The Law of Christ

According to the Lord Jesus Christ himself, the greatest commandments in the law are these two: “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” (Matthew 22:37-39).

Should we obey these great commandments? Yes, of course we should! We should obey them, not in order to become Christians—but as Christians. Yes, of course we should obey these great commandments; and it should be our pleasure to do so. Now understand: the same goes for all the moral law of God.

Remember also, that in the Sermon on the Mount (if you cannot remember it, Christian, then you need to learn Matthew chapters 6-8), our Lord expounded the spiritual depths of the moral law, clearly referring back to the Ten Commandments. Christ concludes his sermon with the following analogy, to teach us the importance of obedience—obedience to the sayings of Christ himself and consequently obedience to the moral law: “Therefore whosoever¹ heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it” (Matthew 8:24-27).

We certainly believe that as Christians, we should live moral lives. This includes loving our neighbour, as per Christ’s second greatest commandment. And this surely includes loving fellow Christians. Our Lord Jesus himself, who is greater than Moses, commands us: “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:34-35; see also Deuteronomy 18:15; Acts 3:22; 7:37; Hebrews 3).

Now, it is a disgraceful attitude that is in some churches of Christ, where they say they will keep only those moral laws of God that Jesus repeated, or that are “re-published” somewhere in the New Testament. The moral laws not mentioned are not meant to be disobeyed but kept—for they are still moral, they have not become immoral. And our Lord embraced all the moral laws, including those not mentioned where he affirmed that thou—Christian too—“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. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40).

What Is the Law of Christ?

The two great commandments in the Law of God, as identified by the Lord Jesus Christ himself, together summarise that “law of Christ” to which the apostle Paul refers in his epistle to the Galatians where he instructs us: “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). Clearly, bearing one another’s burdens fulfils our Lord’s second greatest commandment, for one obvious way in which we demonstrate our love for one another is in mutual support within the Christian church.

The law of Christ is not a substitute or alternative moral standard but the most concise summary of the whole moral law (more concise even than the Ten Commandments).

The apostle John teaches Christians to keep God’s moral law—he would have Christians to continue to keep the moral laws that God has commanded in the Old Testament Scriptures: “Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his [i.e. God’s] commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ,² and love one another, as he gave us commandment. And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us” (1 John 3:21-24).

Do you see what John did, there? Knowing full well what Christ had declared to be the two great commandments in the law, the apostle insightfully expounds the first (“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind”) as requiring this: “that we should believe on the name of his [God’s] Son Jesus Christ.” He then cites the second: “and love one another, as he gave us commandment” (referring also to Christ’s repeated command to do the same; see John 13:34-35; 15:12, 17).

Christians Are Not Exempt From God’s Moral Law

So, according to the apostle John, Christians should keep God’s commandments, which are summed up in the two greatest commandments—and the ultimate way in which we keep the first and greatest commandment is by our believing on (or, believe in) the name of his Son, Jesus Christ. For if you love God, you will love his only begotten Son. “And there came a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him” (Luke 9:35; see also John 1:14, 18; 5:19-23; 14:1, 9-10).

It was not only John who used a word usually associated with the law when they teach us about the gospel. While John referred to God’s call to believe in his Son as a commandment, Paul and Peter both wrote of obeying the gospel (Romans 10:16; 2 Thessalonians 1:8; 1 Peter 4:17). Also, Paul wrote about obedience to the faith (Romans 1:5; 16:26). And the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews wrote that Christ “became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him” (Hebrews 5:9).

• We should keep God’s commandments AND we should keep his commandment to believe in his Son Jesus Christ.
• The commandment to believe in Christ does not replace the commandments of the moral law in the way we should live, as Christians.
• Our being Christians does not exempt us from keeping God’s moral law.
• Our believing in Christ, or our “walking in the Spirit” doesn’t mean that we are somehow automatically or unknowingly keeping all the moral law.
• The law of Christ, including to lovingly bear the burdens of fellow Christians, does not replace the moral law for Christians.
• The law of Christ involves obedience to the moral law’s second greatest commandment.
• That Christians must keep the two greatest commandments in the moral law is no argument against keeping all the moral law.
• Christians should still be interested in keeping God’s commandments (moral law), and doing those things that are pleasing in God’s sight.

The apostle John would have us understand that real communion with God in prayer is closely related to doing what is pleasing in God’s sight; namely, keeping his commandments (1 John 3:21).

John is correct about this, of course. Surely, living according to God’s moral standards is something we really ought to do. God’s command to believe the gospel does not revoke or supersede that.

Appendix

Matthew Poole, Commentary on the Whole Bible, on Galatians 6:2.

“Bear ye one another’s burdens”; it is a general precept, and may be either understood with reference to what he had said in the former verse, so it hints our duty: though we discern our brethren to have fallen into some sin or error, yet if we discern that they are sensible of their lapse, and their sin is not a pleasure, but a burden to them, though we ought not to bear with them or connive at them in their sins, yet we ought to sympathize with them when we see their sin is become their load and burden, under which they groan and are dejected. Or else more generally, as a new precept commanding us to sympathize with our brethren under any lead of trials and affliction which God shall lay upon them. And so it agreeth with that precept (Romans 12:15). By the “law of Christ”, he means the will of Christ revealed in the gospel; particularly the law of love, so much enjoined by Christ (John 13:15, 33-35; John 15:12). Which is not called the law of Christ because first given by him, (for himself maketh it the sum of the ten commandments), but because he received it and vindicated it from the corruption of the Pharisees’ interpretation (Matthew 5:43-44); because he so often urged it, and so seriously commanded and commended it to his disciples; and set us the highest precedent and example of it, and hath by his Spirit written it in the hearts of his people.