Post by Admin on Feb 22, 2024 12:10:46 GMT -5
Rules for Rightly Understanding the Ten
Commandments
Understanding rightly the perfection, spirituality, and great extent of
the divine law is necessary to qualify believers for delighting in it
after the inward man, and for performing acceptable obedience to all
its precepts. The holy Psalmist, therefore, prayed thus: “Give me
understanding, and I shall keep Thy law; yea, I shall observe it with
my whole heart” (Psalm 119:34). “I am a stranger in the earth; hide
not Thy commandments from me” (Psalm 119:19).
The Ten Commandments contain very much in a few words, which
cannot but render it more difficult to apprehend their full meaning.
Therefore, the rules to be carefully observed for understanding them
rightly are chiefly the following:
RULE 1. Where a duty is required, the contrary sin is forbidden
(Isaiah 58:13); and where a sin is forbidden the contrary duty is
required (Ephesians 4:28). Every command forbids the sin which is
opposite to, or inconsistent with, the duty which it requires. The
duties required in the law cannot be performed without abstaining
from the sins forbidden in it; and the sins forbidden cannot be
avoided unless the contrary duties are performed. We must not only
cease to do what the commands forbid, but do what they require;
otherwise we do not obey them sincerely. A negative holiness is far
from being acceptable to God. Every affirmative precept includes a
negative one, and every negative command contains an affirmative.
Every precept, whether affirmative or negative, has two parts: it
requires obedience and forbids disobedience. The fourth
commandment, for instance, while it requires us to “remember the
Sabbath day, to keep it holy,” forbids us to profane that holy day. The
Lord Jesus, accordingly, comprehends all the negative as well as
affirmative precepts in these two great affirmative commandments:
to love God and our neighbor. It is also remarkable that where a
promise is annexed to a precept the contrary threatening is included
(Exodus 20:12; Proverbs 30:17), and that where a threatening is
annexed to a prohibition the contrary promise is implied (Jeremiah
18:7-8; Psalm 24:4—5).
RULE 2. Where a duty is required, every duty of the same kind is also
required; and where a sin is forbidden, every sin of the same sort is
prohibited. Under one duty, all of the same kind are commanded;
and under one sin, all of the same sort are forbidden. When the Lord
commands us to have no other gods before Him, He requires us to
know and acknowledge Him to be the only true God, and our God,
and to love, worship, and glorify Him accordingly. When He
commands us to “remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy,” He
requires us to engage in prayer, praise, hearing the Word, receiving
the Sacraments, and all the other duties of that holy day. Where a
duty is commanded, the avowing of that duty is likewise required.
Believing in Christ, and a profession of faith in Him, are enjoined in
the same commandment (Romans 10:10). Where the duties of
children to parents are commanded, not only are all the duties of
inferiors to superiors in every other relation required, but also all the
duties of superiors to inferiors. On the other hand, when the Lord
forbids us to kill, He forbids us also to strike or wound our neighbor,
or to harbor malice and revenge against him (Matthew 5:21-22).
When He forbids us to commit adultery, He at the same time
prohibits fornication, incest, and all impure imaginations, affections,
and purposes (Matthew 5:27-28). Where great sins are expressly
forbidden, all the lesser sins of that sort are forbidden; and they are
prohibited under the names of the grosser sins in order to render
them more detestable and horrible in our view, and also to show us
how abominable even the very least of them is in the sight of an
infinitely holy and righteous God. Instead of attempting an
explanation of each of the Ten Commandments, which would
increase the size of this volume to much, I refer the devout reader to
Thomas Boston’s excellent exposition of them in his sermons on our
Shorter Catechism.
RULE 3. That which is forbidden is at no time to be done; but that
which is required is to be done only when the Lord affords
opportunity. What God forbids is sin, and is never to be done
(Romans 3:8); what He requires is always our duty (Deuteronomy
4:8-9), and yet every particular duty is not to be performed at all
times (Matthew 12:7). That which is forbidden is at all times sinful,
and therefore ought never, on any pretense whatsoever, to be done
(Genesis 39:9). That which is required, as it is always our duty, so it
is to be performed as often as opportunity is afforded, and as it does
not interfere with the performance of our other duties. We are
commanded, for instance, to honor our parents; but unless they are
alive or present with us, we do not have the opportunity of
performing this duty. In the third commandment, we are required to
use, in a holy and reverent manner, the names and ordinances of
God, especially in all our acts of worship; but we cannot, and should
not, be every moment employed in acts of immediate worship; for we
are commanded to abound in the performance of other duties
equally necessary. Although the affirmative part of every precept is of
as high authority and binding force as the negative part, yet it does
not bind us to the performance of every particular duty at all times. It
obliges us to be always in a suitable frame for our present duty, but
not to be always in the actual performance of every duty. It binds us
to the performance of a particular duty every time that we are called
to perform that duty; every time in which the performance of it can
glorify God and the omission of it dishonors Him. There is, however,
one affirmative precept which binds us to perform the duty required
at all times, namely the commandment to love the Lord our God with
all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our
mind (Matthew 22:37-39). There is no state, nor time, nor place in
which we can be exempted from the duty of loving God supremely.
RULE 4. Whatever we ourselves are commanded to be, do, or
forbear, we are obliged to do all that it is possible for us to do,
according to our places and stations in society, to make others
around us to be, do, or forbear the same. We are strictly bound,
according to our different stations, to endeavor that every duty is
performed, and every sin is forborne, by all to whom our influence
can extend (Genesis 18:19; Deuteronomy 6:6-7; Leviticus 19:17).
Accordingly, in the fourth Commandment, are these words: “The
seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it, thou shalt not
do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant,
nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within
thy gates” (Exodus 20:10). Here, the duty of both the servant and the
stranger is required of the master.
Whatever sin is forbidden to us also forbids us to partake with others
in it, either by example, advice, connivance, or by giving them
occasion to commit it. “Be not partaker of other men’s sins; keep
thyself pure” (1 Timothy 5:22). However free of personal
transgressions we may pretend to be, yet we are transgressors of the
law so far as, by connivance or otherwise, we are partakers of the sins
of others (Ephesians 5:11) Whatever duty others around us are
commanded to perform, we are required, by advice, encouragement,
prayer, and other helps, to assist them in performing it (2
Corinthians 1:24). How much iniquity, alas, do many even of the
saints themselves commit by not attending more than they usually
do to this rule!
RULE 5. The same duty is required and the same sin is forbidden, in
different respects, in several and even in all the divine commands.
The transgression of one precept is virtually a breach of all. They are
so intimately connected together that if the divine authority is
disregarded in any one of them it is slighted in all (Colossians 3:5; 1
Timothy 6:10; James 2:10; 1 John 4:20). The first commandment,
for example, is so closely connected with all the other precepts that it
is obeyed in all our obedience or disobeyed in all our disobedience to
any one of them. Obedience or disobedience to it is virtually
obedience or disobedience to the whole law.
RULE 6. Where a duty is required, the use of all the means of
performing it aright, is required; and where a sin is forbidden, every
cause, and even every occasion of it, are prohibited. When chastity in
heart, speech, and behavior is required, temperance and diligence in
our lawful employments, as means of preserving it, are, at the same
time enjoined. On the other hand, when the Lord forbids the
profanation of the Sabbath, at the same time He forbids all the
employments and recreations by which men profane that holy day.
When He forbids uncleanness, at the same time He prohibits
drunkenness, gluttony, idleness, or whatever else may be an
incitement to that sin. Where He forbids murder, He also prohibits
the wrath, malice, and revenge which prompt men to commit that
crime (Matthew 5:21-22; 1 John 3:15). When children are
commanded to honor their parents, parents are, in the same
command, enjoined to regard their children with parental affection,
and to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord
(Ephesians 6:4).
RULE 7. No sin is at any time to be committed in order to avoid or
prevent a greater sin. We must not “do evil that good may come”
(Romans 3:8) The very least sin ought not, on any account whatever,
to be committed. None of the dispensations of adorable Providence
lays a man under a necessity of sinning. “Let no man then say when
he is tempted, ‘I am tempted of God,’ for God cannot be tempted
with evil, neither tempteth He any man” (James 1:13). As no man is
allowed by the law, so none is necessitated by the providence of an
infinitely holy and righteous God, to commit one sin in order to
prevent another. We are commanded in the law, not only to abstain
from all evil, but even “from all appearance of evil” {1 Thessalonians
5:22). But while no sin must be committed in order to prevent a
greater sin, some duties required should, as was observed above, give
place to other dudes.
RULE 8. The commandments of the second table of the law must
give place to those of the first when they cannot both be observed
together. Our love of our neighbor, for instance, ought to be
subjected to our love of God; and we are enjoined to hate, that is, to
love in a less degree, father and mother for Christ, when our love of
them comes at any time in competition with our love for Him (Luke
14:26). When our love for our nearest relations and dearest friends
becomes inconsistent with our love for Christ, the former must yield
to the latter. We must prefer Christ, and God in Christ, to all the
other objects of our esteem and affection (Matthew 10:37). When the
commands of our superiors among men are at any time contrary to
the commandments of the Lord, then we are to obey God rather than
men (Acts 4:19). But although our natural duties to men, required in
the second table of the law, must give place to our natural duties to
God required in the first (Acts 5:29), yet the positive duties enjoined
in the first table must yield to the natural duties required in the
second when they cannot both be performed at the same time (Hosea
6:6).
RULE 9. In our obedience, we should have a special and constant
respect to the scope and final end at which the Lord aims by all the
commandments in general, or by any one of them in particular. The
great end at which God aims in general, in subordination to His own
manifested glory, is perfect holiness of heart and life in His people,
even as He Himself is holy (2 Corinthians 7:1; 1 Peter 1:15). Whatever
obedience, therefore, He enjoins, He requires that it be absolutely
perfect; and whatever obedience we perform, we are bound to aim at
perfection in it (Philippians 3:13), and to assure ourselves that in
proportion as we fall short of perfection, we sin and come short of
His glory. This rule, in the hand of the Spirit of truth, is of special use
to teach both sinners and saints the true meaning of every divine
precept. The aim of God in each of His commandments is perfection
of holiness, of conformity “to the image of His Son, that He may be
the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8:29). And the
perfection in obedience which He requires is, as has been hinted
above, a perfection of principle that our obedience proceed from “a
pure heart, from a good conscience, and from faith unfeigned” (1
Timothy 1:5; Matthew 5:48); a perfection of the parts of it, so that it
is universal in respect of all the commands, or of all things written in
the book of the law; a perfection of degrees, that every part of it be
raised to the very highest degree of conformity to the holy law; and a
perfection in respect of duration, that from the beginning to the end
of our life we continue “in all things which are written in the book of
the law, to do them.” RULE 10. The beginning and the end, as well as
the sum, of all the commandments is love. “Love is the fulfilling of
the law” (Romans 13:10). “The end of the commandment is love” (1
Timothy 1:5). As all the blessings of God to His people flow from, and
are comprised in, His love to them, so all the duties of man »o God
are comprehended in love to Him. The love of God to man is the sum
of the gospel; the love of man to God is the sum of the law. Love to
God as our God is the sum of what is required in the first table of the
law; love to our neighbor is the whole of what is enjoined in the
second. The former is called “the first and great commandment,” and
the latter is “like unto it.” These two commandments are so closely
connected together that obedience to the one cannot be performed
without obedience to the other. We cannot love God supremely
unless we love our neighbor as ourselves; nor can we love our
neighbor, who was made in the image of God, as ourselves unless we
love God, who created him in His own image, with supreme affection
(1 John 4:20). All the duties required in the first table of the law are
but the native expressions of supreme love to the Lord our God; and
all the duties enjoined in the second are only the genuine expressions
of sincere love to our neighbor.
Now is it so that our love of our neighbor is to be subjected or
subordinated to our love of God? We may hence learn how we ought
to love God, and how to love our neighbor. We must love God more
than we love ourselves, and love our neighbor as ourselves. We are
bound to love the Lord our God supremely, or with all the powers of
our souls, and to love our neighbor co-ordinately, or as ourselves. To
love the Lord our God, according to the commandment, with all our
heart is to love Him with a perfect degree of sincerity (Romans 12:9).
To love Him with all our soul is to love Him spiritually and
affectionately, and that in a perfect degree; and to express our ardent
affection to Him by every instance of obedience in which any faculty
of our souls can be exercised. To love Him with all our strength is to
love no other amiable object as much as Him, and none but in Him
and for Him, or in subordination to Him (Luke 14:26). And to do it
with all our mind is to regard Him with an intelligent love or a
superlative esteem, and to love Him principally for His own infinite
amiableness, as manifested especially in the person and work of our
adorable Redeemer (Song of Solomon 1:3; Philippians 3:8).
The highest degree of love, then, of which man, even in his state of
innocence, was capable is due to our God; but a lesser degree of it is
due to ourselves and our neighbor. To love our neighbor as ourselves
is to love Him in the same manner as we ought to do ourselves. A
lawful and regular love of ourselves is here implied; for it is made the
pattern according to which we ought to love others. This regular selflove is a habitual desire and endeavor always to aim at the happiness
of our souls and bodies in subordination to the glory of God. To love,
then, our neighbor as ourselves is to love Him as constantly, as
sincerely, as tenderly, as ardently, as actively, and as inviolably as we
love ourselves (Ephesians 5:29). This love of our neighbor should be
expressed by our doing to Him all that we would from a well
informed judgment, and have Him to do to us in the same relations
and circumstances. We are required to love all men with a love of
benevolence and beneficence, but the saints not only with a love of
benevolence, but with a love of complacence and delight (Psalm
16:3). This love of God and of our neighbor must flow '‘from a pure
heart, from a good conscience, and from faith unfeigned” (1 Timothy
1:5). And when it proceeds from these principles, it is “the fulfilling
of the law,” the essence of true holiness, and “the bond of
perfectness.” Reader, trust in the Lord Jesus with all your heart for
all His salvation to yourself in particular, and especially for purity of
heart and peace of conscience; and then your faith will work by love.
It is evident from what has been said that we were all born into the
world utterly destitute of conformity to the holiness of God’s law. We
were “born in iniquity and conceived in sin” (Psalm 51:5). We came
in to the world entirely destitute of the moral image of God, and
wholly under the dominion of natural depravity (Job 11:12). The holy
law commands us to love God supremely, but by nature we love
ourselves supremely. It enjoins us to love our neighbor as ourselves;
but we, on the contrary, hate our neighbor, especially in relation to
the momentous concerns of his immortal soul. The law requires us to
delight supremely in the Lord our God; but instead of this we delight
only in sin, or at least in that which is not God. We are commanded
in the law to do all to the glory of God, but we are naturally disposed
to do all to our own glory. These corrupt propensities are native in
the heart of every descendant of Adam, and are directly contrary to
the holy nature and law of God (Psalm 53:1-3). So great is the
contrariety between the holy nature of God as expressed in His law
and the nature of a sinner, that God is said to hate sinners (Psalm
5:5), and sinners to hate Him (Romans 8:7). And no man has
attained a true conviction of his sin but he whom the Holy Spirit has
made to see and feel that by nature he is a hater of God and of the
whole revealed character of God.
Hence it is manifest also that the very best actions of unconverted
persons are sinful in the sight of God. Such persons, indeed, do many
things that are materially good, but nothing that is formally good;
nothing from a good principle, in a good manner, or to a good end.
All that they do is done, either directly or indirectly, in opposition to
the holy commandments of the Lord; and so it is sinful and hateful to
Him ( Proverbs 15:8; Romans 8:8; Hebrews 11:6). How then can
such performances atone for their past transgressions, and entitle
them to the favor of God and eternal life? Ah, how deep the
infatuation, how great the folly of relying on our own righteousness
for a title to our eternal salvation!
From what has been said, it is evident that it is a righteous thing with
God to require of unregenerate sinners what they cannot perform.
He commands them to love Him with all their hearts, and so to
perform perfect and perpetual obedience to His righteous law; but in
their state of unregeneracy they have no moral ability to perform a
single duty according to the commandment (Romans 5:6). It is
infinitely just, however, that the Lord should require of sinners what
they are unwilling—and so unable—to perform; and that He should
condemn them to death, in all its latitude and extent, for not
performing it. For nothing can be more just and reasonable than that
they should yield perfect obedience to His righteous law. He gave
them, in the first Adam, sufficient ability to perform perfect
obedience, and they chose to deprive themselves of it by their
transgression in Him as their federal representative (Ecclesiastes
7:29; Romans 5:12, 19). Besides, they have no inability but what is
voluntary. They love the depravity of their hearts, and choose to
commit iniquity. Indeed, if the Lord could not justly require of
sinners what they cannot perform, it would inevitably follow that
they could have no need either that the Son of God should fulfil all
righteousness for them, or that His Holy Spirit should implant
holiness in them. To say, then, that God cannot justly require sinners
to perform that obedience to Him which of themselves they are
unable to perform tends to undermine, at once, both the law and the
gospel.
To conclude, we may hence see that no influences of the Holy Spirit
but such as are irresistible will suffice to convert a sinner to God, and
to the love and practice of sincere obedience to His law. So strong
and inveterate is the corruption which is in the hearts of
unregenerate sinners that elect sinners resist the saving operation of
the Spirit as much and as long as they can; and were it not that the
adorable Spirit is infinitely efficacious in His operation, they would
all so resist Him as to hinder Him from converting them. An
infinitely powerful operation of the Holy Spirit, such as will be
sufficient to conquer all the resistance made to it by sinners, is
necessary to change their natures and make them willing to believe
in Jesus Christ, and return through Him to God as their God.
Accordingly, the Holy Spirit, in converting sinners, is in Scripture
represented as putting His laws into their minds, and writing them
on their hearts, as creating them in Christ Jesus unto good works, as
quickening and raising them up from the dead, and as opening their
eyes and calling them out of darkness into His marvelous light.
Hence they are said to be born of the Spirit, to be new creatures, and
to walk in newness of life. This great and wonderful change is
indispensably necessary to true conversion. Happy, inexpressibly
happy are you, reader, if you are a subject of it! No sooner do you
begin to experience this happy change than you begin so to believe
the gospel as to have communion with the second Adam in His
righteousness and salvation, and so to obey the law as to walk worthy
of the Lord to all pleasing.
Commandments
Understanding rightly the perfection, spirituality, and great extent of
the divine law is necessary to qualify believers for delighting in it
after the inward man, and for performing acceptable obedience to all
its precepts. The holy Psalmist, therefore, prayed thus: “Give me
understanding, and I shall keep Thy law; yea, I shall observe it with
my whole heart” (Psalm 119:34). “I am a stranger in the earth; hide
not Thy commandments from me” (Psalm 119:19).
The Ten Commandments contain very much in a few words, which
cannot but render it more difficult to apprehend their full meaning.
Therefore, the rules to be carefully observed for understanding them
rightly are chiefly the following:
RULE 1. Where a duty is required, the contrary sin is forbidden
(Isaiah 58:13); and where a sin is forbidden the contrary duty is
required (Ephesians 4:28). Every command forbids the sin which is
opposite to, or inconsistent with, the duty which it requires. The
duties required in the law cannot be performed without abstaining
from the sins forbidden in it; and the sins forbidden cannot be
avoided unless the contrary duties are performed. We must not only
cease to do what the commands forbid, but do what they require;
otherwise we do not obey them sincerely. A negative holiness is far
from being acceptable to God. Every affirmative precept includes a
negative one, and every negative command contains an affirmative.
Every precept, whether affirmative or negative, has two parts: it
requires obedience and forbids disobedience. The fourth
commandment, for instance, while it requires us to “remember the
Sabbath day, to keep it holy,” forbids us to profane that holy day. The
Lord Jesus, accordingly, comprehends all the negative as well as
affirmative precepts in these two great affirmative commandments:
to love God and our neighbor. It is also remarkable that where a
promise is annexed to a precept the contrary threatening is included
(Exodus 20:12; Proverbs 30:17), and that where a threatening is
annexed to a prohibition the contrary promise is implied (Jeremiah
18:7-8; Psalm 24:4—5).
RULE 2. Where a duty is required, every duty of the same kind is also
required; and where a sin is forbidden, every sin of the same sort is
prohibited. Under one duty, all of the same kind are commanded;
and under one sin, all of the same sort are forbidden. When the Lord
commands us to have no other gods before Him, He requires us to
know and acknowledge Him to be the only true God, and our God,
and to love, worship, and glorify Him accordingly. When He
commands us to “remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy,” He
requires us to engage in prayer, praise, hearing the Word, receiving
the Sacraments, and all the other duties of that holy day. Where a
duty is commanded, the avowing of that duty is likewise required.
Believing in Christ, and a profession of faith in Him, are enjoined in
the same commandment (Romans 10:10). Where the duties of
children to parents are commanded, not only are all the duties of
inferiors to superiors in every other relation required, but also all the
duties of superiors to inferiors. On the other hand, when the Lord
forbids us to kill, He forbids us also to strike or wound our neighbor,
or to harbor malice and revenge against him (Matthew 5:21-22).
When He forbids us to commit adultery, He at the same time
prohibits fornication, incest, and all impure imaginations, affections,
and purposes (Matthew 5:27-28). Where great sins are expressly
forbidden, all the lesser sins of that sort are forbidden; and they are
prohibited under the names of the grosser sins in order to render
them more detestable and horrible in our view, and also to show us
how abominable even the very least of them is in the sight of an
infinitely holy and righteous God. Instead of attempting an
explanation of each of the Ten Commandments, which would
increase the size of this volume to much, I refer the devout reader to
Thomas Boston’s excellent exposition of them in his sermons on our
Shorter Catechism.
RULE 3. That which is forbidden is at no time to be done; but that
which is required is to be done only when the Lord affords
opportunity. What God forbids is sin, and is never to be done
(Romans 3:8); what He requires is always our duty (Deuteronomy
4:8-9), and yet every particular duty is not to be performed at all
times (Matthew 12:7). That which is forbidden is at all times sinful,
and therefore ought never, on any pretense whatsoever, to be done
(Genesis 39:9). That which is required, as it is always our duty, so it
is to be performed as often as opportunity is afforded, and as it does
not interfere with the performance of our other duties. We are
commanded, for instance, to honor our parents; but unless they are
alive or present with us, we do not have the opportunity of
performing this duty. In the third commandment, we are required to
use, in a holy and reverent manner, the names and ordinances of
God, especially in all our acts of worship; but we cannot, and should
not, be every moment employed in acts of immediate worship; for we
are commanded to abound in the performance of other duties
equally necessary. Although the affirmative part of every precept is of
as high authority and binding force as the negative part, yet it does
not bind us to the performance of every particular duty at all times. It
obliges us to be always in a suitable frame for our present duty, but
not to be always in the actual performance of every duty. It binds us
to the performance of a particular duty every time that we are called
to perform that duty; every time in which the performance of it can
glorify God and the omission of it dishonors Him. There is, however,
one affirmative precept which binds us to perform the duty required
at all times, namely the commandment to love the Lord our God with
all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our
mind (Matthew 22:37-39). There is no state, nor time, nor place in
which we can be exempted from the duty of loving God supremely.
RULE 4. Whatever we ourselves are commanded to be, do, or
forbear, we are obliged to do all that it is possible for us to do,
according to our places and stations in society, to make others
around us to be, do, or forbear the same. We are strictly bound,
according to our different stations, to endeavor that every duty is
performed, and every sin is forborne, by all to whom our influence
can extend (Genesis 18:19; Deuteronomy 6:6-7; Leviticus 19:17).
Accordingly, in the fourth Commandment, are these words: “The
seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it, thou shalt not
do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant,
nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within
thy gates” (Exodus 20:10). Here, the duty of both the servant and the
stranger is required of the master.
Whatever sin is forbidden to us also forbids us to partake with others
in it, either by example, advice, connivance, or by giving them
occasion to commit it. “Be not partaker of other men’s sins; keep
thyself pure” (1 Timothy 5:22). However free of personal
transgressions we may pretend to be, yet we are transgressors of the
law so far as, by connivance or otherwise, we are partakers of the sins
of others (Ephesians 5:11) Whatever duty others around us are
commanded to perform, we are required, by advice, encouragement,
prayer, and other helps, to assist them in performing it (2
Corinthians 1:24). How much iniquity, alas, do many even of the
saints themselves commit by not attending more than they usually
do to this rule!
RULE 5. The same duty is required and the same sin is forbidden, in
different respects, in several and even in all the divine commands.
The transgression of one precept is virtually a breach of all. They are
so intimately connected together that if the divine authority is
disregarded in any one of them it is slighted in all (Colossians 3:5; 1
Timothy 6:10; James 2:10; 1 John 4:20). The first commandment,
for example, is so closely connected with all the other precepts that it
is obeyed in all our obedience or disobeyed in all our disobedience to
any one of them. Obedience or disobedience to it is virtually
obedience or disobedience to the whole law.
RULE 6. Where a duty is required, the use of all the means of
performing it aright, is required; and where a sin is forbidden, every
cause, and even every occasion of it, are prohibited. When chastity in
heart, speech, and behavior is required, temperance and diligence in
our lawful employments, as means of preserving it, are, at the same
time enjoined. On the other hand, when the Lord forbids the
profanation of the Sabbath, at the same time He forbids all the
employments and recreations by which men profane that holy day.
When He forbids uncleanness, at the same time He prohibits
drunkenness, gluttony, idleness, or whatever else may be an
incitement to that sin. Where He forbids murder, He also prohibits
the wrath, malice, and revenge which prompt men to commit that
crime (Matthew 5:21-22; 1 John 3:15). When children are
commanded to honor their parents, parents are, in the same
command, enjoined to regard their children with parental affection,
and to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord
(Ephesians 6:4).
RULE 7. No sin is at any time to be committed in order to avoid or
prevent a greater sin. We must not “do evil that good may come”
(Romans 3:8) The very least sin ought not, on any account whatever,
to be committed. None of the dispensations of adorable Providence
lays a man under a necessity of sinning. “Let no man then say when
he is tempted, ‘I am tempted of God,’ for God cannot be tempted
with evil, neither tempteth He any man” (James 1:13). As no man is
allowed by the law, so none is necessitated by the providence of an
infinitely holy and righteous God, to commit one sin in order to
prevent another. We are commanded in the law, not only to abstain
from all evil, but even “from all appearance of evil” {1 Thessalonians
5:22). But while no sin must be committed in order to prevent a
greater sin, some duties required should, as was observed above, give
place to other dudes.
RULE 8. The commandments of the second table of the law must
give place to those of the first when they cannot both be observed
together. Our love of our neighbor, for instance, ought to be
subjected to our love of God; and we are enjoined to hate, that is, to
love in a less degree, father and mother for Christ, when our love of
them comes at any time in competition with our love for Him (Luke
14:26). When our love for our nearest relations and dearest friends
becomes inconsistent with our love for Christ, the former must yield
to the latter. We must prefer Christ, and God in Christ, to all the
other objects of our esteem and affection (Matthew 10:37). When the
commands of our superiors among men are at any time contrary to
the commandments of the Lord, then we are to obey God rather than
men (Acts 4:19). But although our natural duties to men, required in
the second table of the law, must give place to our natural duties to
God required in the first (Acts 5:29), yet the positive duties enjoined
in the first table must yield to the natural duties required in the
second when they cannot both be performed at the same time (Hosea
6:6).
RULE 9. In our obedience, we should have a special and constant
respect to the scope and final end at which the Lord aims by all the
commandments in general, or by any one of them in particular. The
great end at which God aims in general, in subordination to His own
manifested glory, is perfect holiness of heart and life in His people,
even as He Himself is holy (2 Corinthians 7:1; 1 Peter 1:15). Whatever
obedience, therefore, He enjoins, He requires that it be absolutely
perfect; and whatever obedience we perform, we are bound to aim at
perfection in it (Philippians 3:13), and to assure ourselves that in
proportion as we fall short of perfection, we sin and come short of
His glory. This rule, in the hand of the Spirit of truth, is of special use
to teach both sinners and saints the true meaning of every divine
precept. The aim of God in each of His commandments is perfection
of holiness, of conformity “to the image of His Son, that He may be
the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8:29). And the
perfection in obedience which He requires is, as has been hinted
above, a perfection of principle that our obedience proceed from “a
pure heart, from a good conscience, and from faith unfeigned” (1
Timothy 1:5; Matthew 5:48); a perfection of the parts of it, so that it
is universal in respect of all the commands, or of all things written in
the book of the law; a perfection of degrees, that every part of it be
raised to the very highest degree of conformity to the holy law; and a
perfection in respect of duration, that from the beginning to the end
of our life we continue “in all things which are written in the book of
the law, to do them.” RULE 10. The beginning and the end, as well as
the sum, of all the commandments is love. “Love is the fulfilling of
the law” (Romans 13:10). “The end of the commandment is love” (1
Timothy 1:5). As all the blessings of God to His people flow from, and
are comprised in, His love to them, so all the duties of man »o God
are comprehended in love to Him. The love of God to man is the sum
of the gospel; the love of man to God is the sum of the law. Love to
God as our God is the sum of what is required in the first table of the
law; love to our neighbor is the whole of what is enjoined in the
second. The former is called “the first and great commandment,” and
the latter is “like unto it.” These two commandments are so closely
connected together that obedience to the one cannot be performed
without obedience to the other. We cannot love God supremely
unless we love our neighbor as ourselves; nor can we love our
neighbor, who was made in the image of God, as ourselves unless we
love God, who created him in His own image, with supreme affection
(1 John 4:20). All the duties required in the first table of the law are
but the native expressions of supreme love to the Lord our God; and
all the duties enjoined in the second are only the genuine expressions
of sincere love to our neighbor.
Now is it so that our love of our neighbor is to be subjected or
subordinated to our love of God? We may hence learn how we ought
to love God, and how to love our neighbor. We must love God more
than we love ourselves, and love our neighbor as ourselves. We are
bound to love the Lord our God supremely, or with all the powers of
our souls, and to love our neighbor co-ordinately, or as ourselves. To
love the Lord our God, according to the commandment, with all our
heart is to love Him with a perfect degree of sincerity (Romans 12:9).
To love Him with all our soul is to love Him spiritually and
affectionately, and that in a perfect degree; and to express our ardent
affection to Him by every instance of obedience in which any faculty
of our souls can be exercised. To love Him with all our strength is to
love no other amiable object as much as Him, and none but in Him
and for Him, or in subordination to Him (Luke 14:26). And to do it
with all our mind is to regard Him with an intelligent love or a
superlative esteem, and to love Him principally for His own infinite
amiableness, as manifested especially in the person and work of our
adorable Redeemer (Song of Solomon 1:3; Philippians 3:8).
The highest degree of love, then, of which man, even in his state of
innocence, was capable is due to our God; but a lesser degree of it is
due to ourselves and our neighbor. To love our neighbor as ourselves
is to love Him in the same manner as we ought to do ourselves. A
lawful and regular love of ourselves is here implied; for it is made the
pattern according to which we ought to love others. This regular selflove is a habitual desire and endeavor always to aim at the happiness
of our souls and bodies in subordination to the glory of God. To love,
then, our neighbor as ourselves is to love Him as constantly, as
sincerely, as tenderly, as ardently, as actively, and as inviolably as we
love ourselves (Ephesians 5:29). This love of our neighbor should be
expressed by our doing to Him all that we would from a well
informed judgment, and have Him to do to us in the same relations
and circumstances. We are required to love all men with a love of
benevolence and beneficence, but the saints not only with a love of
benevolence, but with a love of complacence and delight (Psalm
16:3). This love of God and of our neighbor must flow '‘from a pure
heart, from a good conscience, and from faith unfeigned” (1 Timothy
1:5). And when it proceeds from these principles, it is “the fulfilling
of the law,” the essence of true holiness, and “the bond of
perfectness.” Reader, trust in the Lord Jesus with all your heart for
all His salvation to yourself in particular, and especially for purity of
heart and peace of conscience; and then your faith will work by love.
It is evident from what has been said that we were all born into the
world utterly destitute of conformity to the holiness of God’s law. We
were “born in iniquity and conceived in sin” (Psalm 51:5). We came
in to the world entirely destitute of the moral image of God, and
wholly under the dominion of natural depravity (Job 11:12). The holy
law commands us to love God supremely, but by nature we love
ourselves supremely. It enjoins us to love our neighbor as ourselves;
but we, on the contrary, hate our neighbor, especially in relation to
the momentous concerns of his immortal soul. The law requires us to
delight supremely in the Lord our God; but instead of this we delight
only in sin, or at least in that which is not God. We are commanded
in the law to do all to the glory of God, but we are naturally disposed
to do all to our own glory. These corrupt propensities are native in
the heart of every descendant of Adam, and are directly contrary to
the holy nature and law of God (Psalm 53:1-3). So great is the
contrariety between the holy nature of God as expressed in His law
and the nature of a sinner, that God is said to hate sinners (Psalm
5:5), and sinners to hate Him (Romans 8:7). And no man has
attained a true conviction of his sin but he whom the Holy Spirit has
made to see and feel that by nature he is a hater of God and of the
whole revealed character of God.
Hence it is manifest also that the very best actions of unconverted
persons are sinful in the sight of God. Such persons, indeed, do many
things that are materially good, but nothing that is formally good;
nothing from a good principle, in a good manner, or to a good end.
All that they do is done, either directly or indirectly, in opposition to
the holy commandments of the Lord; and so it is sinful and hateful to
Him ( Proverbs 15:8; Romans 8:8; Hebrews 11:6). How then can
such performances atone for their past transgressions, and entitle
them to the favor of God and eternal life? Ah, how deep the
infatuation, how great the folly of relying on our own righteousness
for a title to our eternal salvation!
From what has been said, it is evident that it is a righteous thing with
God to require of unregenerate sinners what they cannot perform.
He commands them to love Him with all their hearts, and so to
perform perfect and perpetual obedience to His righteous law; but in
their state of unregeneracy they have no moral ability to perform a
single duty according to the commandment (Romans 5:6). It is
infinitely just, however, that the Lord should require of sinners what
they are unwilling—and so unable—to perform; and that He should
condemn them to death, in all its latitude and extent, for not
performing it. For nothing can be more just and reasonable than that
they should yield perfect obedience to His righteous law. He gave
them, in the first Adam, sufficient ability to perform perfect
obedience, and they chose to deprive themselves of it by their
transgression in Him as their federal representative (Ecclesiastes
7:29; Romans 5:12, 19). Besides, they have no inability but what is
voluntary. They love the depravity of their hearts, and choose to
commit iniquity. Indeed, if the Lord could not justly require of
sinners what they cannot perform, it would inevitably follow that
they could have no need either that the Son of God should fulfil all
righteousness for them, or that His Holy Spirit should implant
holiness in them. To say, then, that God cannot justly require sinners
to perform that obedience to Him which of themselves they are
unable to perform tends to undermine, at once, both the law and the
gospel.
To conclude, we may hence see that no influences of the Holy Spirit
but such as are irresistible will suffice to convert a sinner to God, and
to the love and practice of sincere obedience to His law. So strong
and inveterate is the corruption which is in the hearts of
unregenerate sinners that elect sinners resist the saving operation of
the Spirit as much and as long as they can; and were it not that the
adorable Spirit is infinitely efficacious in His operation, they would
all so resist Him as to hinder Him from converting them. An
infinitely powerful operation of the Holy Spirit, such as will be
sufficient to conquer all the resistance made to it by sinners, is
necessary to change their natures and make them willing to believe
in Jesus Christ, and return through Him to God as their God.
Accordingly, the Holy Spirit, in converting sinners, is in Scripture
represented as putting His laws into their minds, and writing them
on their hearts, as creating them in Christ Jesus unto good works, as
quickening and raising them up from the dead, and as opening their
eyes and calling them out of darkness into His marvelous light.
Hence they are said to be born of the Spirit, to be new creatures, and
to walk in newness of life. This great and wonderful change is
indispensably necessary to true conversion. Happy, inexpressibly
happy are you, reader, if you are a subject of it! No sooner do you
begin to experience this happy change than you begin so to believe
the gospel as to have communion with the second Adam in His
righteousness and salvation, and so to obey the law as to walk worthy
of the Lord to all pleasing.