Mark 12:29-31

THE LINK BETWEEN THE TWO COMMANDMENTS

‘The first of all the commandments is … And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.’

Mark 12:29

Let us think together of three bonds of likeness between the first and the second commandment. The second commandment is like unto the first.

I. Both are laid upon us all by the same authority, with the same emphatic necessity.—Just as we are all bound by the first commandment, so are we all, without exception, bound to the love of our neighbour. Yes; and as we are bound to love God always, so are we bound always to love our neighbour. As no excuse can be valid for refusing to Almighty God the love of the heart that He has made to seek Him, so can no excuse suffice for a loveless life towards our neighbour. If we can ever say that we have done enough in the way of loving God, then and then only can we say that we have done enough in loving our neighbour.

II. Both pass behind all that men see of our life, all our outward acts, all even that we say, pass right through it all to the inmost affections of the heart. As it is required of us not simply that we shall do what God bids us, not simply that we shall offer Him this or that act of religious worship, but that we shall love Him with all our heart and soul, so is it demanded of us not simply that we shall do our duty by our neighbour, not simply that we shall deal fairly with him, but that we shall love him. ‘There are things,’ we may say in lighter moments, ‘that one cannot put up with, and there are people that we never shall get on with, and it is useless to tell us that we have to love them.’ But men who speak thus forget—

(a) That God gave the commandment.

(b) That the lives of the saints are full of love.

(c) That in some spheres of life men can control love.

(d) That it is one thing to like, and another thing to love.

(e) That, probably, they have not done all they can do to love.

(f) That the love of God may be poured into the heart of man.

III. One and the same example is set before us for them both—one and the same example, even our Lord Jesus Christ. As He is our Teacher, our Guide, our Pattern in the love of God, as He came to teach us, He, the filial heart and mind towards God, as He came to teach us to love God with the love of little children, so we look to Him as our Pattern, our one great example in the love of our fellow-men.

—Bishop F. Paget.

Illustration

‘Musicians tell us that when one note is struck other kindred notes immediately wake up from it, aroused by it; so that those who have a keen and true and sensitive ear can immediately hear the kindred notes following from that which has been first struck. And so it seems to be with this note that is struck by the voice of God in the hearts of His saints. The first great commandment of the love of God wakes, as it were, a second and a kindred note; and our Lord goes on immediately to speak of the second, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” Those who truly, purely, clearly hear that first note of the Divine bidding cannot fail to hear immediately, waking, as it were, out of the heart of the first sound, the second, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” ’