THE COMMANDMENTS OF JESUS
Many people have not yet grasped the greatness of a covenant inscribed by the Holy Spirit upon the chambers of the heart. It is difficult for them to see the difference between the requirements of a written legal code and the commandments voiced by Jesus. They reason that if a disciple of Jesus is obligated to keep His commandments, and if those commandments are now contained in the collection of documents called the New Testament Scriptures, those Scriptures must be a written code of laws or commandments.
In plain terms, this would mean that the law of Moses was a custodian to bring us to Christ, and that Christ has now placed us under another custodian. It should be a sufficient answer to this kind of rationalization to point out that it negates everything in the very apostolic letters, which are assumed to be the new written code. Nothing can be plainer than the statement of Paul, "But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a custodian" (Galatians 3:25; RSV).
Certainly the disciples of Jesus will keep the commandments of Jesus. This is the very essence of discipleship. But keeping His commandments is the response of love to Him as a person and not the observance of a code through fear of the consequences. A lawbreaker is subject to fear, but "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him, because he first loved us" (1 John 4:18, 19; KJV).
Jesus did not come to place us under law but to reconcile us to God. He came that we might have life and have it more abundantly. He came to restore a relationship that had been shattered by sin and abrogated by alienation. Thus He said, "If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him" (John 14:23; KJV). There is no greater happiness than the recognition that one has the Father and the Son as his permanent guests.
Many people who read this would be flattered if the President of the United States chose to stay one night in their home. A far more tremendous honor comes to those who can live daily in the intimate companionship of the Creator of the universe and His only begotten Son. This transcendent experience does not begin with, nor result from, obedience to commands, as many people think. It begins with love for Jesus, and it is perpetuated and sustained by that love. Keeping the commandments of Jesus results from that love as a natural and effortless consequence. It is not conformity to a code, but the affectionate surrender to the embrace of a person in joyful recognition of acceptance.
One of the most outstanding declarations about the divine-human relationship which results from true discipleship occurs in John 15:9-15. Here Jesus is sharing His intimate thoughts with the apostles before His imminent torture and death. They were sorrowful in contemplation of the anticipated separation, but Jesus speaks of love, joy, and peace. He uses the terms "my love," "my joy," and "my peace," indicating that there was a quality about them that the world had not probed or understood. Indeed, He had said, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you" (14:27; KJV). He then declared that the Father is glorified when the branches He has pruned produce fruit commensurate with the care bestowed upon them. This is how men prove they are disciples of Jesus Christ. Fruit cannot be borne by branches detached from the vine, and the fruit is an indication that the branches are connected with and abiding in the vine. Abundance of fruit is proof of the response to the action of God upon the life. "Every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit" (15:2).
In direct connection with the statement relating to that productivity as a proof of discipleship, Jesus goes on to say, "As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full" (vv. 9-11). Keeping the commandments is here placed in a framework of divine love and joy.
Jesus was loved, so He was able to love. His love for the disciples was a projection of the love manifested toward Him by the Father. His keeping of the Father's commandment was a demonstration of His response to the Father's love. The statement, "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall continue in my love" (v. 10), is not so much a conditional stipulation as it is an explanatory statement. Keeping the commandments is the way we exhibit love. The way Jesus manifested love for us is the way we are to manifest love for Jesus.
These guidelines and criteria were spoken, not to remind us of a law, but to remind us of the divine joy that results from union with Jesus. Joy is one of God's gifts to us. It is a fruit of the Spirit. What Jesus said about keeping His commandments was to guarantee that the delight and exultation that transcend sorrow and discouragement would remain with us and fill our cup of life with gladness and rejoicing.
Jesus continues with the statement, "This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you" (v. 12). It is noteworthy that several times in the New Covenant Scriptures a switch is made from "commandments" in the plural to "commandment" in the singular. Each time it is asserted that the commandment of Christ is to love one another. The fact that the degree of our love is measured by the love of Jesus for men makes it a new commandment. The love that sums up all other commandments is defined, not by a legalistic explanation, but by a divine attitude and action. The one who loves in this fashion fulfills the whole law; that is, he exhibits the state of righteousness for which law was designed and to which it could never attain.
This will not satisfy one who is convinced that keeping the law is the real goal of human existence and the only hope of pleasing God. To such a person love is only one tenet of a legal system; it is not the ultimate response of a broken and contrite spirit that reaches up to God to experience love and reaches down to the needy in order to share it. Everyone must make a choice between love of law and the law of love, and his choice will determine whether he will exist in bondage or live in liberty.
What difference can there be between a legal system and the commandments of Jesus? This question is always posed by those who would channel and confine the grace of God until they can control it. If one is obligated by his relationship to Jesus to keep His commandments, even though he is gathered up in love, he still must be under a code of laws. But there are great areas of difference between law-keeping and the response to grace in love. We shall mention only four such areas, and these have to do primarily with the attitudes engendered by consciousness of law.
1. All written codes of law must have a recognized interpreter. The interpretation of law by such a recognized authority becomes the official one, and it must be followed, whether the individual agrees with the assigned meaning or not. The Constitution of the United States of America is the foundation of our republic, but the interpretations placed upon the provisions by the Supreme Court becomes the real law that the citizens must obey. In the two centuries since the Constitution was drafted, a great mass of material has been collected into books containing judgments, decisions, rulings, and precedents. The constitutional lawyer must consult the index for all of these in order to make an appeal or a case in court.
The Roman Catholic Church is a legalistic institution. It is a religio-politico power patterned after the Roman imperial system. At the head of this sprawling "empire" is a pope, a universal "father," whose ex cathedra pronouncements are deemed to be infallible. They must therefore be accepted without question as the official dogma of the members. All Protestant groups regarding the New Covenant Scriptures as a legal code have their own official interpreters, and these will differ from each other according to the authoritarian structure created by the various sects.
In religious parties that are congregational in form, a "presbytery," or eldership, may be vested with the power to decide upon the official interpretation. This becomes a dogma, and from this no appeal can be taken. The spirit of dogma is the same, whether administered by a universal pope or a local eldership. It differs in degree, but not in nature. It is inherent in any movement that regards itself as under law and not under grace, or which interprets grace in terms of law.
If we regard the "new covenant" as one in which God's laws are inscribed in our hearts and written in our minds, rather than compiled in a written code of jurisprudence, the individual conscience, enlightened by truth, becomes the supreme court. An institution does not have a mind. Although political, social, and religious movements operate in such a fashion as to try to produce a "mass mind" and "an organization man," this was never God's purpose. That idea runs counter to the divine design for our spiritual development. "Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind" (Romans 14:5) is an expression of Heaven's purpose. Each individual makes the response of love to God and man according to his ability at the time.
2. Every legalistic system must create an enforcement agency. Laws not enforced are worse than no laws at all. A society based upon constitutional law must develop a police power charged with the responsibility of keeping the citizenry in line and in subjection to the law. In the Roman Catholic Church, the hierarchy is the enforcement agency. The inventions of purgatory and the confessional booth make it possible for the parish priest to entertain pleas of guilt and to assess the various penalties for infractions of the moral code.
In other religious legal systems, conformity is secured by investing the clergy or presbytery with special powers of enforcement. Under threat of expulsion from the community for any expression of opinion contrary to the established dogmata, silence is secured by coercion. Dissidents are thus kept in check. All of this is contrary to the grace-faith covenant in which an individual's relationship with God is based upon receiving Jesus as the Lord of life and continuing to abide in Him.
3. Regarding the new covenant as a system of laws contained in a written code automatically assumes that anyone who does not meticulously comply with every specification is a lawbreaker. The religious establishment will treat such persons as criminals or felons. They will be dealt with summarily, lest they influence others to engage in similar "illegal" actions. There is no room for a brother who is honestly mistaken because "ignorance of the law excuses no one."
In legalistic communities, every person who questions the status quo becomes a heretic or false teacher. Although the latter term is used only once in the New Covenant Scriptures, where it applies to one who denies the Lord who bought us, it is a general designation for those who disagree in modern sectarian parlance.
All of this is in contravention to our adoption into a divine family or household. In this concept, the children do not reach a common level of understanding at a given time, but continue in various stages of mental growth and achievement. Those who do not fully grasp the Father's will, or who are unable to freely carry it out, are not lawbreakers. There are those who are weak in the faith, but they still are to be received (Romans 14:1). There are members of the body deemed less honorable, but upon these we bestow the more abundant honor (1 Corinthians 12:23). All of us are to walk according to our present spiritual attainment (Philippians 3:16), even as we seek to grow in grace and in knowledge of the truth.
Involuntary ignorance is not a sin, although voluntary ignorance, which is a deliberate refusal to learn, is always a sin. We can keep the commandments only as we become aware of and apprehend them. To obey them as a response to the person of Jesus provides for our loving even while we are learning. It is our love and not our degree of knowledge that makes us worthy to be received. "If anyone fancies that he knows, he knows nothing yet, in the true sense of knowing. But if a man loves, he is acknowledged by God" (1 Corinthians 8:3; NEB). We are forbidden to judge a brother upon one hand or to hold him in contempt upon the other. "Each of us must consider his neighbour and think what is for his good and will build up the common life" (Romans 15:2; NEB).
4. Another characteristic of a legalistic system is to create a feeling of insecurity and doubt as to one's standing with God. No one can ever be sure at a given time that he knows as much of the law as he ought to know in order to be saved. No one knows that his obedience to what he does know is sufficient for his justification.
The keeping of the commandments as a response of love and a response to love places the emphasis upon love rather than upon the commandments. One does not love Christ because he keeps the commandments, but he keeps the commandments because he loves Christ. He does not keep the commandments in order to be received, but because he has been received he keeps the commandments.
There is always an element of fear connected with law, but perfect love casts out fear: "And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love" (1 John 4:16-18; KJV).
We have the assurance that God loves us. He proved it by sending His Son to be the atonement for our sins. We know that even death cannot be triumphant over us. God will give us victory over the last enemy through our Lord Jesus Christ. Even now we can cast our cares, concerns, and worries upon Him, because He cares for us. He has promised that He will never leave or forsake us. We are not foster children delivered to God's house by law. We are sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty. He is our Father and we are His children.
We study the New Covenant Scriptures, not to prepare ourselves as lawyers, but to know better how to express love for God and our neighbors. We regard the love letters of the apostles as did those to whom they were originally written. We read them as letters from dear friends and not as a compendium of laws sent from a bureau of statutory requirements. Even those letters dealing with thorny problems use the word "brothers" repeatedly. The apostles were not writing to brothers-in-law, but to brothers in love.
There are warm and intimate communications that close with such words as "My love be with you all in Christ Jesus" (1 Corinthians 16:24; KJV). Why should we take these and convert them into cold, legalistic documents, thus building up walls of hostility between us? Did the saints in Philippi, who were addressed by Paul as "my brethren dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown" (4:1), subject the letter they received to laws of interpretation and hermeneutics, or did they read it with tears of gladness coursing down their cheeks? Did those to whom John wrote as "my little children" regard his letter as a legal document to be debated as in a tribunal, or as a letter to be read in the family?
When Paul learned from Chloe and her family of the crisis faced by the congregation at Corinth, should he have written, "Whereas an emergency exists for the immediate taking effect of this act, the same shall be in full force and effect from and after its passage"? As it was he wrote, "I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you" (1 Corinthians 4:14; KJV). He declared that Timothy and he had no "dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy: for by faith ye stand" (2 Corinthians 1:24). Why can we not regard these wonderful letters as a help and encouragement to our joy, rather than as documents written to exercise dominion over our faith?
"When you seek to be justified by way of law, your relation with Christ is completely severed: you have fallen out of the domain of God's grace. For to us, our hope of attaining that righteousness which we eagerly await is the work of the Spirit through faith. If we are in union with Christ Jesus, circumcision makes no difference at all, nor does the want of it; the only thing that counts is faith active in love" (Galatians 5:4-6; NEB).