The Law of Jesus

Revised October 2006

A Prayer
of Jesus

I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise
and understanding and revealed them to babes; yea, Father, for such was thy gracious will

THE LAW OF JESUS

By Edgar Jones

[../includes/header.htm]

^Introduction

^{The following may appear complicated but it is
not. This subject and the following utterance of the Lord has
been so universally misunderstood that it seems necessary to take this
very simple teaching and inspect it piece by piece so as to be
thorough, removing any excuse for misunderstanding. Anyone, even
a child, coming to this subject with a clean slate should understand
without all of this. Sadly, few come with such a slate and so
they are few who understand.

Surely, reading the following verse settles it and we can go on to
other things?

Matt:5
(FNT)

17} Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I came not to destroy but to fulfill. ¹⁸ For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, one dot-of-an-"i" or cross-of-a-"t" will not pass away from the law, until all come to pass.
^{Luke 16 (FNT)

17} But it is easier that heaven and earth pass away than for one cross-of-a-"t" to fall from the law.

Almost everyone understands that Jesus was speaking of the law as delivered by Moses, and this utterance makes it perpetual. This is not a matter of concern for Paulinists who do not feel themselves as under the Law in any case. But for those of us who have been delivered from the false gospel of Paul, the result often is a fall back to the Law of Moses, taking these utterances of Jesus to affirm that position. They see themselves under the Mosaic Code, and in particular the Decalogue. Accepting Jesus as the Messiah, they feel themselves bound by his teaching concerning the Law, and the above as the kernel of that teaching.

I honor that basic position -- submission to the law according to Jesus -- only I see that they have failed to listen to Jesus as carefully as they should. There are many voices in the world, and some of the most influential are the Messianic voices that focus on the law as delivered by Moses. These voices are mistaken and only lead back into the bondage from which Jesus delivers us. Our purpose here is to carefully examine the Word of Jesus so as to draw out his full teaching on the law, and to apply this teaching to faith. Foremost among our tasks is to search out a definition of the law "according to Jesus." To this end it is necessary that we first consider other basic definitions.

Definition of Terms

Within Christendom, it is common to view the Old Testament as composed of separate categories of documents, usually consisting of The Law, The Prophets, and the Psalms, making a clear distinction between them. Jesus referred to these categories:

We are prone to define the law as the law of Moses that is contained in the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible; the prophets are writings restricted to the books of the prophets, such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, et al. and the Psalms are self explanatory. It follows that the law is something to be obeyed, the prophets are prophecies to be fulfilled, and the Psalms are inspirational hymns and such things.

It is correct therefore to refer to these three categories of documents. It may be a mistake, and very misleading however, if we apply this definition of categories of documents to the content of the documents. This results from the simple fact that the law (the Pentateuch) contains prophecy, as does the Psalms, which is implied by the utterance of Luke 14:44 above. Likewise, the Psalms contain prophecy in addition to inspiration. The Prophets also contain law and Psalms in addition to prophecy, and the Psalms have law (Example, Psalm 82).

So, when Jesus speaks of these categories, he is not necessarily speaking of the documents. He may intend to speak of the content. Thus, we have these utterances:

Matt.13 (FNT)
¹³ For all the prophets and law until John prophesied it.
John 10(FNT)
³⁴ Jesus answered them: Is it not written in your law that: I said: You are gods?
^{John 15(FNT)

25} But in order that the word in their law be fulfilled having been written that:

They hated me without cause.

Matt. 13:13 points to the law as prophesying. Both John 10:34 and 15:25 speak of something written in the law, but the Lord is quoting from the Psalms, 82:6 and 69:4. From this we can draw the valid conclusion that when Jesus refers to the law, the prophets and the Psalms, he is not necessarily referring to the categories of documents, but to the categories of the content of the documents. More specifically, when he speaks of "the law" he may mean the law from the prophets and Psalms. Similarly, when he speaks of prophecy, he may intend us to understand prophecy as found in the law or the Psalms.

Yet there are these categories of documents, and it is reasonable to suppose that Jesus used the document category as well. So, when he specifies these categories, as in Luke 14:44 above, how are we to decide which categorization to apply? We will see as we continue that the context will be the deciding factor. We will also see that it is very important that we do not make assumptions without confirming which definition the Lord has in mind. Just knowing that he has dual definitions of these categories is in itself a great aid to understanding him.

Many assume that the law of God is the Mosaic code. This is another definition that we must examine as it applies to the vocabulary of Jesus, otherwise we will again misunderstand him. But what does Jesus define as the law of God?

Not the law of Moses. This he defines either as "the law of Moses" or as "your law" or some similar phrase. He is careful never to refer to the law of Moses as "the law of God."
I show you here some examples from his words of "the law of Moses" and "your law." We will proceed to establish his definition of the law of God further along in this paper.

Luke 14 (FNT)
44 So he said to them: these are my words which I spoke to you while yet being with you, because it is necessary all the things written in the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms concerning me be fulfilled.
John 8:17(FNT)
And in your law it is written that the witness of two men is true.
John 10:34(FNT)
Jesus answered them: Is it not written in your law that: I said: You are gods?

Therefore, when we find these categories in the Word -- law, prophets or Psalms -- we should not assume the category of documents. He may speak of the category of the content of the documents. I will show in what follows how to discern which is which, but it depends wholly on the context, and is not at all complicated. It is important that we understand that this distinction exists, and apply the correct definition before drawing conclusion as the meaning of his teaching.

Matthew 5:17,18

This is a critical utterance for our present subject, The Law of Jesus. It reads:

Matt:5 (FNT)
¹⁷ Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I came not to destroy but to fulfill. ¹⁸ For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, one dot-of-an-"i" or cross-of-a-"t" will not pass away from the law, until all come to pass.

Verse 18 is clearly an explanation of v.17. Can we learn from this how he defines law and prophets in this utterance? Does he mean law as in "commandments?" Does he mean prophets as in prediction of future events? Or does he mean both? And although v.18 is an explanation of v.17, he uses a different word at the end of each; the Greek for the first (fulfill) is plhrwsai, for the other (come to pass) is genhtai. The simple fact that he uses two different words is surely significant, and he must meant the second, genhtai, as a further specification for plhrwsai. But the objects of these two statements also differ! In v. 17, it is the law or the prophets, in v. 18, it is only the law.

Another thing to note is that these two words share some similar definitions in the Greek lexicon. But we must look more specifically for their definitions in the vocabulary of Jesus, for he is the one speaking. When we do this, we find that he never uses genhtai to refer to the fulfillment of a prophetic text from the OT. For this he uses plhrwsai; for example,

Matt. 26:56(FNT)
. . . but this whole thing came to pass in order that the Writings of the prophets be fulfilled. (plhrwsai)

If we take this fact as our guide, then we see that, in v. 17, he refers only to the prophecy that appears in both the law and the prophets, and not to the commandments. The categorization is by content. Verse 18 must then apply only to the commandments wherever they appear. Does Jesus elsewhere utilize genhtai in relation to the keeping of commandments? Yes:

Luke 14 (FNT)
²² And the slave said: Lord, what you commanded is come to pass (genhtai), and yet is there place.

Our conclusion is that the reference to law in v. 17 is to the prophecies in the books of the law, but in v. 18 it is to the commandments of the law and indicates that nothing is to be taken away from the commandments, until all things come to pass. This being confirmed as it follows from the phrase, until heaven and earth pass away, equivalent to all things come to pass.

We receive confirmation of this when we go on to v. 19:

¹⁹ For whoever sets aside one of these least commandments and so teaches men, he will be called least in the kingdom of the heavens. But whoever does and teaches them, this one will be called great in the kingdom of the heavens.

Neither the cross of a T nor the dot of an i is to be set aside from one of these least commandments -- not ever, until all things come to pass. Now let us recall how the Pharisees and others were "setting aside" the law of Moses by Corbin and such things, thus relaxing it and making it easier to keep in some areas and ask, What does Jesus intend by these least commandments? Does he intend us to understand the commandments in the law of Moses?

In the first instance, yes, (this is obvious) but that is only for the sake of a point of departure to something other than the commandments of Moses. Let us move on to the next three verses and have this:

Matt 5 (FNT)
²⁰ For I say to you that unless your justice abounds more than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of the heavens.

²¹ You heard that it was said to the ancients: You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be liable for judgment. ²² But I say to you that everyone being angry with his brother will be liable for judgment. And Whoever says to his brother: Raka, he will be liable to the council, and whoever says: You stupid, he will be liable to the Gehenna fire.

Verse 21 is the key. The Lord first quotes the Sixth Commandment, as what was said to the ancients. Then immediately there comes this phrase, But I say to you, and the information that everyone who is even angry with his brother is liable to the very same judgment that Moses assigned to murder, and even if one says to another, Raka (empty head) or You stupid, one is liable to judgment, including Gehenna fire.

He is responding to the practice of the Pharisees to set aside some portion of the law of Moses. For example, this:

^{Mark 7 (FNT)}
⁹ And he says to them: Well do you set aside the commandments of God, that you may keep your traditions. ¹⁰ For Moses said: Be honoring your father and your mother, and the one reviling father or mother shall be brought to the end by death. ¹¹ But you say: If a man should say to his father or mother: Corban, which is: a gift to God, whatever by me you may have been profited, ¹² You no longer allow him to do anything for his father or mother, ¹³ making void the word of God by your traditions which you have handed down, and many such similar things you do.

Corban means that it is to be given to the Temple treasury. The Pharisees liked that, so they relieved a man of the Fifth Commandment of the law of Moses. It was set aside.

No! Absolutely not! Not even the cross of a T or the dot of an i is to be set aside. Instead, Jesus began with the law of Moses and did the very opposite. Rather than relaxing it by setting aside some portion, or even preserving it as given to Moses, he does the very opposite! He stiffens it immeasurably.

This applies to the Fifth Commandment, but it also applies to the others. Five times in the subsequent verses, Jesus repeats a commandment of Moses and then declares, But I say to you. There then follows immediately a greatly stiffened version of that commandment. Going on to the fifth and last specific example of this process of stiffening the law of Moses, we have this reverence to the law of Moses (found at Lev. 19:17,18):

Lev.19
[17] "You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason with your neighbor, lest you bear sin because of him.
[18] You shall not take vengeance or bear any grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.

Carefully observe that this applies only to "your brother," "your neighbor" and "the sons of your own people." Now let us examine what Jesus did with this commandment:

^{Matt 5 (FNT)

43} You have heard that it was said: You shall agape-love your neighbor, and you shall hate your enemy. ⁴⁴ But I say to you, be agape-loving your enemies and be praying for those persecuting you, ⁴⁵ in order that you become sons of your father in the heavens. For he makes his sun to rise upon the evil and the good, and sends rain upon the just and the unjust. ⁴⁶ For if you agape-love those agape-loving you, what reward do you have? Don't the tax- collectors do likewise? ⁴⁷ And if you only greet your brothers, what do you do more than anyone else? Don't the nations do likewise? ⁴⁸ Therefore be complete as your heavenly father is complete.

This commandment has been stiffened so greatly that it cannot any more be called the same commandment. It is no more "love your neighbor" only, but has become "love your enemy."

I asked above what Jesus indicates by these least commandments. Now we are in a position to answer that question. These least commandments refers to the greatly stiffened commandments of Jesus that follow immediately. It does not refer to the law of Moses, which in the above discussion only served as a point of departure for Jesus as he presents his perfect and complete commandments. That is the significance of Matt. 23:48. Anybody can do the Moses version -- even the tax collectors and the nations (Gentiles). But it is only the sons of your father in the heavens who can aspire to these least commandments of Jesus, and they do so because this identifies them as the sons of the Father. And do you observe the fate of that person who sets aside even one of the least of these commandments of Jesus? That person who only abides by all the commandments of Moses has set aside not one, but every one of these commandments of Jesus.

Now examine again our subject text:

Every word is true. But what it does not say is that the law of Moses is normative for the children of God. What is the norm for God's children?

It is the commandments of Jesus, which he immediately proceeded to explain. It is not the relatively relaxed law of Moses that the Pharisees had loosened even more.

Can this be confirmed from other utterances? Certainly.

^{Luke 16

16} The law and the prophets are until John, from then the kingdom of God will be proclaimed and all forcibly enter it. ¹⁷ But it is easier that heaven and earth pass away than for one cross-of-a-"t" to fall from the law. ¹⁸ For everyone putting away his woman and marrying another commits adultery, and the one having been sent away who marries commits adultery.

Is it not clear? The law and the prophets are until John, when they reach a terminus with respect to time. Thereafter the kingdom of God takes up and becomes the norm for the children of God who are entering into the kingdom. Yet nothing is to be taken away from Moses, not even one cross of the T or dot of the i. Instead, in the kingdom, the law of Jesus takes up and is much stiffer than that of Moses. The the Lord immediately proceeded to give us an example of what he means, concerning divorce. For the law of Moses made ready provision for divorce and remarriage:

Deut. 24:1-4
When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a bill of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house, and if she goes and becomes another man's wife, and the latter husband dislikes her and writes her a bill of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies, who took her to be his wife, then her former husband, who sent here away, may not take her again to be his wife . . ..

The law of the kingdom, from Jesus, is this, repeated from above:

¹⁸ For everyone putting away his woman and marrying another commits adultery, and the one having been sent away who marries commits adultery.

There is no loss of the cross of a T or the dot of an i here, as compared with the law of the kingdom! There is no set aside. You can see this further confirmed in Mark 10:2-4.

The Law of Jesus

Jesus defined only six of his laws in the context of Matthew 5. Must we similarly take every law of Moses and stiffen it to arrive at the law of Jesus? Considering how many there are of the laws of Moses, this would be a monumental task. We would surely require a cadre of lawyers to keep up with all of that and keep us constantly informed. Thankfully this is not required because all of the upgrades, including the six listed in the Sermon, are founded on a common, very simple and very easily remembered reduction of all of the law of Moses.

One thing the Pharisees were doing was elaborating on the law of Moses by means of their "tradition." This angered Jesus to the max, and he was not about to do the same. Instead, he recast the law of God in the greatest of simplicity and condensation, making it very simple and strict without taking anything away. He did this by placing it all under the concept of agape - love:

^{Matt. 22

34} But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they were gathered together, ³⁵ And one of them, an expert on the Law, testing him asked,³⁶ Teacher, what sort of commandment is great in the Law? ³⁷ So he said to him: You will agape-love the Lord your God in all your heart and in all your psyche-life and in all your mind. ³⁸ This is the great and first commandment. ³⁹ The second is like it: You will agape-love your neighbor as yourself. ⁴⁰ In these two commandments hang the law and the prophets.

All of the law and the prophets, as commandments, are contained in these two. And it is remarkable that both of these are taken from the law of Moses, yet neither of them comes from the Decalogue. The latter, all ten of them, arises from these two, as Jesus indicates by v. 40:

In these two commandments hang the law and the prophets.

The "first and great commandment" comes from Deut. 6:5, the second comes from Lev. 10:18. With one fell swoop, Jesus wiped out every gritty detail of the law of Moses! There is no condensation greater than this, nor one simpler than this, nor one more strict than this. Yet he positively affirmed the law of Moses by stiffening it as explained above, so that the stiffened version becomes the law of Jesus and the law of the kingdom.

In summary, with regard to his comparisons with the law of Moses, the law of Jesus recasts it all on the single foundation of agape - love, which results in the stiffening. Let's examine again how this works, by focussing on the Second Law of Jesus:

You will agape-love your neighbor as yourself.

Now listen once more to our Lord as he takes this and explains:

You recall that the law of Moses was careful to limit this law to the "sons of your own people." It never applied to enemies and, to this day, the Jews do not apply it to their enemies, which results in their willingness to resort to violence against their enemies as they did during the initial occupation of Palestine under Joshua, and as it continues to do to this day in their modern occupation of Palestine.

The law of the kingdom, which is the law of Jesus, removes absolutely every limitation; agape love must apply even to that person seeking to kill you -- precisely as Jesus applied it during his agony on the cross:

Luke 23
³⁴ (But Jesus was saying: Father forgive them, for they know not what they do. So distributing his garments they threw lots.

Therefore, not only does Jesus hang all the law of Moses on these two commandments from the law of Moses, but he stiffens both such that they become a new law that takes up where Moses left off and becomes the law of the kingdom, as Jesus said,

The law and the prophets are until John; from then the kingdom of God will be proclaimed. . ..

The reason for his severe upgrade of the law of Moses is explained:

⁴⁴ But I say to you, be agape-loving your enemies and be praying for those persecuting you, ⁴⁵ in order that you become sons of your father in the heavens. For he makes his sun to rise upon the evil and the good, and sends rain upon the just and the unjust.

It is the essential qualification for becoming sons (children) of the Father, because the Father does not discriminate between friend and foe, the evil and the good, in dispensing the blessings of nature on all humans; neither do his children.

The Third Law

The Second Law therefore includes agape - love for the enemy; this is so radical, however, and so seldom understood, that it needs to be stated separately, and as such it becomes a third law of Jesus:

The Third Law: Be agape-loving your enemies and be praying for those persecuting you.

Isn't this impossible for human beings? There have been no nations in history, and precious few individuals, that have so much as attempted it application. Christians read right over it (in the Sermon on the Mount) then strap on their swords and go off to kill and wage war with the enemy like everyone else. Yet Jesus has said that this is an essential qualification for becoming children (sons) of the Father.

It is indeed hardly possible for any human being to abide by the Third Law, but the Lord has provided a way. We can do it if we will apply his Great Principle. It reads thus:

^{John 12:}²⁵ The [one] philia-loving his psyche-life will lose it, and the [one] hating his psyche-life in this world will guard it to zoe-life eternal

It is the love of life in this world that compels one to resist an enemy, an evil one, and to take his life so as to save one's own. Humans will respond to violence, or the threat of violence, with violence unless and until they have applied this Great Principle. It is the application of this Great Principle that enables one to obey all of the hard sayings of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount and elsewhere. History has demonstrated repeatedly (and is doing so in Iraq and Israel today) that, apart from this, all men are compelled to resort to violence against violence. This is the very reason that Jesus went to the cross: to exemplify for us this Great Principle in action, and to display the consequence, which is to be received by the Father in heaven as a Son. It worked for Jesus and it will work for all human beings who apply it according to his teaching:

^{Mark 8}³⁴ And calling upon the crowd with his disciples he said to them: If anyone would come after me, let him renounce himself and take up his cross, and be following me. ³⁵ For whoever would save his psyche-life will lose it, but whoever loses his psyche-life because of me and the gospel will save it. ³⁶ For what does it profit [a] man to gain the whole world and forfeit his psyche-life? ³⁷ For what will [a] man give in exchange for his psyche-life?

But Christians seldom if ever apply the Third Law, which means that they do not subscribe to the Great Principle. Since this is a law for sons (or daughters) of God, it follows that those Christians who do not practice the Third Law of Jesus are not children of God, for Jesus has made this the means of becoming and manifesting the status as God's children.

^{Matt 5

44} But I say to you, be agape-loving your enemies and be praying for those persecuting you, ⁴⁵ in order that you become sons of your father in the heavens.

The Fourth Law

To these three, Jesus later added one more commandment that becomes his Fourth Law:

John 13
³⁴ A new commandment I give to you, that you be agape-loving one another, just as I agape-loved you in order that you be loving one another. ³⁵ In this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have agape-love in one another.

Why is this law necessary? Aren't the disciples included in the Second Law, to love the neighbor as oneself?

Yes, however, if we examine the context in which he extended the Second Law to establish the Third, that of loving the enemy, you will see something that you may have missed heretofore:

Matt. 5
³⁸ You have heard that it was said: Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth. ³⁹ But I say to you not to oppose evil, but whoever strikes the right side of your cheek, turn to him the other also. ⁴⁰ And to the one wanting to sue you and take your shirt, give up to him your coat also. ⁴¹ And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. ⁴² Give to whoever asks of you, and from the one wanting to borrow from you do not turn away.

What I mean is that all these applications are passive. We are faced with an enemy, one intent on striking, suing or taking from us. If we agape - love such an aggressor, this is only the passive application of agape - love, a response to aggressive action.

But the Fourth Law commands disciples to agape - love one another as the Lord has agape-loved them. And how is that?

When he was with the Father and before coming into the world, he was not under attack by anyone. No one was taking from him or threatening him. But he did the most wonderful thing in that he left that blessed and exalted position and entered into our midst for our sakes, where he humbled himself as a servant and by his great agape - love opened a way of salvation for all men. That's active agape love. He might have remained with the Father and have never faced an enemy -- but the Father sent him and he came, and he did it while we were yet enemies. That is active agape love. Then, before returning to the Father, he commissioned us:

John 20
²¹ Jesus therefore said to them again: Peace to you. Just as the father sent me, I also send you.

This active agape-love distinguishes the Fourth Law of Jesus from the Third. Like him, we disciples are commanded to actively enter into the world and confront the enemies (those who are to become children of God), there to actively agape-love them that some may be saved. The agape-love of the Third Law is passive response to an active and aggressive enemy; the agape-love of the Fourth Law is the active and aggressive reaching out with agape-love to those who are to become and are come to be our sisters and brothers in the world.

We now list all of the laws of Jesus:

The First Law:
You will agape-love the Lord your God in all your heart and in all your psyche-life and in all your mind.

The Second Law:
You will agape-love your neighbor as yourself.

The Third Law:
Be agape-loving your enemies and be praying for those persecuting you.

The Fourth Law:
Be agape-loving one another, just as I agape-loved you.

Agape Love

Agape love is the heart of every one of the four laws of Jesus. Seeing that, one is tempted to further reduce the number of the laws of Jesus to a single one:

Be agape - loving all person in heaven and on earth, both actively and passively.

If we do that, we lose the significance of the different agape-love objects and the significance of agape love itself, and are back to the law of Moses with all of its detailed specifications. By breaking it down into four recast laws, Jesus has preserved all the important objective distinctions and the active and passive voices, and has established a distinctly new code of laws far superior to that of Moses, yet without destroying the latter. The law of Moses has required thousands of Rabbi's working thousands of years to explain and interpret it. They are yet working feverishly over it. But anyone who understands agape-love should be able to take in the law of Jesus in just a few minutes -- rabbi free.

We next examine agape-love so as to clarify its definition. The first thing we need to explain is that in the Greek New Testament, where these laws of Jesus appear, there are different words to express what English says with only one word, 'love.' The English speaker hears 'love' and automatically decides on its meaning depending on the context. But in the Greek New Testament two words of frequent use, with different meanings, are rendered "love" in English, and the Englishman has no way to distinguish them based on his own definitions. These two words are, in Greek, agape (agape) and filia (philia). It is not difficult to distinguish between them, and one can go to the preface of the Faithful New Testament and find an excellent discussion of these words. There Brother William Zeitler accurately distinguishes them as agape being "love as commitment" and philia being "love as feeling."

Here is how this works with respect to the laws of Jesus. Refer again to the four laws and see that in every case, it is agape-love that he commands! It follows, therefore, that in every case agape-love is love that can be commanded, and exists only should one choose to obey the commandments. This involves a personal commitment -- a choosing to obey -- hence the designation of agape love as "love of commitment." For our purposes here, it further clarifies agape love if we define it as "love by choice." One chooses to obey the commandment, and therefore one chooses to agape-love -- or one chooses not to obey the commandment, and chooses not to agape-love. It is a matter of individual free will.

We see how filia (philia) differs from agape (agape) in the vocabulary of Jesus by checking his use of it. Here are two examples of his use of filia selected at random:

Matt. 6
⁵And when you pray, be not as the hypocrites. For they philia-love to be praying when standing in the synagogues and in the street corners, in order that they be manifest to men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward.
John 6
²⁰For the father philia-loves the son and reveals everything in him which he does, and greater works than these he reveals in him, in order that you marvel.

In every case, as in these two examples, when Jesus utters filia, he makes no commandment, for by definition filia is a love that cannot be commanded. It is not a love of choice, nor something that one stands off and decides to do. It is the love that comes naturally and grows out of the inmost character of the heart of the individual so that one neither chooses it nor deliberately learns it, but only discovers it active within oneself. That is, it is a love that one feels within oneself, which is the effect that leads to the definition of Brother William, as "love of feeling." We are examining the law of Jesus, however, and to make the definition more specific to this application, we need to take care to show how it departs from being in any sense a "love by choice." To that end we here define it as "love by nature."

The two utterances of Jesus listed above exemplify this precisely. The hypocrites don't stand off from their practices of seeking attention for themselves and choose to do it -- it simply comes naturally for them as a component of their character. They are not obeying a commandment. The same is true for the love of the Father for the Son in John 6:20. No one has commanded the Father to love the Son -- who could do that? Nevertheless, the Father philia loves the son because it is his inmost nature to do so. It is "love by nature."

But it would be a mistake to assume from this that the Father only loves by nature. There are objects that, if He is to love them, He must choose to love them. Not that He chooses to obey a commandment -- were that the case, we would correctly define agape as "love by obedience." Nevertheless, it is not in the nature of God to love some objects, so that if He is to love them, He must choose to do so, in which case He agape-loves because it is a "love of choice." Here is the premier example of such an object:

John 3
¹⁶For God agape-loved the world in this manner: so that he gave his only begotten son, so that everyone believing in him not perish but be having eternal life.

It is not in the nature of God to love the darkened and sin bound world, but He chooses to love it anyway. To summarize, agape-love is "love by choice." By comparison, philia-love is "love by nature" that comes naturally and is never chosen.

Which love is greater? I mean only, which is greater in humans? in that God exercises both agape and philia, we would be hard put to say that one quality of God is greater than another, because of the implication that one quality in God would then be less than the other, which our concept of the infinite greatness of God does not allow. With us humans, it is another matter, and a valid question.

Surely a love one chooses is greater than a love one falls into without even thinking about it? Well . . . yes and no. With but a little thought you should be able to see that the answer depends on the object of the love. If the object of the love is, for example, that poor wastrel begging by the roadside, agape-love should be considered the greater love and perhaps the only possible love. One can choose to agape-love the poor soul, but it may require another wastrel to love him by nature. Agape-love is surely the greater of the two.

But let us redirect the object of our love from the lowly and despised among men to the one greatly exalted above all men, to God the Father. To love him as an act of obedience to the First Law of Jesus is surely a great love, yet it is not a natural love. Would not the Father prefer that his children naturally love HIm than to do so only when commanded? You that have children will have no hesitation in responding positively to this question.

This raises yet another question. What of the lover who naturally loves God? We see that this immediately raises the matter of the character of the lover. A lover that is of such a character as to naturally love God must surely be of the same nature as God! This requires the person to be begotten of the divine Spirit, begotten from above, as Jesus instructed Nicodemus. It may then require some passage of time thereafter so as to grow up into the new nature and learn to philia-love God as Father, and all his children as brothers and sisters. In this case, philia is far greater than agape for it springs from a divine nature in the lover.

Conclusion

This topic will not be complete until we have examined the subtle interplay between the four laws of Jesus. Doing this will give further insight into what is meant by both agape love and philia love. Then we will truly see the significance of the distinction between them when we closely examine the final chapter of the Fourth Gospel where we find Jesus questioning Peter concerning that disciple's love for his Lord. These are planned for two stand alone papers in subsequent months.

But for now, you are surely asking, "Aren't we commanded to love Jesus?" We are commanded by him to love God, our neighbors, our enemies, and our fellow disciples. But what about love for the Son?

It isn't difficult to sort this out. Just suppose that our Lord had added a fifth commandment and try it on for a fit:

I give you another new commandment: Be agape-loving me!

No, that wouldn't sound right, would it? But like a suitor, he woos us, entreats us and earnestly solicits our love. Most humans will not naturally be drawn to him but will be offended. If anyone is to love him in any sense it will not be, in the first instance, philia-love, but a chosen love, agape-love. Though he gave no commandment to his disciples that they should love him, he wants and expects our love and gave us the sign whereby we can know that we love him -- and of course, he knows also. The proof of our choice to love him is clear:

John 14:15
If you agape-love me, you will give heed to my commandments.

²¹The one having my commandments and giving them heed, that is the one agape-loving me; and the one agape-loving me will be agape-loved by my father, and I will agape-love him and reveal myself to him. ²²Judas says to him: not the Iscariot, Lord, and what is come to pass that you are about to reveal yourself to us and not to the world? ²³Jesus answered and said to him: If anyone agape-loves me, he will give heed to my word, and my father will agape-love him, and we will come to him, and will make our dwelling place with him. ²⁴The one not agape-loving me does not give heed to my words. And the word which you hear is not mine but of the one having sent me.

The evidence of one's agape-love for Jesus is the choice to obey his commandments and to give heed to his words. To choose to agape-love him, and to choose to obey him, are therefore one and the same choice.

Here, then, is the Law of Jesus, according to Jesus. We stress that it is altogether according to Jesus. The definitions and the distinction between agape-love and philia-love that we have drawn are also those found in the teaching of our Lord, and not necessarily in all the writing and utterances of others in the New Testament, including the commentary in the gospels.

The First and Great Law:
You will agape-love the Lord your God in all your heart and in all your psyche-life and in all your mind.

The Second Law, like unto the First:
You will agape-love your neighbor as yourself.

The Third Law:
Be agape-loving your enemies and be praying for those persecuting you.

The Fourth Law:
Be agape-loving one another, just as I agape-loved you.

Now, one final word: you who are choosing the Law of Moses are choosing death and not life. That's not just one man's opinion:

John 6
³²Truly truly I say to you, Moses did not give to you bread from heaven, but my father gives you the true bread from heaven. ³³For the bread of God is the one coming down from heaven and giving life to the world.
⁴⁷Truly truly I say to you, the one believing has eternal life. ⁴⁸I am the bread of life. ⁴⁹Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and died. ⁵⁰This is the bread coming down from heaven, in order that anyone who eat of it also not die. ⁵¹I am the living bread having come down out of heaven.

See? We told you it is simple! The choice is ours:

If you agape-love me, you will give heed to my commandments.

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