Lesson #42—God’s Moral Law: Love Lord and Neighbor

Shorter Catechism Q & A #42

Q. What is the sum of the Ten Commandments?

A. The sum of the Ten Commandments is, to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our mind; and our neighbor as ourselves.

Memorize Q & A—Exposition

The Ten Commandments are more than a list of do’s and don’ts; they are an application of the will of God to those for whom Christ died. In obeying the will of God as revealed in his Commandments, we are showing the love of God in us and our love toward him and others.

What does it mean?

Discuss the teaching of Matthew 22:37–40. Definitions:

• love: to love in a moral sense; “To love God as ours is to love him because he is ours, our Creator, Owner, and Ruler, and to conduct ourselves to him as ours, with obedience to him, and dependence on him. We must love God as reconciled to us, and made ours by covenant; that is the foundation of this, Thy God” (Matthew Henry)
• Lord: supreme authority
• God: divine magistrate
• heart: thoughts or feelings
• soul: spirit, breath, life
• mind: imagination, understanding

What is our practice?

To love God with all our heart is an act of obedience toward him who first loved us. Our love for God takes preference over everything else in life, i.e., family, work. This should reveal our love toward God: honoring father and mother, being faithful to husband or wife, truth over lies, respect for others over greed, etc.

Quotes for thought and discussion:

“Observe what the weight and greatness of these commandments is (Matt. 22:40); On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets; that is, this is the sum and substance of all those precepts relating to practical religion, which were written in men’s hearts by nature, revived by Moses, and backed and enforced by the preaching and writing of the prophets. All hang upon the law of love; take away this, and all falls to the ground, and comes to nothing. Rituals and ceremonials must give way to these, as must all spiritual gifts, for love is the more excellent way. This is the spirit of the law, which animates it, the cement of the law, which joins it; it is the root and spring of all other duties, the compendium of the whole Bible, not only of the law and the prophets, but of the gospel too, only supposing this love to be the fruit of faith, and that we love God in Christ, and our neighbour for his sake. All hangs on these two commandments, as the effect doth both on its efficiency and on its final cause; for the fulfilling of the law is love (Rom. 13:10) and the end of the law is love (1 Tim. 1:5).” (Matthew Henry)

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