The Law Informs Us on How to Love

Jesus said,  "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another." (John 13:34)

If we've believed in Christ for a while, we've heard this commandment. Now, here's a diagnostic for you. 

Without referring to the word of God, how do you love your brother? What are you supposed to do to show love to your brother?

If we have an answer to this question, without referring to the word of God, then we have what's called an opinion. Because that's all that we could offer up as an answer to the question, "what are we supposed to do to show love to our brother" without the word of God as a reference. 


Fact is, without the word of God, we don't have a clue as to what to do to love our brother. The reason is that when God commands us to love our brother, he only means according to his own will and holy nature. He certainly doesn't leave it up to fallen man to figure this out. 

Now, what part of God's word tells us what to do to love our brother? The answer is the law of God. 

Paul taught this in Romans 7, when he asked the question, "Is the law sin?"  His answer was very telling. Here it is...

Rom 7:7 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, "You shall not covet." 

He would not have known that coveting his neighbor's whatever was sin, if the law had not said, "you shall not covet."  You see, the law told him that coveting was wrong, it was unloving, it was evil, it was sin from God's point of view. 

If our neighbor has something, it is by God's sovereign will. To want what God has given our neighbor is wrong. We shouldn't do it because it's unloving. (Sidebar - we've all done it.)

Paul would not have known that this was wrong "if it had not been for the law..."  In other words, Paul was clueless about coveting until the law informed him that coveting was not the thing to do. 

And that is one of the blessings of the law of God. It informs us as to what we should do, (or as we saw above, what we should avoid) to love our neighbor. Without the law, we wouldn't know what to do. (Of course, I am only referring to those who are already justified by faith. Go HERE for more on justification.)

As wonderful as they are, even the two love laws are insufficient to inform us as to how to love God and our neighbor. 

Imagine if the law only contained two commandments - love God and love your neighbor. Based on these, what would you specifically do to love God?  Or to love your neighbor?

We wouldn't have the foggiest idea based on these two commandments. The reason is that they are summaries of the entire law, not replacements for it. Paul taught us this in Romans 13:9 For the commandments, "You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet," and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." 

Only the full law of God informs us as to the "what" of love. What should we do to love God and what should we do to love our neighbor. 

Without God's law, we wouldn't know what to do.

What a gift the law of God is to the church. It is a roadmap, a compass, a teacher, which instructs our hearts and minds and will and behavior, on what to do to love God and our neighbor.