The Law of Love in the Gospels

Aren’t we as Christians under ‘grace’? Why bring up the Ten Commandments if they no longer apply? Didn’t Jesus institute the Law of Love, whereby we must now live, thus negating the 10 Commandments? Doesn’t the Law of Love mean that anything we now do − including sex − may be justified, as long as we are acting in love?

In this study we will look specifically at whether it is possible to infer that the Law of Love negates the Old Testament prohibitions on extra-marital sex. Naturally, the Law of Love has a much wider scope than sexual matters alone, but as the Family’s sex doctrines are so completely in contradiction to those held by the rest of Christianity, it is vital to examine this topic carefully to unearth the Truth from the Bible.

We will examine what Jesus Himself said about the Law of love; verses from the remainder of the New Testament are considered in another study.

The two great commandments

Matt 22:37-40

37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’

38 “This is the first and great commandment.

39 “And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

40 “On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

John 13:34 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

As we study these passages, we must search diligently for the Lord’s approval of the Family’s interpretation with regards to sexual sharing outside of marriage. In order for the Family’s sexual beliefs to be tenable, these verses must specifically sanction a sexual use. It is not enough to quote one verse and say, “This Scripture does not forbid sex, therefore surely it grants permission.” Faulty reasoning like this has been the basis for many false doctrines throughout the ages. To make it very clear, the absence of prohibition in one isolated verse does not give us license to assume that such a practice is allowed. This is particularly so in regards to sexual matters, a topic on which the Bible has a great deal to say.

Matt 22:36-40

36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”

37 Jesus said to him,” ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’

38 “This is the first and great commandment.

39 “And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

40 “and the Prophets.”

Similar passages are found in Mark 12:28-34 and Luke10:25-28.

In this particular incident, a group of Pharisees and Scribes had confronted Jesus in front of the crowd to test Him with the hopes of publicly humiliating Him. They brought up their most difficult questions, and were amazed at His answers, astonished, they marvelled, and finally they were silenced.

There was obviously not the slightest sexual connotation in Jesus’ words to His audience at the time. He quoted two Old Testament verses (Deut. 6:5 and Lev.19:18) with which they all had been familiar since childhood.

But what about verse 40 (on these two commandments hang all the Law)? Doesn’t this mean that all the Law (including ‘You shall not commit adultery’) has now passed away in favour of these two laws?

What did Jesus say about the Law?

Matt 5:17-20

17 “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.

18 “For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.

19 “Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

20 “For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

And in Luke…

Luke 16:16-17

16 “The law and the prophets were until John. Since that, and everyone is pressing into it.

17 “And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail.

Here are two seemingly contradictory statements. Firstly, Jesus said in no uncertain terms that He did not come to destroy the Law, that the Law was still in effect and would be for all time, or at least while the universe remained. In fact, He indicates that it would be easier to destroy the universe than to remove the smallest stroke from the Law. Break the Law and teach that it may be broken, and we will receive condemnation in heaven. Teach that the Law must be obeyed and we’ll be praised in heaven. This appears to be a special admonition to those who are in a position of spiritual authority: teachers, pastors, leadership, shepherds, ‘coaches’, anyone who at any time teaches the Word, whether privately in person, publicly to large audiences, through printed messages sent out to the flock, over the internet etc. Be careful! Do not teach that we may break the Law! One of the most frightening things about that warning is that we may not discover our error until we arrive in heaven. It does not say that God will rebuke us here on earth, but that our humiliation will be in heaven. A sobering thought, one that should impress upon us the necessity of getting it right when we write or say anything for another to read, including the studies on this web site. We are never to assume we know the right interpretation, we must let the Bible teach us, let God speak to us through what He said in the Bible until we have come to a place of peace.

Jesus taught that the Law was to be obeyed to an even greater extent than the Scribes and Pharisees did. The sermon on the mount is overflowing with what appear to impossible-to-keep instructions: Be poor in spirit; Rejoice in persecution; Be more righteous in your obedience to the Law than the Scribes and Pharisees; Don’t call your brother an idiot (even in your thoughts) − do so and you might go to Hell; Don’t even look at a woman lustfully, and if you do, gouge your eyes out; Submit to beatings; Give to those who would steal from you; Love your enemies… and He caps it off with the breath-taking command,

Matt 5:48 “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

What do all these instructions mean? Fortunately (for the authors of this page), coming to an understanding of the stunning statements in the Sermon on the Mount is beyond the aim and scope of this study. However it may be expressed like this: Jesus taught the complete and absolute perfection of God. No one can possibly approach God with the slightest sin within. God is Light and there is no darkness in Him, so He cannot possibly tolerate the smallest dark sin in our hearts, otherwise He would not be God. God cannot overlook our transgressions, He does not pretend they are not there, He doesn’t say, “Oh, that’s too hard for you, don’t worry, I understand.” Sin is sin. This, of course, brings us to the even more breath-taking idea that God Himself became flesh, became sin for us and freely paid the ultimate price for our salvation. Jesus never excused sin, He died for it. If there was the slightest justification for sin, like, “It’s too difficult, I can’t help it!”, then Jesus’ death would have been unnecessary. Simply put, Jesus taught both the perfection and the love of God.

Getting back to Jesus and the Law, He taught that we should obey the Law. He quoted from the Ten Commandments to the rich young ruler, and in other places.

Matt 19:17-18

17 So He said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.”

18 He said to Him, “Which ones?” Jesus said,” ‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness,’

There is no getting around it, Jesus told us to keep the Law.

The second of the seemingly contradictory statements is that the law and the prophets were until John, and since that time the kingdom of God has been preached.

The schoolmaster

Here is a helpful analogy:

Gal 3:23-25

23 But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed.

24 Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

25 But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.

The Law keeps us under guard, we are imprisoned by its rules and regulations, in an external attempt to make us ‘good’. The Law in itself has no power to change our heart, any more than a roadside speed limit sign has power to remove our foot from the accelerator. The Law is also our tutor (KJV: schoolmaster) to bring us to Christ. Realising our hearts remain sinful, knowing that we fall far short of the standard Jesus set in Matthew 5, we come to Jesus to be justified by faith. After we have accepted His payment for our sins, we no longer look to the Law to make us righteous. Does that mean we can now break the Law? No of course not, all sin is repulsive to God, and sin is still sin. Thankfully Jesus paid for all our sin, even the ones we have yet to commit. Suppose we get a speeding ticket for disobeying that roadside speed limit sign mentioned before. Suppose also that for some reason the local Government (who was responsible for instituting the traffic laws) remitted our fine and released us from our debt. Does this mean we can now speed with impunity? No, of course not. Look at the NIV translation:

Gal 3:25 Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law. (NIV)

Our hearts are now submitted to Jesus, and as He lives in us and through us, He inspires in us a change of heart, that we want to please God. By faith we now have the Chief Driving Instructor living in us, no longer sitting beside us or posting signs on the roadside. When we let Him drive, we don’t speed. He does not say, “It’s OK to speed now because the President is My Friend.” God does not justify sin, He forgives it. He does not give us license to continue in sin, He gives His own strength to become like Him.

Matt.22:40 “On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

The heart of the Law is love. That’s the part we need particular help with, whether this love is directed to God or to our neighbour. Without love, we can try to keep every law we can find, but we will still fall far short of the righteousness of God.

Does this in any way imply that the Ten Commandments are no longer in effect? No, in fact, as in the Sermon on the Mount, the standard for righteousness has been raised, not lowered.

Can this Scripture be interpreted to legitimise extra-marital sex? Unequivocally no!

A new commandment

John 13:33-38

33 “Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come,’ so now I say to you.

34 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

35 “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

36 Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, where are You going?” Jesus answered him, “Where I am going you cannot follow Me now, but you shall follow Me afterward.”

37 Peter said to Him, “Lord, why can I not follow You now? I will lay down my life for Your sake.”

38 Jesus answered him, “Will you lay down your life for My sake? Most assuredly, I say to you, the rooster shall not crow till you have denied Me three times.

This passage comes from Jesus’ discourse with His disciples at the Last Supper. When He told them to love each other, there was obviously nothing sexual in His command.

Does ‘a new commandment’ indicate ‘instead of the old ones’? No, as shown above, the old commandments, the Law, did not and could not pass away. So, we can’t rewrite this verse to say that we no longer have to keep the Ten Commandments as long as we have enough love. It is as ridiculous to say, “I can now legitimately commit adultery if I do it in love” as it would be to say “I can kill or steal if I do it in love.” The prohibitions against adultery, murder and theft are in the same passage in the Old Testament, and there is nowhere in the New Testament that says any of these sins are no longer sins ‘if done in love’ or indeed if done in any way! Sexual relations outside of marriage are never legitimised in Scripture. Never.

There is absolutely no justification for taking Jesus’ words and using them to condone breaking any of God’s commandments. The Family’s sexual interpretation of the law of Love according to Jesus’ own words is completely untenable.

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