This article is about the relationship between love and the law of God.

Source: The Banner of Truth, 1989. 3 pages.

The Critical Relationship Between Love and Law

In order for the servant of the Lord to do his work properly, he must not only distinguish between things that differ but he must also join the things that God has joined. Nowhere is this more critical than when defining the relationship between law and love. Two texts are particularly important. 'If ye love me, keep my commandments' (John 14:15). Here our Lord joins love and law. Love and law are inseparable. Christ declared: 'A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another as I have loved you, that ye also love one another' (John 13:34). On the surface it sounds as if love is all that matters.

A famous divine once said, 'Love God and do as you please'. His point is obvious. If you truly love God you will do what pleases him. But that still leaves the question, 'What is pleasing to God?' The problem with the statement is that it is an over-simplification and therefore needs to be explained.

Defining Our Termsโค’๐Ÿ”—

One of the great difficulties in dealing with this subject involves the words themselves, 'law' and 'love'. There are many ways in which they are used in the Bible. We have, for example, 'the law of God', 'the law of Christ', 'the law of Moses', 'the law of sin', 'the law of love', laws with respect to ceremonies in worship, and laws that have to do with civil duties. Sometimes the word 'law' refers to the whole Bible, sometimes to the Pentateuch, and sometimes to the Ten Commandments. This makes for some difficulty. Unless otherwise stated, the word 'law' is used here in reference to the Ten Commandments or the Moral Law of God.

Much the same difficulty is found with respect to the word 'love'. We have 'the love of Christ', 'love for our wife', 'love for our neighbour', 'love for our enemies' and a special and peculiar 'love for the brethren'. Volumes have been written on these two little words: 'law' and 'love'.

Every true Christian wants to know how to please God. This comes with the new birth. This desire immediately draws us to the Bible where God's will is expressed in terms of both love and law. We must attempt to discern what the relationship between them is. Too many go wrong at this very point.

For example, Time Magazine in March 1965 ran an article about ministers and students at Harvard Divinity School who had met to consider the subject of the New Morality. The title of the article read 'Love in Place of Law?' The very title set up a false antithesis by making it appear that it is either 'law' or 'love'. The article stated: 'The speakers reached no definite conclusion, but they generally agreed, that, in some respects, the new morality is a healthy advance as a genuine effort to take literally St Paul's teaching that through Christ "we are delivered from the law".' This article is typical of very many before and since which have confused the true relationship of law and love.

The Connectionโ†โค’๐Ÿ”—

The following two passages from the New Testament give the true connection.

Owe no man anything, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery; Thou shalt not kill; Thou shalt not steal; Thou shalt not bear false witness; Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.Romans 13:8-10

For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.John 5:3

What better definition of love could we give than the biblical one we have, from the great apostle of love himself, just quoted?

We may also recall our Lord's conversation with the lawyer in Matthew 22:35-40. 'Master, which is the great commandment in the law?' Our Lord's well-known answer immediately connects the commandments with love, and love with the commandments. Here again it is shown that there is an inseparable connection and relationship between the commandments and love.

During the 1960's the author lived within one block of a respected liberal arts college. But it was not the Christians who stood in front of the administration building and library with 'Love' signs. Rather, it was generally the lawless and the rebels who held up the 'Love' signs. And one was forced to ask, 'Love for whom?' Their families? No, they were disgracing their families. Love for God? No, they were living in open rebellion against his moral precepts. Love for their country? No, they were burning the flag and tearing up their draft cards. This illustrates what happens when love is defined without reference to God's law.

This 'love only' doctrine is the enemy of true Christianity. It is destructive of the souls of men. It is not Bible love at all because Bible love and God's law are close relatives. They are inseparably joined together. They are friends, not enemies. This lawless love is not Christian-like love. Though the gospel breathes the spirit of love, it is never at the expense of law.

Love is a motive not a direction. Paul said, 'The love of Christ constraineth us' (2 Corinthians 5:14). Love is a constraining motive to duty, but love does not define that duty. Therefore we must look elsewhere to know that duty. Love, then, is motivation, and law is the definition of how love is to act.

The action of love is that it fulfills the law. 'Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law' (Romans 13:10). And here again, motive and action cannot be more closely joined than they are in this passage. If love does not constrain a fulfilment of the law, it is not the love of which the Bible speaks.

It is clear that the command to love will not create or generate love. This command is like every other commandment; it does not create the disposition or will to do it. This fact alone, that love is a command, should put us on our guard against those who would set up any kind of false separation. We have seen clearly that Jesus connected law and love (Matthew 22); Paul connected law and love (Romans 13). We must not separate what Christ and the apostles joined together.

There is content in the law that is not defined by love. There is also direction in the law that cannot be defined by love; therefore, when the Bible speaks of the law of love it cannot mean that love is itself a moral or ethical standard of righteousness. The biblical connection between law and love does not deny that love is a principle of action. Paul, in defining the remaining sin, speaks of that remaining sin as a law or principle of action when he says,

I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me ... but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.Romans 7:21, 23

In this sense, love is also a principle of action. But love cannot spontaneously decide its own standard of expression. Love is the fulfilling of the law. The law is love's eyes, and without it, love is blind. This proper connection between law and love will drive us to the Scriptures to find the standard of behaviour that they clearly define. Nowhere in the Scriptures do we find that love dictates its own standard of conduct. Rather we hear our Lord say, 'If ye love me, keep my commandments' (John 14:15).

Love Not a Ruleโ†โค’๐Ÿ”—

The Christian must not let his own heart, even though it is a renewed heart, spontaneously decide what is perfect conduct. Biblical love is not an autonomous agency which of itself defines its own norms or standards of behaviour. We cannot teach people God's will by holding up 'love' signs, as the hippies and college rebels did.

The love which is the fulfilling of God's commandments always obeys God's will. Love does not stand alone in the Scriptures, but has many biblical relations.

The Law Written on the Heartโ†โค’๐Ÿ”—

Another important biblical truth relates to God's promise: 'I will put my laws upon their mind and on their hearts will I write them' (Hebrews 8:10; 10:16).

We do not come to know what law is by reading the inscription on the heart. The teaching in Hebrews 8:10 and 10:16 is that there is generated in the renewed heart an affinity with and a love to the law of God in order that there may be a cheerful, fulfilling of the law. 'For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous' (1John 5:3). The apostle Paul expressed it: 'I joyfully concur with the law of God' (Romans 7:22). Here again we see the important affinity that exists between God' law and love.

If fallen man has the work of the law written on his heart so that he does by nature the things of the law (Romans 2:14, 15) how much more clearly was it written on Adam's heart in his original state! And, if the renewed man is said to have the law written upon his heart (Hebrews 8:10; 10:16), it cannot be different in principle from that which was first written on Adam's heart when God created him. Then, as now, law was the rule of love.

We are drawn by Scripture, then, from an erroneous idea that love is its own law or that the renewed conscience is its own monitor. This fancy has no warrant from Scripture and is contrary to the revelation of the Scriptures. From a practical point of view, scarcely any fact of Christian teaching could be said to be more in need of emphasis than this one.

Add new comment

(If you're a human, don't change the following field)
Your first name.
(If you're a human, don't change the following field)
Your first name.

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.