Statement of the Law.--"Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself"
(Matthew 22:39). A certain lawyer asked Jesus, "Master, which is the
great commandment of the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul and with all
thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is
like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." The kingdom
of God will come when this commandment is fully obeyed by men.
Exposition of the Law.--It would seem as if a law so plainly stated
would need no explanation or exposition. But before men can rightly
love each other they must have certain principles and a certain
character. It is not desirable that evil men with depraved thoughts
and bad lives love us as they love themselves; for they love that
which, if accepted by men, would lead to deep corruption of character.
Jesus Christ well put it that God must first be loved, with all the
heart, soul and mind, before a man is ready to love his neighbour as
himself. This loving of God, first, implies an acceptance of the
standpoint of God in regard to man and the looking upon one's fellow
man as God looks upon him. This standpoint of God is best seen in the
words and acts of Jesus Christ. A man in order, then, to love his
fellow man aright must be thoroughly imbued with the principles of the
Master. A man must look upon other men as having souls of eternal
value. A man who would do as Jesus would have him do must first have
His spirit of self-sacrificing love (Matthew 23:8-12; John 17:19;
Philippians 2:5-7; Isaiah 53:3; John 13:12-15).
Application of the Law.--The beauty of this law of love is that it may
be universally applied. There is no condition of man that it cannot
meet and satisfy. The crying wrongs of the home, society, the
industrial world, the state, arise out of its neglect and
condemnation. Men seek to make good their claims for things which
they think belong to them, they fight for them, gain them or lose
them, fight again or are fought, and in consequence race hatred, class
and industrial hatred embitter the hearts of men.
This law applied to the life of the individual, sweetens it in its
lowest depths and makes the strongest kind of a character. Paul is an
example of an able yet impetuous man, who let the gospel of the love
of Christ have its supreme way with him. We find in him no shrinking
from difficulties or death itself (2 Timothy 4:6-8). In the midst of
sore trials he wrote that remarkable classic (1 Corinthians 13) upon
love which has been the help and stay of many a burdened soul.
This law applied in society is its only saving power. It is this
Christ love which sends men into the slums of the cities to work for
their fellow men. It is this love that is the moving power of the
missionary of the cross, when he goes into the heart of heathendom. It
is this love that has brought into the world all the reforms that are
worth having and caused it to care for its sick and its poor.
It is to be deplored that in some quarters we should hear voices
talking about the inability of the Church to cope with the modern
conditions of life and that these voices should be calling for new
institutions to take its place. So long as the Church recognizes its
duty to preach and practice the love of God to man, man to God, and
man to his fellow man, no institution can take its place; for it has
in this preaching, and the application of it, the supreme remedy for
the ills of mankind. Where there is no love or regard of man for his
God or fellow men all agreements and all laws however stoutly made,
with and for contending parties, have in them a fatal weakness.
It is love that sent Jesus Christ into the world (John 3:16,17) and it
is its proclamation, and acceptance as the ruling power of life, that
has caused all the real advancement in civilization since His advent.