Jesus said to the disciples, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (Jn. 14:15). What do the commandments have to do with love? There is an old song by Tina Turner that laments: “What’s love got to do with it?… What’s love but a second-hand emotion…Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken …Oh-oh, what’s love? What’s love?” In our self-absorbed times, love is so often reduced to a mere emotion, indeed, even to just a physical feeling, and a fleeting one at that. In our time, the Commandments are often interpreted by many as oppressive limitations to our freedom, seen as having nothing to do with love, but rather as a means of control.
For a mature Christian, love is no “second-hand” emotion; it is everything. It is the source of all that is good, true, and beautiful. Indeed, it is the very nature of God. The Apostle John tells us, “Whoever loves, knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 Jn. 4:8). In reference to the Commandments, Jesus tells us, “Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them” (Jn 14:21). Those who love in this way can do no evil to their neighbor. When one has this love in them, one cannot help but be moved by the suffering of others and will more and more often do what is right and good to them, even to the point of self-sacrifice.
The commandments are summed up in Jesus’ command to love others as he loves us. This love is no mere feeling. Such love is the product of an ever-deepening relationship with the One Who Is Love, now and forever. This love can also be found in the Old Testament. In Leviticus, we see: “You shall not bear hatred for your brother in your heart. Though you may reprove your fellow man, do not incur sin because of him. Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against your fellow countrymen. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord” (Lev. 19:17-18).
Here we are challenged by the Holy Spirit, once again, to hear, to reflect upon, and to begin to practice the wisdom of God, the One Who Is Love, in all of our relationships, at every level, within the family and in the world at large. When we look around us and take an honest assessment, do we see this kind of love being lived out in our own lives, in our families, in our neighborhoods, in our cities, in our nation? Might knowing and understanding the Commandments actually be a more effective means for finding healthier, more productive ways to live our lives with one another, and to form more just relationships at every level of our society?
To know and to practice the Commandments is, in fact, an act of love toward God and toward our neighbor. We show our love for God in honoring the first three Commandments. We show our love for our neighbor by honoring the last seven of the Commandments. We honor the commandments when we begin to see that they are not limitations to our freedom, but in fact, they are the very means necessary for bringing about the true justice, mercy, and love that we so naturally desire. Because of our own experiences of selfish and wilful disobedience of the Commandments, we have come to understand that we have often been the cause of great and small harms and injustices toward others. We have seen and felt the burden of the consequences of our wilful disobedience of the Commandments, both in the pain of a guilty conscience and the pain of punishment.
Do we not see the consequences of wilful disobedience of the Commandments all around us in our own times? The mature Christian no longer sees the Commandments as limitations or strictures, but as the road maps for living a good, just, moral, and loving life. Indeed, in practicing the wisdom of the Commandments out of this awareness, our serving others and treating them justly is no longer a burden but a source of joy.
Lord, You made us in your image; help us to reveal your love to the world around us by loving others as you have loved us. You showed us the depths of love on the Cross; help us to seek forgiveness rather than vengeance in our daily lives with others. You showed us that all people are our neighbors, helping us to remove all of the false prejudices, the walls that limit our growth in love. We pray in your most holy name, Jesus. Amen.
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