Posted in Lecture 1: Love, the Sum of all Virtue
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The Scriptures teach us that love is the sum of all that is contained in the law of God, and of all the duties required in his word. This the Scriptures teach of the law in general, and of each table of the law in particular. First, the Scriptures teach this of the law and word of God in general. By the law, in the Scriptures, is sometimes meant the whole of the written word of God, as in John 10:34. "Is it not written in you law, I said ye are gods?" And sometimes by the law is meant the five books of Moses, as in Acts 24:14, where it is named with the distinction of the "law" and the "prophets." And sometimes by the law, is meant the ten commandments, as containing the sum of all the duty of mankind, and all that is required as of universal and perpetual obligation. But whether we take the law as signifying only the ten commandments, or as including the whole written word of God, the Scriptures teach us that the sum of all that is required in it is love. Thus when by the law is meant the ten commandments, it is said in Romans 13:8, "He that loveth another hath fulfilled the law;" and therefore several of the commandments are rehearsed, and it is added, in the tenth verse, that "love" (which leads us to obey them all,) "is the fulfilling of the law." Now unless love was the sum of what the law requires, the law could not be wholly fulfilled in love; for a law is fulfilled only by obedience to the sum or whole of what it contains and enjoins. So the same apostle again declares, 1 Tim. 1:5, "Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned etc." Or if we take the law in a yet more extensive sense, as the whole written word of God, the Scriptures still teach us, that love is the sum of all that is required in it. In Matt. 22:40, Christ teaches that on the two precepts of loving God with all the heart, and our neighbour as ourselves, hang all the law and the prophets; i.e. all the written word of God; for what was then called the law and the prophets, was the whole written word of God that was then extant. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cat's Q & A: 1. Why do you do the right thing? What affects your choices? Honestly, it's mostly the expectations of other people. I don't want to break step with them. I want to live up to what I perceive their expectations to be. This usually puts me farther out of relationship with them in the end. |
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