"A new commandment I give unto you, That you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love one to another." "This is MY commandment, That you love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends, if you do whatsoever I command you." (John 13:34,35; 15:12-14)
This "new commandment" is sometimes called the eleventh commandment, and yet it is very evident that it adds nothing to the ten. Its purpose is to show that love is the very essence of the law and the motive power of obedience. The new commandment is the sum and substance of the whole law. To love with the same unselfish and devoted fervor with which Christ loved, sums up all Christian living. The measure of Christian love, declared Jesus, is to love one another, "even as I have loved you." (Revised Version.) Jesus declared that the greatest evidence of mere human love is for a man to lay down his life for his friends, but that is not enough to satisfy the demands of the law of love. Christ's love was still greater, for He laid down His life for His enemies, and this is the measure of love set forth in the new commandment. Someone has said that "self-sacrifice is the high-water mark of love."
Evidence of Discipleship
Jesus said that the exhibition of a love like His is the evidence to "all men" that we are His disciples. Not by the wearing of some particular garb or by subscribing to a certain set of doctrines or even by maintaining membership in a certain church, is discipleship determined, but by love in action. Love is the badge of Christianity. Tertullian said, "The working of such love puts a brand upon us; for see, say the heathen, how they love each other." This was the sign by which the heathen recognized the early Christians. It was a far more important evidence than their profession.
But genuine love always produces obedience. Obedience therefore is the evidence of love. "You are my friends, if you do whatsoever I command you," said Jesus. (John 15:14) Again He said: "If you love Me, keep My commandments." "He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him. ... If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him. He that loveth Me not keepeth not My sayings." (John 14:15,21-24)
This principle was also set forth by the apostles. "This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous." (1 John 5:3) God defines love as obedience, because it always leads to obedience. The apostle Paul said, "Owe no man anything, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. ... Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." (Romans 13:8-10) The obedience of love is never grievous, burdensome, or sacrificial. Love knows no sacrifice or hardship. Christianity is not a religion of pious emotions, but of practical godliness. "God requires a great deal more of a holy person than rolling in the dirt, speaking in tongues, and shouting. ... Much that is called holiness is passing through sentimental hallucinations."--J. B. Rounds, The Ten Commandments for Today, p. 17. An emotional religion may arouse the feelings and produce some tears, but the effect is something like that of the summer sun on a snow-covered iceberg--nothing but surface slush. Practical godliness has more permanent results. "Keep on loving" and "keep on doing" is the meaning of our texts in the original. The demand is for a permanent spiritual experience and not spasmodic love and obedience.
Not a New Law
Jesus did not say that He was giving a new law to supplant the old. His teaching and practice in no way minimized the value and force of the decalogue. He indignantly denied that His advent in any way affected the perpetuity and binding claims of the law: "Do not for a moment suppose that I have come to abrogate the law or the prophets: I have not come to abrogate them but to give them their completion. Solemnly I tell you that until heaven and earth pass away, not one iota or smallest detail will pass away from the law until all has taken place. Whoever therefore breaks one of these least commandments and teaches others to break them, will be called the least in the kingdom of the heavens; but whoever practices them and teaches them, he will be acknowledged as great in the kingdom of the heavens. For I assure you that unless your righteousness greatly surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will certainly not find entrance into the kingdom of the heavens." (Matthew 5:17-20, Weymouth translation)
How can a person read this statement and continue to believe and teach that Jesus abrogated the ten commandment law? In His life and teachings Jesus fulfilled the law in both its letter and its spirit. He could not do otherwise, for it is the summary of all truth, the standard of all righteousness, and the rule of the final judgment. Obedience to it is the test of discipleship and the evidence of love. In the light of Christ's emphatic statement, who dares say that the law of love was supplanted by grace? Grace thunders as loudly and insistently against sin as does law. Grace is the divine remedy for the disease of sin that is defined or revealed or diagnosed by law, and therefore one is ineffectual without the other. The very purpose of the gospel is to bring men and women into harmony with the law of God, which is the very foundation of His government. Therefore the person who violates even what he considers to be the least of the Ten Commandments is considered little or small by the inhabitants of heaven, and those who observe and teach them all are considered great.
It is bad enough to break one of these divine principles, but it is still worse to teach others to transgress. He who does this, as many religious leaders do, is indeed a little man engaged in a little business, and he will receive his just punishment.
A Divine Comment
Fortunately we have been given a divinely inspired comment on Christ's statement in regard to "a new commandment," so that there need be no confusion or misunderstanding as to His meaning: "Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you have heard from the beginning. Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in Him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth." "For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another." "And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another. And this is love, that we walk after His commandments. This is the commandment, That, as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it." (1 John 2:7,8; 3:11; 2 John 5,6)
These texts show clearly that the new commandment does not take the place of the old law, but it is the old law itself in a new setting. Love is as old as the human race and so is obedience to the law. But as the result of the advent of the Son of God and His demonstration of divine love on the cross, love is placed in a new and fresh light. It is new because of the new light thrown on the spiritual import of the law by the life, teachings, and death of Christ. Such love and obedience as were seen in Christ had never before been manifested.
Jesus came into the world to "magnify the law, and make it honorable." It was shown to be the law of love, and not a mere code of restrictions. Since Calvary, the decalogue has taken on a new meaning and significance and is seen in a new light. It has become "so exceeding broad" as to embrace not only the outward acts but also the inner motives and emotions. The command to love God and man is as old as the law itself. In fact, love was made the summary of the law at the time the law was given from Sinai. "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: and thou shall love the Lord thy God with all your heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." (Deuteronomy 6:4,5) "Thou shall not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself : I am the Lord." (Leviticus 19:18)
But while mankind had "from the beginning" the command to love God supremely and his neighbor as himself, the practice of this law of love as demonstrated in the life of Christ was new. It was old in age and teaching, but new in practice. It is ever fresh and new in the experience of every person who has been born again and on the fleshy tables of whose heart the law of God has been rewritten by the Holy Spirit in the living reality of the indwelling Christ. The decalogue thus becomes a new code of morals to those who through the new birth become new creatures and come under the dominion of the new covenant. To such a person "all things are become new," even the law of Ten Commandments.
John declares that the commandment is new, "because the darkness is passing away, and the true light already shineth." (Revised Version) We are told that Jesus is "the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." (John 1:9) His coming into the world in the likeness of sinful human flesh and living a life of perfect obedience, greatly magnified and illuminated the law. In fact, Christ is the living law. The decalogue was written in His heart, and He delighted to obey its precepts. He said, "I delight to do Thy will, O My God: yea Thy law is within My heart." (Psalms 40:8)
The perfection of the decalogue, in comparison with all other laws, gives evidence of its divine origin, and the perfection of the life of Christ, in comparison with all other lives, gives evidence that He is divine. The same perfection and obedience in the lives of His disciples show that they have become "partakers of the divine nature." The law in its new setting constrains us to love all our neighbors, including our enemies, and thus follow in the footsteps of Him who loves us, even when we are His enemies. The law is new only in those who have been recreated, because the darkness is passing away before the true light that is shining into their hearts. It is the new love that makes the old commandments a new law.
Love Fulfills the Law
"Owe nothing to anyone except mutual love; for he who loves his fellow man has satisfied the demands of the law. ... Love avoids doing any wrong to one's fellow man, and is therefore complete obedience to law." (Romans 13:8-10, Weymouth translation)
In these statements the apostle is speaking only of the second table of the law, which deals with human relations. But the same principle applies to the first table, which regulates our duties to God. The duties and relationships of husband and wife to each other as set forth in the law of marriage are completely fulfilled in mutual love. Love meets all the demands of the law of marriage. Likewise love meets all the demands of the decalogue.
"Love to God will admit no other god. Love resents everything that debases its object by representing it by an image. Love to God will never dishonor His name. Love to God will reverence His day. Love to parents makes one honor them. Hate, not love, is a murderer. Lust, not love, commits adultery. Love will give, but never steal. Love will not slander or lie. Love's eye is not covetous."--D. L. Moody, Weighed and Wanting, pp. 124, 125.
The law is so completely fulfilled and summed up in love that "in heaven it is never heard of and never broken." Another has said:
"But in heaven, service is not rendered in the spirit of legality. When Satan rebelled against the law of Jehovah, the thought that there was a law came to the angels almost as an awakening to something unthought of. In their ministry the angels are not as servants, but as sons. There is perfect unity between them and their Creator. Obedience is to them no drudgery. Love for God makes their service a joy."--Mrs. E. G. White, Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, p. 161.
While the Christian still loves the law of God in its material form, and his soul finds delight and sweetness in meditating on its righteous precepts, through increasing love he does "by nature the things contained in the law," so that it is fulfilled without continuous, conscious thought or effort. It is not necessary for a husband and wife who dearly love each other to constantly study written rules of marriage conduct. When the law of love is written in the heart, its demands are met almost unconsciously.
The principle of love-obedience is beautifully set forth in the following statement:
"All true obedience comes from the heart. It was heart work with Christ. And if we consent, He will so identify Himself with our thoughts and aims, so blend our hearts and minds into conformity to His will, that when obeying Him we shall be but carrying out our own impulses. The will, refined and sanctified, will find its highest delight in doing His service. When we know God as it is our privilege to know Him, our life will be a life of continual obedience. Through an appreciation of the character of Christ, through communion with God, sin will become hateful to us."--Mrs. E. G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 668.
"There are those who profess to serve God, while they rely upon their own efforts to obey His law, to form a right character, and secure salvation. Their hearts are not moved by any deep sense of the love of Christ, but they seek to perform the duties of the Christian life as that which God requires of them in order to gain heaven. Such religion is worth nothing. When Christ dwells in the heart, the soul will be so filled with His love, with the joy of communion with Him, that it will cleave to Him; and in the contemplation of Him, self will be forgotten. Love to Christ will be the spring of action. Those who feel the constraining love of God, do not ask how little may be given to meet the requirements of God; they do not ask for the lowest standard, but aim at perfect conformity to the will of their Redeemer. With earnest desire they yield all, and manifest an interest proportionate to the value of the object which they seek. A profession of Christ without this deep love, is mere talk, dry formality, and heavy drudgery."--Mrs. E. G. White, Steps to Christ (pocket edition), pp. 44, 45.
In our relations with both God and man nothing really counts except it be motivated by love. In the estimation of Christ the widow's love--gift of two mites, or two tenths of a cent, was greater than all the gifts of the wealthy combined. They all gave money, but the others gave little or nothing else. The widow gave love with her offering, and this is what made her offering great. She gave "more than they all," was the verdict of Christ. No offering or service is acceptable to God unless it is impelled by love. God estimates value not by the greatness of the work done but by the love that motivates the acts. When love is lacking the mere round of ceremony is an offense to Him.
The Measure of Love
In his letter to the Ephesian church Paul expressed His desire "that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God." (Ephesians 3:17-19)
Because the cross alone measures "the breadth, and length, and depth, and height" of the love of God, it is beyond the comprehension of man. The love of Christ "passeth knowledge." Its "breadth" is wide enough to comprehend the whole world, including all races. Its "length" reaches down through all the ages from the beginning to the end of the reign of sin. Its "depth" reaches down to the lowest deeps of man's degradation and saves even "unto the uttermost." Its "height" includes the highest heaven to which it will eventually lift those who know its power.
Genuine love exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. It goes far beyond the letter of the law. It sacrifices without any thought of the cost, as was demonstrated by Mary Magdalene in the gift of the costly ointment devoted to Jesus at the feast. Love goes beyond the second mile in service. Only perfect love can fulfill a perfect law that is the very essence of love. Christ was love incarnate. All His words and acts were impelled by the motive of love. On the cross love atoned for the transgressions of the loveless. " 'Sin is the transgression of the law' and demands atonement. 'Love is the fulfilling of the law' and provides atonement," said G. Campbell Morgan. "The love of Christ constraineth us," was the maxim that revealed the impelling power that sent forth the early Christians to the spiritual conquest of the world.
Evidence of Perfection
Love and obedience after the order of Christ are the evidence of perfection. Jesus said: "You have heard that it hath been said, Thou shall love thy neighbor, and hate your enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that you may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love them which love you, what reward have you? do not even the publicans the same? And if you salute your brethren only, what do you more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be you therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." (Matthew 5:43-48.
The sermon on the mount was an exposition and interpretation of the moral law. It was the law as magnified by Christ under the spiritual illumination of His life and teachings. "Hate your enemy," is not a part of Leviticus 19:18 or of any other scripture. It is not even in the Talmud. It was an inference drawn from the attitude of the Jewish leaders toward all other peoples whom they looked upon as enemies worthy only to be despised. The Romans had reasons for their charge that the Jews were haters of the whole human race. The Jews looked upon all Gentiles as dogs unworthy of the favor of God or man.
In the text just quoted the contrast between love and hate is set forth in four manifestations. The genuine Christian gives love in return for hate, kind words for curses, good deeds for evil treatment, and prayer for persecution. Because this is the way the Lord treats His enemies the same conduct in us becomes the evidence of our relationship to Him. Jesus declared that mere love exchanged for love is so human that even the heathen practice it. It therefore has no special virtue or value. In His attitude toward His enemies Christ demonstrated the superior kind of love, which is the sign of perfection in His followers. When we treat our enemies as God does, we shall be perfect, even as He is perfect. Love is the secret of godliness and perfection. This is what Christ meant when He said, "Be you therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." (Matthew 5:48) Christlike love and conduct is the answer to the meaning of this difficult text.
Summary of the Law
Jesus made it plain that love is the very summary of the law and therefore of the Scriptures: "One of them, which was a lawyer, asked Him a question, tempting Him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." (Matthew 22:35-40; Mark 12:28-3l)
The relative value of the commandments was a debated question among the scribes and Pharisees. They taught that there were 248 affirmative precepts, or as many as there are members of the human body, and 365 negative precepts, or as many as there are days in the year. This made a total of 613, the number of the letters in the decalogue. These precepts were carefully classified and weighed according to rabbinic estimation of their importance. The relative value of these various precepts was one of the greatest questions for dispute among the Jewish leaders, especially the scribes, who were the expounders of the law. For centuries this had been a favorite battleground of the lawyers and had divided the Jewish theologians into rival schools. They now attempted to involve Jesus in their controversy, not so much for the sake of information, but to test or tempt Him.
"Which is the chief of all the commands of the law?" (Weymouth) was the cunning question of the lawyer. Which is the first in rank and importance? Jesus answered His tempter by quoting Scripture, which was always His weapon of defense. After quoting Deuteronomy 6:5, and Leviticus 19:18, Jesus declared that "the whole of the law and the prophets is summed up in these two commandments" (Weymouth), or, "on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." In the statement, "There is none other commandment greater than these," Jesus placed the two tables of the decalogue on an equal footing. He placed love for God first, because that is the absolute prerequisite of love for our fellow men. No person can love his neighbor as himself until he first loves God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength. No person can be crooked in his dealings with his neighbor and straight with God at the same time. The two tables constitute one law, which is fulfilled by love. Every transgression of the law is a violation of love.
One writer has appropriately said:
"The Ten Commandments are each separately a gem of law for every carnal age, but the ten are truly only one, so that he who offends in one is guilty of all. To reduce the five books of law to the tables of the Ten Commandments is a task only God could perform. To avoid error in transcription, God wrote the law Himself on tables of stone. (Exodus 31:18; 24:12; 32:19; 34:1) But the five books reduced to these ten commands were further reduced by Jesus to two (Matt. 22:40); and by Paul to one (Rom. 13:10; Gal. 5:14)."--J. B. Rounds, The Ten Commandments for Today, p. 149.
In its ultimate summary and abridgement the law is comprehended in the one word, LOVE.
Love is therefore the abridged edition of the law, just as the law is the abridged edition of the Scriptures. All the revelations of God to man are comprehended in love. Those who love God supremely will worship Him only, speak His name reverently, and observe His holy Sabbath. They will love their neighbors as themselves by honoring their parents and refraining from murder, fornication, theft, false witnessing, and covetousness.
The law in the setting of love is beautifully described by a noted Bible student as follows:
"If man love God in all the breadth and beauty suggested by the words 'with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind,' he cannot possibly find room for another God, and so the first word is kept. If man love God supremely, he will not suffer anything to stand between him and God, thus the graven image is broken to pieces, and swept away by the force of a stronger affection. Out of love will spring that hallowing of the name of God which will dry the springs of blasphemy, and make the double dealing of the hypocrite an impossibility. The Sabbath will be eagerly welcomed, and all its privileges earnestly and gladly appropriated when it is a season in which love may find its way into the attitude of worship, and the acts of service following therefrom.
"Passing to the second table, and looking now at love in its working toward others, it will at once be seen that the only sufficient power for obedience and honor rendered to parents is that of love. There will be no thought of murder until the awful moment has arrived in which the flame of love has died out upon the altar. Unchastity of every description is love's sure destruction, growing gross upon the very death of that which it so vilely personates. All theft is rendered impossible by true love for one's neighbor. Love sits as a sentinel at the portal of the lips, and arrests the faintest whisper of false witness against a neighbor; nay, rather dwells within the heart, and slays the thought that might have inspired the whisper. It is love and love alone that, finding satisfaction in God, satisfies the heart's hunger, and prevents all coveting."--G. Campbell Morgan, The Ten Commandments, pp. 120, 121.
The Demands of Love
The decalogue as interpreted by the new commandment demands that God be loved and served with all the emotions and affections of the heart, all the spiritual faculties of the soul, all the thinking powers of the intellect, and all the energies, might, and strength of the physical body. Nowhere in the Scriptures is God pictured as a stern and relentless executor of justice, unmingled with mercy. When the law is seen in its proper light it reveals the love of God as verily as does the cross of Calvary.
Only a supreme love for God can prevent idolatry, and since love must center in a person, it refuses to tolerate an image substitute which is not capable of loving or being loved. This inward affection will prevent all outward irreverence and hypocrisy. Sabbath-keeping without love becomes formal and spiritless and therefore a dreaded drudgery instead of anticipated delight. Love will produce respect and honor for parents whom God has appointed as guardians of His heritage, and parental law will be recognized as divine law. The person who loves his neighbor as he loves himself will desire the same blessings for others that he himself enjoys. He will not love his neighbor supremely, for that would be idolatry, and he must not love him as he loves himself if his own self-love has reached the stage of idolatry. The demands of the second table of the decalogue presuppose obedience to the first, which makes creature worship impossible.
The decalogue and its demands of love are summed up in the golden rule, "Therefore all things whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets." (Matthew 7:12) The golden rule is declared to be "the law and the prophets." It is the law and the Scriptures in daily practice. "For this is the law and the prophets summed up," reads the Weymouth translation, and "that is the meaning of the law and the prophets," is the rendering by James Moffatt.
The golden rule has been called "all the Scriptures in a nutshell," and the "incomparable summary." It is the distilled essence of the decalogue as interpreted by Christian conduct. It is love "without dissimulation" or "hypocrisy" or without the mask of the actor. "No man ever lived the golden rule who did not obey the Ten Commandments. You cannot really hate the Ten Commandments and love the golden rule. There cannot be a single one of them broken that does not affect it."--J. B. Rounds, The Ten Commandments for Today, page 149.
The thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians is a beautiful picture of the law of God when fulfilled by love. It has been appropriately called "The Magna Charta of Love." "If I can speak with the tongues of men and angels, but am destitute of love, I have but become a loud-sounding trumpet or a clanging cymbal. If I possess the gift of prophecy and am versed in all mysteries and all knowledge, and have such absolute faith that I can remove mountains, but am destitute of love, I am nothing. And if I distribute all my possessions to the poor, and give up my body to be burned, but am destitute of love, it profits me nothing.
"Love is patient and kind. Love knows neither envy nor jealousy. Love is not forward and self-assertive, nor boastful and conceited. She does not behave unbecomingly, nor seek to aggrandize herself, nor blaze out in passionate anger, nor brood over wrongs. She finds no pleasure in injustice done to others, but joyfully sides with the truth. She knows how to be silent. She is full of trust, full of hope, full of patient endurance. Love never fails." "And so there remain faith, hope, love--these three; and of these the greatest is love." (1 Corinthians 13:4-8,13, Weymouth translation)
Surely we must all agree that the greatest need of the church today is love--obedience to that great rule of life and conduct which sums up all that is worth while. How quickly it would banish strife and greed and crime, and bring peace to this war-weary world. To this generation of distress and perplexity, of haunting fears and failing hearts, the Prince of Peace cries out, "O that thou hadst hearkened to My commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea." (Isaiah 48:18) God grant that it may be writ large in the thinking of modern man that "God is love," and that love is the fulfilling of the law."