The Bible Class

LESSON VIII. Love Fulfills the Law

Questions to Lesson 8^*

Love is so abundant in our heavenly Father that an Apostle has said, that “God is love.”1 John 4:8, 16. Therefore his law is a law of love, for it must be like him. It comes from the fountain of love, and it requires us to be like God, that is, it requires us to love. Paul says to Timothy, The end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart. 1 Timothy 1:5. Charity is love. The end or design of all the commandments of God is to teach us to love. Then if we keep them rightly, we shall be full of love; and God will love us. He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him. 1 John 4:16. He that loveth not, knoweth not God. Verse 8. And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. Chap 2:3, 4. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments; and his commandments are not grievous. Chap 5:3. BIC 19.1

From scriptures like these we learn three things. 1. That God is full of love. 2. That the design of his law is to teach us to love. 3. That we cannot love as we ought unless we keep it. BIC 19.2

We will next consider the objects of our love. Whom ought we to love! It is evident that God, our kind Creator and Preserver-the Giver of every good and perfect gift, should be the first object of our love. In the second place, we should love those whom God has created-our fellow men. Jesus said. 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 neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Matthew 22:37-40. BIC 20.1

All the teaching of the ten commandments is love; but there are two directions in which our love should flow: towards God, and towards men; therefore, the commandments are divided into two classes, and were written on two tables of stone. Of the first class there are four commandments. They teach us to have no gods but the Lord, to make no image to worship, to profane not the name of God, and to remember the day of his rest, to keep it holy. These teach us to love God with all our heart. Of the second class there are six commandments. They teach us to honor our parents, not to kill, not to commit adultery, not to steal, not to bear false witness, and not to covet what belongs to our neighbor. These teach us to love our neighbor as ourself. BIC 20.2

Now we cannot love God and our fellow creatures as we ought, and break one of the ten commandments; for it is evident that Jesus, when he spoke of all the law as hanging upon the two directions of our love, meant that not less than ten commandments hang there. BIC 21.1