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portan! question: "Teacher, wha t
good deed must 1 do, to have eterna!
li fe?" (Matt. 19: 16.) Jesus answered:
" lf you would enter life,
keep the
commandments"
(verse 17). But the
you ng man wanted to know
which
commandments Jesus was specifi–
cally referring to. "And Jesus said.
'You shall not kili , You sha ll not
commit adultery, You shall not
stea l, You sha ll not bea r false wit–
ness, Honor your father a nd mother,
and,
You shalllove you r neighbor as
yourself'" (verse
18).
Here Jesus specifically enumer–
ated five of the last six command–
ments a nd capped them o ff with the
summa ry commandment to !ove
your neighbor as yourself.
Later, a lawye r asked J esus a very
simi lar question: "Teacher, what
shall
I
do to inherit eterna! life?"
( Luke 10:25.) This time, because of
the
mot~ve
of the questioner, Jesus
answered in a ditferent manner:
" He said to him, 'Wha t is written in
the law? How do you read?' And he
answered. 'You shall !ove the Lord
your God with all your heart, and
wi th all your soul, a nd wi th all your
strength. and with a ll your mind ;
a nd your neighbor as yourseJr"
(verses 26-27). The lawyer replied
by first loosely quot ing Deuteron–
omy 6:5, and secondl y Leviticus
19: 18,
in the Old Testament. Love
of God was emphasized first and
then !ove of neighbor. Jesus did not
disagree with thi s lawyer: "And he
said to him,
' You have answered
righr;
do this, and you will live'"
(verse 28).
Another account in Matthew
phrases vi rtually the same answer in
Jesus' own words
(examine any red–
letter Bi ble). J esus was asked:
"'T eacher, which is the great com–
mandment in the law?' And he
[Jesus] said to him. 'You shall !ove
the Lord your God with aH your
heart, a nd with all your soul, and
with all your mind.
This is the great
and first commandment.
And a sec–
ond is like it, You shall !ove your
ne ighbor as yourself. On these two
commandments depend all the law
and the prophets'" (Ma tt. 22:36-
40).
Are we to believe that the second
overall commandment to !ove your
The
PLAIN TRUTH
September
1978
neighbor has distinct points, but the
first a nd great commandment has
none? Are we to believe that the
God of the New Testament does not
tell us how we are to !ove Him
m
distinct. practica! ways?
New Testament Emphasis
Nonetheless, whenever a substa ntia l
portion of the Decalogue is quo ted
in the New Testament , the emphasis
is nearly always on "!ove your
neighbor." Why?
THETEN
COMMANDMENTS
Lovefor God
1.
You shall have no other
gods before me.
2.
You shall not make your–
.self any graven image.
3 .
You shall not take the
name of the Eterna! your
God in vain.
4.
Remember the Sabbath
day, to keep it holy.
Love for Nelghbor
5.
Honor your father and
your mother.
6 .
You shall not kili.
7.
You shall not commit
adultery.
8.
You shall not steal.
9.
You shall not bear false
witness aga inst your
neighbor.
10.
You shall not covet.
James gives us just a hint. He
wrote: "Wi th it [the tongue]
we bless
the Lord and Father,
and with it we
curse men, who are made in the
likeness of God. From the same
mouth come blessing and cursing.
My brethren, th is ought not to be
so" (James 3:9- 10).
Apparently, a t the time when the
events were happening that occa–
sioned the later writing of the New
Tes tament documents, the main .
outward problem revolved a round
the violation o f the last si:x com–
mandments specifically perta ining
to one's neighbor. Fo r instance, the
Pharisees made a fetish out of the
fourth commandment. They used it
as
an excuse
not to !ove their neigh–
bo rs. They sevcrely criticized Jesus
for healing a man blind from birth
on the Sabbath day (see John 9).
They, in reality, did
not
!ove the
poor man. Instead, they wound up
threatening to ost racize both him
a nd his parents from the relig ious
community. But the point is: They
used the Sabbath' commandment to
camouflage thei r disobedience to
the great principie of loving one's
neighbor.
They even excused themselves
fro m economic support of thei r aged
parents for "rcligious reasons." You
can read what Jesus said to these
hypocrites in Ma rk 7:9-13. There is
no way to d ishonor one's pa rent and
simultaneously !ove God.
It
simply
can't be done!
The apos tle John deeply under–
s tood thi s inextricable int er–
relationship between loving God
a nd loving neighbor a nd the irony
of claiming todo one while omitting
the other. " lf any one says.
' 1
!ove
God,' and hates his brother. he is a
liar; for he who does not !ove his
brother whom he has seen.
cannot
!ove God
whom he has not seen.
And this commandment we have
from him, that he who !oves God
shou ld !ove his brother also' '
(1 John 4:20-21 ).
It
also works the other way. No–
tice in the next chapter: " By this we
know that we !ove the chi ldre n of
God,
when we !ove God
and obey his
commandmcnts" (1 John 5:2). Love
and obedience to God go hand in
hand: " For this is the !ove of God,
tha t we kecp his commandments.
And his commandments a re not
burdensome" (verse 3).
The Sabbath Commandment
As we stated earl ier. nowhere is the
Sabbath command repeated verba–
tim in the New Testament. How–
ever,
neither
are the first three
commandme nts (showing us how to
!ove God) re peated verbatim. This
is a fact people o ften forge t. One
really has to hunt in the New Testa–
ment for evcn veiled references to
these three commandments. In ac-
(Continued on page 43)
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