A Lawyer Questions Jesus in the Temple Courtby CBPepper
22:40Matthew 22:40
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
All of the law and the prophets hang on, depend on and rest on the two commands to love God wholly and to love one's neighbor as oneself. The first and great command is loving the Lord God with all heart, soul, mind and strength, and the second like it is loving one's neighbor as oneself. Together they sum up the Ten Commandments, the first four expressing duty to God and hanging on love to God, and the last six expressing duty to other people and hanging on love to neighbor. These two loves contain all the principles of the Decalogue and fulfill the law, and they do not set aside obedience but require keeping the commandments in spirit and letter as the living proof of love. Doing them is the answer to what must be done to inherit eternal life, yet people cannot produce this love by their own strength, but through faith in Christ and the Holy Spirit's work removing selfishness the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in them.
Setting and Wording
Christ answered a lawyer who asked which is the great commandment in the law, drawing the summary out of the lawyer himself and affirming his right answer as correct. He spoke after reading the lawyer's heart and the hearts of the Pharisees who had prompted the question to tempt Him and trap Him in His speech, giving the lawyer the benefit of answering his own question and then turning that right answer back upon them.
The two commandments repeat the counsel given to Israel through Moses before entering the promised land to fear God, to walk in His ways, to love and serve Him with heart and soul, and to keep His commandments and statutes for good. They repeat also the prophet's answer that the Lord requires doing justly and loving mercy and walking humbly with God rather than burnt offerings and outward rites. From age to age this counsel urges the value of practical godliness upon those in danger of falling into formalism and forgetting to show mercy.
Christ Himself spoke these principles on Mount Sinai and spoke them again in the sermon on the mount in the beatitudes, so the teaching of Sinai and the teaching of the beatitudes are the same. They were spoken by God Himself with an audible voice in awful grandeur from Sinai as the standard by which to form character and to leave nothing obscure or indefinite about salvation, distinctly stating what must be done to render acceptable obedience and what must not be done to remain loyal, with a living exemplification provided through the great sacrifice decided in the councils of heaven. The Ten Commandments were summarized on the blue ribbon Israel was commanded to wear as a reminder of supreme love to God and love to neighbor, while outward displays of devotion such as enlarged phylacteries cannot replace obedience, for the priests' and Pharisees' works contradicted God's law and their claims to holiness did not make them faithful children of Abraham.
Jesus quoted five of the last six commandments together with the second great commandment to the rich young man without mentioning the first four, yet the command to sell all and give to the poor exposed failure in both parts. Supreme love of riches made it impossible to love God supremely with all heart and soul and mind and shut his eyes to the wants of fellow men, so that failing to love his neighbor as himself meant failing the last six, and loving possessions better than God meant failing the first four.
Two Loves Uphold Law
All the law and the prophets hang on, depend on and rest on the two commandments to love God wholly and to love one's neighbor as oneself. These two loves are the foundation of Scripture's moral teaching, calling for practical love and mercy and not merely formal religion, and divine love must be manifested in the human heart. They make God's will the governing question in every matter, so that doing that will is obedience to the law, and they express the obedience the law requires. Love of neighbor calls for practical care, including relieving physical distress and using what is not truly necessary for oneself to help others and support work for their salvation, and faith works through this love to purify the soul. They answer what one must do to inherit eternal life, and Christ presents them as conditions of eternal life that must be lived out and not merely read or professed.
The first and great commandment is loving the Lord God with all heart and soul and mind and strength, and the second like it is loving one's neighbor as oneself. This means keeping God's commandments requires laying aside selfishness, consulting God's Guidebook at every step, and being doers of the Word by practically loving neighbors and helping those in need rather than walking apart from them while cherishing self and seeking praise and recognition. Diligent study and faithful practice of this word is necessary to endure the perils of the last day, and having a proper understanding of these far-reaching principles is for present and eternal interest. It is part of 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, that through God giving His Son to bear the sword of justice and die that they might go free and live they may become partakers of the divine nature. Love for God means worshiping Him with all heart, mind, soul and strength and not making people into gods, and these principles are essential for knowing where dependence lies and how to face the perils of the last days.
These two loves contain all the principles of the Decalogue and fulfill the law, for supreme love to God and unselfish love to others reveal the perfection of human character. Supreme love to God and love to neighbor as self hold all the law and the prophets together, and this love is the fulfilling of the law, with God who is love to be loved supremely and the wealth of affection flowing without restraint in this divine channel. The whole law is fulfilled by the person who loves God with all the heart and loves the neighbor as oneself, and love and purity are the qualities valued by God, with a tender, humble, sympathetic, pitying heart being strength derived from Christ and not weakness. True religion is this love revealed in deeds, shining forth in self-forgetfulness amid life's activities and everyday contact with others and running like a thread of gold through daily experience in usefulness, lightening burdens and lessening cares. Its counterfeit is selfishness, loving self supremely, seeking own enjoyment while disregarding the good of others and hating those who refuse to sustain a wrong course, and the test between them is the fruit of love for God and His truth and love for neighbor as self.
The two great principles of love to God and love to man contain the binding force of the whole law and of all the moral precepts found in the prophets. The moral code of the Old Testament remains in full force in the New Testament, and if these two commandments are brought into the gospel all that hangs upon them is also brought into the gospel, so it is not enough to believe but a person must be a doer of the law. These principles are the foundation for the instructions God gave in both the Old and New Testaments, take in the entire Bible, and comprehend the whole duty of man. This truth is sound doctrine, wheat, while human vagaries and inventions are chaff and are to be treated as chaff in contrast with it. Eternal life requires loving God supremely and loving one's neighbor as oneself, with the whole body and mind consecrated to God's service, and faith, hope and confidence do no good unless the love of Christ is in the soul expressing itself toward brethren, giving life to life and reforming the character. These two principles are the real essence of education and the foundation for reading the Bible intelligently and obtaining knowledge from the Word of the living God. This kind of education is Higher Education, and any education that supersedes it or dismisses it from the mind is not of God.
Ten Commandments Divided
The two commands sum up the Ten Commandments, with the first four expressing duty to God and hanging on love to God, and the last six expressing duty to other people and hanging on love to neighbor. Together they encompass, support, rest upon and uphold the whole law and the prophets, stating the whole duty of humanity and presenting love as the foundation and guiding principle of the law. These two commandments must be strictly obeyed, for they are not separate rules of unequal importance that can be ranked or selectively set aside, and none can be broken without violating love. Love for God is shown by obedience to all His commandments, and love for neighbor flows from giving God His rightful place in the heart, leading to treating others rightly and impartially, while willing obedience brings honor to God and happiness to those who do His will. Love for neighbor forbids taking advantage of or wronging anyone for personal gain and requires treating believers and unbelievers as one wishes to be treated in every business dealing and other interaction.
The Decalogue was written by God on two tables of stone, the first table containing the four commandments defining duty to God and the second containing the six defining duty to fellow man. The ten precepts contain the whole duty of man and match the two great principles of love to God and love to man on which the whole law hangs. All other commands found in Scripture are only specifications or amplification of what is already contained in the ten.
The last six commandments are summed up in loving neighbor as self. This neighbor-love gives the command to love one another its foundation, while Christ's self-sacrificing love reveals its fuller meaning. Loving God supremely and loving one's neighbor as Christ has loved fulfills the divine law, which is genuine religion bringing sanctifying influence into all a person thinks, says and does. That fulfillment requires discharging aright the duties God lays upon a person, keeping the heart free from every scheme of selfishness and purging away all schemes that savor of selfishness in order to strive lawfully in right work, in any business transaction and in any line of service, allowing not one thread of selfishness to be drawn into the fabric. These two great principles call for people to love one another as Christ has loved them.
The fourth commandment stands in the center of the decalogue and links the two divisions together, with one set of precepts specifying duty to God and another specifying duty to fellow man. Love does not set aside obedience but requires keeping the Ten Commandments in answer to which is the great commandment, and it is impossible to love God with all the heart while breaking the fourth commandment. True love is perfected only in obedient children who live as a family with filial not slavish fear before Him, seeing their duty pointed out and walking in light and harmony with His requirements, which fits for eternal life. Probation is given to test obedience, which God will not compel, with reward promised to the obedient and punishment to the disobedient; to decree that God's law is not worthy to be kept makes one an enemy of the Lord, and to claim love while disobeying shows the love of God is not perfected. Keeping that righteousness of the law before people barricades the soul against deception, while leading people to ignore the law as null and void and to preach against it, especially the fourth commandment, breaks that link and hides the exceeding sinfulness of sin.
Keeping the first four commandments follows from supreme love for God, which includes all the other requirements. Those who keep the first commandment will not transgress the second. Supreme love to God and love to neighbor are the two great principles on which all the law and the prophets depend, drawn out from the lawyer in answer to what to do to inherit eternal life and affirmed as right, with the promise that doing it gives life.
One Unified Law
The whole law is held together by love to God and love to neighbor, on which all the law and the prophets hang, depend and rest. The same principle runs through every precept, so the law is a divine unity and not a collection of separate rules of unequal importance that can be ranked or selectively ignored. The first four commandments express love to God and the last six express love to neighbor, and neither kind of love can be practiced while the other is rejected. Giving God His rightful place in the heart leads to treating others rightly and loving them impartially with goodness and compassion. Because every commandment expresses this principle, breaking even one violates love and breaks the unity of the whole law.
These two principles are unchanging and eternal and test character and whether a person is obedient. True obedience is more than acknowledging truth, performing ceremonies, ceremonial worship or sacrifice; it offers God the whole service He requires in willing obedience to all His requirements. Keeping the commandments brings reward even in this life, including a clear conscience and peace with God, while self-love and self-exaltation are unacceptable to Him. Human destiny is determined by obedience to the whole law, with supreme love to God and impartial love to others lived out in the life. Love for God is shown through obedience to all His commandments.
Every precept rests on love to God and love to fellow beings, and the commandments are joined in meaning and duty, so breaking one violates one or both principles and violates the whole law. Love for God is not merely belief in His power or outward worship but a living principle shown in giving Him the heart's highest place in willing obedience. Supreme love for God excludes other gods, idolatry, and giving the heart's highest affection to self, the world, money or created things, for self-love, love of the world, or excessive affection for anything created is idolatry that turns the heart from God. Love for neighbor follows from giving God His rightful place, because it is impossible to love God while hating one made in His image, and love for God and love for people cannot be separated. God's love underlies every precept, so disregarding even one departs from God's will and brings unhappiness and ruin, as the first parents' disobedience brought woe upon the world and those who follow their example reap a similar result.
Christ vindicated and honored the law by declaring that all hangs on the principles of the Ten Commandments. Disrespect for the law therefore proves a person has not been born again and the truth does not abide in them. The law is a perfect, unchanging and eternal rule of life, binding through every generation, comprising the whole duty of humanity as the believer's rule of life and the sinner's condemnation. Its demands reach beyond outward actions to secret thoughts, purposes, motives and intentions, and its precepts must govern judgment, will and affections, so outward obedience without this love is not accepted. Christ magnified it and lived it perfectly as an example, showing its spiritual reach, and obeying it leads people to reject ungodliness and worldly desires and to live soberly, righteously and godly.
Love Shown by Obedience
Love does not set aside obedience but requires keeping the Ten Commandments in spirit and letter. Such obedience shows covenant relationship with God and gives Him glory. Obeying this law of love binds people to God, guards them from evil paths, and binds them to Him through perfect obedience. Whoever loves God supremely and neighbor as self in this way is keeping God's commandments.
Love for God is not mere emotion, empty belief in His existence and power, or cold outward worship. It is a living principle shown in willing obedience to all His requirements. That obedience is rendered with filial not slavish fear, brings honor to God, and brings happiness to those who do His will. The first four commandments state duty to the Creator and the last six state duty to other people, and obedience to God is how love for Him is shown.
It is impossible to love God with all the heart while breaking the fourth commandment, which stands in the center of the decalogue. True love is perfected only in obedient children who see their duty pointed out and walk in the light in harmony with His requirements. To decree that His law is not worthy to be kept makes one His enemy, and to claim love while disobeying shows His love is not perfected.
Supreme love for God excludes other gods and idolatry and refuses to give the heart's highest affection to self, the world, money, or created things. Self-love, letting love of money displace devotion to God, seeking selfish advantage at a neighbor's expense, and devotion to worldly gain violate the law because they oppose this love. Keeping the commandments outwardly is not enough without it.
Outward obedience without this love is not accepted, for God's spiritual law reaches secret thoughts, purposes, and motives, and its precepts must govern judgment, will, and affections. True obedience is more than assent to truth, ceremonial worship, or sacrifice, offering God the whole service He requires and expressing itself through goodness and compassion toward others. The Jews claimed to keep the law while ignoring these principles, and their outward observance therefore did not reflect the law's true demands, as the works of the priests and Pharisees contradicted it.
Probation is given to test obedience, which God will not compel. He cooperates with the human agent in this work without crushing him or compelling the will, while faith works by love to purify the soul. Reward is promised to the obedient and punishment to the disobedient.
Loving God supremely is essential to loving neighbor, for giving God His rightful place in the heart leads to treating others rightly and loving them impartially. Faithfully honoring God leads to faithfully carrying out the commandments about duties to other people, because love for God includes love for people made in His image. Neither principle can be kept while the other is broken, and it is impossible to love God while hating one made in His image; breaking even one commandment violates one or both principles and breaks the unity of the law. Disregard for the first principle makes obedience to the second impossible.
Knowing the truth, preaching the Word, or understanding mysteries does not remedy failure to live these principles and does not fulfill the law. Suspicion and imagining evil violate them, and those who follow that course bring upon themselves the evils they imagine. Criticizing and condemning one another breaks God's commandments and shows lack of love for both God and fellow beings.
God's Character and Rule
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets because the whole law is a law of love to God and to man, a law of harmony and unity and holiness. It is an expression of divine goodness and of God's own loving character and will, a code of principles expressing mercy, goodness and love that presents His character to fallen humanity and states plainly the whole duty of man. It is therefore not a new thing but holiness made known, holy and just and good, unchangeable and enduring, because love fulfills the law. Keeping its commandments displays that character and gives visible evidence of that love, restoring the divine image in the fallen race by constant beneficence and Christlike self-denial for the truth's sake. Such a life is faith working by love purifying the soul from selfishness, giving the world convincing and contagious evidence that God's law is love, while drawing near to God brings a person nearer to that law and to oneness of mind and judgment in genuine religion, declaring by faith and works that God is wisdom and sanctification and righteousness. Christ died to save sinners from their sins, not in their sins, and the warning given in Revelation shows the terrible consequence of transgression, so duty to obey this law is to be the burden of the last message of mercy to the world.
The law reflects God's character and is a transcript of His character, the standard of His character and of judgment by which character and claims to holiness are measured and by which people are to be brought back to God's likeness. The first four commandments define duty to the Maker in supreme love to God and the last six define duty to fellow human beings, together comprising the whole duty of humanity and applying to every part of life. Opposition to the law reveals the character of Satan's kingdom.
These two principles express God's moral government, which extends throughout the universe, including the fallen world, and calls people to reverence and fear and obedience. The law applies universally and rests on love for God and for other people as the foundation of the whole law, expressing God's character, reaching beyond civil law, and remaining binding in every command both great and small. It retains its claim upon all and comprises the whole duty of every person, binding on every human being and expressed in a life of humility and benevolence in which the gospel forms Christ's virtues in those who receive it.
Obedience to its enduring principles brings human happiness and undergirds the stability of society, honoring God and bringing peace on earth and goodwill toward people. The law acts as a hedge and shield, preserving those who accept its principles from evil, protecting every person's rights and individuality, and restraining both oppression by those in authority and disobedience by those under authority, with purity, kindness, patience and sympathy as marks of this love. For the obedient its enduring principles are a pledge of eternal life. Rejecting or replacing God's law hides the knowledge of sin and leads to false claims of sinlessness, while viewed in the light of the law transgression is exposed as sin. A professed concern for the law that prefers a suffering woman's continued affliction to her healing rejects the law's principle of love and obscures its spiritual meaning.
Way to Eternal Life
The two loves answer what must be done to inherit eternal life, for doing them gives life. Christ drew that summary out of the lawyer and affirmed it as right, with the promise that doing it gives life. Loving God supremely and loving neighbor as self is the only hope of eternal life, bringing clearer, higher and holier understanding of God, eternity and obedience, with God becoming strength and portion forever. Those who keep the first commandment will not transgress the second, for supreme love to God includes all other requirements. Divine love must be manifested in the human heart.
Christ presents these commands as conditions of eternal life that must be lived out, not merely read or professed. It is not enough to believe; a person must be a doer of the law. Keeping them requires laying aside selfishness, consulting God's Guidebook at every step, and being doers of the Word by practically loving neighbors and helping those in need rather than walking apart from them while cherishing self and seeking praise and recognition. Diligent study and faithful practice of this word is necessary to endure the perils of the last day. Knowing and teaching the Ten Commandments in theory is not enough; their principles must be obeyed from the heart, including being pure and loving God and others, with practical care that relieves physical distress and uses what is not truly necessary for self to help others and support work for their salvation.
These two principles are God's prescribed remedy for inheriting eternal life, comprehended by those who overcome the temptations of satanic agencies. They comprehend the wisdom and power of God. In the smallest as well as the largest matters they require making God's will one's own will, because obeying and hearkening is better than sacrifice, and following what is good keeps one from harm. The moral code of the Old Testament remains in full force in the New Testament, and if these two commandments are brought into the gospel all that hangs upon them is also brought into the gospel.
People cannot produce the required love, meekness, humility and holiness by their own strength. The gospel promises God's help, and through faith in Christ and believing in and receiving Him the law's righteousness is fulfilled in them, imparting power to become sons of God and live these principles. Through the Holy Spirit's influence malice, hatred, jealousy and selfishness are removed and cleansed from the heart, and kindness, patience, longsuffering, benevolence and love take their place. The gospel therefore leads to obedience rather than setting the law aside, for love for God leads to wholehearted obedience to the law's requirements and love does no harm to a neighbor.
Keeping the commandments in wholehearted love restores the divine image in the fallen race, recreates in Christ's image, and makes partakers of the divine nature. God designed people for companionship with Himself and wants them capable of this love, giving His Son to bear the sword of justice and die that repentant perishing souls coming to Christ might go free and live. This is part of the message to be borne to perishing souls in their sins. Without this love Christ cannot stamp them with the image of God or restore His attributes in them. Faith, hope and confidence do no good unless the love of Christ is in the soul, expressed toward brethren, giving life to life and reforming the character by constant beneficence and Christlike self-denial for truth's sake as faith working by love purifying the soul from selfishness.
Those who keep these commandments will enter through the gates into the city of God built for the pure and holy. Those who live by this whole duty and spiritual measure, put by God into the least of acts and dealings, shall live and rule among the greatest and be entrusted with the divine cause. Learning and living it elevates, ennobles and sanctifies heart and affection in faithfulness in the least, building up character after the divine model in preparation for the glory to be revealed through the power and grace brought through Jesus Christ, gaining fitness for heaven above and sanctification through the truth. Treasures of immortal value are given only to those who keep these two commandments in self-denial and purity of heart, standing before God with a heart cleansed from every idol and a conscience void of offense, prepared for anything so that life or death, trials or sufferings do not uproot faith but make strong to do and to suffer. If heaven is lost everything is lost. Loving neighbor as self cannot be done without warning those perishing in sin, exercising self-denial and self-sacrifice for their salvation, and showing them the way of salvation in and through Christ Jesus.
Keeping them brings reward even in this life, including a clear conscience and peace with God. Living by them brings light and joy and peace and gladness into life. This shows preparedness for the inheritance of the saints in light, makes a person a true representative of Christ in word and spirit and action, and makes him rich for all eternity. These principles are God's law, holy, just and good, not a new thing but holiness made known, a code expressing mercy, goodness and love that presents God's character to fallen humanity and states plainly the whole duty of man, with Christ dying to save sinners from their sins, not in their sins. Duty to obey this law is to be the burden of the last message of mercy to the world, with the warning given in Revelation showing the terrible consequence of transgression.
Love in Daily Life
Love to neighbor is not optional or convenient but a positive duty requiring practical, impartial care for those in need — widows, orphans and the fatherless, the blind, deaf, lame and afflicted — helping because help is needed without questioning relationship, country or creed, sacrificing personal ease and advantage, using what is not truly necessary for self to relieve physical distress and support work for their salvation, through self-denial, self-sacrifice and beneficence. When means to help are in hand action is required rather than hesitation, with kindness, attention, relief for the oppressed and encouragement. This love is pictured by the Samaritan who relieved, carried and provided for the man robbed and beaten on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, in contrast to the priest and Levite whose indifference in passing by on the other side is commandment-breaking. Neglect of fellow beings is without excuse, and duty applies to everyone without first asking whether beliefs are shared. Help is to be given even when it is not inviting and costs inconvenience, care and anxiety, not passing a needy brother by but restoring fallen brethren with interest, kind speech and action; this helping is genuine medical missionary work and is the law practiced.
Love to neighbor forbids taking advantage of or wronging anyone for personal gain and requires treating believers and unbelievers as one wishes to be treated in every business dealing and interaction. Ambition to excel at others' expense, exorbitant charges for services, unjustly acquiring means at another's expense, misrepresentation to gain favor, mingling human wisdom with the divine to confuse minds about right and holy methods in business, and selfish treacherous dealings that rob one part of the vineyard to benefit another pervert the law, oppose God's character and break both commandments. Those who would enter Christ's kingdom must conduct business honestly according to God's plan, for dishonesty would be carried into heaven itself. These commandments require Christlike conduct in business and dealings with others — honesty, kindness, humility, patience, generosity and freedom from greed and overreaching — keeping the heart free from every selfish scheme, purging away all schemes savoring of selfishness, and allowing not one thread of selfishness into the fabric of any transaction or line of service.
Loving neighbor as self cannot be done without warning those perishing in sin, exercising self-denial and self-sacrifice for their salvation and showing them the way of salvation in Christ, for God will deal with men as they deal with brethren and the younger members of the Lord's family. That love will not let the soul in greatest peril and need go unwarned, unlabored for and uncared for, nor hold the erring off with criticism and exacting demands nor leave them alone to plunge into further unhappiness and fall on Satan's battleground. Those who keep these commandments in such wholehearted love will enter through the gates into the city of God. This same duty requires the American nation to make restitution to the colored race for past wrongs, and requires even those who did not enforce slavery to make special efforts as far as possible to undo its lasting effects.
Obeying these two requirements fully would remove discord from church and family, bringing peace, happiness and joy into home and church. Genuine Bible religion is of one mind and one judgment, declaring by faith and works that God is wisdom and sanctification and righteousness, calling for humility, goodness, peacemaking and humble peaceable conduct rather than desire to rule or gain supremacy. Jesus' character and life represented every principle of that law through benevolence and unselfish love, and those in His kingdom show unity, abiding love and sincere respect for one another. Fault-finding and speech tearing down another's reputation violate these principles, and severity in dealing with children is contrary to the tenderness this love requires. Love binds people together and unites them with Christ in God, but when these principles are discarded selfishness, distrust, conflict and evil take their place.
When the Spirit of Christ is cherished it unites human beings in proper order under Christ as head, blending His people in perfect harmony and thereby revealing heaven's principles. Those who love God will love one another, proving by Christlike lives that they are sons of God and members of the royal family, and these binding principles must be respected to enter heaven. The twofold love must actuate ministers, making the minister inspired by grace and moved by that love intelligent, earnest, thoroughgoing and a great power for good through human agencies, far more successful than one indifferent and slack. These principles must guide every part of daily life great and small, including business, and meticulous attention to lesser religious duties does not excuse neglecting the weightier matters of judgment, mercy and love for God.
All conduct is to be ordered by love for God and concern for others, so that even daily choices for preserving health follow God's will and serve others' welfare. All are children of one Father and depend on one another for happiness, so shutting oneself up to self fails the position designed by God; keeping the commands requires subordinating selfish worldly interests to spiritual and eternal interests, giving importance to worship and to associating together to strengthen and encourage one another, and cultivating the social elements of nature to come into sympathy with brethren and find happiness in blessing others. Neglecting this fellowship causes truth to lose vividness and importance, leaves the heart unenlightened by sanctifying influence and brings spiritual decline. Unselfish, self-sacrificing love is the clearest evidence of obedience and allegiance shared by law and gospel, with faith working through love to purify the soul from selfishness. Following Christ's self-denial for truth's sake makes this evident with convincing contagious evidence that the law is love, restoring the divine image by constant beneficence. Those who receive Christ's pure, unselfish, sanctified love do not deceive others or act for advantage in ways bringing distress, but show love to Christ by unselfish love for those around as a daily witness. This love is shown in practical unselfish care in everyday life, for religious forms without loving deeds do not fulfill the law, and a pure heart, good conscience and sincere faith working by love and cleansing the soul are required to live by it.
True religion is this love revealed in deeds, shining in self-forgetfulness amid life's activities and everyday contacts, running like a thread of gold through experience in usefulness, lightening burdens and lessening cares. Purity, kindness, patience and sympathy are its marks, with peace and goodwill, and those cherishing these principles manifest elevated moral taste, controlled and sanctified passions, deep earnest sympathy, and set forth Christ as altogether lovely and chiefest among ten thousand with the fruit of the Spirit revealed. Its counterfeit is selfishness loving self supremely, seeking own enjoyment while disregarding others' good and hating those refusing to sustain a wrong course; the test is fruit — love for God and truth and love for neighbor as self. The lover of self is a transgressor, and those keeping the commands are emptied of self and free from selfishness, true as steel to principle, united to Christ, wearing His yoke and manifesting His meekness and lowliness, thus revealing God's glory. Love and purity are valued by God, and a tender humble sympathetic pitying heart is strength from Christ, not weakness.
The command requires respect for others' rights and care for their needs, with unselfish conduct including using entrusted possessions to serve others and honor God, giving the heart's highest affection to its Maker. God's law is a moral mirror showing defects by comparison with His standard, and recognizing wrong should lead to deep repentance and earnest seeking of His power through the Holy Spirit to show Christ's kindness and forbearance, while selfishness, cold indifference and injustice disregard it. Christ speaks this as a personal demand for entire conformity to God's will: diligence in making calling and election sure, ceasing to watch others, jealousy over self, and blessing others by godly example, cheerfulness, fortitude, courage, faith, hope, joy and perfect trust from sanctification through truth. Sanctification consists in cheerfully performing daily duties in perfect obedience, loving one another as Christ commanded and proved by laying down His life, abiding in His love as He kept His Father's commandments with the full joy of obedience; failure to cooperate with Christ in redemption cannot be supplied in eternity.
Treating others as one wishes to be treated puts a person where God can reveal Himself and approve them, with love made perfect through receiving grace and truth and freely sharing light and salvation, bearing fruit in holiness to everlasting life. The Jewish people had received great light but failed to practice these principles. The Bible makes these duties with every obligation and privilege plain as a rule for faith and practice, and departing from its clear instruction obscures the view of God. Having a proper understanding of these far-reaching principles is for present and eternal interest, essential for knowing dependence and facing last-day perils, for all the law and prophets hang on loving God with all heart, soul, strength and mind and loving neighbor as self, without making people into gods. The pure gospel given upon the Mount explains that holy standard of character on which all law hangs.
When this love is perfected it is revealed by sanctification of soul, body and spirit, and when that victory is achieved the gospel is satisfied, for the love of God is fulfilled in him who keeps these commands which contain all the law and prophets and are the whole duty of man. When Christ's love dwells within, love for others follows naturally toward rich and poor alike and must be expressed toward brethren, giving life to life and reforming the character; faith, hope and confidence do no good unless Christ's love is in the soul with body and mind consecrated to service. These principles express whole duty and God's will, leading to unity, order and harmony in the church with peace and goodwill, honoring His government and reaching every person by giving self its proper place as Christ's property valued by the price He paid. Learning and living this law in the least acts elevates, ennobles and sanctifies heart and affection, binding people to God and developing complete healthy character in preparation for glory. Keeping God's laws means acting out His will in love, kindness and loyalty, doing good rather than evil, with love rather than stubbornness or personal rules guiding treatment of one another as the measure of true religion.
The verse calls for faithfulness and love to God and fellow men, expressing responsibilities to God and fellow beings and expressing God's love in life and character in treatment of others, with love to God and love to brethren closely linked. Cultivating both loves brings present and eternal results, with the Lord cooperating without crushing or compelling the will while faith works by love to purify the soul and grace and truth prevail. Its voice speaks to every soul requiring no lost opportunity for deeds of mercy, tender forethought and Christian courtesy for the burdened and oppressed, and where nothing more can be done, words of courage and hope to those unacquainted with God who are reached most easily by sympathy and love.
All of the law and the prophets hang on, depend on and rest on the two commands to love God wholly and to love one's neighbor as oneself. The first and great command is loving the Lord God with all heart, soul, mind and strength, and the second like it is loving one's neighbor as oneself. Together they sum up the Ten Commandments, the first four expressing duty to God and hanging on love to God, and the last six expressing duty to other people and hanging on love to neighbor. These two loves contain all the principles of the Decalogue and fulfill the law, and they do not set aside obedience but require keeping the commandments in spirit and letter as the living proof of love. Doing them is the answer to what must be done to inherit eternal life, yet people cannot produce this love by their own strength, but through faith in Christ and the Holy Spirit's work removing selfishness the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in them.
Setting and Wording
Christ answered a lawyer who asked which is the great commandment in the law, drawing the summary out of the lawyer himself and affirming his right answer as correct. He spoke after reading the lawyer's heart and the hearts of the Pharisees who had prompted the question to tempt Him and trap Him in His speech, giving the lawyer the benefit of answering his own question and then turning that right answer back upon them.
The two commandments repeat the counsel given to Israel through Moses before entering the promised land to fear God, to walk in His ways, to love and serve Him with heart and soul, and to keep His commandments and statutes for good. They repeat also the prophet's answer that the Lord requires doing justly and loving mercy and walking humbly with God rather than burnt offerings and outward rites. From age to age this counsel urges the value of practical godliness upon those in danger of falling into formalism and forgetting to show mercy.
Christ Himself spoke these principles on Mount Sinai and spoke them again in the sermon on the mount in the beatitudes, so the teaching of Sinai and the teaching of the beatitudes are the same. They were spoken by God Himself with an audible voice in awful grandeur from Sinai as the standard by which to form character and to leave nothing obscure or indefinite about salvation, distinctly stating what must be done to render acceptable obedience and what must not be done to remain loyal, with a living exemplification provided through the great sacrifice decided in the councils of heaven. The Ten Commandments were summarized on the blue ribbon Israel was commanded to wear as a reminder of supreme love to God and love to neighbor, while outward displays of devotion such as enlarged phylacteries cannot replace obedience, for the priests' and Pharisees' works contradicted God's law and their claims to holiness did not make them faithful children of Abraham.
Jesus quoted five of the last six commandments together with the second great commandment to the rich young man without mentioning the first four, yet the command to sell all and give to the poor exposed failure in both parts. Supreme love of riches made it impossible to love God supremely with all heart and soul and mind and shut his eyes to the wants of fellow men, so that failing to love his neighbor as himself meant failing the last six, and loving possessions better than God meant failing the first four.
Two Loves Uphold Law
All the law and the prophets hang on, depend on and rest on the two commandments to love God wholly and to love one's neighbor as oneself. These two loves are the foundation of Scripture's moral teaching, calling for practical love and mercy and not merely formal religion, and divine love must be manifested in the human heart. They make God's will the governing question in every matter, so that doing that will is obedience to the law, and they express the obedience the law requires. Love of neighbor calls for practical care, including relieving physical distress and using what is not truly necessary for oneself to help others and support work for their salvation, and faith works through this love to purify the soul. They answer what one must do to inherit eternal life, and Christ presents them as conditions of eternal life that must be lived out and not merely read or professed.
The first and great commandment is loving the Lord God with all heart and soul and mind and strength, and the second like it is loving one's neighbor as oneself. This means keeping God's commandments requires laying aside selfishness, consulting God's Guidebook at every step, and being doers of the Word by practically loving neighbors and helping those in need rather than walking apart from them while cherishing self and seeking praise and recognition. Diligent study and faithful practice of this word is necessary to endure the perils of the last day, and having a proper understanding of these far-reaching principles is for present and eternal interest. It is part of 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, that through God giving His Son to bear the sword of justice and die that they might go free and live they may become partakers of the divine nature. Love for God means worshiping Him with all heart, mind, soul and strength and not making people into gods, and these principles are essential for knowing where dependence lies and how to face the perils of the last days.
These two loves contain all the principles of the Decalogue and fulfill the law, for supreme love to God and unselfish love to others reveal the perfection of human character. Supreme love to God and love to neighbor as self hold all the law and the prophets together, and this love is the fulfilling of the law, with God who is love to be loved supremely and the wealth of affection flowing without restraint in this divine channel. The whole law is fulfilled by the person who loves God with all the heart and loves the neighbor as oneself, and love and purity are the qualities valued by God, with a tender, humble, sympathetic, pitying heart being strength derived from Christ and not weakness. True religion is this love revealed in deeds, shining forth in self-forgetfulness amid life's activities and everyday contact with others and running like a thread of gold through daily experience in usefulness, lightening burdens and lessening cares. Its counterfeit is selfishness, loving self supremely, seeking own enjoyment while disregarding the good of others and hating those who refuse to sustain a wrong course, and the test between them is the fruit of love for God and His truth and love for neighbor as self.
The two great principles of love to God and love to man contain the binding force of the whole law and of all the moral precepts found in the prophets. The moral code of the Old Testament remains in full force in the New Testament, and if these two commandments are brought into the gospel all that hangs upon them is also brought into the gospel, so it is not enough to believe but a person must be a doer of the law. These principles are the foundation for the instructions God gave in both the Old and New Testaments, take in the entire Bible, and comprehend the whole duty of man. This truth is sound doctrine, wheat, while human vagaries and inventions are chaff and are to be treated as chaff in contrast with it. Eternal life requires loving God supremely and loving one's neighbor as oneself, with the whole body and mind consecrated to God's service, and faith, hope and confidence do no good unless the love of Christ is in the soul expressing itself toward brethren, giving life to life and reforming the character. These two principles are the real essence of education and the foundation for reading the Bible intelligently and obtaining knowledge from the Word of the living God. This kind of education is Higher Education, and any education that supersedes it or dismisses it from the mind is not of God.
Ten Commandments Divided
The two commands sum up the Ten Commandments, with the first four expressing duty to God and hanging on love to God, and the last six expressing duty to other people and hanging on love to neighbor. Together they encompass, support, rest upon and uphold the whole law and the prophets, stating the whole duty of humanity and presenting love as the foundation and guiding principle of the law. These two commandments must be strictly obeyed, for they are not separate rules of unequal importance that can be ranked or selectively set aside, and none can be broken without violating love. Love for God is shown by obedience to all His commandments, and love for neighbor flows from giving God His rightful place in the heart, leading to treating others rightly and impartially, while willing obedience brings honor to God and happiness to those who do His will. Love for neighbor forbids taking advantage of or wronging anyone for personal gain and requires treating believers and unbelievers as one wishes to be treated in every business dealing and other interaction.
The Decalogue was written by God on two tables of stone, the first table containing the four commandments defining duty to God and the second containing the six defining duty to fellow man. The ten precepts contain the whole duty of man and match the two great principles of love to God and love to man on which the whole law hangs. All other commands found in Scripture are only specifications or amplification of what is already contained in the ten.
The last six commandments are summed up in loving neighbor as self. This neighbor-love gives the command to love one another its foundation, while Christ's self-sacrificing love reveals its fuller meaning. Loving God supremely and loving one's neighbor as Christ has loved fulfills the divine law, which is genuine religion bringing sanctifying influence into all a person thinks, says and does. That fulfillment requires discharging aright the duties God lays upon a person, keeping the heart free from every scheme of selfishness and purging away all schemes that savor of selfishness in order to strive lawfully in right work, in any business transaction and in any line of service, allowing not one thread of selfishness to be drawn into the fabric. These two great principles call for people to love one another as Christ has loved them.
The fourth commandment stands in the center of the decalogue and links the two divisions together, with one set of precepts specifying duty to God and another specifying duty to fellow man. Love does not set aside obedience but requires keeping the Ten Commandments in answer to which is the great commandment, and it is impossible to love God with all the heart while breaking the fourth commandment. True love is perfected only in obedient children who live as a family with filial not slavish fear before Him, seeing their duty pointed out and walking in light and harmony with His requirements, which fits for eternal life. Probation is given to test obedience, which God will not compel, with reward promised to the obedient and punishment to the disobedient; to decree that God's law is not worthy to be kept makes one an enemy of the Lord, and to claim love while disobeying shows the love of God is not perfected. Keeping that righteousness of the law before people barricades the soul against deception, while leading people to ignore the law as null and void and to preach against it, especially the fourth commandment, breaks that link and hides the exceeding sinfulness of sin.
Keeping the first four commandments follows from supreme love for God, which includes all the other requirements. Those who keep the first commandment will not transgress the second. Supreme love to God and love to neighbor are the two great principles on which all the law and the prophets depend, drawn out from the lawyer in answer to what to do to inherit eternal life and affirmed as right, with the promise that doing it gives life.
One Unified Law
The whole law is held together by love to God and love to neighbor, on which all the law and the prophets hang, depend and rest. The same principle runs through every precept, so the law is a divine unity and not a collection of separate rules of unequal importance that can be ranked or selectively ignored. The first four commandments express love to God and the last six express love to neighbor, and neither kind of love can be practiced while the other is rejected. Giving God His rightful place in the heart leads to treating others rightly and loving them impartially with goodness and compassion. Because every commandment expresses this principle, breaking even one violates love and breaks the unity of the whole law.
These two principles are unchanging and eternal and test character and whether a person is obedient. True obedience is more than acknowledging truth, performing ceremonies, ceremonial worship or sacrifice; it offers God the whole service He requires in willing obedience to all His requirements. Keeping the commandments brings reward even in this life, including a clear conscience and peace with God, while self-love and self-exaltation are unacceptable to Him. Human destiny is determined by obedience to the whole law, with supreme love to God and impartial love to others lived out in the life. Love for God is shown through obedience to all His commandments.
Every precept rests on love to God and love to fellow beings, and the commandments are joined in meaning and duty, so breaking one violates one or both principles and violates the whole law. Love for God is not merely belief in His power or outward worship but a living principle shown in giving Him the heart's highest place in willing obedience. Supreme love for God excludes other gods, idolatry, and giving the heart's highest affection to self, the world, money or created things, for self-love, love of the world, or excessive affection for anything created is idolatry that turns the heart from God. Love for neighbor follows from giving God His rightful place, because it is impossible to love God while hating one made in His image, and love for God and love for people cannot be separated. God's love underlies every precept, so disregarding even one departs from God's will and brings unhappiness and ruin, as the first parents' disobedience brought woe upon the world and those who follow their example reap a similar result.
Christ vindicated and honored the law by declaring that all hangs on the principles of the Ten Commandments. Disrespect for the law therefore proves a person has not been born again and the truth does not abide in them. The law is a perfect, unchanging and eternal rule of life, binding through every generation, comprising the whole duty of humanity as the believer's rule of life and the sinner's condemnation. Its demands reach beyond outward actions to secret thoughts, purposes, motives and intentions, and its precepts must govern judgment, will and affections, so outward obedience without this love is not accepted. Christ magnified it and lived it perfectly as an example, showing its spiritual reach, and obeying it leads people to reject ungodliness and worldly desires and to live soberly, righteously and godly.
Love Shown by Obedience
Love does not set aside obedience but requires keeping the Ten Commandments in spirit and letter. Such obedience shows covenant relationship with God and gives Him glory. Obeying this law of love binds people to God, guards them from evil paths, and binds them to Him through perfect obedience. Whoever loves God supremely and neighbor as self in this way is keeping God's commandments.
Love for God is not mere emotion, empty belief in His existence and power, or cold outward worship. It is a living principle shown in willing obedience to all His requirements. That obedience is rendered with filial not slavish fear, brings honor to God, and brings happiness to those who do His will. The first four commandments state duty to the Creator and the last six state duty to other people, and obedience to God is how love for Him is shown.
It is impossible to love God with all the heart while breaking the fourth commandment, which stands in the center of the decalogue. True love is perfected only in obedient children who see their duty pointed out and walk in the light in harmony with His requirements. To decree that His law is not worthy to be kept makes one His enemy, and to claim love while disobeying shows His love is not perfected.
Supreme love for God excludes other gods and idolatry and refuses to give the heart's highest affection to self, the world, money, or created things. Self-love, letting love of money displace devotion to God, seeking selfish advantage at a neighbor's expense, and devotion to worldly gain violate the law because they oppose this love. Keeping the commandments outwardly is not enough without it.
Outward obedience without this love is not accepted, for God's spiritual law reaches secret thoughts, purposes, and motives, and its precepts must govern judgment, will, and affections. True obedience is more than assent to truth, ceremonial worship, or sacrifice, offering God the whole service He requires and expressing itself through goodness and compassion toward others. The Jews claimed to keep the law while ignoring these principles, and their outward observance therefore did not reflect the law's true demands, as the works of the priests and Pharisees contradicted it.
Probation is given to test obedience, which God will not compel. He cooperates with the human agent in this work without crushing him or compelling the will, while faith works by love to purify the soul. Reward is promised to the obedient and punishment to the disobedient.
Loving God supremely is essential to loving neighbor, for giving God His rightful place in the heart leads to treating others rightly and loving them impartially. Faithfully honoring God leads to faithfully carrying out the commandments about duties to other people, because love for God includes love for people made in His image. Neither principle can be kept while the other is broken, and it is impossible to love God while hating one made in His image; breaking even one commandment violates one or both principles and breaks the unity of the law. Disregard for the first principle makes obedience to the second impossible.
Knowing the truth, preaching the Word, or understanding mysteries does not remedy failure to live these principles and does not fulfill the law. Suspicion and imagining evil violate them, and those who follow that course bring upon themselves the evils they imagine. Criticizing and condemning one another breaks God's commandments and shows lack of love for both God and fellow beings.
God's Character and Rule
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets because the whole law is a law of love to God and to man, a law of harmony and unity and holiness. It is an expression of divine goodness and of God's own loving character and will, a code of principles expressing mercy, goodness and love that presents His character to fallen humanity and states plainly the whole duty of man. It is therefore not a new thing but holiness made known, holy and just and good, unchangeable and enduring, because love fulfills the law. Keeping its commandments displays that character and gives visible evidence of that love, restoring the divine image in the fallen race by constant beneficence and Christlike self-denial for the truth's sake. Such a life is faith working by love purifying the soul from selfishness, giving the world convincing and contagious evidence that God's law is love, while drawing near to God brings a person nearer to that law and to oneness of mind and judgment in genuine religion, declaring by faith and works that God is wisdom and sanctification and righteousness. Christ died to save sinners from their sins, not in their sins, and the warning given in Revelation shows the terrible consequence of transgression, so duty to obey this law is to be the burden of the last message of mercy to the world.
The law reflects God's character and is a transcript of His character, the standard of His character and of judgment by which character and claims to holiness are measured and by which people are to be brought back to God's likeness. The first four commandments define duty to the Maker in supreme love to God and the last six define duty to fellow human beings, together comprising the whole duty of humanity and applying to every part of life. Opposition to the law reveals the character of Satan's kingdom.
These two principles express God's moral government, which extends throughout the universe, including the fallen world, and calls people to reverence and fear and obedience. The law applies universally and rests on love for God and for other people as the foundation of the whole law, expressing God's character, reaching beyond civil law, and remaining binding in every command both great and small. It retains its claim upon all and comprises the whole duty of every person, binding on every human being and expressed in a life of humility and benevolence in which the gospel forms Christ's virtues in those who receive it.
Obedience to its enduring principles brings human happiness and undergirds the stability of society, honoring God and bringing peace on earth and goodwill toward people. The law acts as a hedge and shield, preserving those who accept its principles from evil, protecting every person's rights and individuality, and restraining both oppression by those in authority and disobedience by those under authority, with purity, kindness, patience and sympathy as marks of this love. For the obedient its enduring principles are a pledge of eternal life. Rejecting or replacing God's law hides the knowledge of sin and leads to false claims of sinlessness, while viewed in the light of the law transgression is exposed as sin. A professed concern for the law that prefers a suffering woman's continued affliction to her healing rejects the law's principle of love and obscures its spiritual meaning.
Way to Eternal Life
The two loves answer what must be done to inherit eternal life, for doing them gives life. Christ drew that summary out of the lawyer and affirmed it as right, with the promise that doing it gives life. Loving God supremely and loving neighbor as self is the only hope of eternal life, bringing clearer, higher and holier understanding of God, eternity and obedience, with God becoming strength and portion forever. Those who keep the first commandment will not transgress the second, for supreme love to God includes all other requirements. Divine love must be manifested in the human heart.
Christ presents these commands as conditions of eternal life that must be lived out, not merely read or professed. It is not enough to believe; a person must be a doer of the law. Keeping them requires laying aside selfishness, consulting God's Guidebook at every step, and being doers of the Word by practically loving neighbors and helping those in need rather than walking apart from them while cherishing self and seeking praise and recognition. Diligent study and faithful practice of this word is necessary to endure the perils of the last day. Knowing and teaching the Ten Commandments in theory is not enough; their principles must be obeyed from the heart, including being pure and loving God and others, with practical care that relieves physical distress and uses what is not truly necessary for self to help others and support work for their salvation.
These two principles are God's prescribed remedy for inheriting eternal life, comprehended by those who overcome the temptations of satanic agencies. They comprehend the wisdom and power of God. In the smallest as well as the largest matters they require making God's will one's own will, because obeying and hearkening is better than sacrifice, and following what is good keeps one from harm. The moral code of the Old Testament remains in full force in the New Testament, and if these two commandments are brought into the gospel all that hangs upon them is also brought into the gospel.
People cannot produce the required love, meekness, humility and holiness by their own strength. The gospel promises God's help, and through faith in Christ and believing in and receiving Him the law's righteousness is fulfilled in them, imparting power to become sons of God and live these principles. Through the Holy Spirit's influence malice, hatred, jealousy and selfishness are removed and cleansed from the heart, and kindness, patience, longsuffering, benevolence and love take their place. The gospel therefore leads to obedience rather than setting the law aside, for love for God leads to wholehearted obedience to the law's requirements and love does no harm to a neighbor.
Keeping the commandments in wholehearted love restores the divine image in the fallen race, recreates in Christ's image, and makes partakers of the divine nature. God designed people for companionship with Himself and wants them capable of this love, giving His Son to bear the sword of justice and die that repentant perishing souls coming to Christ might go free and live. This is part of the message to be borne to perishing souls in their sins. Without this love Christ cannot stamp them with the image of God or restore His attributes in them. Faith, hope and confidence do no good unless the love of Christ is in the soul, expressed toward brethren, giving life to life and reforming the character by constant beneficence and Christlike self-denial for truth's sake as faith working by love purifying the soul from selfishness.
Those who keep these commandments will enter through the gates into the city of God built for the pure and holy. Those who live by this whole duty and spiritual measure, put by God into the least of acts and dealings, shall live and rule among the greatest and be entrusted with the divine cause. Learning and living it elevates, ennobles and sanctifies heart and affection in faithfulness in the least, building up character after the divine model in preparation for the glory to be revealed through the power and grace brought through Jesus Christ, gaining fitness for heaven above and sanctification through the truth. Treasures of immortal value are given only to those who keep these two commandments in self-denial and purity of heart, standing before God with a heart cleansed from every idol and a conscience void of offense, prepared for anything so that life or death, trials or sufferings do not uproot faith but make strong to do and to suffer. If heaven is lost everything is lost. Loving neighbor as self cannot be done without warning those perishing in sin, exercising self-denial and self-sacrifice for their salvation, and showing them the way of salvation in and through Christ Jesus.
Keeping them brings reward even in this life, including a clear conscience and peace with God. Living by them brings light and joy and peace and gladness into life. This shows preparedness for the inheritance of the saints in light, makes a person a true representative of Christ in word and spirit and action, and makes him rich for all eternity. These principles are God's law, holy, just and good, not a new thing but holiness made known, a code expressing mercy, goodness and love that presents God's character to fallen humanity and states plainly the whole duty of man, with Christ dying to save sinners from their sins, not in their sins. Duty to obey this law is to be the burden of the last message of mercy to the world, with the warning given in Revelation showing the terrible consequence of transgression.
Love in Daily Life
Love to neighbor is not optional or convenient but a positive duty requiring practical, impartial care for those in need — widows, orphans and the fatherless, the blind, deaf, lame and afflicted — helping because help is needed without questioning relationship, country or creed, sacrificing personal ease and advantage, using what is not truly necessary for self to relieve physical distress and support work for their salvation, through self-denial, self-sacrifice and beneficence. When means to help are in hand action is required rather than hesitation, with kindness, attention, relief for the oppressed and encouragement. This love is pictured by the Samaritan who relieved, carried and provided for the man robbed and beaten on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, in contrast to the priest and Levite whose indifference in passing by on the other side is commandment-breaking. Neglect of fellow beings is without excuse, and duty applies to everyone without first asking whether beliefs are shared. Help is to be given even when it is not inviting and costs inconvenience, care and anxiety, not passing a needy brother by but restoring fallen brethren with interest, kind speech and action; this helping is genuine medical missionary work and is the law practiced.
Love to neighbor forbids taking advantage of or wronging anyone for personal gain and requires treating believers and unbelievers as one wishes to be treated in every business dealing and interaction. Ambition to excel at others' expense, exorbitant charges for services, unjustly acquiring means at another's expense, misrepresentation to gain favor, mingling human wisdom with the divine to confuse minds about right and holy methods in business, and selfish treacherous dealings that rob one part of the vineyard to benefit another pervert the law, oppose God's character and break both commandments. Those who would enter Christ's kingdom must conduct business honestly according to God's plan, for dishonesty would be carried into heaven itself. These commandments require Christlike conduct in business and dealings with others — honesty, kindness, humility, patience, generosity and freedom from greed and overreaching — keeping the heart free from every selfish scheme, purging away all schemes savoring of selfishness, and allowing not one thread of selfishness into the fabric of any transaction or line of service.
Loving neighbor as self cannot be done without warning those perishing in sin, exercising self-denial and self-sacrifice for their salvation and showing them the way of salvation in Christ, for God will deal with men as they deal with brethren and the younger members of the Lord's family. That love will not let the soul in greatest peril and need go unwarned, unlabored for and uncared for, nor hold the erring off with criticism and exacting demands nor leave them alone to plunge into further unhappiness and fall on Satan's battleground. Those who keep these commandments in such wholehearted love will enter through the gates into the city of God. This same duty requires the American nation to make restitution to the colored race for past wrongs, and requires even those who did not enforce slavery to make special efforts as far as possible to undo its lasting effects.
Obeying these two requirements fully would remove discord from church and family, bringing peace, happiness and joy into home and church. Genuine Bible religion is of one mind and one judgment, declaring by faith and works that God is wisdom and sanctification and righteousness, calling for humility, goodness, peacemaking and humble peaceable conduct rather than desire to rule or gain supremacy. Jesus' character and life represented every principle of that law through benevolence and unselfish love, and those in His kingdom show unity, abiding love and sincere respect for one another. Fault-finding and speech tearing down another's reputation violate these principles, and severity in dealing with children is contrary to the tenderness this love requires. Love binds people together and unites them with Christ in God, but when these principles are discarded selfishness, distrust, conflict and evil take their place.
When the Spirit of Christ is cherished it unites human beings in proper order under Christ as head, blending His people in perfect harmony and thereby revealing heaven's principles. Those who love God will love one another, proving by Christlike lives that they are sons of God and members of the royal family, and these binding principles must be respected to enter heaven. The twofold love must actuate ministers, making the minister inspired by grace and moved by that love intelligent, earnest, thoroughgoing and a great power for good through human agencies, far more successful than one indifferent and slack. These principles must guide every part of daily life great and small, including business, and meticulous attention to lesser religious duties does not excuse neglecting the weightier matters of judgment, mercy and love for God.
All conduct is to be ordered by love for God and concern for others, so that even daily choices for preserving health follow God's will and serve others' welfare. All are children of one Father and depend on one another for happiness, so shutting oneself up to self fails the position designed by God; keeping the commands requires subordinating selfish worldly interests to spiritual and eternal interests, giving importance to worship and to associating together to strengthen and encourage one another, and cultivating the social elements of nature to come into sympathy with brethren and find happiness in blessing others. Neglecting this fellowship causes truth to lose vividness and importance, leaves the heart unenlightened by sanctifying influence and brings spiritual decline. Unselfish, self-sacrificing love is the clearest evidence of obedience and allegiance shared by law and gospel, with faith working through love to purify the soul from selfishness. Following Christ's self-denial for truth's sake makes this evident with convincing contagious evidence that the law is love, restoring the divine image by constant beneficence. Those who receive Christ's pure, unselfish, sanctified love do not deceive others or act for advantage in ways bringing distress, but show love to Christ by unselfish love for those around as a daily witness. This love is shown in practical unselfish care in everyday life, for religious forms without loving deeds do not fulfill the law, and a pure heart, good conscience and sincere faith working by love and cleansing the soul are required to live by it.
True religion is this love revealed in deeds, shining in self-forgetfulness amid life's activities and everyday contacts, running like a thread of gold through experience in usefulness, lightening burdens and lessening cares. Purity, kindness, patience and sympathy are its marks, with peace and goodwill, and those cherishing these principles manifest elevated moral taste, controlled and sanctified passions, deep earnest sympathy, and set forth Christ as altogether lovely and chiefest among ten thousand with the fruit of the Spirit revealed. Its counterfeit is selfishness loving self supremely, seeking own enjoyment while disregarding others' good and hating those refusing to sustain a wrong course; the test is fruit — love for God and truth and love for neighbor as self. The lover of self is a transgressor, and those keeping the commands are emptied of self and free from selfishness, true as steel to principle, united to Christ, wearing His yoke and manifesting His meekness and lowliness, thus revealing God's glory. Love and purity are valued by God, and a tender humble sympathetic pitying heart is strength from Christ, not weakness.
The command requires respect for others' rights and care for their needs, with unselfish conduct including using entrusted possessions to serve others and honor God, giving the heart's highest affection to its Maker. God's law is a moral mirror showing defects by comparison with His standard, and recognizing wrong should lead to deep repentance and earnest seeking of His power through the Holy Spirit to show Christ's kindness and forbearance, while selfishness, cold indifference and injustice disregard it. Christ speaks this as a personal demand for entire conformity to God's will: diligence in making calling and election sure, ceasing to watch others, jealousy over self, and blessing others by godly example, cheerfulness, fortitude, courage, faith, hope, joy and perfect trust from sanctification through truth. Sanctification consists in cheerfully performing daily duties in perfect obedience, loving one another as Christ commanded and proved by laying down His life, abiding in His love as He kept His Father's commandments with the full joy of obedience; failure to cooperate with Christ in redemption cannot be supplied in eternity.
Treating others as one wishes to be treated puts a person where God can reveal Himself and approve them, with love made perfect through receiving grace and truth and freely sharing light and salvation, bearing fruit in holiness to everlasting life. The Jewish people had received great light but failed to practice these principles. The Bible makes these duties with every obligation and privilege plain as a rule for faith and practice, and departing from its clear instruction obscures the view of God. Having a proper understanding of these far-reaching principles is for present and eternal interest, essential for knowing dependence and facing last-day perils, for all the law and prophets hang on loving God with all heart, soul, strength and mind and loving neighbor as self, without making people into gods. The pure gospel given upon the Mount explains that holy standard of character on which all law hangs.
When this love is perfected it is revealed by sanctification of soul, body and spirit, and when that victory is achieved the gospel is satisfied, for the love of God is fulfilled in him who keeps these commands which contain all the law and prophets and are the whole duty of man. When Christ's love dwells within, love for others follows naturally toward rich and poor alike and must be expressed toward brethren, giving life to life and reforming the character; faith, hope and confidence do no good unless Christ's love is in the soul with body and mind consecrated to service. These principles express whole duty and God's will, leading to unity, order and harmony in the church with peace and goodwill, honoring His government and reaching every person by giving self its proper place as Christ's property valued by the price He paid. Learning and living this law in the least acts elevates, ennobles and sanctifies heart and affection, binding people to God and developing complete healthy character in preparation for glory. Keeping God's laws means acting out His will in love, kindness and loyalty, doing good rather than evil, with love rather than stubbornness or personal rules guiding treatment of one another as the measure of true religion.
The verse calls for faithfulness and love to God and fellow men, expressing responsibilities to God and fellow beings and expressing God's love in life and character in treatment of others, with love to God and love to brethren closely linked. Cultivating both loves brings present and eternal results, with the Lord cooperating without crushing or compelling the will while faith works by love to purify the soul and grace and truth prevail. Its voice speaks to every soul requiring no lost opportunity for deeds of mercy, tender forethought and Christian courtesy for the burdened and oppressed, and where nothing more can be done, words of courage and hope to those unacquainted with God who are reached most easily by sympathy and love.