness, self-denial, considering necessities of those breaking unworked fields, seeing many unworked fields and need of money to lift truth's standard in new places, and not daring to use means God designed for destitute fields. Kept truly it opens eyes to the large work of preaching the gospel to all the world. Those demanding highest wages for themselves while limiting pay of workers whose hearts are in the work are not loving neighbors as themselves, and such selfish unequal treatment violates love and justice.
Together with loving God supremely it forbids establishing a rival medical institution immediately beside the Lord's sanitarium and drawing its patients away by allowing flesh-meat contrary to health reform principles. Establishing a medical institution so close to another sanitarium that it hinders its work violates love shown in practical choices, which belongs with loving God supremely and calls for mercy, judgment and love of God. Obeying requires conversion of heart and mind to carry out God's word, acting in fair Christlike manner, harmonizing with neighbors, and if unable to blend, moving to one of many other places available. In God's work it means refusing to scheme for advantage, act meanly, or harm another branch, conference, institution or individual for personal gain, requiring whole-hearted sympathy, generosity, tenderness and unselfishness.
Fellow laborers are neighbors in a special sense and must be loved as self, including recognizing others' ability to use resources wisely and not concentrating money and control at one center while fields ready for harvest go without support. It belongs with loving God supremely and proves correct relation to Him, meaning refusal of self-centered course, considering how a movement affects brethren, church and God's appointed instrumentalities, and weighing consequences on self, character and others. Pursuing private interests, gaining sympathy to set up rival work, securing advantages to disadvantage of God's institution, dishonoring God, hindering His work, sowing dissension, and bringing church into temptation, suspicion and distrust violates this love. Christian love is Christlike, meek and gentle, putting aside selfish pleasure, convenience and advantage, rejecting jealousy, hatred and treating others as rivals, as evidence of love for God and life in the light.
Love for neighbor must guide use of resources in God's work, forbidding selfishly using more than needed for one part when doing so deprives other places of facilities and means to advance the cause. Building expensively or taking on debt others should not imitate violates the principle; resources should be used with regard for interests of the whole work and for neighbors' ability to serve. It forbids selfish plans that deprive others of facilities needed to serve and represent truth, forbids concentrating funds in few places, and requires regard for needs of the whole field so other parts of the vineyard have facilities to do their part. Giving resources to sustain God's work and establish institutions in needy fields demonstrates love for neighbor.
Joined with supreme love to God it requires stewards to use entrusted money unselfishly, binding about selfish plans helping only self and own place, restricting self-interest, and investing means so plants producing abiding fruit are set out in different parts of the world because Christ died for the world. It rules out acting by worldly standards or entering arrangements that weaken usefulness, harm influence, or damage another's confidence in God's work, calling for careful conduct toward others.
Wealth Generosity and Mercy
The second great commandment on which the last six commandments hang means seeing and supplying the wants of fellow men, and the young ruler who thought he had kept what was quoted to him had in fact failed to keep those six because he failed in this love. His supreme love of riches shut his eyes to the wants of his fellow men, and when he was told to give to the poor his possessions were touched and his idol pointed out. His refusal showed his heart was on his treasure and swallowed up with earthly possessions, loving possessions better than God and better than heavenly treasure, proving him destitute of love for both man and God. Weighed in the balances of the sanctuary by this true standard and law of righteousness he was found wanting and alienated from God, going away sorrowful because he would not release selfish possession to follow Christ.
Loving riches better than fellow men shuts the eyes to their wants and makes eternal life impossible, for no one can keep riches and have treasure in heaven too. Love for riches cannot dwell with love for Jesus in the same heart, and the rich man whose ground brought forth plentifully broke this second great principle together with supreme love for God by withholding God's tenth, disregarding God's law, and storing fruits in greater barns instead of giving. When truth set home by the Spirit crowds out the love of riches, affection is transferred to God and love to God and fellow men predominates. Then the possessor breaks away from riches, holds all he has as not his own bounty lent by God, faithfully discharges duty as God's steward, finds highest pleasure in making a right disposition of his Lord's goods to meet the wants of God's cause and supply the necessities of needy brethren, and in this way alone keeps the last six commandments with love to God so that a rich man can enter the kingdom and inherit everlasting life. God tests the rich to see whether they love neighbor as self by using wealth to benefit others and glorify God, for earthly riches have value when so used but must not become portion, god, or savior, and this love shapes right valuing of entrusted wealth and refusal to serve money for selfish purposes while neglecting God.
Keeping the commandment means loving fellows more than riches, using wealth to bless the needy and advance the work, valuing the salvation of fellow men above all gold and silver, and being rich toward God in good works. It is kept by using what one has, even when little, judiciously to bless others with means, in faith and confidence in God and trust in His love and care, with each penny spent in a way that honors God and benefits others and reveals whether one loves neighbor as self. It is broken by loving riches more than neighbor and God, hoarding means for the future from fear of want, putting trust in accumulated riches instead of faith in God and His promises, and becoming poor toward God. Money serves this love when it provides necessities, blesses others, and helps the hungry, thirsty, naked, oppressed, and sick, including giving resources to support God's work and meet needs in destitute fields.
The command is fulfilled by acts of generosity and benevolence designed to keep hearts tender and sympathetic and to encourage mutual interest and affection, for God by unseen providence lets misfortune overtake one brother while prospering another to test and prove men and reveal whether those He favors have His fear before their eyes and will help a poorer brother from love to do good. It is expressed in tender compassion to the Lord's poor and in doing good to all needy and suffering ones whose necessities come to knowledge and require notice, with particular compassion for God's worthy poor who are never to be passed by, alongside mercy, benevolence, and tender care for the poor, oppressed, hungry, and naked that gives truth significance and power with supreme love for God and obedience. It requires discerning the two classes always present — those who ruin themselves by their own independent course and continue in transgression, and those brought into straitened circumstances for the truth's sake, including daily suffering needy ones whose families may have to be provided for — and doing the right thing toward each under sound wisdom. That means helping the Lord's poor where it will be for their benefit, placing them where they can help themselves with the best methods carefully and prayerfully considered, keeping orphans, the poor, and aged children of God among members rather than removed in large numbers by themselves, denying luxuries, finery, and gold ornaments to make the suffering needy comfortable, then reaching farther to those not of the household of faith when they are proper subjects, without using charity as false pretense to reward doers of evil who ruined themselves through sinful indulgence, and meeting real needs with tender practical help such as denying unnecessary spending to provide clothing and necessities for needy fellow workers rather than criticizing their appearance or leaving them destitute. Such generous sympathy toward those who have made mistakes, with tender, humble, pitying heart, is not weakness but strength from Christ and part of fulfilling the whole law.
Unselfish love to neighbor, upon which the last six commandments hang and out of which they grow, means a debt of love, kindness, interest, sympathy, and disinterested benevolence is due in behalf of brethren, especially widows and orphans, the blind, the deaf, the lame, and persons afflicted in a variety of ways who are placed in close Christian relationship to the church to prove His people and develop true character, with angels watching how they are treated. Neighbor is anyone who needs help, as shown by the man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho who fell among thieves and was robbed, beaten, and left half dead. The priest and Levite who saw his suffering, felt no response to his wants, and passed by on the other side break the commandment and represent a class in the church indifferent to those needing sympathy and help, while the Samaritan who did not question relationship, country, or creed but went to work, relieved him, put him on his own beast, carried him to an inn, and provided for his wants at his own expense is neighbor to him and represents true helpers doing good at personal cost without seeking profit. This love means caring equally for the success and advantage of others, doing them strict justice, and refusing selfish rivalry, fault-finding, misrepresentation, opposition, or efforts to exalt self at their expense, which fosters Christian unity and harmony while its opposite creates division and alienation. It requires kindly interest that binds up the wounds of those pursued and left half dead by the destroyer and heals the bruises sin has made, with forgiving mercy, truth, and sympathy in affliction as the Father and Christ are merciful, and those who do this are ministers in partnership with Him through whom God is revealed as merciful, good, and forgiving, with the bliss of heaven provided for every soul who loves God supremely and fellow men as self.
Hoarding wealth while able to relieve others' needs fails to love neighbor as self, and withholding help from the poor, orphans, and widows is selfishness and sin charged as robbery toward God and oppression of the poor. Neglecting to make past wrongs right when truth makes duty clear violates this love even when one is otherwise generous and hospitable, for love calls for abandoning avarice and selfish love of gain. Failure to love with pure unselfish love that uses money and means lent in trust to bless others and relieve the poor shows failure to love God, perverts perception, hardens the heart, clouds understanding, leaves religious experience barren, keeps Christ from dwelling in the heart, and refuses His yoke and labor together with God. Instead of dispensing means to the poor, selfishness buries it in lands or stocks, spends it on self and children and relations, spends the Lord's money on self-indulgence when it should advance His work, and robs God in tithes and offerings so He receives neither interest nor principal. The last great day will reveal all the good that might have been done, and withholding brings eternal loss and loss of eternal inheritance in the kingdom of glory, while faithful love places treasure in the bank of heaven in bags that wax not old.
Love for neighbor requires caring for living people, so spending time, money, and effort to honor the dead while neglecting widows, orphans, the sick, and the poor violates this duty, and outward reverence cannot make up for refusing duties plainly enjoined with supreme love for God. Using time and money for needless display of dress instead of blessing others violates the duty expressed in the last six commandments, and gifts should be used in earnest efforts to help others know the truth.
Daily Service and Application
Loving one's neighbor as oneself calls for thoughtful, practical care, relief for the oppressed and encouragement for others, and when means are in hand help is to be given without hesitation. This love is shown by giving resources to sustain God's work and to establish institutions in needy and destitute fields ripe for harvest. It means putting money held in banks into circulation and using entrusted means to meet the needs of neglected fields, and neglecting fields ready for harvest brings condemnation. It also requires limiting personal spending to share with lacking fellow workers, and providing funds for missionary workers in Africa rather than drawing needed dollars away from them.
Obedience is more than profession of faith; it requires good works, self-denial, self-sacrifice and devotion to the good of others, including bringing people to the truth, for loving self more than God or neighbor fails the commandment. It appears in kind words, unselfish deeds, patience, gentleness and earnest effort to lead others to Christ. It requires faithfulness in ordinary and small duties as well as larger work, seeking opportunities to do good, reaching the minds and hearts of friends, and doing the work within reach for God's glory, which tests fidelity and keeps the soul warm. This love calls for using every power and action of the mind to do the greatest good, living not for self but by principle, ordering life with the welfare of fellow creatures in view, and using influence of word and action wisely because it affects others for good or evil.
It is lived in honesty, just and liberal dealing, truthful and elevating conversation, and sanctifying family influence that teaches respect for self, faithfulness to God and principle, and respect and obedience to God's law. When children and youth learn these principles in the Christian home they control life and association with others, create a pure atmosphere encouraging weak souls toward holiness and heaven, make the young a strength and not a burden in institutions, and prepare them for places of trust and for aiding others by precept and example. Genuine faith works by love and purifies the soul, self must be crucified lest sin remain and defile the whole person, and without love to God and neighbor there is no divine favor, no salvation unless Christ takes away loathed sin, and no restoration of the divine image while self is fostered without diligent cooperation with God. One who loves God supremely gives self to help others in self-sacrificing work after Christ's example and God's will, and earnest efforts for the needy show love for God and fellow beings. It is not fulfilled by general kindly feeling or occasional gifts to the poor and public funds while self remains supreme, but requires dethroning self and regarding one another as members together of God's family as Christ intends.
Love is to be holy and extend beyond a favored few, and when affection is first centered in God and purified by Him it becomes a yearning to draw the neglected nearer to the cross to share strengthening love. It is shown by being kind, humble and thoughtful of others' happiness rather than denying responsibility as Cain did, as fruit of genuine conversion influencing others for good. Joined to supreme love for God, both commands having been disobeyed, failure appears in dissecting character, dwelling on faults, picking at trivial things, destroying the good impression of God's word, and laying snares by word, action or deportment against fellow believers, which is feeding on detested character from which angels turn. Obedience requires turning over a new leaf, uniting and knitting the heart with Christ, recognizing every believer as precious to Him and harm to suffering humanity as done to Christ, so that believers strengthen one another, receive power, grace and Spirit, draw sap as branches of the same vine, reveal Christ's life and glory, bear much fruit of God's character, and turn warfare against principalities, powers and spiritual wickedness instead of flesh and blood. This duty laid on every human being belongs with love for God and is expressed through humility and benevolence, with grace received from God's Spirit passed on to others.
Keeping the command, which with supreme love for God is the fulfilling of the law and Christ's own command to love one another, means perfect obedience in cheerful performance of daily duties and cooperation with Christ in redemption, as Christ loved every soul and gave His life on the cross to save and draw all, for greater love has no one than laying down life for friends, and those who do what He commands are His friends, receive from His treasurehouse and share full joy of obedience. It comes from beholding Calvary as pledge of boundless love and measureless mercy and from repenting and doing first works, and when churches do this divisions are healed, strife ceases, and peace, love, mercy and benevolence become abiding principles of the soul. This answers Christ's prayer that disciples be one as He and the Father are one, restores first love, expels Pharisaism and self-righteousness, and proves to the world that God sent His Son through oneness and unity of the Spirit.
Love for neighbor joined to supreme love for God must shape life so that no believer is content to do nothing, but each has individual responsibility to work for others' salvation, giving body, soul and spirit in self-denial after Christ's example. In every business transaction it requires equity in judgment with no injustice, oppression, deception, double-dealing or selfish advantage, forbids using God's cause as excuse for oppression, forbids receiving large wages and sharp dealing for financial interest, and forbids letting business crowd out love. It requires tender, pure, true and compassionate hearts like Christ, showing courtesy, regard, sympathy, kind words and tangible help to the needy, the erring and those not seeming deserving, not only to a few thought deserving. Applied to wages it prevents those on high salaries from taking money needed by equally faithful coworkers and destitute fields, calling for fairness, self-denial and use of resources to support gospel work. It means being merciful and compassionate as the Father and Christ are merciful, with kindly interest binding up wounds of those left half dead by the destroyer and healing bruises made by sin, with forgiving mercy, truth and sympathy in affliction, and those who do this are Christ's ministers in partnership with Him through whom God is revealed as merciful, good and forgiving, with inexhaustible bounties of love and mercy and heaven's bliss provided for every soul loving God supremely and fellow men as self.
The religion of Christ's disciples is not outward observance but love for one another flowing from love to God, the true spirit of worship full of gratitude, humility, long-suffering, self-sacrifice, forbearance, mercy and forgiveness, extending influence over others, leading to active usefulness and sanctifying the whole life. Ability to keep it depends on using all God-given powers of mind and body rather than neglecting or misusing them. It makes believers better in every way, well-balanced Christians and not fanatics or extremists, shown in well-ordered lives and godly conversation, in lifting new responsibilities, and in holding faith steady when tested among unbelieving family and friends. It is the highest standard of character and test of sanctification by truth, required especially of those preaching truth, proving whether tastes are elevated, appetites controlled, sentiments noble, sympathy deep and strong, and purposes pure as laborers together with God.
For one in however responsible a position, loving God with all the heart and neighbor as self means following Christ's example, taking no glory to self, and as God's workmen bear responsibilities and burdens in the harvest field remembering true success comes from God alone and giving Him every particle of praise. Love to man joined to love to God is the necessary fruit and proof of true belief, refining and uplifting heart and life, balancing conscience, purifying heart, killing sin, cleansing soul from defilement and bearing fruit unto holiness in benevolence, kindness, tenderheartedness, sympathy, joy in right-doing and exalting Christ not self, by which true faith after God's order is known. Profession producing earthly impure speech, harshness and Pharisaism, partiality and hypocrisy lacks this love and proves faith after the order of him who delights in evil. This heaven-born, high, unselfish, unfeigned and fervent love is not unreliable sentimental feeling which is chaff, and is impossible by natural temperament because the human heart holds hereditary and cultivated partialities, lust for forbidden things and glorifying of self. It is practiced only when divine grace through spiritual enlightenment purifies mind and heart, when faith working by love purifies the soul from earthly dross, and when the person escapes worldly corruption through lust and becomes partaker of the divine nature and born of God, with character first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and hypocrisy, laying aside all malice, guile, hypocrisies, envies and evil speakings.
Love to God supremely and to neighbor as self, with heart cleansed from every idol and conscience void of offense, is required to receive heavenly treasures of immortal value, for if heaven is lost all is lost and failure in this love cannot be afforded, and it is given only to the self-denying and pure in heart. The second great commandment sums the last six commandments and requires loving neighbors truly, sincerely and wholeheartedly, for love is the basis of godliness and none has love to God apart from unselfish love for brother, and because God first loved us those loving God love all for whom Christ died. This love does not let the soul in greatest peril and need go unwarned, unlabored for and uncared for, and does not hold the erring off with criticism and exacting dealing or abandon them to further unhappiness, discouragement and falling on Satan's battleground, and God will deal with a person as that person deals with brethren and younger members of the Lord's family. It is the substance of faithfulness, is keeping God's commandments amid annoyances of a fallen world without discouragement because Christ has overcome the world, and requires earnestly contending for the faith once delivered to the saints with continual determined resistance, which cannot be fulfilled while the heart remains unconverted and out of living connection with the source of power, since Satan opposes this reformation with all his might over every inch of ground to prevent conformity to God's will and arrays himself against every decision to keep the way of the Lord and do justice and judgment. In a time of widespread disobedience and contempt for God's law it marks those who do not go with evil but esteem the law more as it is set aside, loving the commandments above gold, yea above fine gold, exalting them as contempt increases and praying for the Lord to work because men have made void His law.
Love measured by care for self, joined with supreme love for God, binds Christ's servants together with sacred responsibility to do individual part in keeping the church's saving principles alive and preserving God's love in the heart. It is the life of heaven where all love others as self with no envy, jealousy or struggling for first place or supremacy, but peace and rest, and loving one another as Christ loved proves the law is loved and Christ's love is in the heart and makes ready for heaven. Neighbor-love is to be cultivated continually and brings sunshine into the heart, belongs with supreme devotion to God, and is to be maintained through trials and difficulty. Following Christ in this love means working for the Master with best intellect, confessing Christ, walking in obedience and fighting the good fight of faith now against Satan's great power with angels assisting, and faithfulness in this trust receives eternal life with joy when Christ comes in the clouds. It also teaches work for others' salvation and practical well-being, including teaching useful skills and literacy by instruction and example.
Justice Health and Family
Love for neighbor requires the nation to make restitution to the colored race for slavery and to work to lessen its lasting effects, with even those who did not actively enforce it responsible to make special efforts to help. The colored people are neighbors in God's sight, so the command demands more than noticing or deploring their condition but working together to help them and share truth with them. Obeyed, this impartial love breaks down racial prejudice and separation between white and Black people in practical care for those oppressed and deprived of opportunity. When Christians obey it together with supreme love for God, prejudice-based divisions can fall away as the walls of Jericho fell. In the Southern field this means serving neglected people by teaching useful skills, helping them learn to read and earn a livelihood, caring for spiritual and material needs, and bringing them to Christ by help and example.
The same love forbids growing hops for beer-making or manufacturing wine or cider for market, since with what Scripture, nature and reason teach about intoxicants love will not place a snare in a neighbor's way. Indulging intemperance is selfish and contrary to the duty, benumbing the brain, weakening intellect, filling the body with disease, inflaming passions and blinding reason and conscience. Keeping body and mind fit for acceptable service to fellow men is required, while hurtful habits such as drinking tea and coffee and knowingly breaking the Bible health laws cloud the mind, unstring nerves, bring weakness, pain and disease, and unfit a person to serve others, think deeply on salvation and serve God. Indifference and ignorance about health laws become sin under this principle, creating obligation to live healthfully before neighbors, obtain reachable knowledge and put it to practical use, with accountability for light given but not accepted and acted upon. Conscientious keeping of the commandments with supreme love for God and love for neighbor requires using all powers with balanced exercise of mind and body, preserving health and clear conscience through pure thoughts, conscientious thinking, faithful work and keeping God's glory in view, with proportionate hand labor in agriculture and useful work guarding against overtaxed brain and impure thoughts and actions.
Ability to love neighbor depends on using all God-given powers of mind and body rather than neglecting or misusing them, consecrating the whole man to the Master's service. This love calls believers to work for salvation and practical well-being of others, including teaching useful skills and literacy by instruction and example. Joined with supreme love for God it makes a person a light in the world, shown in presenting truth as it is in Jesus with humility, piety, devotion and Christlikeness that draws others, communicating knowledge by lifting up Jesus the world's Redeemer and holding forth the Word of life. In human relationships it makes mutual blessing part of responsibility to glorify God.
Obedience to the moral law in loving neighbor as self is to guide how children and youth are taught and treated, accomplished through God's work in the heart not by human force or indulgence. Children taught to respect God's law and home rules, to respect themselves, be true to God and principle, and obey God's law, will love others as themselves. Their example creates a pure atmosphere encouraging weak souls toward holiness and heaven, making the young a strength and support not a burden in institutions and preparing them to fill trusts and aid others by precept and example. Religion must be carried into every department including little courtesies essential to happiness, with generous loving affection encouraged among children since tender affection is not weakness and repressing it stifles better nature while divine love melts selfishness and forms Jesus' tender spirit and sympathy. Love as a powerful principle for dealing with others should replace severity in managing children and shape a life of tenderness, peace and service.
In marriage the command shapes conduct with the same care one has for self in kindness, forbearance, honesty and faithfulness. It means giving up self-centeredness, showing respect and deference, cultivating warmth and pleasantness, and honoring the spouse's virtues, with love for spouse growing from supreme love for God. It tests fitness for marriage and the kingdom by requiring examination whether self-will and forceful insistence on one's wishes would make another unhappy.
Outward display without mercy does not fulfill the duty, as enlarging phylacteries while actions opposed God's law and lacked mercy and love showed, though the blue-ribbon reminder pointed to supreme love for God with love for neighbor. Doing the second great command like the first gives life, requiring managers in God's institutions to awake, reason from high principles, break Satan's spell and seek cleansing, with connection to God's work increasing practical piety, mercy, long-suffering, goodness, tender-heartedness, pity, courtesy and Christlikeness under judgment clear as light. Wounding and discouraging those needing help breaks the commandments and shows lack of Christlike love. A physician exploiting an afflicted patient by excessive fee acts from selfishness and greed, violates God's law and does not love neighbor as self. The test of being Christian, the same as doing to others as one would have done, forbids selfish plans to uplift self by pulling another down, tainting the soul with corrupting imaginings and improper attention, wearing religion as a cloak, and common sensual words and deportment, requiring idols to cease and God's law to be written on heart and conscience by His Spirit not merely assented by understanding. Strict equity and justice toward others with the same regard as for self exposes professed followers whose improper familiarities let lust govern conduct.
Joined with supreme love for God, loving neighbor as self makes a person a light through piety, devotion and Christlike character drawing others to truth. It gives greater strength and higher ground, calling for kindness and care not oppression or sharpness that makes one unskillful with human minds. When Christ's love fills the heart it enables this love, against which selfishness and desire for supremacy stand. It should govern actions, words and conduct in a consistent holy life distinguishing God's children from the world. Joined with wholehearted love for God it marks those who reap the eternal reward, shown in treatment of others not wealth, display or luxury, while selfishness and lack of love show failure to live it.
Joined with supreme love for God and obedience to truth, this love sanctifies body, mind and soul, brings harmony with God, and in that harmony there is freedom crowned with glory. Not living to please self but doing good as Christ who lived not to please Himself is the work of real missionaries with undivided affection, shaping the daily record going to heaven and determining the eternal weight of glory, with condemnation measured by light received.
It stands as the second great commandment, like the command to love God with all heart, soul, mind and strength, and together with it all the law and the prophets hang and the whole duty of humanity is summed. It gathers up the last six of the Ten Commandments that define duty to fellow people, while love to God gathers the first four, forming one unchanging whole. It measures love for others by the care one has for self, requiring the same considerateness, justice and respect one wants for self, which is doing to others as one would have them do. Neighbor means anyone in need of mercy regardless of belief, country, creed or race, as shown when the Samaritan cared for the wounded traveler whom priest and Levite passed by. This love cannot be separated from supreme love for God, for neither can be kept while the other is broken, and in Christ's self-sacrificing death it is lifted still higher to loving as He loved.
Place Within God's Law
Love for neighbor with the same care as for self is the second great commandment, like unto the command to love God with all heart and soul and mind and strength, and on these two hang all the law and the prophets. Together they gather up the law and the prophets, sum the whole duty of humanity and the entire Bible, and fulfill the law. It states a positive duty and not an optional act to be done only when convenient, requiring doing and not believing only. This love is shown in practical mercy and care for others, in sympathy and fair impartial treatment especially toward those in need, and in sacrificing ease, pleasure and convenience for their good, opposing formal religion that forgets mercy. It requires rejecting selfishness and evil thoughts and words, treating others with kindness, gentleness and forbearance while carefully protecting their interests, with the Golden Rule of doing to others what one would want them to do expressing it, and Christ's unselfish life is the pattern for obedience which selfishness prevents. It belongs to the message to be borne to perishing souls in their sins, shown in God giving His Son to bear the sword of justice so guilty sinners may go free and live, that if they come to Christ in repentance He will receive them and recreate them in His image as partakers of the divine nature.
It sums the last six of the ten holy precepts defining duty to fellow people, while love to God sums the first four defining duty to God, together revealing the whole duty of the human family. Those last six were proclaimed by God in awful majesty amid thundering and lightning from Mount Sinai, given in love to elevate and ennoble humanity and requiring perfection of character and unswerving obedience. Together the two form one unchanging sacred whole engraved on stone, joined by one root so neither can be separated from the other and keeping one while breaking the other is impossible. Every other scriptural command is amplification of them, and no commandment can be broken without violating their principle. Loving others as self follows from giving God the heart's supreme love, for love for God includes love for people made in His image and leads to loving the neighbor impartially. In the light of Christ's self-sacrificing life and death this command gains fuller meaning, calling His followers to love one another as He loved them, which degraded man weakened by sin cannot render of himself, so God gave His only-begotten Son to live the law in humanity and bring power to overcome sin so that by partaking of His divine nature men may live it.
It carries in itself the binding force of the whole law and of all the moral precepts found in the prophets, and with love to God belongs in full force in the New Testament and in the gospel, so that when these two are brought into the gospel all that hangs upon them is also brought in. God thereby gave mankind a clear definite standard by which to form character, distinctly stating what must be done to render acceptable obedience and what must not be done to remain loyal, spoken with audible voice in awful grandeur from Sinai so nothing about salvation is left obscure, and provided with a living exemplification as determined in the councils of heaven. This requirement is part of the law's broad standard of righteousness which binds all people and prohibits every evil thing, holding the commandments together as a sacred whole that is unchanging and eternal and tests whether a person is obedient. The same principle runs through every commandment, so keeping one precept while breaking another is not obedience to the whole law, and human destiny is determined by obedience to it for rich and poor alike. Loving others as self means showing true benevolence in daily life and not merely professing it, for neglecting this duty misrepresents the principles of the Ten Commandments and breaking the last six through unkind words or actions means one cannot truthfully claim to serve God acceptably.
It was required of Israel centuries before through Moses and through the prophets to do justly and love mercy and walk humbly with God, to fear God and walk in His ways and love and serve Him with all heart and soul and keep His commandments for good, to be kept in the heart and passed from parents to children. It was repeated from age to age to those in danger of falling into formalism and forgetting mercy in order to urge practical godliness. Christ gave this same divine instruction on earth, affirming the right answer that doing it leads to life. His answer about loving neighbor as self was among plain intelligent answers to questions meant to entangle Him, bringing precious light to the people and sowing seeds of truth the Jewish people had received but failed to put into practice.
It is the spirit and life of the commandments, their spiritual substance and not a substitute or outward ceremony, expressing God's character which the law reflects and remains binding. The law is founded on love with universal claim which human enactments must not replace, reaching inward to thoughts, purposes and motives so outward obedience without love is not accepted. Keeping the law outwardly while ignoring love for others leaves its principles unheeded, and loving self while lacking true love for others is transgression leaving a person out of harmony with heaven and unfit for its kingdom. Christ's teaching therefore exposes religious formalism and human traditions that neglect spiritual worship, while its principles when followed guide Christian character and bring happiness. Keeping its commandments including the neighbor-loving duties expressed in the last six is the whole duty of humanity.
It belongs to a test of loyalty or transgression, obedience or disobedience, where harvest corresponds to seed sown and probation is given to test, for God will not compel obedience. Love for God is impossible while breaking the fourth commandment which stands in the center of the decalogue, and refusing to keep the Sabbath when duty is pointed out shows lack of true love; those entrusted with sacred things who claim love without obedience do not have the love of God perfected in them and by decreeing His law unworthy to be kept make enemies of Him. God's people are to be as a family of obedient children with filial not slavish fear before Him, walking in the light in harmony with His requirements when duty is pointed out, with reward promised to the obedient and punishment to the disobedient, defining duty and the path to eternal life by keeping the commandments and fitting for eternal life. Keeping His commandments with love to God gives right to the tree of life and entry through the gates into the city, meaning self-denial and self-sacrifice for the salvation of others in warning those perishing in sin and showing them the way of salvation in Christ. The annoyances of living in a fallen world do not cancel that duty or need to discourage the one who loves God and neighbor.
By the law is the knowledge of sin and sin is transgression of the law, and it is for present and eternal interest to have proper understanding of its far-reaching principles contained in these two commands. As intelligent creatures people may know and do this will of God or refuse to submit their finite will to the Infinite, a responsibility that should fill them with awe. It belongs to the law of love where fidelity to God includes fidelity to neighbor, protecting each person's rights and individuality, restraining oppression and disobedience, and promoting human well-being and the stability of society.
Joined to Love for God
Love for neighbor cannot be separated from supreme love for God, for the two great principles share one root and form one joined duty on which the law and the prophets rest. Giving God the heart's supreme love leads to loving those made in His image rightly and impartially, expressing the last six commandments as the first expresses the first four. Neither command can be kept while the other is broken, and no commandment can be broken without violating this principle, for breaking one violates the whole divine whole. When supreme love for God is neglected, obedience to love for neighbor becomes impossible, and breaking the last six through unkind, selfish words and actions, evil thoughts, failure to protect others' interests and to do as one would be done by, means no truthful claim to serve God acceptably can stand. This loyalty is tested by obedience or transgression, and the harvest corresponds to the seed sown.
Together with wholehearted love for God, love for neighbor as self sums what is required of all those created and redeemed, demanding the whole person with no divided heart and no mixed and uncertain motive. The claim rests on creation and redemption, because God made all there is of man and offered a complete sacrifice to redeem body and soul, and He will accept nothing less than this full love. The two together reveal the whole duty of the human family, with all the law and the prophets hanging on them, given in love to elevate and ennoble humanity and summing the last six and first four of the ten holy precepts proclaimed amid thundering and lightning from Sinai. They require perfection of character and unswerving obedience which man degraded and weakened by sin cannot render of himself, so God gave His only-begotten Son to live the law in humanity and bring power to overcome sin, that by partaking of His divine nature men may live it and through faith its righteousness be fulfilled in believers.
Loving God supremely naturally results in loving neighbor as self and treating fellows as they should be treated, for as godliness develops brotherly-kindness follows. Charity, or perfect love of God, is the crowning Christian grace and highest step in Bible sanctification, expressed in obedience to love one another as a step heavenward, in deep sincere interest in life's duties, and in using God-given abilities to bless others and draw them to Jesus. Such love depends on a heart filled with the love of Christ, without which true love for others is impossible, and faithfulness to God and obedience are bound up with it. The gospel sanctifies the soul by driving out self-love and self-sufficiency, changing even the rich to prefer Christ and love fellows.
With supreme love for God, love for neighbor is the only secure foundation and sure guide for building character, shown in Christ's life as safeguard for personal integrity, purity of the home, society's well-being and the nation's stability. It is the real essence of education, called Higher Education, learned by studying the Bible intelligently and gaining knowledge from the Word of the living God, and it stands as one of the two principles on which hang all the law and the prophets. It marks a life shaped by truth, a balanced complete character expressing the whole duty of the fallen race with perfect character shown in supreme love to God and unselfish love to others, and a converted person living it does the grandest missionary work as a mark of pure undefiled religion. Those striving for the overcomer's reward put these principles into practice, the Holy Spirit removing selfishness, self-sufficiency and self-esteem to create a precious bond of unity, and those made alive by the Spirit communicate that spiritual and heavenly affection to others.
This united love proves correct relation to God and must abide in the heart as a principle of truth, righteousness and mercy received through hourly contact and earnest communion with God and drinking deeper from the Fountainhead. It must be learned as the first principle of truth before teaching others, and must become an inward, deep, vital transforming principle, not empty acknowledgment, with new holy affection expelling the old from the soul temple and the grace of Christ welcomed as constraining power bringing every faculty of mind and body into subjection to Christ's service. When perfected in the human soul it sanctifies soul, body and spirit and fulfills the love of God, which is the whole duty of man and the gospel's victory, with the Word working age to age to make it practical through growth in every good work from small beginnings. So kept, it brings tastes, appetites, habits and passions under the Spirit's control, gives depth of piety, discernment and enlightenment to decide righteously in humanity, morals and religion rather than judging by habits, opinions, authority, prejudice, feeling or self-sufficiency, produces faith, meekness, temperance, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, love, joy and peace, pledges honor to God by upholding His law, and gives light and heavenly knowledge to share with faith working by love to purify the soul and lead others to obey.
Failure to love neighbor as self with supreme love for God leaves the heart unchanged and corrupted and brings judgment, to be weighed in the balances of the sanctuary and pronounced wanting at the grand review, which is to be wanting forever. Such failure condemns prejudice of physicians against fellow physicians who practice differently, the persecuting spirit toward dissenters, bitterness of one denomination against another claiming no other can be right, striving to be first, dissecting character, dwelling on faults, picking at trivial things, destroying the good impression of the word, laying snares by word, act or deportment, and turning warfare against fellow believers, which is feeding on detested character from which angels turn. It shows supreme love has not yet been learned, seen in putting wonderful confidence in finite erring man, depending on mortal wisdom, looking to one man to think and be conscience, and letting human words make God's messages of none effect. The remedy is thorough conversion to the meek and lowly spirit instead of Phariseeism and self-exaltation, turning over a new leaf, uniting the heart with Christ, recognizing every believer as precious with harm to suffering humanity charged as done to Christ, ceasing from man, putting whole trust in the living God, seeking wisdom from Him, standing as faithful sentinel allowing no interference in relation to God, and turning warfare against spiritual wickedness instead of flesh and blood to strengthen one another, receive power and grace, draw sap as branches of one vine, reveal Christ's life and bear much fruit.
Joined with love for Jesus with heart and mind and soul, love for neighbor as self gives a wide field in which to use ability and influence, so no one needs to live a narrow life but can make life broad and influential. It belongs to the great commandment of love that is the light by which the gospel is understood, requiring pure, unselfish, sanctified love like Christ's. True disciples reflect it by refusing deceptive acts or self-serving choices that bring others into distress.
Neighbor Measure and Scope
Love for neighbor is measured by the care a person has for self, requiring the same considerateness, justice and respect one wants for self in words, decisions and actions. Doing to others as one would have them do to oneself expresses this love, and it is the same principle as the Golden Rule shown in everyday conduct through kind words, thoughtful acts, politeness and hospitality. Together with supreme love for God it belongs to the whole duty of humanity, the second great commandment inseparable from the first, reaching all people and forming complete Christian character. It requires rejecting selfishness and evil thoughts and words, treating others with kindness, gentleness and forbearance while carefully protecting their interests, refusing to benefit self at another's disadvantage, refusing to exalt self as privileged and look down on others as of no value, esteeming others better than self, and refusing to join any ring or party that connives at evil however trivial it seems. It belongs to the last six precepts of the law kept as a living rule in the sanctuary of the soul rather than a dead letter, so that breaking them by unkind words or actions means one cannot truthfully claim to serve God acceptably and misrepresents, betrays and shames Christ's character. Those who so treat others as they wish to be treated come where God can reveal Himself, are approved by Him and made perfect in love, receive grace and truth and pass on divine light and salvation, with fruitful work and prayers bearing holiness unto everlasting life, shown in actively helping people in need by compassionate action not mere talk or profession, which is true missionary work and living the gospel.
Neighbor is anyone needing mercy regardless of religious belief, country, creed, race or social standing, including friends, neighbors, strangers, fellow workers, mission fields at home and abroad, relatives, fallen brethren, and the unconverted from whom Christians are not to withdraw but whom they are to win by consistent example and teaching. Christ explained this to the lawyer by the traveler from Jerusalem to Jericho who fell among thieves and was robbed, beaten and left half dead, where the priest and Levite saw suffering, felt no response to its wants and passed by on the other side, breaking the commandment and representing a class in the church indifferent to those needing sympathy and help. The Samaritan did not question relationship, country or creed but went to work, relieved him, bound wounds, put him on his own beast, carried him to an inn and provided for his wants at his own expense even when uninviting, inconvenient, costly and anxious, and is neighbor to him representing true helpers with Christ imitating His example in doing good. Every person who needs help one can bestow is neighbor, especially widows and orphans, the blind, deaf, lame and afflicted in various ways placed in close Christian relationship to the church to prove His people and develop true character while angels watch how they are treated, and a debt of love, kindness, interest, sympathy and disinterested benevolence is due to Christ in their behalf. Such practical mercy without passing a needy brother by to favor others is keeping God's commandments and expressing love for God as well as for people, which pleases God when good is done to one another, and hatred or narrow views violate it.
The command states a positive duty not an optional act for convenience, calling for thoughtful care, practical help in need, relief for the oppressed and encouragement, and when one has means to help action is to be without hesitation. Love is shown through sympathy and fair impartial treatment especially toward the needy, by sacrificing ease, pleasure and convenience, bearing burdens and accepting inconvenience to do good rather than self-caring or avoiding unpleasant duties, with Christ's unselfish life as the pattern which selfishness prevents fulfilling. Each person must work to lessen others' troubles and increase their blessings, with greater duty on those able to resist temptation to help the weak, those with knowledge to teach the ignorant, and those with worldly goods to aid the poor, sharing whatever good one has including the bread of life with all within influence. Watchfulness for opportunities brings deeds of mercy, tender forethought and Christian courtesy for the burdened and oppressed, bringing joy and blessing, and where nothing more can be done speaking words of courage and hope to those unacquainted with God who are reached most easily by sympathy and love, with promises of light in obscurity, continual guidance and spiritual refreshing. Such compassionate action not mere talk is keeping the law and true missionary work, evidencing wholehearted love for God by caring for souls not in Christ and using influence to bring them to decision for truth, to stand on the platform of eternal truth, and to heaven.
Loving neighbor means more than merely tolerating, more than a general kindly feeling or occasional money to the poor and contributions to public funds while self remains supreme, which does only part of duty. It requires dethroning self and putting self second instead of first, renouncing selfishness and recognizing others as members of one human family and as brothers and sisters together in God's family as Christ intends His children to regard each other. It means considering others just as good and deserving of conveniences, comforts and happiness as self, esteeming and treating them with the love, kindness, humility, tenderness, patience, pity and sympathy one would want, even when fellow believers fail expectations, being a comfort and blessing rather than only expecting it, taking the mind off self to become one with Christ. This shapes even prayer to include neighbors and not seek blessings for self alone, guides practical plans and use of entrusted resources to share fairly so fellow workers have a fair chance, refusing selfishness, covetousness and keeping everything under one's own control, and requires steady earnest self-discipline to become self-reliant, less self-caring, uncomplaining, cheerful and grateful in wholeness of character and true sanctification exemplifying Jesus.
The command is a plain duty and obligation in the clearly set out plan of salvation, one of the two great principles on which the law and the prophets depend, like the first, and those who hear and do find the way of salvation. Christ affirmed it as the right answer to what the law requires and what to do to inherit eternal life, saying do this and live, so doing it gives life, eternal life and inheritance of eternal life. Obeyed and practiced it overcomes temptations of satanic agencies and contains the wisdom and power of God, with power given through believing and receiving Christ to live it as sons of God. It is good fruit showing love for Christ and among the clearest evidences and daily witnesses of true religion to the world, forming character in this world acceptable in heaven and sanctifying through truth into fitness above, while failure in managers of God's institutions, whose connection with His work must increase practical piety, mercy, long-suffering, goodness, tender-heartedness, pity, courtesy and Christlikeness, brings condemnation proportioned to responsibility and harmful example misrepresenting the Father, which God will vindicate with judgment clear as light and righteousness as noonday.
This love is to be practiced through forgiveness, tender sympathy and the love Christ has shown, owed to everyone encountered whether friend or foe, acquaintance or stranger. Christ's union with humanity makes it possible to unite with divine power and love one another with His love.
Christ Pattern Higher Love
The second great commandment stands like the first command to love God with all heart and soul and mind, and together love for God and love for neighbor with the same care as for self uphold all the law and the prophets. This love is shown in God giving His Son to bear the sword of justice so guilty sinners may go free and live, and it belongs to the message to be borne to perishing souls in their sins that if they come to Christ in repentance He will receive them and recreate them in His image as partakers of the divine nature. In the light of Christ's self-sacrificing life and death the summing of the last six commandments in this love gains a fuller meaning, calling His followers to love one another as He loved them, and His life and work provide the light by which people can see how far they fall short. Keeping it means unselfish love made visible in character, words and actions, even at the cost of sacrifice to help people leave sin and accept truth, so that a life shaped by it commends the faith to others. It means being merciful and compassionate as the Father and Christ are merciful, with kindly interest that binds up the wounds of those pursued and left half dead by the destroyer and heals the bruises sin has made, with forgiving mercy, truth and sympathy in affliction. Those who do this are Christ's ministers in partnership with Him, God is revealed through them as merciful, good and forgiving, God in Christ gives inexhaustible bounties of love and mercy and invites all to share His glory, and the bliss of heaven is provided for every soul who loves God supremely and fellow men as self, in cheerful performance of daily duties and cooperation with Christ in redemption as His friends who receive from His treasurehouse and share joy made full.
The call to love one's neighbor as self is not the full standard, for Christ's command to love one another as He loved His disciples calls for a still higher, unselfish love. Christ's death revealed the depth of that love, which does not depend on praise, affection or appreciation, but is given because people belong to Christ who purchased them. Reflecting Christ means advancing beyond loving as self to loving as Christ loved, which is the perfection of Christian character to be obtained by every child of God, for without it none can be perfect before God and without it the candlestick will be removed no matter how active or hardworking one is. This genuine religion brings sanctifying influence into all thought, word and deed, discharging the duties God lays on a person, keeping the heart free from every scheme of selfishness and purging all that savors of selfishness, striving lawfully in right work and allowing not one thread of selfishness to be drawn into any business transaction or line of service, and it prepares for heaven where there is no striving for first place or supremacy and envy and jealousy have no place in a heart where Christ is present.
Loving others as self means not living to please and gratify self but doing others good as Christ did when He lived not to please Himself. It is the work of real missionaries working the works of Christ while serving God with undivided affection, yet few do this and few serve with undivided affection. Following Christ in this love is done now in obedience as part of fighting the good fight of faith, where Satan's power is great but angels assist those who walk in obedience in their work, with the best intellect, confessing Christ to the world. This love shapes the daily record going up to heaven and determines whether a person wins the eternal weight of glory, condemnation is measured according to light received, and faithfulness to trust receives eternal life with joy when Christ comes from heaven in the clouds.
This love comes from beholding the cross of Calvary as the pledge of boundless love and measureless mercy, and from repenting and doing the first works of loving God supremely and neighbor as self to restore first love. When it is kept harsh strife ends, divisions are healed, strife ceases, and believers become one even as Christ and the Father are one, with peace, love, mercy and benevolence as abiding principles and the love of Christ revealed in oneness. Keeping it answers the prayer of Christ that His disciples be one as He and the Father are one, expels Pharisaism and self-righteousness, and proves to the world that God sent His Son through the oneness and unity of the Spirit in the remnant church. Waning love for God causes loss of love for brethren and the springing up of love of self in its place, and restoration comes only through grace freely given and the Holy Spirit shedding the love of God abroad in the heart, regenerating all in the image of Christ and uniting them to Him as living branches to the living Head.
Transformed Character Holiness
The command requires devotion of body, mind and soul to unselfish service, for the whole person belongs to God as Creator and redeemed by complete sacrifice, and He accepts no divided heart and nothing less than this full love. Loving in this way makes a blessing of the one who serves while blessing others, bringing the highest development and culture of every faculty, fitting for heaven as heaven takes root in the heart and making partakers of the divine nature. Gatherings for amusement that confuse faith and make the motive mixed and uncertain, and entangling engagements that cripple usefulness, stand against this undivided love. Even lawful and honest business becomes sinful when excessive labor and care wear down mind and body until this love is disregarded, absorbing the devotion, time and thought that belong to God and others.
The love commanded is a precious gift received from Jesus and taught by the Holy Spirit, pure and holy affection that is principle and not feeling, neither unreasonable nor blind nor sickly sentimental and impure. It flows from loving God supremely and from coming to Christ and yielding to His control, creating unity of heart and purpose that answers His prayer for oneness and gives a pure atmosphere in which the Spirit works with greater power for saving, restoring influence. Coming from the Spirit it is not limited to those who favor us or to our own household but reaches the whole world, shaping character, governing impulses, subduing enmity, ennobling affection, and making life a blessing after Christ's example of living and suffering for others' good, deepening without limit without harming body or mind.
Keeping the command means bringing truth into the sanctuary of the soul and keeping the law as a living rule rather than a dead letter, with entire conformity to the will of God, diligence in making calling and election sure, ceasing to watch others to keep jealous watch over self, and blessing others by godly example, cheerfulness, fortitude, courage, faith, hopefulness, joy and perfect trust in God through sanctification by the truth. The law can be obeyed only when written on the heart, and truth as it is in Jesus enables doing good to those around, while genuine faith works through love and purifies the soul with self crucified, for without love for God and neighbor there is no favor or salvation and the divine image is not restored while self is fostered. Sanctification through the truth by the Spirit gives a sensitive conscience that strips away ambition contending for supremacy and selfish covetousness, condemning grasping all that can be obtained from the treasury in large wages while brethren laboring just as hard under wear and pressure receive little more than half, thereby depriving others of due wages and showing blindness and detrimental influence.
It is shown in self-denial: ruling the spirit when passion strives for mastery, resisting temptation to censure and fault-finding, patiently bearing with a dull and trying child and difficult people, standing at the post of duty even when others fail, and lifting responsibilities wherever duty requires not for applause or policy but for the Master with unwavering fidelity. It means doing good when inclination leads to serve and please self, serving without seeking praise or advantage, and working patiently and cheerfully even when efforts seem unappreciated, with no limit to influence in continuous persevering work like Christ who did not weary in saving the fallen, working and waiting submissive to God's will and ready to spring to duty until bidden to lay armor down. This love as principle of action restrains enmity and selfish pride and produces patience, mercy, forgiveness and self-sacrifice, extending broadly so others' interests matter, and leads to self-sacrificing work guided by Christ's example and God's will as evidence of love for God.
Together with supreme love for God it shapes a Christlike character and gives influence to do good, as beholding Christ transforms life and character to live purely for His sake by faith. When the indwelling Saviour supplies a pure current of love in place of self and the holy principles of the Word rule the life, moral taste is refined and elevated, passions are brought under control through wearing Christ's righteousness, and the gospel is lived in love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, with flesh and its affections and lusts crucified. Selfishness and disobedience fail this requirement, and the Spirit's renewing work delivers from bondage to self and changes character.
The converted love the neighbor as self with abiding principle from God flowing from supreme love and gratitude and shaped by the cross, the grandest missionary work and mark of pure undefiled religion by which the Spirit makes alive and communicates love to others. It replaces selfishness, pride, harshness, insistence on opinion, jealousy, hatred and rivalry with Christlike tenderness, patience, goodness, meekness and unselfish care, putting aside selfish pleasure, convenience and advantage as evidence of love for God and life in the light. Such a one is kind, humble and thoughtful of others' happiness rather than harsh or dictatorial and rather than denying responsibility like Cain, and this changed life places Christians on vantage ground.
Without this love profession, prayer and touches of religious duty are only leaves and thinking oneself religiously right is Phariseeism, while with deep abiding love for God within, unselfish daily deeds without pay are the fruit showing true Christianity and the correct standard. It is the test distinguishing true religion from counterfeit, known by fruits and daily applied by asking whether love for God and truth and for neighbor is revealed, shining amid life's activities and everyday contact in deeds running like a thread of gold through experience and not closed away from disagreeable duties, in place of supreme self-love seeking its own enjoyment, disregarding others' good and hating opposers. Keeping it with love to God as a law of love restores the divine image through constant beneficence and self-denial for truth, and lives of such obedience give worldlings convincing evidence that faith works by love and frees from selfishness, making a contagious impression. It comes from responding to great love and infinite sacrifice with conviction of weakness and sinfulness, forming Christlikeness by godliness, wearing His yoke and carrying His burden in willing service, while serving and glorifying self through self-indulgence and self-sufficiency, even with theory of truth, misrepresents Christ, misuses talents, refuses sacrifice, leaves the soul destitute of grace and decides destiny to depart.
Speech Unity Fellowship
Loving a neighbor as oneself forbids criticizing, finding fault, condemning and disparaging another, and stands as the standard by which such conduct is judged. It is broken nearly every day when little love is shown through suspicion and distrust, thinking the worst of believing brethren, watching for evil in order to criticize, and chronic objection and fault-finding that destroys mutual confidence, a failure found in all but about one in a thousand. Dissecting character, dwelling on faults and mistakes, picking at trivial things, destroying the good impression of God's word, and laying snares by words, actions or deportment turns the weapons of warfare against fellow believers who bear God's truth. Such faultfinding feeds on detested character from which angels turn away, and dwelling on differences of opinion with disregard and contempt for the ideas of others in order to appear wise, or giving way to envy, jealousy, suspicion and complaint, breaks the commandments and shows failure to love both God and fellow people. Obedience requires turning over a new leaf, plucking up roots of bitterness, cultivating love like a tender plant until it governs mind and heart, uniting and knitting the heart with Christ, recognizing every believer as precious to Him so that harm to suffering humanity counts as done to Christ, showing mutual honor, respect, tenderness, confidence, pity and courtesy, guarding one another's interests, speaking and acting to heal rather than create strife, directing sensitivity to keeping the law rather than taking offense, and turning warfare against principalities and spiritual wickedness instead of flesh and blood.
Idle harmful whispering, spreading evil reports and bringing reproach on another are ruled out, for speech is a precious gift to bless others and glorify God, not to injure souls. Those who so love close their ears to reports that injure a neighbor and stop taking up a reproach against a neighbor. They guard speech, refuse to injure a fellow believer's reputation, and refuse suspicion and complaint.
Joined with supreme love for God, this love covers the whole ground of God's requirements and, if obeyed, would remove discord in church and family. It naturally produces oneness in Christ with no need of labored efforts to be in unity, binding people in union with one another and the whole in oneness with Christ in God. Church members cherish love and unity as one great family, guard one another's interests instead of contending and tearing one another, and thereby bear the divine credentials before the world that God sent His Son to die to restore His moral image in man. Discarding these two great principles for the sophistries of the deceiver brings discouragement, spiritual ill-health, and, when selfishness enters, makes centers of self from egotism and uncontrolled wills and violent passions, causing distrust, crime, divided kingdoms, broken brotherhood, confusion, betrayal, secret plotting, destruction and misery, with hand against fellow, brother against brother, sister against sister, and parents and children against each other, which Christians must take as object lessons to avoid the first step toward selfish principles entering the church.
Cold, distant, unsocial manner is incompatible with the command and withholds from neighbors the love owed them, while affectionate hearts and truthful loving words foster happiness and uplift others. Together with supreme love for God it fulfills the law, honors God, and brings peace on earth and goodwill toward people, and loving one another with Christ's love marks purity and charity. This love is shown in conduct through kind words, thoughtful acts, politeness, hospitality and courteous acts, the same principle as the golden rule, so that everyday behavior gives clear evidence of obedience and Christians dishonor Christ when conduct fails to match profession.
Respect for other people's opinions, rights and valued independence is required, rather than forcing them to conform, and this calls for substantial work. Fairness must guide treatment even of those whose views differ, forbidding misrepresentation of another's words and requiring the spirit of Christ alongside supreme love and obedience. Dwelling on differences with disregard and contempt to appear wise breaches the law, while refusing a self-centered course means considering how a movement affects brethren, the church and God's appointed instrumentalities and weighing its consequences on self, character and others. Pursuing private interests, gaining sympathy to set up a rival work, securing advantages to the disadvantage of God's institution, dishonoring God, hindering His work, and sowing dissension that brings the church into temptation, suspicion and distrust violates this love, for love is heavenly in origin, must be nurtured, cannot coexist with coldness, and its affectionate hearts and truthful words bring happiness to families and influence others for good.
The claims of humanity rest on every person together with the claims of God, forbidding shutting self up to self and subordinating spiritual and eternal interests to selfish worldly interests. The command requires cultivating the social elements of human nature, associating to strengthen and encourage one another in God's service, living in sympathy as children of one Father mutually dependent for happiness, and finding happiness in efforts to bless others. Neglecting this fellowship is loss: truths of God's word lose vividness and importance, the heart ceases to be enlightened and aroused by sanctifying influence, and spirituality declines. In social associations Jesus must be taken along, making the saving of companions the object of fellowship and speaking to hearts and consciences of those ready to perish and in danger, which is beyond the power of one who does not surrender all for Christ, while gatherings given to wit, merriment, feasting and gratification of the senses with no reference to Christ and no benefit to soul do not obey the divine precept that must govern life with witness for Christ as a peculiar people zealous of good works.
Love for neighbor as self must be as genuine and complete as love for self, and is essential to Christian character and church unity. When members fail in it they become vulnerable to Satan's influence, instruments of Satan obstructing God's purposes, opposing His purposes and placing stumbling blocks before others.
Honesty in Business Dealings
Loving one's neighbor as oneself tests Christian character in business and the pursuit of wealth, requiring honesty and fairness in small and great matters as part of the last six commandments and among the weightier requirements of the law that must not be neglected for outward religious duties. It rules out avarice, overreaching, dishonesty, unjust weights and measures, and spending the Lord's money for self-indulgence or extravagance where economy is needed to advance His work. It is shown positively in upright dealings and moral integrity, in industry, frugality and economy joined with kindness, humility, forbearance and generosity, which reveal Christlike character, serve God, and bless self and society, though resisting temptation to dishonesty requires divine aid. In all business transactions every sharp transaction and bargain made to advantage self to another's disadvantage violates the command and God's law, and those who do it are registered as transgressors even if they handle sacred things. Such keen dealings are dishonest in God's sight even when men do not call them dishonest, and workers in God's work cannot dishonor His name more decidedly.
Keeping the command requires daily walking with God, representing Christ in spirit, temper, deportment and business, practicing noble integrity, and inspiring sound confidence in piety and purity of principles instead of showing a stern, iron-hearted, unfeeling, cold, unloving spirit that proves lack of Christianity and endangers souls. Joined with loving God, it sums the law and the prophets and condemns selfish gain that knowingly advantages self while harming a neighbor. Seeking personal gain by disadvantaging others violates it whether the neighbor is believer or unbeliever, requiring strict integrity and fair treatment without partiality or favoring one at another's expense. It requires fair, generous treatment including willingness to favor a poor brother rather than deal with him no better than with a wealthy man of the world, for selfishness contradicts this love while disinterested benevolence pleases God.
Transformed persons treat others in business as they would wish to be treated rather than taking advantage for personal gain. The command is broken when gospel workers mingle scheming, buying and selling with their work, labor to obtain advantage for themselves, are allured by buying for less and selling for more than value, and become regarded as sharpers who gain for themselves without considering others' cases. Instead it requires considering the case of others rather than seeking advantage for self, which is keeping God's commandments. Love must shape business and every line of work so financial interests do not crowd it out, and God's cause must never be used as excuse for oppression or suffering, but those handling sacred work must act with the tenderness, compassion, purity and fairness shown by Christ.
It forbids diverting mission funds to ambitious designs, mingling human wisdom with the divine, confusing minds about right and holy methods, unjustly acquiring means at another's expense, oppressing brother or neighbor, and practicing any method to please lust for gain and power on the principle that gain is godliness. Failure there proves failure to meet the holy standard of character and proves the holy law and its explanation in the pure gospel given upon the Mount have not been learned. Keeping it demands repentance and conversion, works worthy of the Christian name, and cleansing and purging of the soul temple. In every transaction it requires equity in judgment with no injustice, oppression, deception, double-dealing or selfish advantage, forbids threads of selfishness such as receiving large wages and seeking to be keen and sharp for financial interest, and forbids letting business crowd out love.
It requires tender, pure, true, compassionate hearts like Christ, showing courtesy, regard, sympathy, kind words and tangible help to those needing help, to the erring and to the needy who do not seem deserving, not only to a few thought deserving. In daily work it is shown by willingly doing small humble services that must be done, improving little opportunities, refusing waste and idleness, not stopping to ask whether work brings much or little, but doing the work and accepting wages offered instead of refusing for want of higher wages. The Lord judges character by principles followed in dealing with fellow men, so defective principles in common business are woven into the whole religious life and carried into spiritual service. If a man feels it beneath dignity to work for small wages for self, neighbor love will lead him to work for the Master and give earnings into the Lord's treasury as gratitude offering for life spared.
It must shape every action and transaction including urgent efforts to raise funds and readiness to help in emergencies without oppression, so God's law and character are honored. True sanctification gives a sensitive conscience that strips away ambition contending for supremacy and selfish covetousness, ruling out selfishly taking excessive wages from the Lord's treasury when other workers labor just as hard but receive less, since this deprives them of what they should receive. For workers it requires the principle of equality: emptying the heart of selfishness, humbling self before God, not grasping every obtainable dollar or taking the highest wages position seems to entitle. It forbids taking large unrighteous wages while fellow laborers doing just as much and as faithful work in much harder fields with far fewer advantages receive only half, depriving them of means they should have.
Those who place high estimate on own merits and take large salaries break it and will be regarded as least in final rewards, while those working earnestly, faithfully and unselfishly for small wages keep it and will receive highest reward from Him who makes no false estimate. Love applied to wages prevents those receiving high salaries from taking money needed by equally faithful coworkers and destitute fields, calls for fairness, self-denial, considering necessities of those breaking unworked fields, seeing many unworked fields and need of money to lift truth's standard in new places, and not daring to use means God designed for destitute fields. Kept truly it opens eyes to the large work of preaching the gospel to all the world. Those demanding highest wages for themselves while limiting pay of workers whose hearts are in the work are not loving neighbors as themselves, and such selfish unequal treatment violates love and justice.
Together with loving God supremely it forbids establishing a rival medical institution immediately beside the Lord's sanitarium and drawing its patients away by allowing flesh-meat contrary to health reform principles. Establishing a medical institution so close to another sanitarium that it hinders its work violates love shown in practical choices, which belongs with loving God supremely and calls for mercy, judgment and love of God. Obeying requires conversion of heart and mind to carry out God's word, acting in fair Christlike manner, harmonizing with neighbors, and if unable to blend, moving to one of many other places available. In God's work it means refusing to scheme for advantage, act meanly, or harm another branch, conference, institution or individual for personal gain, requiring whole-hearted sympathy, generosity, tenderness and unselfishness.
Fellow laborers are neighbors in a special sense and must be loved as self, including recognizing others' ability to use resources wisely and not concentrating money and control at one center while fields ready for harvest go without support. It belongs with loving God supremely and proves correct relation to Him, meaning refusal of self-centered course, considering how a movement affects brethren, church and God's appointed instrumentalities, and weighing consequences on self, character and others. Pursuing private interests, gaining sympathy to set up rival work, securing advantages to disadvantage of God's institution, dishonoring God, hindering His work, sowing dissension, and bringing church into temptation, suspicion and distrust violates this love. Christian love is Christlike, meek and gentle, putting aside selfish pleasure, convenience and advantage, rejecting jealousy, hatred and treating others as rivals, as evidence of love for God and life in the light.
Love for neighbor must guide use of resources in God's work, forbidding selfishly using more than needed for one part when doing so deprives other places of facilities and means to advance the cause. Building expensively or taking on debt others should not imitate violates the principle; resources should be used with regard for interests of the whole work and for neighbors' ability to serve. It forbids selfish plans that deprive others of facilities needed to serve and represent truth, forbids concentrating funds in few places, and requires regard for needs of the whole field so other parts of the vineyard have facilities to do their part. Giving resources to sustain God's work and establish institutions in needy fields demonstrates love for neighbor.
Joined with supreme love to God it requires stewards to use entrusted money unselfishly, binding about selfish plans helping only self and own place, restricting self-interest, and investing means so plants producing abiding fruit are set out in different parts of the world because Christ died for the world. It rules out acting by worldly standards or entering arrangements that weaken usefulness, harm influence, or damage another's confidence in God's work, calling for careful conduct toward others.
Wealth Generosity and Mercy
The second great commandment on which the last six commandments hang means seeing and supplying the wants of fellow men, and the young ruler who thought he had kept what was quoted to him had in fact failed to keep those six because he failed in this love. His supreme love of riches shut his eyes to the wants of his fellow men, and when he was told to give to the poor his possessions were touched and his idol pointed out. His refusal showed his heart was on his treasure and swallowed up with earthly possessions, loving possessions better than God and better than heavenly treasure, proving him destitute of love for both man and God. Weighed in the balances of the sanctuary by this true standard and law of righteousness he was found wanting and alienated from God, going away sorrowful because he would not release selfish possession to follow Christ.
Loving riches better than fellow men shuts the eyes to their wants and makes eternal life impossible, for no one can keep riches and have treasure in heaven too. Love for riches cannot dwell with love for Jesus in the same heart, and the rich man whose ground brought forth plentifully broke this second great principle together with supreme love for God by withholding God's tenth, disregarding God's law, and storing fruits in greater barns instead of giving. When truth set home by the Spirit crowds out the love of riches, affection is transferred to God and love to God and fellow men predominates. Then the possessor breaks away from riches, holds all he has as not his own bounty lent by God, faithfully discharges duty as God's steward, finds highest pleasure in making a right disposition of his Lord's goods to meet the wants of God's cause and supply the necessities of needy brethren, and in this way alone keeps the last six commandments with love to God so that a rich man can enter the kingdom and inherit everlasting life. God tests the rich to see whether they love neighbor as self by using wealth to benefit others and glorify God, for earthly riches have value when so used but must not become portion, god, or savior, and this love shapes right valuing of entrusted wealth and refusal to serve money for selfish purposes while neglecting God.
Keeping the commandment means loving fellows more than riches, using wealth to bless the needy and advance the work, valuing the salvation of fellow men above all gold and silver, and being rich toward God in good works. It is kept by using what one has, even when little, judiciously to bless others with means, in faith and confidence in God and trust in His love and care, with each penny spent in a way that honors God and benefits others and reveals whether one loves neighbor as self. It is broken by loving riches more than neighbor and God, hoarding means for the future from fear of want, putting trust in accumulated riches instead of faith in God and His promises, and becoming poor toward God. Money serves this love when it provides necessities, blesses others, and helps the hungry, thirsty, naked, oppressed, and sick, including giving resources to support God's work and meet needs in destitute fields.
The command is fulfilled by acts of generosity and benevolence designed to keep hearts tender and sympathetic and to encourage mutual interest and affection, for God by unseen providence lets misfortune overtake one brother while prospering another to test and prove men and reveal whether those He favors have His fear before their eyes and will help a poorer brother from love to do good. It is expressed in tender compassion to the Lord's poor and in doing good to all needy and suffering ones whose necessities come to knowledge and require notice, with particular compassion for God's worthy poor who are never to be passed by, alongside mercy, benevolence, and tender care for the poor, oppressed, hungry, and naked that gives truth significance and power with supreme love for God and obedience. It requires discerning the two classes always present — those who ruin themselves by their own independent course and continue in transgression, and those brought into straitened circumstances for the truth's sake, including daily suffering needy ones whose families may have to be provided for — and doing the right thing toward each under sound wisdom. That means helping the Lord's poor where it will be for their benefit, placing them where they can help themselves with the best methods carefully and prayerfully considered, keeping orphans, the poor, and aged children of God among members rather than removed in large numbers by themselves, denying luxuries, finery, and gold ornaments to make the suffering needy comfortable, then reaching farther to those not of the household of faith when they are proper subjects, without using charity as false pretense to reward doers of evil who ruined themselves through sinful indulgence, and meeting real needs with tender practical help such as denying unnecessary spending to provide clothing and necessities for needy fellow workers rather than criticizing their appearance or leaving them destitute. Such generous sympathy toward those who have made mistakes, with tender, humble, pitying heart, is not weakness but strength from Christ and part of fulfilling the whole law.
Unselfish love to neighbor, upon which the last six commandments hang and out of which they grow, means a debt of love, kindness, interest, sympathy, and disinterested benevolence is due in behalf of brethren, especially widows and orphans, the blind, the deaf, the lame, and persons afflicted in a variety of ways who are placed in close Christian relationship to the church to prove His people and develop true character, with angels watching how they are treated. Neighbor is anyone who needs help, as shown by the man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho who fell among thieves and was robbed, beaten, and left half dead. The priest and Levite who saw his suffering, felt no response to his wants, and passed by on the other side break the commandment and represent a class in the church indifferent to those needing sympathy and help, while the Samaritan who did not question relationship, country, or creed but went to work, relieved him, put him on his own beast, carried him to an inn, and provided for his wants at his own expense is neighbor to him and represents true helpers doing good at personal cost without seeking profit. This love means caring equally for the success and advantage of others, doing them strict justice, and refusing selfish rivalry, fault-finding, misrepresentation, opposition, or efforts to exalt self at their expense, which fosters Christian unity and harmony while its opposite creates division and alienation. It requires kindly interest that binds up the wounds of those pursued and left half dead by the destroyer and heals the bruises sin has made, with forgiving mercy, truth, and sympathy in affliction as the Father and Christ are merciful, and those who do this are ministers in partnership with Him through whom God is revealed as merciful, good, and forgiving, with the bliss of heaven provided for every soul who loves God supremely and fellow men as self.
Hoarding wealth while able to relieve others' needs fails to love neighbor as self, and withholding help from the poor, orphans, and widows is selfishness and sin charged as robbery toward God and oppression of the poor. Neglecting to make past wrongs right when truth makes duty clear violates this love even when one is otherwise generous and hospitable, for love calls for abandoning avarice and selfish love of gain. Failure to love with pure unselfish love that uses money and means lent in trust to bless others and relieve the poor shows failure to love God, perverts perception, hardens the heart, clouds understanding, leaves religious experience barren, keeps Christ from dwelling in the heart, and refuses His yoke and labor together with God. Instead of dispensing means to the poor, selfishness buries it in lands or stocks, spends it on self and children and relations, spends the Lord's money on self-indulgence when it should advance His work, and robs God in tithes and offerings so He receives neither interest nor principal. The last great day will reveal all the good that might have been done, and withholding brings eternal loss and loss of eternal inheritance in the kingdom of glory, while faithful love places treasure in the bank of heaven in bags that wax not old.
Love for neighbor requires caring for living people, so spending time, money, and effort to honor the dead while neglecting widows, orphans, the sick, and the poor violates this duty, and outward reverence cannot make up for refusing duties plainly enjoined with supreme love for God. Using time and money for needless display of dress instead of blessing others violates the duty expressed in the last six commandments, and gifts should be used in earnest efforts to help others know the truth.
Daily Service and Application
Loving one's neighbor as oneself calls for thoughtful, practical care, relief for the oppressed and encouragement for others, and when means are in hand help is to be given without hesitation. This love is shown by giving resources to sustain God's work and to establish institutions in needy and destitute fields ripe for harvest. It means putting money held in banks into circulation and using entrusted means to meet the needs of neglected fields, and neglecting fields ready for harvest brings condemnation. It also requires limiting personal spending to share with lacking fellow workers, and providing funds for missionary workers in Africa rather than drawing needed dollars away from them.
Obedience is more than profession of faith; it requires good works, self-denial, self-sacrifice and devotion to the good of others, including bringing people to the truth, for loving self more than God or neighbor fails the commandment. It appears in kind words, unselfish deeds, patience, gentleness and earnest effort to lead others to Christ. It requires faithfulness in ordinary and small duties as well as larger work, seeking opportunities to do good, reaching the minds and hearts of friends, and doing the work within reach for God's glory, which tests fidelity and keeps the soul warm. This love calls for using every power and action of the mind to do the greatest good, living not for self but by principle, ordering life with the welfare of fellow creatures in view, and using influence of word and action wisely because it affects others for good or evil.
It is lived in honesty, just and liberal dealing, truthful and elevating conversation, and sanctifying family influence that teaches respect for self, faithfulness to God and principle, and respect and obedience to God's law. When children and youth learn these principles in the Christian home they control life and association with others, create a pure atmosphere encouraging weak souls toward holiness and heaven, make the young a strength and not a burden in institutions, and prepare them for places of trust and for aiding others by precept and example. Genuine faith works by love and purifies the soul, self must be crucified lest sin remain and defile the whole person, and without love to God and neighbor there is no divine favor, no salvation unless Christ takes away loathed sin, and no restoration of the divine image while self is fostered without diligent cooperation with God. One who loves God supremely gives self to help others in self-sacrificing work after Christ's example and God's will, and earnest efforts for the needy show love for God and fellow beings. It is not fulfilled by general kindly feeling or occasional gifts to the poor and public funds while self remains supreme, but requires dethroning self and regarding one another as members together of God's family as Christ intends.
Love is to be holy and extend beyond a favored few, and when affection is first centered in God and purified by Him it becomes a yearning to draw the neglected nearer to the cross to share strengthening love. It is shown by being kind, humble and thoughtful of others' happiness rather than denying responsibility as Cain did, as fruit of genuine conversion influencing others for good. Joined to supreme love for God, both commands having been disobeyed, failure appears in dissecting character, dwelling on faults, picking at trivial things, destroying the good impression of God's word, and laying snares by word, action or deportment against fellow believers, which is feeding on detested character from which angels turn. Obedience requires turning over a new leaf, uniting and knitting the heart with Christ, recognizing every believer as precious to Him and harm to suffering humanity as done to Christ, so that believers strengthen one another, receive power, grace and Spirit, draw sap as branches of the same vine, reveal Christ's life and glory, bear much fruit of God's character, and turn warfare against principalities, powers and spiritual wickedness instead of flesh and blood. This duty laid on every human being belongs with love for God and is expressed through humility and benevolence, with grace received from God's Spirit passed on to others.
Keeping the command, which with supreme love for God is the fulfilling of the law and Christ's own command to love one another, means perfect obedience in cheerful performance of daily duties and cooperation with Christ in redemption, as Christ loved every soul and gave His life on the cross to save and draw all, for greater love has no one than laying down life for friends, and those who do what He commands are His friends, receive from His treasurehouse and share full joy of obedience. It comes from beholding Calvary as pledge of boundless love and measureless mercy and from repenting and doing first works, and when churches do this divisions are healed, strife ceases, and peace, love, mercy and benevolence become abiding principles of the soul. This answers Christ's prayer that disciples be one as He and the Father are one, restores first love, expels Pharisaism and self-righteousness, and proves to the world that God sent His Son through oneness and unity of the Spirit.
Love for neighbor joined to supreme love for God must shape life so that no believer is content to do nothing, but each has individual responsibility to work for others' salvation, giving body, soul and spirit in self-denial after Christ's example. In every business transaction it requires equity in judgment with no injustice, oppression, deception, double-dealing or selfish advantage, forbids using God's cause as excuse for oppression, forbids receiving large wages and sharp dealing for financial interest, and forbids letting business crowd out love. It requires tender, pure, true and compassionate hearts like Christ, showing courtesy, regard, sympathy, kind words and tangible help to the needy, the erring and those not seeming deserving, not only to a few thought deserving. Applied to wages it prevents those on high salaries from taking money needed by equally faithful coworkers and destitute fields, calling for fairness, self-denial and use of resources to support gospel work. It means being merciful and compassionate as the Father and Christ are merciful, with kindly interest binding up wounds of those left half dead by the destroyer and healing bruises made by sin, with forgiving mercy, truth and sympathy in affliction, and those who do this are Christ's ministers in partnership with Him through whom God is revealed as merciful, good and forgiving, with inexhaustible bounties of love and mercy and heaven's bliss provided for every soul loving God supremely and fellow men as self.
The religion of Christ's disciples is not outward observance but love for one another flowing from love to God, the true spirit of worship full of gratitude, humility, long-suffering, self-sacrifice, forbearance, mercy and forgiveness, extending influence over others, leading to active usefulness and sanctifying the whole life. Ability to keep it depends on using all God-given powers of mind and body rather than neglecting or misusing them. It makes believers better in every way, well-balanced Christians and not fanatics or extremists, shown in well-ordered lives and godly conversation, in lifting new responsibilities, and in holding faith steady when tested among unbelieving family and friends. It is the highest standard of character and test of sanctification by truth, required especially of those preaching truth, proving whether tastes are elevated, appetites controlled, sentiments noble, sympathy deep and strong, and purposes pure as laborers together with God.
For one in however responsible a position, loving God with all the heart and neighbor as self means following Christ's example, taking no glory to self, and as God's workmen bear responsibilities and burdens in the harvest field remembering true success comes from God alone and giving Him every particle of praise. Love to man joined to love to God is the necessary fruit and proof of true belief, refining and uplifting heart and life, balancing conscience, purifying heart, killing sin, cleansing soul from defilement and bearing fruit unto holiness in benevolence, kindness, tenderheartedness, sympathy, joy in right-doing and exalting Christ not self, by which true faith after God's order is known. Profession producing earthly impure speech, harshness and Pharisaism, partiality and hypocrisy lacks this love and proves faith after the order of him who delights in evil. This heaven-born, high, unselfish, unfeigned and fervent love is not unreliable sentimental feeling which is chaff, and is impossible by natural temperament because the human heart holds hereditary and cultivated partialities, lust for forbidden things and glorifying of self. It is practiced only when divine grace through spiritual enlightenment purifies mind and heart, when faith working by love purifies the soul from earthly dross, and when the person escapes worldly corruption through lust and becomes partaker of the divine nature and born of God, with character first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and hypocrisy, laying aside all malice, guile, hypocrisies, envies and evil speakings.
Love to God supremely and to neighbor as self, with heart cleansed from every idol and conscience void of offense, is required to receive heavenly treasures of immortal value, for if heaven is lost all is lost and failure in this love cannot be afforded, and it is given only to the self-denying and pure in heart. The second great commandment sums the last six commandments and requires loving neighbors truly, sincerely and wholeheartedly, for love is the basis of godliness and none has love to God apart from unselfish love for brother, and because God first loved us those loving God love all for whom Christ died. This love does not let the soul in greatest peril and need go unwarned, unlabored for and uncared for, and does not hold the erring off with criticism and exacting dealing or abandon them to further unhappiness, discouragement and falling on Satan's battleground, and God will deal with a person as that person deals with brethren and younger members of the Lord's family. It is the substance of faithfulness, is keeping God's commandments amid annoyances of a fallen world without discouragement because Christ has overcome the world, and requires earnestly contending for the faith once delivered to the saints with continual determined resistance, which cannot be fulfilled while the heart remains unconverted and out of living connection with the source of power, since Satan opposes this reformation with all his might over every inch of ground to prevent conformity to God's will and arrays himself against every decision to keep the way of the Lord and do justice and judgment. In a time of widespread disobedience and contempt for God's law it marks those who do not go with evil but esteem the law more as it is set aside, loving the commandments above gold, yea above fine gold, exalting them as contempt increases and praying for the Lord to work because men have made void His law.
Love measured by care for self, joined with supreme love for God, binds Christ's servants together with sacred responsibility to do individual part in keeping the church's saving principles alive and preserving God's love in the heart. It is the life of heaven where all love others as self with no envy, jealousy or struggling for first place or supremacy, but peace and rest, and loving one another as Christ loved proves the law is loved and Christ's love is in the heart and makes ready for heaven. Neighbor-love is to be cultivated continually and brings sunshine into the heart, belongs with supreme devotion to God, and is to be maintained through trials and difficulty. Following Christ in this love means working for the Master with best intellect, confessing Christ, walking in obedience and fighting the good fight of faith now against Satan's great power with angels assisting, and faithfulness in this trust receives eternal life with joy when Christ comes in the clouds. It also teaches work for others' salvation and practical well-being, including teaching useful skills and literacy by instruction and example.
Justice Health and Family
Love for neighbor requires the nation to make restitution to the colored race for slavery and to work to lessen its lasting effects, with even those who did not actively enforce it responsible to make special efforts to help. The colored people are neighbors in God's sight, so the command demands more than noticing or deploring their condition but working together to help them and share truth with them. Obeyed, this impartial love breaks down racial prejudice and separation between white and Black people in practical care for those oppressed and deprived of opportunity. When Christians obey it together with supreme love for God, prejudice-based divisions can fall away as the walls of Jericho fell. In the Southern field this means serving neglected people by teaching useful skills, helping them learn to read and earn a livelihood, caring for spiritual and material needs, and bringing them to Christ by help and example.
The same love forbids growing hops for beer-making or manufacturing wine or cider for market, since with what Scripture, nature and reason teach about intoxicants love will not place a snare in a neighbor's way. Indulging intemperance is selfish and contrary to the duty, benumbing the brain, weakening intellect, filling the body with disease, inflaming passions and blinding reason and conscience. Keeping body and mind fit for acceptable service to fellow men is required, while hurtful habits such as drinking tea and coffee and knowingly breaking the Bible health laws cloud the mind, unstring nerves, bring weakness, pain and disease, and unfit a person to serve others, think deeply on salvation and serve God. Indifference and ignorance about health laws become sin under this principle, creating obligation to live healthfully before neighbors, obtain reachable knowledge and put it to practical use, with accountability for light given but not accepted and acted upon. Conscientious keeping of the commandments with supreme love for God and love for neighbor requires using all powers with balanced exercise of mind and body, preserving health and clear conscience through pure thoughts, conscientious thinking, faithful work and keeping God's glory in view, with proportionate hand labor in agriculture and useful work guarding against overtaxed brain and impure thoughts and actions.
Ability to love neighbor depends on using all God-given powers of mind and body rather than neglecting or misusing them, consecrating the whole man to the Master's service. This love calls believers to work for salvation and practical well-being of others, including teaching useful skills and literacy by instruction and example. Joined with supreme love for God it makes a person a light in the world, shown in presenting truth as it is in Jesus with humility, piety, devotion and Christlikeness that draws others, communicating knowledge by lifting up Jesus the world's Redeemer and holding forth the Word of life. In human relationships it makes mutual blessing part of responsibility to glorify God.
Obedience to the moral law in loving neighbor as self is to guide how children and youth are taught and treated, accomplished through God's work in the heart not by human force or indulgence. Children taught to respect God's law and home rules, to respect themselves, be true to God and principle, and obey God's law, will love others as themselves. Their example creates a pure atmosphere encouraging weak souls toward holiness and heaven, making the young a strength and support not a burden in institutions and preparing them to fill trusts and aid others by precept and example. Religion must be carried into every department including little courtesies essential to happiness, with generous loving affection encouraged among children since tender affection is not weakness and repressing it stifles better nature while divine love melts selfishness and forms Jesus' tender spirit and sympathy. Love as a powerful principle for dealing with others should replace severity in managing children and shape a life of tenderness, peace and service.
In marriage the command shapes conduct with the same care one has for self in kindness, forbearance, honesty and faithfulness. It means giving up self-centeredness, showing respect and deference, cultivating warmth and pleasantness, and honoring the spouse's virtues, with love for spouse growing from supreme love for God. It tests fitness for marriage and the kingdom by requiring examination whether self-will and forceful insistence on one's wishes would make another unhappy.
Outward display without mercy does not fulfill the duty, as enlarging phylacteries while actions opposed God's law and lacked mercy and love showed, though the blue-ribbon reminder pointed to supreme love for God with love for neighbor. Doing the second great command like the first gives life, requiring managers in God's institutions to awake, reason from high principles, break Satan's spell and seek cleansing, with connection to God's work increasing practical piety, mercy, long-suffering, goodness, tender-heartedness, pity, courtesy and Christlikeness under judgment clear as light. Wounding and discouraging those needing help breaks the commandments and shows lack of Christlike love. A physician exploiting an afflicted patient by excessive fee acts from selfishness and greed, violates God's law and does not love neighbor as self. The test of being Christian, the same as doing to others as one would have done, forbids selfish plans to uplift self by pulling another down, tainting the soul with corrupting imaginings and improper attention, wearing religion as a cloak, and common sensual words and deportment, requiring idols to cease and God's law to be written on heart and conscience by His Spirit not merely assented by understanding. Strict equity and justice toward others with the same regard as for self exposes professed followers whose improper familiarities let lust govern conduct.
Joined with supreme love for God, loving neighbor as self makes a person a light through piety, devotion and Christlike character drawing others to truth. It gives greater strength and higher ground, calling for kindness and care not oppression or sharpness that makes one unskillful with human minds. When Christ's love fills the heart it enables this love, against which selfishness and desire for supremacy stand. It should govern actions, words and conduct in a consistent holy life distinguishing God's children from the world. Joined with wholehearted love for God it marks those who reap the eternal reward, shown in treatment of others not wealth, display or luxury, while selfishness and lack of love show failure to live it.
Joined with supreme love for God and obedience to truth, this love sanctifies body, mind and soul, brings harmony with God, and in that harmony there is freedom crowned with glory. Not living to please self but doing good as Christ who lived not to please Himself is the work of real missionaries with undivided affection, shaping the daily record going to heaven and determining the eternal weight of glory, with condemnation measured by light received.